Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and said to the sons of Heth, “I am a foreign resident, a temporary settler, among you. Grant me ownership of a burial site among you so that I may bury my dead.”
Genesis 23:3-4 NET
God had called Abraham to leave his family and go into a land God would show him. If he did, God would make his name great, would bless him, and make him a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:1-3). Later, after he had followed God’s leading to Canaan, God promised to give him that land as well as countless descendants (Gen. 13:14-17).
Yet over 60 years later, Abraham could claim none of the land. And his family was still very small. When Sarah died, he had no place of his own to bury her and was forced to buy a burial plot from the people he lived among. He was a foreign resident in the land, a temporary settler.
Looking back at this, the author of Hebrews described Abraham as living by faith even while a foreigner in a foreign land. Hebrews said that while living in a tent, Abraham looked forward to a city built by God with firm foundations (Heb. 11:9-10).
Abraham is, in many ways, a model for us as believers. He trusted in God’s promises and lived by faith, even though the fulfillment of those promises happened after his death. He lived and died in Canaan as a foreign resident with no permanent home.
Peter urged us to live our lives here, like Abraham, as temporary residents of the earth – as foreigners and exiles (1 Pet. 1:1, 17; 2:11). Rather than putting down roots as a part of this world, we should be walking by faith, looking forward in hope to the home that God is preparing us for, and being a light for our Lord in this world’s darkness.
I had unsubscribed because I couldn’t keep up.
But now i miss the readings ; )
It is easy to get overwhelmed with the volume of email we can get. But I am glad you are back.