Abraham and Separation From the World - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great.
Genesis 12:2 NKJV

Abraham and Separation From the World
As separated from this present evil world, God says to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation” and “I will bless you and make your name great.” The men of this world seek to make a great name for themselves; they say, “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen. 11:4). But God says to the separated man, “I will bless you and make your name great.”

The tendency of our natural hearts is always to seek to make a name for ourselves, and the flesh will seize upon anything, even the things of God, to exalt itself. This tendency was seen even among the disciples of the Lord when they had a strife as to which of them should be accounted the greatest. The scattering of man at Babel, and the divisions of Christendom, as well as every strife among the people of God, can be traced to this one root: the vanity of the flesh seeking to make itself great.

The lowly mind of the Lord Jesus was to make Himself of no reputation. “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). God has made His name great, and to the one who has His lowly mind and follows Him outside the camp in answer to the call, God says, “I will make your name great.” God can make a much greater name for the believer in His world of glory than we can make for ourselves in this present evil world.

If honestly confessed, it would be found that the true motive for many remaining in a false position “inside the camp” is the secret desire to be great; and thus they shrink from the path of obscurity that leads outside the religious world of the day. Can we not see in Scripture, as in daily experience, that those who have been spiritually great among the people of God have ever been separated men; men who have answered to the call of God.

-- Hamilton Smith