And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on, yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. Acts 7:5
Some people might feel sorry for Abraham who spent his entire life, after God called him, living in a tent and constantly wandering from place to place. Despite being a wealthy man, he never once stopped to pour a footing course for a mansion befitting someone with his riches. Despite being deeply respected and honoured by his neighbours, he never laid a rancher’s claim to so much as an acre of the vast territory that he traversed. In fact, the only real estate that Abraham ever owned was part of a field that contained a cave wherein he buried his wife and prepared for his own entombment. He knew nothing of the satisfaction of looking about at vast acreage and knowing he had gained its ownership with his own hard work. No, Abraham, for all his wealth and position, was a man totally without earthly roots. His joy was in what God had promised him for the future, not for the present. His was an appreciation that we would do well to copy.
None of us are as wealthy as Abraham, but many of us own more property than he did. And for many of us, that ownership is pretty important. We have difficulty imagining ourselves looking around inside a freshly pitched tent and saying, as Abraham must have often said to Sarah, ‘No, it’s not much, but we have a real home coming in eternity’. We do need a place to stay, and in our particular climate, it had better be much more weather-tight and cosy than a camel-hair tent. There is nothing wrong with having a nice home if we can afford it. I like mine and I know you like yours. But do we ever look about at all that we possess materially and envision it burned up and gone? Are we really prepared to leave our earthly lodging for a mansion in the glory? Which of the two do we find the most appealing?
Abraham was not without his faults, we all know. But he was a man of faith in God that far exceeds our faith. He left his native Ur with nothing more than a call from God. He travelled about and he performed his many great acts of faith as God directed him. Any temptation that he ever had to erect so much as a log cabin was tucked away in total submission to God’s promise of a heritage in the far-off future. That was good enough for Abraham. Are God’s promises for our future good enough for us? Do we invest our time, effort, and finances in the things of earth or in the claims of Heaven? Do the prospects of better living conditions mean more to us than the prospects of seeing more precious souls saved? Does the accumulation of more possessions seem a better deal than the building up of God’s Assembly? Maybe our priorities are out of whack!
Abraham lost nothing by limiting his real estate claims to a burial plot in favour of Heaven’s riches. Neither will we. -Jim MacIntosh