awareness that, somewhere, there is a “land far away” which is filled with all of his aspirations inspires and energizes his existence in the foreign environment.
Immigrants therefore develop and sustain a strong psychological and behavioral orientation towards this “distant land”. Edward Said, the Egyptian born American sociologists calls this consciousness an “imaginative geography”. He explains that the immigrant’s awareness of the “homeland” helps him or her “to intensify its own sense of itself by dramatizing the distance and difference between what is close to it and what is far” and thus keeps them orientated in their foreign setting1.
In looking for a city with foundation therefore, Abraham was anchoring his lifestyle into the ideals of God’s “land”. It was this focus that enabled Abraham to fulfill his mission in a foreign environment. Similarly, without locking our life’s vision and ambitions into God’s system of ethos and rules like Abraham, believers will not live the full life of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was for this reason that the Book of Hebrews describes believers as people who are “longing for a better country” (Heb 11:16).
And this is the essence of Christian discipleship. Jesus demanded that any one who wished to follow Him “must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat 16:24). Discipleship to the Lord Jesus, like Abraham’s call, requires a spiritual displacement, and movement in a new direction. The people of the world, like those of Babel, may reject and scoff at Jehovah. Yet, God calls upon spiritual descendants of Abraham to live like strangers in “a foreign land”. As in the case of Abraham, following Jesus requires uprooting our commitments in life and moving in another direction.
Living like a Stranger in a foreign land
To Abraham’s contemporaries, his migration would not have been extraordinary. Immigration, just as it is today, was the fashion of his day. People moved to and fro, from one end to the other, seeking the best place for their families and herds of cattle to settle. Abraham would have been just like any one of his generation—a man trying his best to get food for his family, make his wife and children happy and ensure that his descendants had a future worth living. Abraham’s migration would not have made it into the local papers of his day.
Yet, the news of Abraham’s migration made it, not into the local newspapers, but into the eternal records of God Almighty. What made the difference? Three important factors summarize the reasons why Abraham’s immigration made it into God’s records—God’s blessing, Abraham’s faith and his obedience.
In commanding Abraham to migrate, God also committed Himself to bless and turn him into a blessing. This blessing on Abraham had three features. Firstly, Abraham became a recipient of God’s blessings. He received material blessings from God who promised to give him, “all the land that you see” (Gen 13:14–17). Abraham lost a land in order to inherit another land. He lost family and kindred and property and business. And he inherited God’s family, God’s kindred, God’s property and God’s business. Abraham’s blessings were evidently material and physical.
Like Abraham, believers who live like strangers in a foreign land by faith and obedience will receive the material provisions of God. Jesus promised that no one who has left home or family for the sake of the kingdom of God “will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Lk 18:30). When we leave behind the pursuit of the material security and wealth of this world, God will also make sure that we are well catered for. Hence David rightly testified that, “Those who fear [God] lack nothing . . . those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” (Ps 34:9–10).
It will be a mistake to brand such a message as a “prosperity and wealth and health” gospel. I do not believe, as some do and preach today, that God somehow owes it to believers to give them money and good health. I deplore the type of preaching that reduces salvation to a material transaction and the gospel of Christ into the gospel of Mammon.
Abraham’s life is a testimony to this fact that a life of obedience and faith is not just a matter of wealth, health and prosperity. It came with much pain, deprivation and hardships. When he arrived in the land that God had promised him, his first observation was that the Canaanites were there on the land (Gen 12:6). It took four more centuries for this promise to become a reality. Even after he had obeyed, Abraham suffered famine (Gen 12:10), he was childless for decades, his own nephew quarreled with him, and he was attacked by bandits. Abraham, his servants and possessions were in repeated peril throughout the period of his migration. Because of these hardships Abraham resorted to scheming on two occasions in order to survive. Abraham’s life was not the “prosperity and wealth and health” gospel that some preach today.
The Bible however teaches that God takes good care of those who obey and follow Him in faith. He blesses them in physical and material terms. When believers seek God’s Kingdom and its righteousness, all the blessings of a caring Father who loves them will be made available. Christian discipleship is living a life of surrender to Christ and trusting fully in Him that He will not leave us nor forsake us. It is therefore equally not right to give the impression that God calls believers to a life of curses and misery. On the contrary, God blesses believers when He calls them to discipleship.
Abraham’s blessings were also spiritual. He was called in order to experience a deeper life of fellowship with God. At a time when people called upon idols and set up citadels into heaven to make names for themselves, we are told “The LORD appeared to Abram . . . So he built an altar there to the LORD” (Gen 12:8). That is wonderful. On a land that was idolatrous, the immigrant Abraham begun his mission of building altars for Jehovah and sanctifying the ground for His worship. That is how Christians, aliens of God’s Kingdom and immigrants of Christ transform societies.
Abraham was not just a recipient of the blessings of God. He also became a reflector of those blessings. God told him, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen 12:2–3). The blessings that Abraham received were therefore redirected through him to nations, peoples and lands with which he came into contact. That is how Jehovah operates in the life of the devoted disciple. God chooses a man or woman who would be faithful to Him and turns that person into a mirror and a reflector of His blessings. When God wants to bless a family, He begins with a husband or a wife or a son or a daughter. And through such devoted disciples, His blessings are reflected to others.
This is why Abraham’s blessings spilled over to affect people who came into contact with him. Lot, his nephew, was one person who most enjoyed these reflected blessings. God blessed Lot so much, just as He blessed Abraham, that the land could not sustain their properties together. When Lot chose to live in Sodom and Gomorrah and was captured, it was Abraham who fought and liberated him. When Lot continued in this rather dangerous environment and God brought punishment on those cities, it was through Abraham’s intercessory prayer that Lot and his family was spared. Lot received reflected blessings through his uncle Abraham.
In addition to Lot, Abraham’s reflected blessings affected Pharaoh, Abimelech, the Canaanites, Ishmael, and Hagar. Every person who had something to do with Abraham, experienced a reflection of God’s character, God’s blessings and God’s anointing on Abraham. Abimelech and his military commanders were absolutely correct when they openly admitted to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do” (Gen 21:22).
This is how God operates. He blesses our families because we have chosen to follow Him in faith and obedience. He blesses our work colleagues because we continue to hold fast the banner of His love so all peoples may see it. He blesses our cities and countries of residence because we share with Him a close covenantal partnership and so are able to intercede on behalf of others. Christian disciples who follow the Abrahamic way of life are major channels of blessing wherever they happen to be.
And this is the nature of God’s
