Why is the tent an emblem for Abraham? What does that mean? Is the tent an emblem for your life? In what ways? BIB 502-2-15-4

This discussion question made me think of the western themed movies in which the cowboy would drift into town, get rid of the bad guys, win the heart of a local young woman and then would say “ma’am, I’m just passing through.” Then the cowboy would saddle his horse and shake the dust of civilization from his well-worn boots. He would embark on a journey to some random destination; an unknown destination but one that called very strongly to him. How often have I felt like that cowboy and that I am just passing through and not really at home here on our current planet earth. I have both an eagerness and a sense of anticipation for the return of Jesus for His Church.
I can remember years ago the concept of “walk-ins” was being bandied about by the New Agers. The theory was that someone who really was unhappy with this life would yield his or her body to a being from another dimension. That being would just walk and occupy that physical form. I observed that those few women that I met who felt they were walk-ins were unhappy with their family and/or their present living conditions. They said they just didn’t feel that they belong here. Perhaps if these women had turned to Jesus instead of the New Age they would have realized that these feelings were possibly an inmate desire for the call from Jesus to come up yonder.

I suspect that the tent becoming an emblem for Abraham was due to his willingness to fold his tent and follow the Lord’s directions, well, after his father died. Genesis 12:12, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you….followd by The seven I wills.” God sent Abram “down to Egypt” where he gained wealth in livestock as well as in precious metals.

“So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.” Genesis 13:2-3-4.

Abram was obedient to God and fathered a nation. As followers of the Rabbi we should lead lives worthy of Him but recognize that our home here is like a tent, a temporarily structured. By being obedient to the Lord and ready to fold our tent and follow him we will be rewarded with a wonderful eternity with Jesus.

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