Our God is an Awesome God!

There are a couple verses in Joshua, that keep coming back to me over the last couple of days.  Joshua 24:2-3 says,

And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'from ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.  Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him through all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.'"

The section that stands out to me the most is, ". . . they served other gods.  Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River . . . "

Whenever I think of the Bibles patriarchs, I always make the assumption that from little on up, they were worshipers of God and faithful to Him.  However, when I read this verse, it dawned on me that Abraham would have grown up in a home and society that worshiped many gods.  The part of this scripture that grabs me the most is, "I took your father Abraham from beyond the River . . . "

God took Abraham out of a heritage of idolatry and gave him a new inheritance.  God took Abraham from a place of death into a place of promise, fruitfulness, and life.  Abraham could have told God no when he first heard God calling him.  Instead, Abraham put aside all he knew and understood to follow the voice of the one true God.  This gets me excited because Abraham's story is our story too!

I was curious what the word "took" meant in Hebrew.  So, I looked it up.  It means to take in the hand, carry along, take out of, carry away, capture, take possession of.  God took Abraham in His hand, He captured Abraham's heart, He carried him along and took him out of a life of death. 

Isn't that what God does with us?  He captures us, takes us in His hand and takes us out of a life of death.  He takes us from a life of worshiping everything and anything but Him and brings us to a place of worshiping Him alone.  The beauty of it is that God did not find Abraham in a place of righteousness, but in a place of idolatry.  God is not looking on the righteous to scoop up, but on the unrighteous!  Mark 2:17 says, When Jesus heard it he saith unto them, 'They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  Jesus has come not for those that are well, but for the sick, Praise God!  He desires to capture us, to take us into His hand, to scoop us up in our dirtiest state, in the deepest place of our sin and to bring us into a promised land of fruitfulness and life!

What a relief I find in the example of Abraham!  What hope!  Oh, what love the father has for us that while we were yet sinners He died for us! (Romans 5:8)  How wide and how deep is the love of our Heavenly Father!  What an awesome God we serve, who loves us so deeply that He comes looking for us, and calling us, even when when we are sill living in sin.  He loves us so much!  Oh that fills me with soooo much joy! I want to shout it from the rooftops!  Our God is an awesome God!