Pilgrim Ponderings
The Pilgrim Proto-Type
Chapter two
By John Boda
This is the second part of a short series entitled; Pilgrim Ponderings.
In chapter one I talked of why it is important to know and understand what a Pilgrim really is, and the fact that all true Christ-followers are pilgrims indeed.
Now, in this chapter, I want to take a focused look at probably the greatest example of a pilgrim (except Jesus) in the Bible- Abraham!
Why consider Abraham? What god is it to study anything about someone from history, and even more so, Abraham, who lived a very long time ago? (Aprox 4000 years ago)
Well, there are many reasons! Firstly, he is called "The Father of our faith", he was the only person in the Bible called , A friend of God", ( James 2:23) a huge amount of scripture is written dealing with him and his sons/grandsons, and Jesus spoke of him in a highly favorable fashion! Do you need more reasons? OK, here's one more:
Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you, for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him. Is 51:1-2 (NKJ)
The Apostle Paul follows that command when he brings up Abraham in Romans four and Galatians three, when speaking of faith, justification and righteousness. (Notice I said-command-for that is what it is when God speaks it through Isaiah)
This chapter is subtitled - The Pilgrim Proto-Type. Now, just what is a proto-type? It is simply the mold by which others are made and fashioned, it could also be called - a template. Adam was certainly a proto-type as the first man! All human beings are made from his mold or template. I can already hear some objections as to why not use Jesus as the ultimate proto-type? Well, he definitely IS God's ultimate proto-type, and he should be our ultimate example of everything God desires! We can relate to Jesus in almost every way. He was a stranger, a pilgrim, and suffered, was tempted, and lived his life out as a man. However, although he was fully man-he was also fully God. THAT is the something of which we cannot relate to! Being fully God, he was tempted but never gave in to sin, not even once. He was perfect before God in every way. (If you are feeling smug like you can relate to that, stop reading now and repent!)
Abraham, on the other hand, is an individual who we can relate to in every way! A typical heathen sinner who is called by God's grace out of God's providence, saved, and learns to walk in the pilgrim way by faith, all the while, stumbling with two steps forward and one back all along the way. Ok, I think you get the idea, now let's get to the focus and meat of this pondering and take a detailed look at Abraham's initial calling.
The Calling of Abraham
"Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and 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."
Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJ)
These three verses in Genesis contain a wealth of insight! They shed light about God and his plans for us, and they shed light on, more specifically, just how we are to accomplish his will and live out this life long journey! But like many scripture passages, it is almost like trying to eat a huge piece of rich steak without cutting it with a knife into small pieces. I will now attempt to do just that, break this text down into five sections, each beginning with one word with the same letter - P - to help you remember the riches placed here even further. Each segment will be based on the words underlined in my text, so please scroll back each time to see it even clearer in context.
1. Providence
"Now the Lord said.....
When God first called Abram (Later named Abraham), he didn't look all through the earth for the most righteous, holy, handsome, and perfect man around! No offence to Abraham, but the Bible makes it very clear that God choose him on the basis of his own providence, or sovereignty, and by nothing on the basis of anything of Abraham. We like to think that Abraham was some kind of super saint and super special person, but the truth is, it seems he was just another average heathen living in a heathen land, who's own father was an idolater.
Yes, Abraham was something very special, and was holy, and righteous, but that all came through the process of his journey AFTER God first called him by his providence. Likewise, all of us are called the same way! We become these qualities as we go by faith, none of us have anything worthy or special in of ourselves that warrant God choosing us. Every human being is special in the fact that they are created in God's image, but as pertaining to God's special divine providential calling, none of us are special and deserving of it!
Someone once said, "God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called". I believe that is a very good and accurate maxim!
Providence is linked to sovereignty, meaning God's own divine choosing. Abraham even seems to acknowledge this in Genesis 15:2, when he addresses the God by a new name - Adon -where we get Adoni - which basically means "Sovereign One".
This is the first step on our journey as a pilgrim; God's divine providence calls us to follow him.
Now let's move to step number two.
2. Progression
"...get out of your country, from your family and father's house..."
God makes the first move and calls us by his providence, and then the next move is up to us. We must respond by faith to either accept the call, or simply reject it and go on our own way. Notice that God calls Abraham to DO SOMETHING, God's call requires a response, but not just a passive response, it requires movement.
No. I am not suggesting coming to God by our own works and efforts, but rather responding to his call of grace by faith, then acting on that faith. James tells us that faith without some response (works) is dead. But we are not left to stumble forward blindly and alone. God calls us by his grace, and then when we accept the call by faith, he further empowers us by that same grace! It's what the Bible later calls, "grace upon grace".
Also this order is very important; first it is providence then progression. It is never progression to providence! We don't first try to move toward God and hope he will be pleased enough to notice and call us. Although it may seem like we move to God first by many who search and seek until finally they come to God. But what is really happening is that God first initiated that desire to seek him, God always makes the first move, and then we respond
So first God calls us by his grace through his providence, and then we respond by faith, also through his grace into a forward progression or movement. With that in mind, let's move forward to step three!
3. Pilgrimage
"....to a land that I will show you..."
After we respond to providence and begin progression, we embark upon pilgrimage, once again, this step, like all them, is accomplished by God's enabling grace through our faith embracing it all the way!
As I stated in the first installment of this series, "Pilgrim Ponderings", a pilgrim is one on a journey, a journey with spiritual implications. But not just a specific journey to a specific place and time on earth, but rather the true Biblical picture is that of our entire lives are to be considered as a pilgrimage. We are all moving toward a specific place indeed, but not one of this space and time, but rather the eternal, spiritual, and lasting city called, The New Jerusalem. This is literally what Abraham himself was looking for as it tells us in Hebrews 11:10:
“For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (ESV)
The most basic Biblical meaning of the word "pilgrim" from the Greek New Testament is this:
"A resident stranger". All Christ-followers are both residents of this earth temporarily, yet we are also strangers who have a permanent home ahead, one in which we desire, look for, and journey towards as pilgrims by our faith and God's grace every step of the way.
Abraham was a pilgrim (Heb 11;13) and so are we (I Peter 2:11). Abraham was the pilgrim proto-type, he is also called our father. We should all be very aware of the pilgrim mindset which begins with providence, then our progression, then a pilgrimage journey, once again by God's grace leading and empowering us, and our faith reaching out to it.
4. Pronouncement
"...I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing...."
This next step defies our concept of time. God makes this pronouncement of blessing, (And curse) during Abraham's initial calling, yet it is spoken of in future tense, of something that will occur along the pilgrim journey. It as if God's blessings so saturate our pilgrimage, from beginning to end, that they are more than we can contain, they must overflow to everyone around us! They overflow as blessings to those who bless us, and as curses to those who do the same. This may sound harsh, but God has invested extreme interest in his called out pilgrims, and although we are in one sense becoming, in another sense, we already are joined and one with him who calls us! So people's blessing to us rebound and reflect back to them as blessing, and curses to us rebound and reflect back likewise in some way or another. We are in no way to try to invoke these things or figure them out! It is God's pronouncement of something of which he does, we simply must continue to move forward by grace/faith and know that God is working both through us and for us.
Another link to this idea is found in II Cor. 2:15,16:
“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?"
I'll answer that one, NONE OF US! But God is simply amazing every step of the way, and we must know and realize that there are things happening behind the scenes with deep implications and consequences. Life is truly both mundane and magnificent!
5. Panorama
"....and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed..."
By grace God first calls us in and by his providence, then we respond by faith and begin a life long progression. This journey is also realized to be a pilgrimage made by pilgrims who are saturated with God's pronouncement of blessing.
Finally, the last stage that we can extract from Abraham's calling is that all of God's pilgrims, while on their journey, should have an enlarged panoramic vision!
Throughout my pilgrimage journey I have discovered that the deepest teachers, and the ones who seem to have the most faith, are also the same people who have an enlarged vision, and can somehow see the big panoramic picture. This is really without exception! (In other words, to appear really smart, simply begin to see things in a larger perspective!)
Also, I am convinced that this panoramic perspective is not an option for pilgrims, but is a requirement and imperative for us to continue step by step in our pilgrimage.
Once again consider Abraham. We are told that he "looked for an eternal city with foundations",(Heb.11:10). We are also told, by Jesus, that "Abraham rejoiced to see my day" (John 8:56) and we are told that God himself somehow and in someway preached the Gospel message to Abraham!(Gal. 3:8)
These verses, and many others, indicate that having a panoramic big picture is not an option! After all, we are becoming more and more like our father God who first called us, and who has a bigger and more panoramic picture of everything than God?!
The great chapter of faith, Hebrews eleven, commends a long list of faithful pilgrims including Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and even Rahab and Sampson are among the list.
But buried at the very end of this great chapter are two verses that seem to get overlooked:
"And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Hebrews 11:39-40 (NKJ)
If you still don't grasp the big panoramic view of those words, please find other translations and read it again! Allow me to summarize.....All these pilgrims were commended by their faith, but even so, they still didn't obtain the tangible promises! It is God's ultimate plan that they will not receive the perfected promises in full until we all do, since we are all connected together!
Or, how about a Greek scholar and poet's version of this text, Eugene Peterson?
Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.
Hopefully, you are grasping what this means, that not only are all true Christ-follower pilgrims connected right now all over the world, but we are also all connected with each and everyone from all time, past-present-future! THAT is a panoramic big picture view, and one in which all pilgrims would do well to cultivate, also once again by faith reaching out to allow God's grace to accomplish this task.
So in summary, here are the five steps or stages which define pilgrims, as seen by the initial calling template of the pilgrim proto-type, Abraham:
1. Providence
2. Progression
3. Pilgrimage
4. Pronouncement
5. Panorama
Each one is both initiated and empowered by God's grace!
Each step is a further advancement forward in our journey as pilgrims. But we can have all five right now, as they are all timeless stages provided to us by God who lives outside of time. So please don't think that you are only in stage one and someday far in the future that you may obtain more progress! We can live as pilgrims within all these steps by faith, step by step, trusting in grace to lead us further and deeper as we go along.
"....in your light we see light"
Psalms 36:9 (NKJ)
Thanks for reading along in this chapter, there are still more to come here in this site. JB