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he really believed that the land belonged to him. So reasons the flesh. Abram never built
anything other than altars throughout his pilgrimage. Cain and Nimrod built cities, the
whole family of mankind attempt to build a city and a tower, and make a great name;
Noah and Abram built altars. There is in this a principle, true now as then, and expressed
for all time in the words of Him Who spake with authority and not as the Scribes:--
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you."
The fitting accompaniment to the altar is the tent. Verse 8 tells us that Abram pitched
his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east, and there he builded an altar unto
the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. Verse 9 says, "and Abram journeyed";
the word indicates the pulling up of tent pegs. There was a definite purpose and choice in
all this:--
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in
tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise" (Why?). "For he
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
The spiritual pilgrim in effect judges that no city of man's building has foundations.
In spite of the testimony of our senses, faith knows that "that which is seen is temporal,
but that which is not seen is eternal".
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Do we "declare plainly" that such is our faith and hope? Our life and hope and
inheritance are found at the right hand of God. Do we, by setting our mind on things
above, and by exhibiting small concern for the fashion of this world that passeth away, do
we "declare plainly" that here we have no continuing city? Our citizenship is in heaven,
and as such we cannot but be strangers and pilgrims on the earth; the altar and the tent are
the two great characteristics of the pilgrim walk. The altar recognizes the claims of a
holy God, the tent the necessity of separation for a holy and pilgrim people.
Heb. 11: tells us that the fact that Abraham was willing to dwell in a tent in the land of
promise, was due to the vision of faith.--"he looked for a city that had foundations."
Abraham was not a nomad by temperament, he did not choose the tent out of preference,
he longed for city life, he looked for a city. Like others, who found here no continuing
city, he sought one to come. Abraham, however, realized that to have fellowship with
God meant that he must share the rejection of the Lord. The altar and the city come
together in Heb. 13: 10-14, "We have an altar. . . . here we have no continuing city".
That means practically for us, "the tent". In other words, like Abraham, we must "go
forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach".
It will come to the mind that no altar was raised to God in Egypt. Moses had to decide
between the dignity and glory of being called "son of Pharaoh's daughter", and "the
reproach of Christ". He exchanged, as a matter of choice and estimation, the palace for
the shepherd's tent, the crown for the crook, the greatness of Egypt for the backside of