In Deuteronomy 26:5, Moses referred to Abraham as “a wandering Aramean” which is a pretty good description of what it meant to be a nomadic alien in the Near East 2,000 years before Christ. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives two definitions for “alien”: 1) not a citizen of the country in which one lives and works and 2) a creature from another world. Biblically speaking, those definitions should describe us as well as Abraham.
The story of Abraham begins in Genesis chapter 12 but the context goes back to chapter 11 where we read that, after the flood of Noah’s time, his descendants migrated to “the land of Shinar” in what is today the country of Iraq in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where both Babylon and Ur were located. We read that the people said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole world.” In other words, the people are resisting God’s command in both Genesis 1:28 to Adam and Eve and chapter 9 to Noah and his offspring, to go into the whole earth as stewards of God’s creation. This is the setting for God’s call to Abraham to leave the land and society of the Tower of Babel – “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. . . I will bless you and make your name great . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1 – 3)
That’s quite a job description for one man! As we’ve seen so far in this series, Abraham is not uniquely qualified to be anything but one flawed, human being, who regularly gives in to fear, dishonesty and disobedience. But as we’ve also seen, he was teachable – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Proverbs 9:10) At age 75 Abraham began his walk of faith by obeying the call, leaving his homeland and going to Shechem in the land of Canaan, to the oak of Moreh where God said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” The first thing he did was build an altar to the Lord. He then moved on to the hill country and pitched his tent east of Bethel and west of Ai and built another altar. Then he moved south into the Negev. Today the Negev is the desert in the south of modern Israel but then was open grasslands, perfect for grazing livestock.
So far so good. Then a famine came and things got challenging. Abraham took his family to Egypt where all of Abraham’s weaknesses came into play. But where we humans are weak, God is strong. Where we falter and fail, God is faithful and constant.
By Genesis 21 Abraham is back in the Negev, he’s 100 years old and the child God promised – Isaac – is born. Ishmael and Hagar are again cast out of the family at Sarah’s insistence but God is faithful in saving them and establishing and prospering them as a new nation. Because of God’s faithfulness, Abraham is able to make a pact with Abimelech whom he had earlier deceived and was given rights to the well Abraham had dug at Beersheba. In gratitude, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree there and called on the name of the Lord. This well and this tree are still there to this day. Not a bad legacy for an alien.
This brings us to today where we who walk by faith in the descendant of Abraham, Jesus the Christ of God. We also walk in the power and direction of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word and must therefore, also live as aliens – aliens who are heirs with Jesus in the eternal new Heavens and earth. Like all true aliens, we are creatures of a different world – that future and perfect world. As the Apostle Peter wrote:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isacc and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” 1 Peter 11:8 – 10