Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev. (Genesis 12:1-9 NASB)
Abram completes the journey from Ur begun by his father years before (see Gen. 11:31-32). He took with him the ones of his family who would go, all their stuff and headed out. He left Haran, a place probably named for his little brother who died in Ur before they left, and he left behind his brother Nahor and his family. His father had died, never completing the trip around the "Fertile Crescent." So, in a real sense, he's not necessarily leaving "home" per se, but half his family. It was still hard.
The promise begins as a promise that he will be a great nation; a nation that will bless all the families of the earth. It begins there and begins to take shape as Abram travels the length of Canaan. His descendants will possess Canaan; the land he walks through. And as he passes through, he builds altars; stone object of worship. These are things used to literally give something up to the One sending him through the land, away from his family; as if he hadn't given up enough, and he hadn't.
God speaks to him at Shechem, and he builds an altar. He proceeds to Beth-El and God does not speak to him, but he builds another altar anyway. He then proceeds to the Negeb, a more difficult, more arid place. There he does not build an altar; at least not yet. Could it be that the trouble he winds up in during the latter half of this chapter is due to him not building an altar in Negeb?
At what point do I need to stop giving stuff up to my Master? When is it a good idea to not build another altar and send stuff up in smoke to the One giving it to me in the first place? It's not that I would withhold the stuff, but the rather the attitude that doesn't see giving it up as necessary; it's just not important to build the altar at this point. Is that as dangerous as it sounds? Could the apathy that ignores the importance of offering as a part, the central part, of worship be devastating?
It is easy for me to get caught up in "worship"; the elements of song and word. But it is not always easy for me to see the part where I give up something as valuable, or at least as valuable as the other parts. It was in worship at the Temple that the poor widow gave all she had (Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4). It was her Creator who made a point of stopping to watch what everyone else missed. Isn't that the part of worship I want to leave off, or leave out? It's the hard one where I do the expression instead of the worship leaders or preachers. I like spectating, and I have a wonderful church in which to spectate worship. But I must be the one making the altar, and giving something precious back to my Master. Only then have I truly ascribed worth to my Master in faith.
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