Yesterday, we learned something really important in our discussion about Abraham.
We learned that the first step the Lord will take to “de-paganize” someone is to REMOVE that person from his or her homeland.
In Abraham’s case, this was done to separate him from the pagan god system embedded in his local culture.
In response to that last statement, you may be thinking…
…’But wasn’t the same pagan god system in Abraham’s hometown also present in the land of Canaan?’
The answer is yes…
…but Abraham didn’t know that.
As far as he was concerned, one god out of all the other gods in existence had just reached out to him for a special mission and now it was his duty to follow this god.
Abraham had no idea what to expect.
Here’s what you’ve got to understand about the belief system of every human alive (not just some humans, but EVERY human) in the ancient Middle East during Abraham’s time.
FIRST, all of the gods were territorial meaning they ruled over certain designated areas and not others.
SECOND, there were a ton of them.
There was a god for practically every element in nature.
These beliefs weren’t something that was questioned.
It was just commonly accepted that there was a deity attached to every territory and every nation.
Again, I’ve said this a million times but the ancient Hebrews most definitely believed in the existence of other gods.
That’s right.
They were polytheists man!
It’s just that in their minds they had their own one powerful God and the nations had their own gods.
It just didn’t compute in the minds of the Hebrews that their God was actually the ONLY deity in existence.
And here’s the thing.
God going out of His way to explain this to Abraham wouldn’t have changed his thinking on the matter.
Because a real change in perspective has to be experiential, not intellectual.
It wouldn’t have done any good for God to have sat Abraham down on a tree stump somewhere and say to him…
“Look Abraham, forget about everything you know about how the world works. And forget everything your neighbors tell you about how the world works. I just need you to understand one thing. There is only one God and Creator in the whole universe and it’s Me homie! Got it? Also, you see all the gods your your neighbors are worshipping? Those gods aren’t real and they’re not me.”
Such an explanation would not have penetrated through Abraham’s pagan skull.
This brings us to a really important point about our walk with the Lord.
A strong relationship with the Lord is not about comprehending what the Lord is all about, who He is and how He works.
No, a strong relationship with the Lord is about believing.
It’s about faith.
Abraham BELIEVED God, and it was this faith that was counted as righteousness before the Lord.
Abraham’s understanding of the Lord was limited to the belief system of his local culture and the world as it existed at the time.
To the ancients in the Biblical era, the idea of they’re being just one god would have been completely unthinkable.
“Have you gone completely bonkers?”
“You must be nuts thinking there’s only one god for the entire planet?!”
That’s how the ancients would have reacted to the suggestion that there is only 1 god that exists.
As I said before, the whole world was polytheistic during this time and that included Abraham and his family.
You may was to reread the Torah, Pentateuch, and Old testament. They will all say the same thing, literally. Abraham was monotheistic and a believer in Yahweh as God. Also, most Mesopotamian mistakenly called angels Gods because they believed them as such. Abraham knew very well the difference between them and only called Yahweh as his God after leaving Ur.
Abraham didn’t know the difference right away though.
Abraham was A Brahman from India and he was taught to believe in Millions of different deities. Of course he struggled with the concept. But the true High Priestess was SahRa, not A Brahman. She knew and understood that there was only one true GOD/DESS and that most of the other ‘Gods’ were actually Giants and Witches.
Alright man.
That is why GOD directed Abraham AND his wife and nephew (Lot) the way HE did. By making the impossible happen in order to justify Abraham’s faith in HIM. That’s what drove it home and took almost a century to do it.