Leaving Home
Scripture Reading — Genesis 12:1-3
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household …”
Genesis 12:1
If home is where the heart is, why leave it? Abram left his home because it was the wrong place to be. Ur was concerned about its own reputation, and everyone’s homes after the days of Babel were like that. But people need God more than they need their fellow citizens—or even their family.
How can anyone be more important than family? Well, what makes a family run? What makes it good? What gives it security? The family stories in Genesis that involve Adam and Noah push us to admit that we, parents and siblings, quickly run out of our own resources of goodness, love, and patience. Every family, including our own, must be born again.
When Abram left the security of his family and entrusted his future to God, he began a new family life. He let God cut the roots that nourished his past way of life, and God replanted him and Sarai in new soil.
Ruth, a Moabite, left her home too (Ruth 1). Naomi’s God would be hers. She would even be buried in Naomi’s land. Like Abram, Ruth left home to be born again to a new family life.
You want to save your home?
Set your old life aside, as Abram and Sarai and Ruth did, and let Jesus Christ build you a new family life.
“Come, follow me!” he says (Mark 1:17).
Thank you, Lord, for my family. Help me to love you first of all, that I may love my family better. Strengthen me to trust in you for everything I need. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
About the author — Arie C. Leder
Dr. Arie C. Leder is the Martin J. Wyngaarden Senior Professor of Old Testament Studies at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He previously served as pastor at Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church, Trenton, Ontario, and with Christian Reformed World Missions in Latin America. He teaches courses on the Pentateuch and on historical books of the Old Testament.
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