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Press 1953: 217–18.

      Abraham

      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