Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/119

 The weary pilgrimage.

Call of

Abraham

101

But while he did not know

goal, nor the hardships in store

for him,

still

his journey's

he did

know

and the purpose for which God had called him. It was that he might be a blessing. As we learned in the last lesson, being a blessing means not caring only for self, but serving others and forgetting self entirely. God even told him who these others would reason

full

well the

be.

"In thee shall

all

for the journey

the families of the earth be blessed".

mankind he was to bring blessing. Abraham was not the only man whom God called. We have already learned that He called Noah. We shall hear later that He called Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others. But this much we can see already, that when

Unto

all

God calls anyone, it is always for something very important and very, good, always that the person whom He calls may be a blessing unto others.

Many

people imagine that

God

called people

only long

ago, in Bible times, but no longer calls people today.

surely they are mistaken.

God

calls

people

still

But

today to be

a blessing, though perhaps not in exactly the same

way

as

He must have called Washington and Lincoln, and many other noble men and women, and they must have understood and obeyed, just as Abraham did. In fact, we may be sure that He calls everybody in some way, and commands them to be a blessing. Only not everybody hearkens to His call. The Bible tells of one man, Jonah, whom God called to do a certain task, which was very hard, but which would have brought much good and happiness to many people. But Jonah thought only of himself and his own comfort, and of how difficult the work was, and what it would cost him. So he tried to run away to a distant country. But God brought him back and made him do the work anyway. But it could hardly have been done as well as if Jonah had done it willingly, in the same spirit as Abraham. of yore.