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God called Abraham into a covenant of faithful service, as is told at the beginning of Genesis Second, the builders sought to make a name for themselves Gen. The builders sought fame for their own sake, yet they remain anonymous to this day. Third, Abraham was willing to go wherever God led him, while the builders attempted to huddle together in their accustomed space. They created their project out of fear that they would be scattered across the earth Gen. They seem to have feared that spreading out in an apparently hostile world would be too difficult for them.

They were creative and technologically innovative Gen. When we cease to aspire for more than we can attain on our own, our aspirations become insignificant. By contrast, God made Abraham into the original entrepreneur, always moving on to fresh endeavors in new locations. God called him away from the city of Haran toward the land of Canaan where Abraham would never settle into a fixed address.

All work entails planning and building. Ungodly work stems from the desire to depend on no one but ourselves, and it restricts itself narrowly to benefit only ourselves and the few who may be close to us. Fourth, Abraham was willing to let God lead him into new relationships. Though they lived among strangers in the land of Canaan Gen. This is the gift of community. Finally, Abraham was blessed with the patience to take a long-term view.

In fact, the promise to Abraham will not be fulfilled completely until the return of Christ Matt. Its progress cannot be adequately measured by quarterly reports! The tower builders, in comparison, took no thought for how their project would affect future generations, and God criticized them explicitly for this lapse Gen.

In sum, God promised Abraham fame, fruitfulness, and good relationships, by which meant he and his family would bless the whole world, and in due course be blessed themselves beyond imagining Gen. Unlike others, Abraham realized that an attempt to grasp such things on his own power would be futile, or worse.

Although these promises were not fully realized by the end of Genesis, they initiated the covenant between God and the people of God through which the redemption of the world will come to completion in the day of Christ Phil. Working the land would require occupational skills of shepherding, tent-making, military protection, and the production of a wide array of goods and services.

This would require the work of developing personal relationships, parenting, politics, diplomacy and administration, education, the healing arts, and other social occupations. This required the work of worship, atonement, discipleship, and other religious occupations. Bruce K. When Abraham left his home in Haran and set out for the land of Canaan, his family was probably already quite large by modern standards.

We know that his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot came with him, but so did an unspecified number of people and possessions Gen. Soon Abraham would become very wealthy, having acquired servants and livestock as well as silver and gold Gen. He received people and animals from Pharaoh during his stay in Egypt, and the precious metals would have been the result of commercial transactions, indicating the Lord as the ultimate one to bestow blessing.

Eventually, the two had to part company in order to support their business activities Gen. Anthropological studies of this period and region suggest the families in these narratives practiced a mix of semi-nomadic pastoralism and herdsman husbandry Gen. They owned property that could be borne by donkeys or, if one was wealthy enough, also camels.

Finding the balance between the optimal availability of usable pasture land and water required good judgment and intimate knowledge of weather and geography.

The wetter months of October through March afforded grazing on the lower plains, while in the warmer and drier months of April through September the shepherds would take their flocks to higher elevations for greener vegetation and flowing springs. Pastoral nomads cared for sheep and goats to obtain milk and meat Gen.

Donkeys carried loads Gen. The skills required to maintain these herds would have involved grazing and watering, birthing, treating the sick and injured, protecting animals from predators and thieves, as well as locating strays. Fluctuations in weather and the size of growth in the population of the flocks and herds would have affected the economy of the region.

Weaker groups of shepherds could easily become displaced or assimilated at the expense of those who needed more territory for their expanding holdings. By the same token, the effects of hardship due to famine conditions would have been felt by all.

While individuals certainly had their own responsibilities and were accountable for their actions, the communal nature of the family business generally stands apart from our contemporary culture of personal achievement and the expectation to show ever-increasing profits. Social responsibility would have been a daily concern, not an option. In this way of life, shared values were essential for survival. Mutual dependence among the members of a family or tribe and awareness of their common ancestry would have resulted in great solidarity, as well as vengeful hostility toward anyone who would disrupt it Gen.

Conflict-resolution skills were necessary to settle inevitable disputes over grazing land and water rights to wells and springs Gen. It was generally considered a requirement of decent people to offer refreshment, food, and lodging.

The patriarchal narratives repeatedly mention the great wealth of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Gen. For example, to soften the attitude of his offended brother Esau prior to their meeting after a long time, Jacob was able to select from his property a gift of at least animals: female goats with 20 males, ewes with 20 rams, 30 female camels with their calves, 40 cows with 10 bulls, and 20 female donkeys with 10 males Gen.

Although many passages in the Bible warn that wealth is often inimical to faithfulness e. Victor H. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, , John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Howard Marshall, A. Millard, J. Packer, and D. Beck, eds. Grand Rapids: Wm. John G. Peristiany Paris: Mouton, , There was fierce competition for the land Gen. He feared that the Egyptians might murder him to obtain his beautiful wife, Sarah.

To prevent this, Abraham told Sarah to claim that she was his sister rather than his wife. Nevertheless, Pharaoh enriched them with sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants as well as camels Gen. This incident dramatically indicates both the moral quandaries posed by great disparities in wealth and poverty and the dangers of losing faith in the face of such problems.

Abraham and Sarah were fleeing starvation. It may be hard to imagine being so desperately poor or afraid that a family would subject its female members to sexual liaisons in order to survive economically, but even today millions face this choice. Pharaoh berates Abraham for taking this course of action, yet God’s response to a later, similar incident Gen.

Did his faith in God to make good on his promises fail so quickly? Similarly, people in difficult situations often convince themselves that they have no choice but to do something they regard as wrong. However, unpleasant choices, no matter our feelings about them, are not the same as having no choice at all.

When Abraham and his family reentered Canaan and came to the region around Bethel, the friction that erupted between the herders of Abraham and those of his nephew Lot posed Abraham with a choice regarding the scarcity of land.

A division had to be made, and Abraham took the risk of offering Lot first choice of the real estate. The central ridge of land in Canaan is rocky and does support much vegetation for grazing. No matter how Abraham and Lot would prosper in the future, the fact that Abraham let Lot make the choice displayed generosity and established trust between him and Lot.

Generosity is a positive trait in both personal and business relationships. Perhaps nothing establishes trust and good relationships as solidly as generosity.

Colleagues, customers, suppliers, even adversaries, respond strongly to generosity and remember it for a long time. Zacchaeus was responding, of course, to the relational generosity of Jesus, who had unexpectedly, and uncharacteristically for the people of that time, opened his heart to a detested tax collector.

Seminomadic life in the country would often bring people from different families into contact with one another, and the character of Canaan as a natural land bridge between Asia and Africa made it a popular trade route. In the absence of a formal industry of hospitality, people living in cities and encampments had a social obligation to welcome strangers.

From Old Testament descriptions and other ancient Near Eastern texts, Matthews derived seven codes of conduct defining what counts for good hospitality that maintains the honor of persons, their households, and communities by receiving and offering protection to strangers.

The stranger must be transformed from being a potential threat to becoming an ally by the offer of hospitality. Only the male head of household or a male citizen of a town or village may offer the invitation of hospitality.

The invitation may include a time span statement for the period of hospitality, but this can then be extended, if agreeable to both parties, on the renewed invitation of the host.

The stranger has the right of refusal, but this could be considered an affront to the honor of the host and could be a cause for immediate hostilities or conflict.

Once the invitation is accepted, the roles of the host and the guest are set by the rules of custom. The guest must not ask for anything. The host provides the best he has available, despite what may be modestly offered in the initial offer of hospitality. The host must not ask personal questions of the guest. These matters can only be volunteered by the guest. The guest remains under the protection of the host until the guest has left the zone of obligation of the host.

Hospitality and generosity are often underappreciated in Christian circles. Yet the Bible pictures the kingdom of heaven as a generous, even extravagant, banquet Isa.