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Abraham is called a Hebrew in Genesis 14:13, which is the first use of that term. The term means “one from beyond¹.” Abraham was a man from beyond; he wasn’t from the land he lived in. God called him from beyond. Abraham was a foreigner, an alien, and a stranger in the land to which God called him.

When four kings in this land rose up and began to fight the people of Sodom and Gomorrah because they refused to give tribute, Abraham did not take sides. This is was the first war recorded in the Bible, and Abraham did not participate in it. (Genesis 14)

That fighting went on for over a decade, but Abraham did not take sides. It wasn’t until his nephew Lot was caught up in those warring factions that Abraham rose up with three hundred and eighteen men and went to battle to rescue Lot.

It wasn’t that Abraham was weak, unable, or unwilling to engage in the battle. The battles were not his to fight. He had a higher purpose and a higher calling. Until one member of his family was caught up in the fighting, Abraham remained on the sidelines.

The king of Sodom misunderstood Abraham’s involvement. He thought Abraham entered the war on the side of the king of Sodom, but when the king offered plunder to Abraham, Abraham refused. Abraham was not, in fact, aligned with the king of Sodom. Rescuing Lot meant effectively fighting on the side of Sodom, but Abraham was not aligned with Sodom. He was only aligned with the purpose of God.

This reminds me of Jacob when he encountered the angel of the Lord before entering the promised land. (Joshua 5:13-15) Joshua asked, “Are you for us or are you for them?” The angel said, “Neither.” Then the angel told him to go in the land and drive the people out.

It was God’s purpose to establish His people in that land at that time. God doesn’t align with our purposes; we must align with His.

In Genesis 15:13-16, God told Abram (later Abraham) that his descendants will be enslaved and oppressed in a foreign land for 400 years. God explains that they will not return to drive out the inhabitants until “the fourth generation,” because “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

God had declared it many years before it happened. But God was not aligning with the people of Israel, nor was he aligning against the people in the land. God was accomplishing a much greater plan.

God’s plans and purposes involved not just the descendants of Abraham, but all the nations of the earth. (Genesis 12:3: 18:18; and 22: 18) Three times when God told Abraham that his descendants would be be blessed that Abraham’s descendants would bless all the nations of the earth.

The land was not meant to be a permanent gift of God to a particular people. The earth and all that is in it is passing away. (Matthew 24:35; and 1 John 2:17) Abraham lived in the promised land as an alien and stranger. (Hebrews 11:9) God told Moses and the people that they would be foreigners and temporary residents in the land. (Leviticus 25:23)

At the end of David’s days, after many generations in the land, after fighting and conquering all the nations around them, as David was preparing for building a temple to God, David acknowledged to God, “We are foreigners and strangers in your sight….. Our days on earth are like a shadow….” (1 Chronicles 29:15-16)

The fixation by modern (mostly American) Christians with the land of Israel and with God’s blessing on the United Stated of America isn’t biblical. It was never Israel’s land. It was God’s land. God has always intended to use his blessings for the descendants of Abraham to bless all the nations – not just one modern nation that happens to be our nation.

Jesus understood that when he gave his followers the Great Commission – to go from Judea, and Samaria, into all the world – making disciples. The first generations of Christians understood that when they went into all the known world. At least into the 3rd Century, Christians were scattered throughout the known world and still living as foreigners wherever they went. (See the Letter to Diognetus)

The question we should be asking is not the question Joshua asked – whether God is for us. The question we should be asking ourselves is whether we are for God. The question we need to ask is whether we are aligned with God, and not whether God is aligned with us. Are we working toward God’s ends? Or are we simply working towards our own ends and claiming that God is with us?

It won’t matter to God in the end. God’s promises, and plans, and purposes will be accomplished. But, it will matter to each one of us whether we are working with Him – seeking His kingdom – or working toward our own ends.

Abraham was a Hebrew – from beyond. If we are Abraham’s descendants, we must also be “people from beyond.” We are not just people from beyond the river, but people from beyond this world – for Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)

The kings and kingdoms of this world will all pass away, but the kingdom of Jesus will last forever. May we be a people who align with his kingdom, though it makes us aliens and strangers in this world.

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1. Scholars have proposed several related explanations for the meaning of the word “Hebrew” (Hebrew: ʿIvri / עִבְרִי). There is no absolute consensus, but a consensus of scholars believe that Hebrew means “One from beyond / the other side” – This is the most widely accepted linguistic explanation. The word is often connected to the Hebrew root ʿ-b-r (עבר), meaning “to cross over,” “pass through,” or “come from the other side.”
   
   Examples of this root include: crossing a river, passing through territory, or moving from one region to another. Under this view, “Hebrew” originally meant something like “the one from beyond”; “the crosser-over”; or “people from the other side [of the river]”
   
   Many scholars think the reference may originally have been the Euphrates River, from the perspective of Canaanites, or Jordan-region crossings. This fits the biblical portrayal of Abraham coming from Mesopotamia into Canaan. In fact, Abraham is first explicitly called “the Hebrew” in Book of Genesis 14:13.
   Joshua later recalls Israel’s ancestry as coming “from beyond the River” (usually meaning the Euphrates): “Long ago your ancestors… lived beyond the Euphrates River.” (Joshua 24) ↩︎