What Abram was told, literally, was to "Go from your land and your birthplace to a land that I will show you." At this time, Abram was seventy-five years old, a successful man, established, respected, with a wife, many kinspeople, and much wealth. Yet, according to Scripture, he was asked to turn his back on all of his affluence and influence, and to plunge into what was, essentially, an unexplored, unknown wilderness land.

The modern person reads this and shakes his head. It is hard for us to identify with this kind of faith, with this kind of devotion. Of course, we need to recognize we are approaching this Scripture from a twentieth century viewpoint, with the values and perspective of a twentieth century culture. The biblical writer was using the values, concepts, and experiences norm…