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Father of Immigrants and Friend of God:Looking for the Heavenly City

The vast reputation of Abraham in the three major religions of the world underlines his historical significance. In the Bible, Abraham was the most senior among the patriarchs who demonstrated how human beings, even after the fall of Adam, may yet walk in close friendship with God. Other faithful men before him, like Enoch and Noah, had distinguished themselves by their faith and been recipients of God’s covenants. Yet, it was Abraham who begun the trend of living consistently in such a way as to reverse the curse of Adam. Indeed, God later introduced Himself to Moses as, “the God of Abraham”. To put it in modern terminology, God re-branded Himself with “the Abrahamic trademark”! It is no wonder therefore that Abraham soars in reputation above many of the men of God in the Bible.

What is particularly remarkable is that Abraham acquired this towering reputation through immigration. In his assessment of the patriarch, the author of the Book of Hebrews records that Abraham received God’s approval because he lived by faith and obedience, “like a stranger in a foreign country . . . looking forward to the city with foundations” (Heb 11:8–10). In other words, Abraham’s immigration status was a major factor that contributed to his impressive reputation.

We do well therefore to examine what the Bible means by living “like stranger in a foreign country . . . looking forward to the city with foundation”. For, these features of Abraham’s life are linked together and describe the nature of Christian discipleship. God calls upon believers to live like strangers in a foreign country, look for the heavenly city, and do so by faith and obedience.

Looking for the Heavenly City

To understand what is meant by “looking for a city with foundations” we need to go back to Genesis, to the very beginning of human existence. For, Abraham was not the first immigrant in the Bible. Adam became the first immigrant when he was banished from God’s presence. Adam was displaced from the place of perfect communion with his Creator as a result of his sin. And consequently, all of Adam’s descendants have inherited this human condition. When Cain murdered his brother, he also became “a restless wanderer on the earth” (Gen 4:12). Cain, like his father, became a vagabond and an asylum seeker. The theme of immigration therefore goes far back to the beginning of human existence.

What is most noteworthy about Cain’s immigration is that he did not just wander from God’s presence. The Bible tells us that unlike his father, Cain institutionalized his separation from the Garden of Eden by building a city for himself (Gen 4:17). This action was momentous, not only because it is the first mention of a city in the Bible. It was momentous because it describes the very ethos and quest of Cain’s life. For, unlike the modern era, an ancient city represented its citizen’s vision and ideals. To say one belonged to a particular city meant one was committed to a particular mindset, culture and social vision. A city in the Bible was symbolic of the type of social vision and lifestyle that one had chosen.

It was for this reason that the Garden of Eden was also described as the city of God. For that was where the law of God reigned in perfection. Once defiled by man’s disobedience and faithlessness, that place was barred to humanity. Centuries later, God chose Jerusalem as an earthly symbol of His heavenly city (Ps 50:2). And just as the world begun with the city of God, it will also end with the city of God (Rev 21: 1–2). Similarly, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, He was also referring to this “city” where people live in perfect obedience to God.

Unlike the Garden of Eden, Cain’s city was built with a different ethos and philosophy. The Bible tells us that Cain’s city was named after his son. In so doing, he established and formalized his total rejection of God and His set of rules. Cain built a city to rival the Garden of Eden. His city was built upon the foundations of rebellion against Jehovah, and in competition with God’s system of regulations.

When civilizations reject God’s rule, teach their children that God does not exist and enact laws that are in direct opposition to the Word of God, they are, like Cain, setting up a rival city in opposition to God’s City. They are doing exactly what Cain did. Cain looked for a city whose architect and builder was human—human abilities, human power, human desires, human glory, and human hope. Abraham on the other hand, looked for a different city whose architect and builder was God. Cain’s life was not of faith and obedience to God. Abraham’s life was of faith and obedience. Not all immigrants share in Abraham’s inheritance. Some share in the inheritance of Cain.

After Cain, the next major incident in the Bible that involved the building of a city is recorded in Gen 11. There, we are told that as people continued to migrate, they decided to build themselves a city, “with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11: 4). Having rejected the city of God, these immigrants openly declared their complete rebellion by attempting to build a city whose citadel rose up into the heavens. They reasoned, “We have got to beat God in this. We have got to show that Eden is not good enough. We have got to make a name for ourselves in opposition to God’s laws. Now that we have rejected God’s rule, let us show Him what we can do”.

A lot of people speak and think like that in today’s world. In several homes, universities, offices and even churches, the Word of God is ridiculed, and rejected in similar fashion to what the people of Babel did. In civil society today, there are men and women who openly defy God to His face. To such people, God may as well be deaf or dumb or even dead. Such people are building a defiant “city” like the people of Babel. Like the men of Shinar, they are literally poking at God’s nose.

It was in the centre of this spiritual rebellion at Babel, that God commanded Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Gen 12:1). In other words, God called Abraham to repudiate the ideology of Babel and migrate to “the land” of God’s vision. Abraham rejected the ideology of Shinar to look for the city with true foundations.

How bold this man was to reject the haughtiness of his contemporaries. He chose to live differently and to seek life in obedience to God. Abraham committed himself to live like a stranger whose ethos and ideals were locked into a different set of dreams. He rejected the creeds and agenda set up by his generation to look for a different agenda. Abraham moved in a different direction from his contemporaries.

Looking for an idealized “land” is a characteristic feature of the immigrant life. Sociologists point out that one defining characteristic of the immigrant is that he is constantly conscious of a “homeland” far away. The immigrant has considerable emotional and psychological attachment to this homeland. And this consciousness significantly affects his behavior in the host country. He may struggle on a daily bases with material despair. Yet, at the same time, the immigrant’s 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 strategy of transforming His world. God inserts Christian disciples in places, homes, schools, universities, factories, banks and hospitals. He inserts them into parliament, offices, churches, and into places that one cannot identify. He inserts them there so that through them He would reflect His blessings to the environment and so transform it. God is counting on believers to reflect that glory where He has inserted them.

Disciples of Christ are like “yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Mat 13:33). They are the light and the salt that God has inserted in His world. His strategy is that through them, His blessings will be reflected. Paul had a nifty way of putting this concept. He described disciples as “the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:15). Aroma, smell, and savor—that is what Christians are to the environment that God has inserted them.

One of the major means through which Abraham became a reflector of God’s blessings was the way in which he brought up his children. God said of Abraham that He chose him, so that he will direct his children and his household “to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just” (Gen 18:19). God’s strategy was to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham. Abraham’s responsibility in this covenantal strategy was to train and instruct his children to love and fear Jehovah God. In so doing faith and love for God would spread throughout the earth. And this exactly is how God intends to bless the world. Through Christian parents who fear and love God and studiously bring up their children to do the same, the blessings of God will be reflected throughout the whole earth.

Abraham did not just receive and reflect God’s blessings, he also radiated it. God turned him into a blessing. There is a difference between a reflector and a radiator. Whereas a reflector only reflects the light it receives, a radiator provides heat with it. A radiator is a source of energy. God told him, “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” (Gen 12:3 NRSV). In other words the mention of Abraham’s name will bring blessings to people. This is an extravagant promise of God indeed.

And Abraham proved this in real life. When Pharaoh seized his wife, God punished Pharaoh’s house. When Abimelech tried it again, God punished him also. God spoke to Abimelech in a dream, “You are as good as dead” (Gen 20:3). “Anyone who curses you will be cursed”—that was what was happening to Abimelech. When Abimelech repented of his evil intentions, Abraham laid hands on him and he was healed. That is what God turns people who love and fear Him into. They become satellite sources of blessings.

Disciples of Christ, who live like strangers in a foreign land, become fountains of God’s blessings. From them will flow God’s touch of healing to the society. They are sources of restoration, of grace, of renewal and revival in the land. They are the people God uses to turn the world upside down. That was the project into which God called Abraham. And we share this calling with him.

Walking by Faith and Obedience

The main distinguishing feature of Abraham’s life as an immigrant was his faith and obedience. His faith was one that took God at His word. We first notice this when God showered extravagant promises of posterity and land on him. God told Abraham, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars . . . So shall your offspring be” (Gen 15:5). Who would believe such an excessive promise? Yet, Abraham did. Abraham’s faith was so immensely simple that the modern cynical person may dismiss it as naïve. Abraham decided that when it came to faith in Jehovah, he was not going to be sophisticated at all about it. He would let God be true and every man be a liar. That was the nature of Abraham’s friendship with God.

Though simple, Abraham’s faith, was not a foolish a one. This is because it was based on a deep knowledge of the character and covenantal love of Jehovah God. Abraham reasoned to himself, “This God whom I worship, He is a just God. He does not lie, and is not a tease. This God I worship does not boast, does not bluff, does not need to impress anybody, and does not owe me anything. He does not depend on me in any way. Therefore if my God has gone out of His way to give me His promises, what reasons do I have not to believe Him? I do believe because I know my God to be who He is, the Lord of all the earth, with whom nothing is impossible. If He has said it, will He not do it?”

Several Christians struggle with believing God for three main reasons—they do not rely on the Word of God. Or when they do, they do not rely on the character of God. Or they forget about God’s Covenant. These three were the secrets behind Abraham’s faith. When life is hard, it is easy for believers to fall into the trap of believing our imaginations, and trusting our own calculations and expectations. It becomes easy for wishful thinking to take over and for us to put words into God’s mouth and to then expect Him to fulfill these wishes. That is not faith, and that is certainly not the nature of Abraham’s faith. Faith builds its foundations on the Word of God. It does not embellish, exaggerate, or make it say what we wish to hear.

After we have believed His Word, we need to continue believing because of God’s character. His character makes Him someone who will not change His mind. His character makes Him someone who binds Himself to His own promises. So when He has spoken, we should be sure that it will happen. Abraham believed God because He accepted God’s character as genuine, untainted and reliable.

Abraham’s faith was not just based on God’s Word, and God’s character; it was also based on God’s covenant. In Gen 15, where we get this record that Abraham believed and God credited it to him as righteousness, his faith was confirmed with a covenant sealing ceremony (Gen 15:18). From then on Abraham knew that God’s promises were bound, not only to His character but also to His covenant, and to His oath. We can also be sure and have faith in the Word of God because God has sealed His promises to us with His covenant.

Abraham did not only believe; He also obeyed. After the first command from God in Gen 12, we are told, “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him” (Gen 12:4). How simple is this man’s discipleship. He didn’t ask any questions. He threw no tantrums, and he didn’t request for any assurances. Abraham obeyed God without any “if”s and “but”s. He made no hesitation, or reservations when obeying God. Abraham just got up and went, “as the LORD had told him”. He should have written a book titled “Obedience made simple”!

This was not the only occasion in Abraham’s life in which he demonstrates this unquestioningly simplified and unhesitant obedience. In Gen 22, we are told God came to Abraham and commanded him to go and sacrifice his son. This command, we must admit, is the most shocking command from God in the whole Bible. The writer softens our shock by prefacing the command with the warning that it was a “test” from God. For Abraham however, there was no preface at all. Though we, the readers, are told that it was a test from God, Abraham on the other hand was not forewarned about the test. That makes this command very dreadful—at least it should have been to Abraham.

So what should Abraham do about this shocking command? Shouldn’t he ask for a few more details about Moriah, about which mountain, and about the procedure? Shouldn’t he find out what happens now to God’s promises since Isaac, according to God, was the one through whom those promises would be fulfilled? Shouldn’t he examine why he needed to travel for three days to Moriah? Yet, Abraham didn’t do any of these. Instead, the Bible tells us that Abraham set off the next morning to Moriah to perform the sacrifice.

It is not as if Abraham is slavish in his relationship with Jehovah. When it was necessary, Abraham questioned and bargained and pleaded and challenged God to remain true to His character. For example, before this incident, Abraham had confronted and haggled with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. He challenged God, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25). Why then, did Abraham not do the same when it came to obedience?

Abraham obeyed because he trusted God. The fact is there is no true obedience if it is not acted out of faith. Every demand from God is a test of our faith and every act of so-called obedience that is not done out of faith fails that test in the first place. Abraham had this faith (James 2:21–22). He believed in the resurrection, so He was willing to sacrifice his son. He believed in the power of the Word of God so he trusted that God would speak and his son will come alive again. Abraham believed the character of God and so He acted in obedience.

Abraham’s obedience was also a covenantal obedience. His walk with God was based on a covenant of friendship, of deep love and affection. Because of this, Abraham knew that no command comes from God without this covenantal love. And within that covenant, Abraham’s responsibility was to obey. Abraham did not ask any questions of God because all the questions had been answered already within the covenant between him and Jehovah.

Obedience will be straightforward to God’s children if we were to constantly remind ourselves of Calvary’s covenant. If we were to experience and know on a daily basis how much God loves us, no commandment from Him will be so unreasonable, so reckless, and so shocking to us. What else can beat the shock of God giving up his own Son to die in our place on the cross? What more does God have to do to show that he loves us?

Jesus has demonstrated to us how much He loves us by laying down His life for us (Jn 15:13). Now, as His friends, He calls upon us to obey His commandments. It is when our relationship with God becomes a practical living out of this covenant of friendship, that obedience becomes less convoluted. When we too have come to the place of deep friendship with Him, then we will be enabled to obey like Abraham.

Discussion Questions

1. There is a common saying within some Christian circles that some believers are too “heavenly minded” to be of any earthly use. How does Abraham’s life disprove this notion and show instead that if we are properly heavenly minded we would always be of use on earth?

2. What do you think about Abraham’s behavior as an immigrant in Egypt?

3. Faith, for Abraham, was a matter of relying on God’s Word, God’s Covenant and God’s Character. Explain how each one of these contributes to our own faith.

1. Edward Said, Orientalism, London, Penguin Books 1978:55.