Calling Is Separation

Here I will refer to the first and second calling of Abraham as case study. In Genesis 12:1 ; Acts 7:2-4, Ur of Chaldeans the present day Baghdad Iraq extending to Syria was where Abraham lived with his father, their ancestral home, but Terah his father was an idol worshipper.

And God called Abraham for the first time to live his father’s house and country, a fertile land southeast of Baghdad, it was the centre of civilization in the world as well as the centre of idolatry.

Abraham’s ancestors were Idol worshippers, he was born into idolatry but he didn’t worship them, he worshipped the true God, a God he never knew, never heard from or knew anything about Him, but he believed there’s a living God.

The departure of Abraham from his father’s land, his people and relatives represents the first step in faith for Christians: separation from the world.
Where there is no separation, then there’s no calling, when you see a man who answered the calling, observe him, there are many things he left behind many things he desired but the can’t let him have them.

He said to the Fishermen, leave your boats, follow me, Elijah said Elisha leave your farm and follow me, it’s always leave and follow me, the calling comes with hard resisting separation, from the people you love, and from the places and things you love.

Abraham obeyed and left a beautiful prosperous land with this father Terah and arrived in Haran, another fertile land, he stayed in the land, acquired properties and people, but God didn’t command him to go with his father, God didn’t command him to stop in Haran, the promise land was Canaan, not Haran, so in the first calling, Abraham didn’t obey completely, he went with his idolatrous father, and he stopped mid way, he continued to live there abandoned the calling till he was 75 years old and God came looking for him for the second time, I call it, the second calling of Abraham.

This time around God commanded him to leave not only his country and his relatives, but also his father’s house (Genesis 12:1).
He didn’t enter the promises land the first time because he didn’t obey completely, Abraham obeyed half way, so he stopped half way.

When you obey God half way, you will stop half way, when you obey completely you will get to the promised land.
So Abraham obeyed God this time completely, in the morning, he prepared and said goodbye to his old father Terah, and went forth with Sarah, and all he acquired the years he spent in Haran, they set for the Promised land.

Abraham was born in a patriarchal society, first sons don’t leave the home without their father, that was why it was difficult for Abraham to obey God completely during the first calling, the society at that time forbade he abandons his father.

From the many places we know and have read about Abraham leaving his home and father, we read, he left after his father died, but the question is was his father alive or dead when he left?
Was Terah alive or dead when Abraham left his father’s house?

Abraham was 75 years and Terah his father was 145 years old when he left Teran (Genesis 11:26 ; 12:4), he gave birth to Abraham his first child at the age 70 years, so he was the child of his old age, the bond between them was much.

It was heartbreaking to leave his father in his old age, away from affection and his father whom he loved so much, this was the reason it was difficult for Abraham to obey the first calling.

To understand what the Bible meant when it recorded Abraham left after his father died, see Acts 7:4.
The word for death is this verse as regards to the death of Terah is “apothnesko” a Greek word symbolic for spiritual death not physical death, read further (1 Corinthians 15:31).

The word death was used to signify Abraham’s total separation from his filial affection from his father, leaving Terah in that heartbreak was as bad as death (Luke 14: 26), because he won’t see him again not even in death, he buried Terah in his heart and departed, imagine the heartbreak Abraham must have endured leaving Terah, it was death for him.

And God blessed him for he obeyed completely, you will experience the blessing of your calling when you obey completely.
What have you left behind for the calling? Who have you abandoned without looking back for the calling? The people before us, all abandoned something.

Terah died 60 years after Abraham left at the age of 205 (Genesis 11:32), Abraham heard the news of his father’s passing but he couldn’t go because the calling is a moment of separation, Abraham would have loved to go and bury his father he loved so much, but due the nature of his calling, he was never to return home or see Terah again.

What have you abandoned for the calling? What have you given up for the calling?
Isaac was 35 years when his grandfather Terah died, he couldn’t go because of the calling.
We can’t be perfect in calling once and for all, we make mistakes, we forget instructions, and God keeps calling until we obey completely.

The calling of God doesn’t always come once, He often calls us again and again continually until we have aligned with the exact purpose of the calling, and those who would listen and obey completely with time will get to the promised land of their calling.

We will always hear the calling even in calling until we align ourselves with the purpose of the calling completely, this is the only way to be happy in calling, this is the only way to get to the promised land of our calling.

-Kanayo Ebuka