Sojourn

Genesis 12:1 “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:” 

   God was calling Abraham to sojourn. In the Hebrew, the word sojourn has 2 primary meanings: (1) To turn aside from the road and take up lodging as a guest depending upon the hospitality of a stranger, and (2) To be afraid or anxious.

   The command to Sojourn is primarily a call to Walk by Faith and Not by Sight. If God was going to teach Abraham to trust Him, Abraham had to get out of his comfort zone. He had to learn to depend on the hospitality and provisions of the Lord.

   Have you failed God when He has commanded you to sojourn? If you have, you are in good company. Abraham failed right off the bat. God commanded him to leave his family, yet Abraham took Lot with him. It was not until Abraham separated himself from Lot that God confirmed His covenant with Abraham. 

   Both Abraham and Isaac feared while they were sojourning, each lied about their spouses being their sisters for fear of being killed by men who might desire their wives. If they had trusted God, they would not have been afraid.

Consider Jesus our Lord; He was the perfect example of sojourning. “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20. Jesus depended upon the hospitality of a Samaritan woman to give him a drink from a well. He depended upon strangers to have a place to celebrate the Passover. The Son of Man borrowed another mans animal to ride into town. When the Messiah was crucified, He was buried in a grave that belonged to someone else. Not to mention the greatest sojourn of all time, leaving the perfection of heaven to sojourn in a fallen and sinful world knowing that the hospitality of the men He would come to save would leave Him mortally wounded.

Considering that our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to sojourn to such great lengths for you and I, where are we not willing to sojourn for Him? What assignments of our commander in Chief will you refuse?

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