The Promise and the Place

Being no stranger to new cultures and new places, Abraham had traveled across the Middle East, from  Old Babylon in the east to Canaan in the west.  Living in tents, his nomadic lifestyle made travel part and parcel of his life.  All that Abraham owned could be carried and moved.  When God told Abraham to leave his home, his family and  his people, He  promised to lead him to a land where He would make Abraham into a great nation.  The group that traveled with Abraham included his nephew, Lot, and his wife, Sarah along with servants and animals and all the gear needed for living as a nomad.  It must have been quite a site to see the group of travelers, some riding camels, some on foot, making their way to the land God would show them. 

Once the nomads reached Shechem, God spoke to Abraham again, promising to give the land to his descendants. It is this promise that the children of Abraham kept alive as they moved into Egypt and became slaves.  It is this promise that inspired the wanderings in the desert and it is this  promise that led to the conquest of the Promised Land some 400 years later.  The land was for the children of Abraham.  Abraham was only a sojourner there.

In addition to land, God promised to make Abraham a great nation, however at that time, Abraham had no children, no one to whom he could pass on the promise.  God, as is His way, made Abraham a father by a  miraculous way.   And the promise had a person to carry it. 

Even in the Promised Land, Abraham’s nomadic life meant a life of movement, following the grazing grounds for the herds.  It meant not staying too long in any one place.  It meant he did not own a piece of the land promised to his descendants.  The community of people with Abraham was a mobile community.  He had no city there, no permanent house. The land that was the Promised Land was for his descendants to dwell in; Abraham was only a sojourner there.        

But Abraham did eventually buy land in Canaan.  What led him to purchase a place of he would own?   It was after his wife,  Sarah, died that  he decided he needed a place to inter her body.  A permanent place, a place to which  he could return and a place where he, too, could be interred.  So  he bought a graveyard. 

The plot of land Abraham bought included a field and a cave.  He paid for it in silver.  It was a witnessed transaction, deeded to him from the owner.  It was all legal.
Genesis 23: 14-16 tells the way it happened.  "Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,'My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.'  Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard."

 The only land Abraham owned in the Promised Land was a graveyard.

Abraham was the beginning of the nation of Israel, the first one.  He received the promises from God, but never owned a piece of the land he was promised, save for a cemetery. The promise was crucial for Abraham; it gave him the knowledge that God was real, God was overseeing his life.  Abraham believed God we are told, about the promise and the future.  But he never lived as an owner in the Promised Land.  He was an alien there, because beyond the promise, he was looking for more.  He was looking for “the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God,” Hebrews 11:10.  He was looking much farther into the future to the city of God.   Are we?

What did you say your name was?

The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and

Meshech, and Tiras.

And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.

 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue,

after their families, in their nations.

  And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and

the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

  And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.   Genesis 10:3-8

What a list of names!  There are times when I come to a list of names like this and I skim

through it, attempting to read it without trying to correctly pronounce each name.  It

rarely works.

But then, I stop and remember that each written name is a person’s name; a real person who lived and died, who existed in this world, even as I do.  Their name was important to them, as mine is to me.  It is the way one is identified.  That is Gomer, he is the son of Japheth. He lives on the east side of the camp.  Gomer, there is an entire life hiding behind that name; growing up, falling in love, learning a trade, seeing the Creator of the universe work, hearing his father tell of the long ride in the large boat.  It is important. 

Has someone ever called you by the wrong name, or mispronounced your name?  Did you correct them right away?  Your name is important to you, it is how you are addressed, and it identifies you and separates you from the rest of the humans on this globe.

 If you are looking to know someone, you learn their name early on.  You want that person to know that their name is important to you, too.   Politeness requires you to learn and remember the names of those around you, those with whom you rub shoulders.  This knowing of names indicates that you are serious in intending to know a person, to do business with someone, to befriend a person.  It is not a throwaway habit; it is kindness to treat one with the respect that is shown by knowing their name.  Let’s be honest, when someone remembers our name, we are buoyed.  It can feed the ego and the soul.  It feels good. 

Can you imagine if your mother forgot your name?  Even if she had to name every other child and pet in the family until she reached your name in the list, she did not forget, she just took her time!   But when your name is forgotten, it is a small taste of a lack of significance.   You may be important, just not as important as you thought.  It leaves a small twinge, a tiny pain, but it happens, so we all move on. 

There is a scene in the Christmas movie, “Jingle All the Way,” that has captured the importance of one’s name in a sweet way.   Jamie is a young boy,  is watching the holiday parade, waiting for the float that carries his hero, TurboMan.  TurboMan is the TV and action figure currently popular with all children, and Jamie wants one for Christmas. What Jaime doesn’t know is that he father has been co-opted into playing the part of TurboMan.  When the float nears Jamie, it stops as  TurboMan is supposed to pick one child from the crowd to receive a TurboMan figure.  As TurboMan, surveys the crowd, his gaze stops on Jamie and he points, and points again to Jamie.  Finally, TurboMan points at Jamie and calls his name.  It is at this point that Jamie turns in wonder to his friend and says, “He knows my name.”  The wonder of his hero knowing his name, identifying him in a crowd and  picking him out is overwhelming, wondrous and grand!

How would you feel if it was you?  I know I would be thrilled and amazed.  “He knows my name!”  What a feeling.    Your name is important, identifying you and separating you from all others. 

But then we all have had the One, who knows our name.

But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.

Is 43:1

It is the God of all creation that stands there, points His finger toward you, invites you and calls you by your name. 

He knows your name.

The Reminder

Do you not love the sunshine: the warm, yellow brightness that bathes our planet; giving heat, life and joy to us all?  We all welcome it and, after a bit of extended night time, the day is returning, lengthening.   The rising of the sun is a certainty for all of us here on earth.  We know it will happen, and actually depend on it to occur no matter what.  There is really nothing we can do to cause it to rise or stop it from rising.  Scientifically, of course, the sun is stationary, and we are moving.  Turning each 24 hours, this planet we travels through the skies and we make our way around the sun.  Still, the sun does appear to rise out on the horizon and travel across the blue.  Every day begins and each day ends with the sun and its progress through the heavens. 

I was considering this as I was meditating on the words of Jeremiah. 

        “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

           For His compassions never fail.

           They are new every morning;

           Great is Your faithfulness.”

How these words describing God are evidenced in the patterns of creation.  The world abounds with glimpses of a loving creator, of a faithful God.  The sun is but one such clue to Who He is and what He has done.   Consider the sun, the faithful rising and setting, which can be predicted.  The path of the earth around the sun, which is consistent year after year, century after century is a picture of constancy.  The time and type of tides that wash the coast lands are predictable and regular.  People who live on the oceans can depend on the tides to do as they have always done.  

Just these few facts of creation indicate to me a creator that approves of dependability, and is dependable Himself.  Since the creation speaks of the God who made it, He must have some appreciation for the trait and exhibit it Himself.  The words penned by Jeremiah the prophet show his joy in seeing the God of the tides and the sunrise as the dependable God, the faithful one.  But even as the sun is new each day, so are the love and faithfulness of our God.  He does not run out of love.  He does not forget. And every reliable sunrise is a celebratory reminder for us that He is there, He is real, He is true and He is faithful.  When you doubt, look to the sunrise.

The Cost of Knowledge

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.”  Is 11:6-9

“The Lord God commanded the man, saying ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”   Gen 2:16

According to Merriman Webster, knowledge is:

A(1) the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association

2): acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique

B (1): the fact or condition of being aware of something

(2): the range of one's information or understanding

In the scriptures quoted above, the knowledge written about is closer to the dictionary meaning noted as b; the fact or condition of being aware, range of one’s understanding, opinion.  Knowledge is a sought after quality in our world, a desirable asset to anyone’s character.  Many of us spend long, hard, expensive years at University striving to become knowledgeable in a science or other field of endeavor.   Higher education or not, we all hope to gain knowledge through the experiences we encounter each day.  The heaped up mass of all the events of life had better amount to something, some wisdom, some knowledge, or many of us are going to be wildly annoyed.  Knowledge does not come cheaply, or easily.  It has a cost, in cash and in time; in heartache and in joy.  Consequently, I believe it is wise, important, prudent, not a waste of time, to consider the nature and effect of the knowledge we all seek.  For we are all seeking knowledge of one sort or another. 

When considering the quote from Genesis, notice what the promised consequence of knowing is - of gaining the knowledge of good and evil.  To gain that knowledge, which includes knowing, being familiar with and understanding good and evil, results in the inevitability of death.  Death; the end of life, the cessation of awareness, the end of knowledge; an ironic reward for gaining this knowledge.   Knowledge here leads to a stark, sure termination.  This knowledge, no matter how desirable it may seem, does not promise anything but loss, defeat and a certain end. 

Compare this with the passage quoted first, from Isaiah.  What is the effect of the knowledge of God?  It is an earth where there is no destruction. Infants are safe with snakes. Children play with vipers.  Predator and prey no longer categories of creatures.   It is an earth in which nothing hurtful exists.  The knowledge of God spreads and covers all like the water of the sea, fully hydrating the planet with peacefulness.  The order of creation is restored, the creatures do not devour one another, rather they accompany one another.  The picture is one of serene peace, where fear has no opportunity.  Can you imagine a place where there is no fear, not even a hint of fear because there is nothing fearful?  It seems beyond imagination, so common is fear to each of us. 

Yet here is a world without fear because the knowledge of God fills it.  The knowledge of good and evil finds no place in the world. It has no lodging place in the creatures.  There is no experience of death, fear, terror or pain. 
What a difference, from today,  the knowledge of the Lord has when it fills the earth. 

Now that we know this, what can we do with the knowledge?  Do we still crave the knowledge of good and evil and if so why do we want it?  I wonder sometimes if knowing something seems to pave the way for feeling we are in command of the outcome.  If I know where the trouble is on the road, I can avoid being caught in traffic. If I know where the best deals are I can save money.  If I know what my diagnosis is, I can get the best treatment and live.  Control.  We are fond of saying that we are the captain of our ship.  And captains need knowledge to steer the ship.  Yet, is the control misleading?   Do any of us have control of our lives to the extent we believe we do?  How can we live in the fiction of control when the cost is so high?  The knowledge gained is not so desirable when the cost is recognized.  We all pay dearly for the knowing.  We know good and evil, but we also know fear and terror and uncertainly and death.  It seems in the bargain to become like God and know good and evil we have gained much more than mere information, we have gained an intimate familiarity and experience with evil.

Be aware of what knowledge you seek.