Slow Obedience

July 16, 2022

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed…so Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him….Abram was 75 years old.” —Genesis 12:1-4

Grammar is important. The text says, “The Lord HAD SPOKEN to Abram.” I wonder how long ago this had happened. The grammatical form is past perfect, and refers to something completed in the past before something else began. God hadn’t recently spoken to Abram; it had occurred some time before. The sense of the word implies that the command had been given some time ago, and Abram was only now getting around to obeying. God is patient, and I am thankful. There are things God spoke to me about years ago that literally took me years to yield to his will. I wonder how different things would be today had I listened when God first spoke.

Fortunately, God didn’t give up on Abram because he was slow to obey. He kept his promise to make of him a great nation that would bless the world. Quick obedience is best, but slow obedience is better than no obedience.

Abram was 75 before he got around to actually listening to the God who had spoken to him years before. This gives me hope. Last week I turned 73, and I find it tempting to dismiss certain activities because after all, I am old. But am I? Or are my excuses for sitting on the sidelines merely a cover for laziness? At 96, my mother said to me, “I wonder when I stopped getting old and became old?” If my actuarial tables have any legitimacy, I have ahead of me another 20+ years of getting old.

Ten years ago, I was beginning to think about retirement. That year when I was in Cuba, I was preaching at one of the churches when I heard a CRASH on the tin roof. A boy jumped up and ran outside. In a minute he was back with a huge mango in his hand which he gave to pastor Yami. She turned and gave it to me with these words: “Whenever a mango hits our roof, whoever is given it is charged with planting a new church congregation in the coming year. I’m giving this to you. You are like Caleb; when he was 85, he told Moses, “Give me a mountain to conquer.” God isn’t finished with you; you have mountains yet to conquer.”

I guess I’m like Abram; a little slow on the uptake. But he eventually got with the program, and so will I.