By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:8-10).
I have heard it said, and even, I am afraid, thought that way myself at least a little bit, what was the big sacrifice Abraham and Sarah made when they left Ur? They lived in ancient times with no modern conveniences, and in a primitive culture where things like architecture and the arts were not important at all. There's that intellectual snobbery raising its ugly head.
Go online. Look in books like the Zondervan Bible Encyclopedia or the Holman Bible Atlas. In the first place, the Sumerian culture was an alliance of city states of which Ur was just one. Each had its own king who ruled the surrounding lands and villages. A ziggarut sat at the city center with a shrine to the patron deity of the city. And now you see one reason God wanted Abraham and Sarah out of there.
In addition we have found in the tombs gold jewelry, daggers, helmets, and lyres—art and music did exist in that culture. Among the many ruins archaeologists have found economic documents, medical treatises, law codes, agricultural manuals, a writing about a Great Flood, and philosophical writings. They have found canals used for irrigating crops. They have discovered that Ur had an educational system, some form of both hot and cold municipal running water, a sewer system, and paved roads. So much for primitive, huh?
I also found a couple of artists' renditions of the typical upper class home—based on the ruins. Have you ever been to the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa? Go to www.opentable.com/Columbia-restaurant-ybor-city. Look for the room with the fountain in the middle, with balconies overlooking a central room below, and that is similar to the picture of the house in Ur that I found. Make no mistake, Abraham was a wealthy man. This home could quite easily have been the one he left. Now tell me it was no big deal for him to leave all that behind and live in tents for the rest of his life! As an experienced camper, I know for certain that Sarah put up with sand in her sandals, in her blankets, and in her food! They left a life of relative luxury to wander for decades in a hot, dirty land.
Abraham and Sarah most certainly did sacrifice in order to follow God, even from the beginning, far more than most of us have ever been called to sacrifice, or maybe ever will. Think hard today about your commitment to God and what you are willing to sacrifice for Him. Even the best of us are far too materialistic and addicted to convenience and ease. Perhaps we need a wake-up call.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city (Heb 11:13-16).
Dene Ward
I have heard it said, and even, I am afraid, thought that way myself at least a little bit, what was the big sacrifice Abraham and Sarah made when they left Ur? They lived in ancient times with no modern conveniences, and in a primitive culture where things like architecture and the arts were not important at all. There's that intellectual snobbery raising its ugly head.
Go online. Look in books like the Zondervan Bible Encyclopedia or the Holman Bible Atlas. In the first place, the Sumerian culture was an alliance of city states of which Ur was just one. Each had its own king who ruled the surrounding lands and villages. A ziggarut sat at the city center with a shrine to the patron deity of the city. And now you see one reason God wanted Abraham and Sarah out of there.
In addition we have found in the tombs gold jewelry, daggers, helmets, and lyres—art and music did exist in that culture. Among the many ruins archaeologists have found economic documents, medical treatises, law codes, agricultural manuals, a writing about a Great Flood, and philosophical writings. They have found canals used for irrigating crops. They have discovered that Ur had an educational system, some form of both hot and cold municipal running water, a sewer system, and paved roads. So much for primitive, huh?
I also found a couple of artists' renditions of the typical upper class home—based on the ruins. Have you ever been to the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa? Go to www.opentable.com/Columbia-restaurant-ybor-city. Look for the room with the fountain in the middle, with balconies overlooking a central room below, and that is similar to the picture of the house in Ur that I found. Make no mistake, Abraham was a wealthy man. This home could quite easily have been the one he left. Now tell me it was no big deal for him to leave all that behind and live in tents for the rest of his life! As an experienced camper, I know for certain that Sarah put up with sand in her sandals, in her blankets, and in her food! They left a life of relative luxury to wander for decades in a hot, dirty land.
Abraham and Sarah most certainly did sacrifice in order to follow God, even from the beginning, far more than most of us have ever been called to sacrifice, or maybe ever will. Think hard today about your commitment to God and what you are willing to sacrifice for Him. Even the best of us are far too materialistic and addicted to convenience and ease. Perhaps we need a wake-up call.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city (Heb 11:13-16).
Dene Ward
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