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a stranger in Jerusalem?" The sense of verse 9, then, is "he dwelt as a stranger in the
land of promise". It was his, God had given it to him, yet in it he lived as a stranger!
Nonetheless, the promise to Abraham was that the land was given to him:
"For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever"
(Gen. 13: 15).
Similar statements are also found in Gen. 15: 7; 17: 8. Yet Abraham lived as a
stranger in the land of promise. The reason for this is given in Heb. 11: 10:
"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
The word `looked for' in the original, occurs also in Heb. 10: 13, "From henceforth
expecting till His enemies be made His footstools". The basic thought of the word is to
take, or receive from: to take up. Abraham took up the city whose builder and maker is
God. He had `an option' on either the land, or the city. He took up the option on the city.
God had given him the land, and this was good; but at some point God had also revealed
to him the possibility of inheriting the city, and this was better. To gain the better, he had
to renounce the possibility of the land which God had given him. Abraham knew it was
not possible `to have the best of both worlds'.
Believers today have a similar choice: "Life through His Name" with an earthly
inheritance, or citizenship and eternal life in heavenly places; the good, and the better.
But as Abraham found with his choice, there is a cost attached to the better; that of
becoming `strangers and pilgrims on the earth'.
Those of old time, who looked for the heavenly city, did not obtain the promises
(Heb. 11: 13), "but seeing and greeting them from afar, and confessing that they were
strangers and sojourners on the earth (or land)", made manifest that they sought a
fatherland. Those heavenly citizens became strangers to, and sojourners, in the promised
land. Yet, "if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned". Abraham had set out not knowing whither
he went, to a land God had promised him. Then it was made known to him that beyond
the land (all the land which thou seest), was an unseen fatherland, which was far better.
When this `secret' was made known to Abraham, we do not know. That there was
progression in his calling seems certain:
"And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the
dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered" (Gen. 13: 16).
"Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He
said unto him, So shall thy seed be" (Gen. 15: 5).
Here may be more than a hint of the earthly calling (the dust of the earth), and of the
calling to the heavenly city (the stars of heaven).
It is instructive to note what preceded the second of these two promises. After the
victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings with him, Abram met the priest-king