Not long after God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees/Babylonians, Abraham started a missionary journey. He set out to be what God called him to be: a blessing to the nations. He wasted no time. He journeyed down to the land of Shechem right in the midst of the cursed line of Ham, the Canaanites. Around a terebinth tree at Moreh, Yahweh appeared to him and promised him the land where he was dwelling. Abraham’s response was to build an altar, establishing worship in the land (Gen 12:4-7).
After this, Abraham moved to the land between Bethel and Ai and built another altar (Gen 12:8). Later, after splitting up with his nephew, Lot, Abraham was promised by Yahweh again that he would possess the land. Abraham responded to Yahweh’s promise by building another altar at Hebron, near the terebinth trees of Mamre (Gen 13:14-18). The building of these altars anticipated and prepared the way for the promise of God to come to its fullness. It may have seemed small and somewhat insignificant compared to the vastness of the promise that God made that Abraham would inherit the world (cf. Rom 4:13), but Abraham started where Yahweh put him. He did what he was supposed to do in the place God, in his providence, placed him.
While he was located at these places, the people of the land–the Canaanites–were being converted. Abraham allied himself with some Amorites at the terebinth of Mamre (who was an Amorite; Gen 14:13; this was around Hebron). We also know that the Hittites, or the sons of Heth, considered Abraham to be a “prince of God” among them (Gen 23:6). This may not seem significant either seeing that probably most of them weren’t converted or, if they were, they apostatized in later generations and would have to be destroyed (Gen 15:16). Nevertheless, the altars were established, and God never forgot.
These specific places of worship where heaven and earth were joined when God spoke to Abraham were places revisited in the future by Abraham’s seed. One major battle in the conquest of Canaan was launched from the altar between Bethel and Ai (cf. Josh 7:2; 8:9). Once the land was conquered, the covenant was renewed, and the people were established in the land at Shechem (cf. Josh 23–24). David began his reign as king of Israel in Hebron (2 Sam 2). The conquering of the land and the establishment of the nation under its true king were the fruit of Abraham establishing places of worship years earlier when he only had the promise of what was to come. He never saw the fulfillment of the promise in his lifetime. However, his establishing worship in the land was the beginning of conquest or dominion and the foundation of proper culture.
None of it began with great pomp. Abraham didn’t go into lands to take over the governments first thing. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He did fight to take back what the four kings of the nations had stolen, but he didn’t take over their governments. He was content with establishing altars. And waiting.
Abraham’s children must do the same at various times in history. There are times in cultures when the altars of Jesus are not what they are supposed to be. They are torn down and disregarded. From this flows all the cultural pollution and tyranny that we see in our own country today. The answer is not to take over the White House, the houses of Congress, and the courts. Those things must eventually be done. (Watching the Reformed X wars lately, we are not ready to take over a town of three hundred forty-five, much less a country of three hundred forty-five million.) But what must first be done is to rebuild those altars of our fathers, those altars where the faithful worship of Jesus took place.
And wait.
We wait, but it is not an inactive waiting. It is actively engaging in worship. It is actively doing the small and seemingly insignificant and (to our eyes) fruitless things: worshiping with God’s people around his Table, disciplining ourselves, discipling our families, reaching out to co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Who knows? The USA may pass away like the land of Canaan. (I pray it doesn’t, but nothing says we deserve to exist.) But God will not forget his promises to his people. Those places of worship established through the land will one day be the launching pad of a new holy conquest and the establishment of a God-honoring culture.
So, we must continue to be true children of Abraham and persevere even though we don’t realize these promises in our lifetimes. God will be faithful to his promises. Abraham’s seed–all of us in Christ–will inherit the earth.
