A Promise Carried by Pilgrims

Following the Father’s dwelling purpose through Scripture

Begin by reading Genesis 12:1–9; 13:14–18; 15:1–6,13–16; and 23:1–20.

What does it mean to receive a promise of home while still living as a stranger?

Genesis brings us to a man called Abram, later named Abraham. The LORD calls him to leave familiar surroundings and travel toward a land He will show him. As we read his account, we encounter a promise whose fulfilment extends beyond the life of the person who first hears it.

We need to give that promise time to unfold.

The world beyond the garden

Before reading Abram’s call, take a brief look at the journey between Genesis 3 and Genesis 12.

Genesis 4 describes life outside Eden, including Cain’s killing of his brother Abel. Genesis 6 describes widespread wickedness and violence. God announces judgment through a flood and instructs Noah to build an ark through which his household and living creatures will be preserved.

After the flood, God blesses Noah’s family and establishes a covenant with them and the living creatures, promising that a flood will not again destroy all flesh (Genesis 9:1–17). In this passage, a covenant is a commitment God establishes, accompanied by a sign—the rainbow.

Genesis 11 then describes people building a city and tower, seeking a name for themselves and resisting scattering. The LORD confuses their language, and they are scattered.

These accounts deserve careful reading in their own right. For our question about home, they provide the setting: humanity’s life continues, violence and judgment are real, God preserves life, and the families of the earth are dispersed. Eden has not simply been reopened.

Within this world, the LORD speaks to Abram.

A call toward a place not yet seen

Read Genesis 12:1–3 slowly. Notice what Abram is told to leave and what the LORD says He will do.

Abram must leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house. The LORD promises to show him a land, make him a great nation, and bless him. Through him, blessing will reach all the families of the earth.

The call concerns both place and people. It reaches beyond Abram’s own comfort or future security.

Verse 4 records his response: he departs as the LORD has spoken. His wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the household travel with him into Canaan.

We can look back to Eden and notice a connection: God again takes initiative concerning people and a place. But we should also notice the difference. Abram is called to travel in response to a promise. His circumstances are those of a traveller, not those of the first couple in the prepared garden.

Looking for a recurring theme does not mean making every account identical. Similarities help us follow the witness; differences help us understand what each passage adds.

A tent in the land of promise

At Shechem, the LORD appears to Abram and promises the land to his offspring. Abram builds an altar. He later pitches his tent elsewhere, builds another altar, and calls upon the LORD (Genesis 12:6–9).

The passage places a promise beside a tent.

Abram has reached the land, but arrival is not the same as possessing the promised inheritance. Other inhabitants are already there. His descendants, whom the LORD names in the promise, have not yet become the people described in it.

In Genesis 13:14–18, after Abram and Lot separate, the LORD again speaks of land and descendants. Abram moves his tent and builds an altar at Hebron.

These repeated details show us a man inhabiting the place while receiving words about a future beyond his present circumstances.

We do not need to imagine what every night in his tent felt like. The account gives us enough to recognise the tension: the promise is spoken, and the complete inheritance remains ahead.

The Father allows the question to be spoken

Genesis 15 brings Abram’s concern into the conversation. He has no child, yet the promise concerns descendants. He asks about the future of his household.

The LORD answers by identifying an heir from Abram’s own body and directing his attention to the stars. Abram believes Him, and the passage records that this is counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:1–6).

Notice the conversation before drawing an application. Abram’s question is not removed from the account. The LORD addresses the very concern the promise has raised.

Later in the chapter, Abram is told that his descendants will live as strangers in another land and experience oppression before returning (Genesis 15:13–16). A difficult interval belongs within the future described to him.

This helps us read the promise without treating it as immediate possession or an uninterrupted journey of ease. The Father’s word concerns a future that Abram himself will not see completed.

A burial place and an unfinished inheritance

Genesis 23 takes us forward many years. Abram is now called Abraham; Sarai is now Sarah. Sarah has died, and Abraham mourns her.

He asks the local people for a burial place, describing himself as a stranger and a sojourner among them. A sojourner is someone residing in a place without the standing of its established landholding inhabitants.

Read the transaction through to the end. Abraham pays for a field and cave, and the purchase is publicly confirmed. Sarah is buried there.

This is a real possession in the land. Yet it is a burial property, not the completed inheritance promised to his descendants.

The account allows grief and promise to stand together. Abraham has received the LORD’s word, but his wife’s death still brings mourning and the practical need for a place to bury her.

Faithfulness to a promise does not require pretending that loss is painless.

What has become clearer?

The question of home now includes a journey sustained by the Father’s word. Place remains significant, but the promise also concerns descendants and blessing reaching other families.

We have seen God provide in Eden and address the rupture that follows. Here we see Him call a household forward, give a promise, receive a question, and speak of a future extending across generations.

For us, Abraham’s account can encourage patient trust. It does not give permission to claim that every desired outcome is a promise from God. Our first task is to attend to what He actually says in Scripture.

The question we can carry forward is specific: how will the descendants become a people who receive the inheritance promised here?

Search the passages yourself

• In Genesis 12:1–3, what is Abram asked to do, and what does the LORD undertake to do?
• What do the tents and altars tell you about Abram’s life in Genesis 12–13?
• How does Genesis 15 address both Abram’s concern and the time still ahead?
• What does Abraham possess at the end of Genesis 23? How does that differ from the wider promise?

Continue reading: Genesis 26:1–5 and 28:10–22. Notice how the promise is spoken to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham’s son and grandson. Then read Genesis 50:22–26 and ask why Joseph speaks about return while his family is living in Egypt.

Read the passages: Genesis 12 · Genesis 13 · Genesis 15 · Genesis 23