Genesis 24:1-8

This passage supplements our understanding of Revelation 18:4. It is clear that, in telling His people to “Come out of Babylon,” God means, “Stay out of Babylon!” Generation after generation, decade after decade, stay out. Abraham’s instructions to his chief servant, probably Eliezer of Damascus, could not be much more emphatic, much more explicit: “[G]o to my country and to my family. . .” Abraham recognized that Isaac must marry of the same blood line and that he must remain in Canaan. The last thing Abraham wanted was that Isaac should return to Mesopotamia, especially to marry there. He knew he would settle down there. As I shall point out later, Abraham had internalized that God’s promises to him were “forever,” to all his descendants. Abraham could not conceive of his descendants going back east, away from God, relocating to Mesopotamia.

Importantly, in calling Mesopotamia “my country” (Genesis 24:4), Abraham is not exposing a deep-seated, lingering connection with his old home in Ur. He understood that God had promised him Canaan, but that he was only a stranger there at that time; he had not yet inherited Canaan. His comment about Mesopotamia being “my country” reflects that fact. Applied to us, we can properly call the United States or Canada (or wherever we might live) “my country” at this time, knowing full well that the Kingdom is a promise, but a land we have not yet inherited. Paul makes this clear: