Abraham's Obedience

As I reflected on examples we have in the scriptures of those who have “lived by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord,” I thought about Abraham.  He was constantly seeking the will of the Lord and physically following where God led him.  In Abraham 1:2 we read that he was “desiring to receive instructions,” and shortly thereafter the Lord led him on the long journey from the land of Ur to “the land which [they] denominated Haran” (Abraham 2:4).  He didn’t get to stay there long, though, and he then followed the Lord’s counsel to go “to the land of Canaan” with “eternity” as his covering and dwelling in tents (Abraham 2:15-16).  But he didn’t get to stop there, either, and he continued—we can only assume at the direction of the Lord—to the land of Egypt.  He eventually came back to the land of Canaan, and there fulfilled all of the commandments that the Lord gave him.  The most famous of those was the command to slay Isaac, and Abraham proved that he “fearest God” and indeed would live by every word that God commanded.   It’s no wonder the Lord would declare of Abraham to his son Isaac: “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, my laws” (Genesis 26:5).  Our goal should be for the Lord to be able to say that about us at the end of our lives!