Now the LORD said to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy land, and out of thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, into the land that I will show thee” (Genesis 12:1).

How can one not call into question Abraham, the one who, more than all the men whom the eternal chose, leaves everything behind because of the faith he placed in toward the God. The Word of God, does not let us know how much time had elapsed since Terah father of Abraham, by his own choice, decided to gather his whole family, including Abraham and his wife Sarai, to leave the land where they lived “UR of the Chaldeans,” to go and dwell in the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they made their abode there.

Here God speaks to Abraham in a peremptory tone, almost intimating an executive eviction, saying:

1) “Get out of your country.”

2) “Leave your kinship.”

3) “Leave your father’s house.”

4) “Go to the land that I will show you.”

All this leads me to consider what my state of mind would have been to hear such requests. What a great inner struggle; I would have replied, ” Sir, my father left his land, his roots, to take us all to a better land, to Haran, there we all nourished the hope of finding a better people.” The Chaldeans were a people of Semitic origin who spoke Aramaic , Terah, will have had his reasons for wanting to leave those lands, however he moves from present-day Iraq, going up about three thousand km. north to present-day Turkey. “You ask me to leave this new abode, you ask me to leave my relatives, basically my emotional ties, my history, and even worse, you ask me to leave my father whom I may never see again, to go to a place I don’t know.” Basically God asks Abraham to lose everything, but he does not resist this call, he finds there strength to take leave of his kinship and his father, and surely the two agree to take with him besides Sarai his wife, also his nephew Lot, who is surely very close to him.

So Abraham’s faith journey begins here, it begins with the surrender of his history, his roots, his affections, his past, but he does not yet know that a long, long journey awaits him, painful yes, but exciting and greatly blessed.

Actually Abraham did not only have to lose at the beginning of his calling, later he had to send away his concubine Hagar along with his son Ishmael, although later he will be rewarded with great consolation, Sarai his wife will give him the son of promise “Isaac.” These were years of joy, years in which Abraham saw his long-awaited son grow stronger and braver, I imagine the scene when speaking with his servant Eliezer of Damascus, he said, “do you see Isaac how quickly he grows up and how good he is at riding and shooting with a bow ? Behold, Abraham’s whole heart is now turned to his beloved and longed-for heir, but the Lord the LORD always wants the first place in our hearts, I guess that was the reason why he will then ask Abraham to lose once again, he will have to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering, thus giving up having an heir and considering the promises of the Lord nullified. Tell me, who is the man who could endure such a great trial, yet some brethren are scandalized by trivialities and forsake the high road laid out for them. Well, we know that God in His mercy did not permit this sacrifice, for it is written, “But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham!; He answered, Here am I. And the Angel said, Stretch not forth thine hand against the lad, and do him no harm; for now I know that thou fearest God, for thou hast not rejected me thy son, thy only son.” (Genesis 22:12).

So Abraham had lost his land, his roots, his kinship, his father, his concubine Hagar, and his son Ishmael, perhaps even his only longed-for son, but he actually won a great blessing, the LORD will tell him: “I will surely bless you greatly and multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea , and your descendants shall possess the gate of your enemies.” (Genesis 22:17).

Another striking example of renunciations will be Abraham’s nephew “Jacob,” the renowned supplanter who, because of the longed-for primogeniture, will also have to suffer anxieties and hardships, giving up a desired freedom and autonomy. He will have to flee from his father’s house to take refuge with his uncle Laban, as he had cunningly and deceitfully taken the primogeniture from his brother Esau.

Because of this, a long journey of toil will begin for him, years in which he will have to suffer in turn the deceptions and demands of his uncle, for he had fallen in love with his cousin Rachel, and to form his family he had to lose a lot by starting over.

However, God’s heart was with him, and he never failed to bless him in his endeavors. At last the time came for him to compact his family and the possessions he had won to return to his land, but one last battle awaited him to face his past and pay the debt owed to his only brother Esau.

I believe that for all his years of toiling outside his kinship, the fear of this ominous encounter, never left him, he knew he had a debt that sooner or later he had to pay, and he also knew that in this God does not discount, the mistakes of our choices, sooner or later we pay. As Jacob approaches the land of Seir, in the countryside of Edom where his brother dwelt, fear grows, and he deploys his resources and strategies to avert a dramatic encounter that would have annihilated him, his two wives, eleven sons, servants and maidservants, flocks, herds, camels, and all sorts of possessions. (Genesis 32:22). So he sends his servants forward with gifts, appeals to God’s promises for his life, asks for assistance, deliverance, peace, but no response, tries to salvage what can be saved, by now the fear of losing everything has dominated him, retreats alone to a secluded place, then baptized by him Penuel, Hebrew פְּנוּאֵל, meaning “Face of God,” because Jacob, after the struggle, said, “I saw God face to face, yet my life was spared.” (Genesis 32:30). In fact he will make them a wonderful supernatural experience, he receives a visit from a man who wrestled with him all night until dawn, (see Genesis 32:24), this man saw that he could not overcome him and wounded him by touching his hip socket, then asked him to let him go, but Jacob was resolved not to let go, before he received the blessing. To this request the man replied,” What is thy name?” he answered Jacob. Then he said: your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with God and with men, and you have won.”

Actually in that long and exhausting struggle Jacob had succeeded in winning himself, succeeding in abandoning and losing the old Jacob with his wits, his stubbornness, his cunning, his deceptions, and above all his fears, to acquire a new name: “Israel” , which really means:” who fights with God, or fights for God.” There are many who stumble into the mistake that on that night Jacob fought against an angel to overcome him, as almost fighting against God, but in reality in the fight Jacob did not want to leave him because he had a great need to be blessed, to be freed from his fears, he actually was as if fighting against himself with the help and support of the Angel of God, in the guise of a man, to overcome his way of being , his fears, and face the encounter with Esau with courage. One does not fight a whole night with a man and then not want to leave him, except to be blessed by Him.

I thank God for all those servants who have struggled and are struggling to receive Jacob’s blessing, that is, to struggle together with God, to abandon their own selves, which symbolically is left under the baptismal waters, but in fact necessitates a more or less long and tortuous journey, as it is written in John 12:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If the grain of wheat which is fallen into the earth die not, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

Jacob felt lonely and forlorn, full of fears, but he was able to overcome, in fact Esau’s heart was changed, the two brothers were reunited, forgiveness prevailed, love won out, they embraced each other and cried on each other’s shoulder a cry of deliverance, now Israel will finally begin a new journey of glory.

Later we will discover that God loves to change the names of His children, that is, all those who are born again of water and spirit, in fact in Revelation 2:17: “He who has ears, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches: to him who overcomes I will feed hidden manna and give him a white stone, and on the stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Also in Revelation 3:12: “Whoever overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out again, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven from near my God, and my new name.”

Already from ancient times, the prophet Isaiah, proclaimed, “Then the nations shall see righteousness and all and kings your glory, you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD shall point out” (Isaiah 62:2).

Brother, sister, know that God wants to wrestle with you, perhaps the wounds of your past will leave their mark on you; in Jacob, he was left with a sprained hip and after that night he began to limp, so that he would always remember that he was a man made of flesh and blood, you will have yes lost the fight in your carnal man, but you will finally become a spiritual man and you will have won a new name written in the book of life, a name that on that glorious day will be revealed to you.

God’s Word is peppered with men and women of God who have lost or left something to acquire another of inestimable value, as we are taught in the parable of the pearl of great value, (Matt. 13:45-46): “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who goes in search of fine pearls, and having found a pearl of great value, he goes, sells all that he has, and buys it.”

I will mention briefly only other valuable examples of faith, which God in His mercy wanted us to know:

RUTH. This wonderful Moabite who, in her albeit sad adventure as a wife and widow, decides to leave her land, her people and her origins to bind herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, to the point of following her to a land foreign to her, and being part of a people not her own, and loving and serving a God unknown to her. To her mother-in-law’s exhortation to return to her people she replies, “Do not insist with me that I abandon you and leave to follow you, for where you go I will also go, and where you stay I will also stay; your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God.” Ruth has lost her husband, she has lost her land, she has forsaken her traditions and her past, her people, but God will give her a new husband, riches, and offspring from whom our Lord Jesus will descend.

ANNA. In her time, bigamy existed, Anna had to share her husband Elkanah, with his other wife Peninna, the latter had had children, Anna on the other hand was barren and the object of mockery and spite from her rival, but it so happens that the heartfelt and sincere prayers that Anna presented every year to Sciloh, this time were accompanied by a vow saying: “O LORD of hosts, if you truly regard the affliction of your maidservant, remember me and do not forget your maidservant, but you wish to give your maidservant a male child, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and the razor shall not pass through his head.”

Behold, it happens that the LORD answers Anna’s prayer, and she keeps her promise, leaves behind her obtained son, Samuel, but will gain a great prophet to the LORD.

EXTERIOR. Granddaughter of Mordecai an Israelite belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, both of whom were deported by the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar (Hebrew: נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר, Nĕvūkhadneʾtztzar) to the city of Susa, is miraculously brought to the court of King Ahasuerus, who ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia. The latter among many concubines chose her to reign with him as his consort and queen.

It happens, however, that the king’s general, second only to him in his kingdom, takes all the people of Israel in hatred and plots to have an edict signed by deception over all the provinces of the kingdom to execute all those who belonged to Israel.

But Haman, that was the name of the general, did not know that Esther was a servant of the LORD, who prayed and fasted along with all the people, putting her own life at high risk, as she went to consult her king when he was not allowed to, and as if that were not enough she revealed that she, too, was to be executed according to that edict, as an Israelite.

Well, the story will have a happy ending, Esther’s courage and giving up her own life, puts all her people in safety, and the evil Haman with his entire family will be executed for plotting the deception.

These few examples, testify of faithful servants who in their renunciations and sacrifices, in deciding to lose something important in their lives, received the reward, but what shall we say of all those who in their lived time received nothing. What shall we say of the prophet ISAIAH who proclaimed things that he did not see and would never see come to pass, it is said that for his faith, his reward was to die sawn in two; and of JEREMIA and ZACCARIA, stoned to death; and then still further down the centuries, the apostle PETER crucified upside down; the apostle PAUL, stoned to death; STEPHEN, stoned to death; JOHN BAPTIST, beheaded; JAMES, beheaded by Herod Agrippa; ANDREA, it is testified that he was crucified on an X-shaped cross, that is why it is called the cross of St. Andrew.

And what shall we say of the sacrifice par excellence of our Lord Jesus, who gave His precious life for all of us, giving up the glory He left behind in heaven.

All of them died in faith, without having received the things promised, but having seen them from afar, they were persuaded and received them with joy, confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth, (Hebrews 11:13).

But you know one thing, the witness of faith of these dear brethren, the Holy Spirit has passed it on to the saints of today, in fact 309 million are Christians who experience persecution around the world. The latest figures available say that in 2019 alone, 4,761 were killed and 4,277 put in prison, many of them locked up in commercial containers.

These your and my dear brothers in Christ, they have decided to fight together with Him, and you, tell me, what is your decision ?

Salvatore Sturniolo

List of biblical passages cited:

– Genesis 12:1

– Genesis 22:12

– Genesis 22:17

– Genesis 32:22

– Genesis 32:24

– John 12:24

– Matthew 13:45-46

– Revelation 2:17

– Revelation 3:12

– Isaiah 62:2

– Hebrews 11:13

Image : https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_%28Antonio_Ciseri%29#