By Daniel Garner
"No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" - Joshua 1: 5
One of the people I have always loved to listen to is Billy Graham. And one of my favorite stories that he tells is one from years and years ago. In it, he had just arrived in a small town to preach at a local event and he needed to mail a letter. So, of course, he asked a local child where the post office was. After he found out where the post office was he invited the boy to the sermon later that night he said, "If you'll come to church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to Heaven."
To which the kid promptly replied "I don't think I'll be there. You don't even know your way to the post office!"
I love how jokes and stories can stand the test of time and I'm also huge history nerd. Plop me in the history section of any library with a Red Bull and I can entertain myself for days! One of the things I've always been proud that I could do is recite dates and the most obscure trivia you could imagine. Which is a blast for me, but I don't recommend it on first dates.
But even I would be hard pressed to tell you some facts. We all know (or should at least) who the president is right now. We also know Ben Stein (...right?) George Washington, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. But what about someone from the 5th Century B.C? What about a king from the 3rd? A philosopher from the 2nd?
A few years ago I was able to visit Ur (of Abram fame) in Iraq. All on the same site was a Ziggurat, the reconstruction of the House of Abram and a set of royal tombs. So speaking of random history nerd trivia, Ur and a large part of Iraq was known as Mesopotamia and it was a very lush forest and had a large river basin.
Whenever I visited it was nothing but sand, dirt and rocks. Vegetation existed only if you count two inch high weeds and there was no water. Even after climbing onto the top of the Ziggurat (which was really, really big) all I could see were camels, sheep and our nearby military base. And whenever I went into the royal tombs I continued to carry the thought with me how it must have looked back when it was still lush. I also thought about the people that lived there. Their lives, their families and their works. We know of Abram because of the Bible, but what about EVERYONE ELSE?
It can be a daunting thought.
How big history is and how insignificant we are. The sun setting soon thereafter and the myriad number of stars coming out didn't help that thought.
But, there's something that ties those thoughts, Abram and history together.
God.
The same God that I prayed to every day in Iraq is the same God I pray to now and He's the same God who guided Abram all those thousands of years ago when he lived in Ur.
Psalms chapter 90, verse 4 says of God: "For You, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours".
The knowledge of knowing that when the sun first rose, God looked on and smiled makes me smile. Being able to close my eyes at night knowing that when I wake and see the sun rise that it's the same view that the disciples saw 2,000 years ago humbles me, but also fills me with peace.
God will never leave us or forsake us. Ever.
Not today, not tomorrow or ever.
Joshua 1: 5 says, "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you".
When Moses felt uncertain he knew that God was with him, just like He was with Abraham. When Paul the Apostle prayed, he knew God heard Him. In the same way we can take solace and comfort in knowing that no matter what, if we call upon the Name of our Lord He will always hear us, and always be there.
The Takeaway: The same God who lead Abram out of Ur thousands of years ago is the same God today.