The Disassembling of Abraham
And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, “This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, ‘He is my brother.”’ Genesis 20:13 ESV
Every place– God describes Abraham’s travels as a journey toward a destination. “Go forth . . to a land I will show you.” God has a destination in mind. But notice how Abraham describes this journey. “At every place”—really “all over the place,” “everywhere”, kol hah-māqōm,–that is, at no particular destination. Abraham reflects on his experience and sees it as wandering, not journeying. He isn’t going anywhere. He’s just lost somewhere.
Now we can feel the impact of God’s command. Lek lekha is translated “Go forth” but it really means, “Go out from yourself.” In other words, Abraham has to accomplish this journey within himself. The rabbi Nachmanides (Ramban) provides explanation:
What Ramban evokes here is an Abraham who is set on a course of total displacement, a series of encounters with mekomot, geocultural environments to be entered, know, and left. This directionless traveling is in one sense a travailing that is intimately connected with the quest for birth. The Oxford English Dictionary glosses travel: ‘1. torment, distress, suffer afflictions, suffer pains of parturition. 2. make a journey, from one place to another.’ Rashi, too, seems to understand the nature of Abraham’s journey in this way: ‘When God took me out of my father’s house to be a vagrant, roaming from place (makom) to place . . . Anyone who is exiled from his place (makom) and is not settled is called a wanderer’ (20:13). Even this plural verb, strangely used for ‘made me wander’ (hitu), suggests a plurality of mekomot, of existential frames of being, lacking coherent connection in an unmapped universe.[1]
Abraham’s “journey” isn’t to the Promised Land. It is to a new birth. Abraham is being prepared to be someone else, not the person he thought he was but rather the person God intended him to be. This journey from himself takes the rest of his life. Along the way Abraham takes serious detours. That’s why he thinks he is wandering. But God is teaching him to encounter the territory within, the psychological geography that identifies who we think we are. That is the place Abraham must leave. Even his detours are incorporated in the journey out of himself. Abraham’s real destination is God.
Until we experience the call of lek lekha we will remain captives in our self-constructed geography. But when we start “out,” we may feel as though we are directionless. We will think of ourselves as wanderers, strangers in a strange land. We will take many detours in attempts to find a place to be, but God pushes us out, and until we arrive at Him, we will not complete this journey. “Go out from yourself” is a life of travel toward God. Exile is part of the trip.
Topical Index: kol hah-māqōm, everywhere, journey, lek lekha, Genesis 20:13
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, pp. 75-76.
If the worst of the “strange gods” are to be found within, then do we not start out as strangers to ourselves? If we are designed to reflect what we fear, and if what we fear most is ourselves in our estrangement from our Better Half; the Lover of our souls; then we are truly strangers to our real identity, which can only be realized when we see ourselves in His face turned towards us.
Self is not our “true home” – no matter where we are (or not): our real identity is not to be found in existential belly-button gazing, but in yoking with the Spirit of God in faith of all that is not yet seen. Until then, all we fear will reflect to us all that we are not, and our lives will be a lie, for the ultimate lie is to live the un-genuine life; a false persona pasted over the hole in the soul where YHVH should be reigning and directing all our traffic. Our busyness is only spinning wheels unless and until we are riding on the wings of His purpose for our lives, and not our own.
Abraham was a pilgrim on this earth, looking for a better city “whose builder and maker is God”. In that city, built of “lively stones”, we will all ‘find ourselves’, for our true identity is a collective, and on this earth that collective is only a distant dream until we all look into His face and see ALL of us – not one missing – reflected back. We will become truly ourselves when we find ourselves perfectly identified with everyone else, in that better day. And may I – in faith – start now!
Shalom sweet sister… my sentiments exactly! There is only one.. YHVH. The wandering part (searching, thrashing and attempts to ‘fix’) are all dead ends. There is only one… our majestic, righteous creator who has made me in His image. Will I accept His invitation to join the body He has made for us all? Humbly with shalom… I accept.
Good grief! What an interesting insight. I’ve had slight inclinations of realizing this about Abraham’s beginnings, but not so clearly explained. Yes, I realized Abraham was coming out of one land and environment and crossing over to another, however, I never really took it as deep as this. The idea the journey takes his entire lifetime makes me step back a bit thinking about my own life. I tend to think I’ve reached some level of accomplishments as the decades have past but the reality of not knowing what is to come and what’s left to learn and experience raises questions of my even actually having taken the first real steps toward what he wants me to learn and become. I’m amazed at the outlook toward the long haul he has that I don’t. It’s amazing he can say to me, “Let’s go here. But don’t worry, you’ve got a lifetime to get there! Hurry to the end, but take your lifetime to get there. And, yes, I’ll be walking with you the entire way. Or, you can have a go alone. Your choice.” Choose this day life or death. Awesome adventure.
This is absolutely the best explanation for my personal life experience that I have ever heard! It puts all of the winding, turning, stopping and movimg into perspective, gives it purpose and fills my heart with hope and my mind with peace. Thanks Skip
Ditto
Ditto!
I just moved to a little studio today….exhausted I went to bed to finally read TW. Wow! This explains my personal life experiences too Cheryl. As I prayed over my new tiny home -from the entrance through to kitchen- I felt YHWH say ׳it’s a base׳ as you go forward to wherever I lead you to……..like our father Abraham ‘this journey from ourselves takes a lifetime’!
Shabbat shalom to everyone
Christine
It is a comfort to know others are on the same journey. Thanks for sharing Christine!
Shalom sister, praying for you ??????
So thankful to be a wanderer in the first place.
More thankful to Abraham et al, who blazed the trail
through that empty, barren land of self — being lead
every step of the way by God’s Spirit.
And most thankful to Jesus Christ who came directly here
to us to make everything clear — and final! He literally rose
to the occasion!
It’s the greatest story ever told . . . and we each play such
an important part!
Great post, Skip!
Excellent, excellent, excellent ! Thank you. Perfect timing.
I, too, toss my ditto to the ring of ditto devotees!
This topic reminds me of one of my favorite bumper stickers:
“Not all those who wander are lost”. This insightful gem was written by J.R.R. Tolkien in a line from the poem “All that is gold does not glitter” from “The Lord of the Rings (#1)”. The entire poem is worth quoting.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
AMEN!
Shabbat Shalom all.
Nor are all those who wonder lost. I was just looking at this poem at a writing retreat this week. Thanks for the witness, Michael 🙂
I wish I could say something original but DITTO!!!
Thank you Skip, now my life starts making sense(at least to me). For decades I had been following his Lead, Many times I took the freedom to detour from His ways… how much I regret it, in perspective i am grateful at the same time because He is the maker, I am the product of His work. I had been traveling/wandering all mi life from city to city, from country to country from continent to continent. There is always joy and excitement still it is painful, it is hard. I believe I am settling down here in the US, still I keep my ears open to His voice.
Thank you Skip!
Our lives are not twists and turns without purpose. Perhaps in hindsight we become visionaries as the resonances of past reach forward enough to allow the sensing of the warp & the weft of eternal things….. seen most often when we choose to accept His compass..ShabbatShalom FJ
Thank you Skip for a great teaching and insight esp for this journey, I was feeling quite lost.
Wondering why I was wandering w\o focus. Bless you brother!! Renewing of the mind…thanks