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Is It Time To Take A Walk?


          The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-17)
           Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (II Kings 13:18-19)
          The first thing we need to keep in mind about this passage is that Abraham never legally owned any of the land that was promised to him and to his offspring.  That being said, it’s likely that we all want a promise from God that is this personal and this specific. Some years ago, someone told me that in the shift from Old Testament to New, and from the nation of Israel to you and me, God’s promises of “land” became internalized. I don’t believe that’s always true. God can and does do  things as He knows best, and our theories about His patterns often don’t work. 
          The problem with promises of provision like this one is that we tend to get hung up on the promise. “OK, God, where’s the deed?” Would you walk the length and breadth of the “land” God promised you? I think a lot of us would say, “Yes! Of course!” I’m not sure I would. Oh, I’d mean to, and then I’d see this nice little plot of land next to a stream or something, Or, I’d decide that walking all the way around the whole land is too much work. 
          Today’s second passage is one of the saddest in the Bible. When told to strike the ground with the arrows, King Jehoahaz only struck three times. How was he to know that the number of strikes would have anything to do with the completeness of his victory? He couldn’t, but it did. What if the completeness of the fulfillment of God’s promise to us depends on our obedience? Could we be losing out on some aspect of what God has promised us because we are less than complete, or less than determined in our obedience?
          As I think about this passage and God’s promises, I find myself thinking of another time that God told someone to talk. God, the Son, called Peter to step out of the boat and walk. Would I step out of the boat, onto the water, at the behest of someone or something that I wasn’t sure was Jesus? I’d like to think I would, but I suspect I’d be more like the other disciples… “Peter, are you crazy? What if it’s not Jesus? What if it’s a ghost? What am I saying? It’s Peter! Of course, he’s crazy.” Was Abram any less crazy, to pack up his household in “civilization” to go out to the sticks?
          Right now, it’s feeling a little more like God is calling me to walk on water than that He’s inviting me to walk around the land He’s promised, but which ever it is in your life, the walking in obedience seems to be a vital part of it.

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