Tag Archives: Land

Chapter-a-Day

The After-Meal Blessing

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When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:10 (NIV)

The first apartment I lived in during college was the upper level of an ancient house. There were roaches. A lot of roaches. Turn on a light at night and they would all scurry. Complaints fell on deaf ears. It was obvious that the landlord had given up trying to get rid of the pests. The deposit and first month’s rent took all the money on hand. The first week there was a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter to get us through to pay day.

Every morning as Wendy and I gather for coffee, breakfast, and some quiet time we pray together. Quite often, those prayers include an extended time of gratitude. We don’t offer a simple, blanket “thank you.” We name our blessings. A wonderful home that is beyond anything I could have imagined when I was living in that Roach Motel. A pantry that is full. An unlooked for career that has blessed me on multiple levels. Loving family, children, grandchildren, intimate relationships, faithful friendships, and amazing community. Naming them and saying thank you for each and every one is a kind of spiritual chiropractic—small adjustments that realign the soul.

This regular exercise of gratitude brings our hearts into alignment. God has blessed us. I don’t ever want to get seduced into thinking that it’s all about what I’ve done, or what we’ve done. I don’t want to get spiritually lazy and forget the source of every breath, every day, and every blessing.

Many years ago I memorized Deuteronomy 8:10. It resonated deep within me. Here in Iowa, you grow up learning to appreciate the land. Iowa means “beautiful land,” and it is beautiful. It is also abundant with a perpetual harvest of life and blessing. But, there was something else that stirred as I meditated on the verse. Wendy and I love a good meal with good wine, good company, and good conversation that keeps you at the table for hours. There is a satisfaction of soul that I feel sitting at the table and experience the satisfaction of having both stomach and heart satiated. I began quietly quoting Deuteronomy 8:10 to myself as a post meal blessing.

I didn’t know it, but I had stumbled upon what Jewish tradition calls Birkat HaMazon. It means literally “blessing of the food,” but it’s the blessing after the meal, not before. Most prayers are uttered in emptiness and need, this prayer flows out of satisfaction. It’s not a prayer for when I’m empty, but when I’m full. And goodness, is my life full.

The Birkat HaMazon is a blessing like a loaf of bread broken into four pieces.

For Sustenance.
I have eaten because God is generous, not because I’m deserving.

For Land.
Not just food, but place. History. Inheritance. Story. In this Jewish prayer I see a reflection of Jesus. He is the Alpha-point from which everything in creation flows in Genesis. He is the Omega-point to which everything in creation will return in Revelation. Everything I seemingly have and possess, is gift not entitlement. Prosperity is entrusted, not earned outright. To bless the land is my confession: “I didn’t build the ground beneath my feet.”

For Jerusalem.
This is the part of the blessing that aches. It remembers loss even in abundance. Even at a full table, Jewish prayer makes space for longing—for justice unfinished, peace incomplete, restoration still coming. It refuses to give in to the illusion that comfort equals completion. Along my life journey, I’ve learned that holy ache keeps the heart supple.

For God’s Goodness.
The blessing’s final movement gathers everything and says, in essence: “God, you are good. You always have been. You always will be.”

Not because the meal was perfect. Not because life is tidy. But because God’s character is rock steady. Even when we are faithless, God remains faithful. It’s who He is, and He can’t be anything but who He is.

Once again, I find myself in the quiet this morning wishing I could bathe in the text. There is so much wisdom in Moses’ reflection. He remembered the manna. His people didn’t complain the loudest when they were starving. Their complaints hit the highest decibel level when God’s provision of manna became predictable.

Today’s chapter is a reminder of a roach filled apartment and week-long diet of peanut butter toast and peanut butter sandwiches. Looking back, that season wasn’t punishment, it was spiritual formation. In a few moments I will head downstairs for breakfast with Wendy. I will take her hand and we will name our blessings. We will enjoy breakfast. We will solve the problems of the world in about a half-hour. Then we will get up to start our day.

But before I do, I will thank the Lord our God for the good land He has given us.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Boundary Stones

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“The Lord said to Moses,“Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries…”
Numbers 34:1-2 (NIV)

For a brief period season in my college years I worked as an abstractor. An abstract is a legal record of the history of a plot of land. For most people it’s a whole lot of indecipherable legalese, but it’s a necessary part of lawfully setting and keeping boundaries. And, in some cases when you learn to read through the legalese you can learn all sorts of interesting tidbits about the history of a property, the people who owned it, what was built on it, how it may have been contested, and how it changed hands through the generations.

As we get near the end of this chapter-a-day trek through the book of Numbers we run into some classically boring chapters. Today’s chapter is one of those. Moses and the Hebrew tribes are making preparations to enter the Promised Land, and God through Moses lays out instructions for the boundaries and how to allot land to the tribes and their families. In essence, God is being an ancient abstractor. The process isn’t willy-nilly. It’s not a situation in which the most powerful get whatever they can take and maintain. The process is orderly and structured so as to create equitable allotments and boundaries in which every family and every tribe can find protection, build fruitful lives, and flourish.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of a season of my own life journey in which everything fell apart. When you go through a divorce life can seem like boundaries are erased. Everything moves and shifts, what was once established is now contested and negotiated. All parties in the family both nuclear and extended get pulled into the ripple effects of the boundary lines of family and life shifting. It is not a pleasant experience even when it is a relatively mutual parting of ways.

In the wake of this season, I had a prophetic friend who had received a word for me from the Holy Spirit. It’s written down. I still have it:

“I saw like in Ireland they have those, those stones where they mark “this is the edge of my property.” I saw that those stones had been burned, that they’d been turned down, they’d been removed in your life. And the Father said, “This is the season. I’m going to restore all the boundaries, all the things that I’ve designed for you to walk in.” 

Boundary stones and abstracts are good things. Having them means you have a plot on which to live, flourish, and be protected in a place you call home. Christian commentators through the ages have noted that while the Hebrews were given physical boundaries and allotted physical land in Numbers this was just a metaphorical foreshadowing of the spiritual Promised Land, allotment, and inheritance that Jesus would provide to every believer.

After all, Jesus told us that our hearts were soil and on that soil things grow and are built. Jesus cautioned us to grow good fruit and to be careful how and what we build on that soil in our hearts. Jesus’ teaching provides boundaries intended for my safety, my security, for growing good things, storing eternal treasures, and building those things that will equally last for eternity.

Looking back, I can testify that my prophetic friend channeled a good Word from God’s Spirit. The boundary stones were re-established and restored. Within those boundary stones God has blessed me and I have flourished in ways that I once thought were simply not possible.

I hear the Psalmists words echo in my heart this morning:

“Your boundary lines mark out pleasant places for me. Indeed, my inheritance is something beautiful.”
Psalm 16:6 (GW)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Owning and Being Owned

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Owning and Being Owned (CaD Lev 25) – Wayfarer

The more I think I own something, the more it ends up owning me. A chapter-a-day podcast from Leviticus 25. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

“The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners—you’re my tenants.”
Leviticus 25:23 (MSG)

According to the United States Census Bureau, 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas. I have learned along my life journey that when you live your life in urban America, there are certain realities of rural living that are completely lost on you. For example, here in rural Iowa, land is gold. It is among the most productive farmland in the entire world, and to those families who have owned it and worked it for generations it is priceless. I have learned that this didn’t just evolve over time. It’s part of the land’s heritage.

Our own small town here on the Iowa prairie was envisioned and founded by a Dutch pastor and his flock of largely uneducated farmers and peasants right as Iowa became a state and the Federal Government was selling the land. Our town’s founder had collected and consolidated his congregation’s monies in order to make it most efficient to purchase, survey, plat, and divide the land. It was a wise thing to do. However, his simple flock failed to understand the complexities, bureaucracy, and inefficiencies of a Federal Government 1,000 miles away in a time 15 years before the Pony Express. The process took so long that they accused their own pastor of being a con-man, cheat, and stealing their money and all of the land that they’d been promised. They threw him out of the pulpit.

The deeds for the land eventually arrived from Washington, the land was distributed appropriately, and tempers eventually eased. Nevertheless, I have observed that the precious, priceless land only grew in covetous value in the hearts of those who owned it. Ironically, the land became a modern-day golden calf to people who were among the most religiously devout people you’d ever meet. It seems they majored on some of the minor religious lessons of the Great Story and failed to learn one of the most major spiritual lessons it communicates. Families have divided, sometimes violently, over the land. In the farm crisis of the 1980s, some committed suicide when they realized that they were going to lose their family’s land to foreclosure. Along my journey, I have observed that these are the kinds of things that happen if and when I allow the things I own to own me.

Today’s chapter is incredibly fascinating. God continues to instruct His ancient Hebrew people regarding the way He wants them to live, and now He begins to get into some details of how He wants them to handle both land and property. God instructs them to give the land a sabbath rest every seven years, just like He gave people rest every seven days. How amazing that God viewed His creation, the land, as a living thing that He cared about. He wanted humanity to care about His creation, too, just as He has cared about them, delivered them from slavery, and is choosing to live among them.

God goes on to tell the Hebrews that every fiftieth year (the year after seven periods of seven years) is to be a year of Jubilee which is a giant reset button. Everyone takes the entire year off. People all return to their family land. Lands revert back to the families to whom they were originally allotted. Debts are cancelled. Reset, refresh, and restart.

This entire system is predicated on one major truth: God owns the land. It is His and the families to whom it has been allotted are merely chosen stewards to whom it has been given for caretaking and graciously providing for their own daily needs. Any perception they may have that the land is theirs and they own it is a mirage.

In the quiet this morning, that is the core spiritual lesson that erupted for me out of the text. It is the same core lesson that Jesus continued to teach.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”
Matthew 6:19-21 (MSG)

Jesus is the Alpha Point from which everything in creation flows. Jesus is the Omega Point to which everything in creation will return. Nothing that I own is really mine. This is the lesson I’ve watched Iowa farmers and families miss as they tear themselves and one another apart over the land they believe they own.

Everything that I am and have is from God. I am just a caretaker, an earthly manager, and a steward to whom everything I have has been given and entrusted. God was trying to communicate this to the ancient Hebrews. Jesus was trying to communicate the same thing to everyone.

The further I progress in my spiritual journey, the more I’ve come to understand and embrace that the only priceless thing in the grand scheme of things is the sacrificial gift of Jesus’ grace and mercy. The more I embrace this treasure, the more I see everything I am and have in perspective of the economy of God’s Kingdom.

The more I think I own something, the more it ends up owning me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Farms and Feuds

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Farms and Feuds (CaD Ezk 48) – Wayfarer

“This is the land you are to allot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these will be their portions,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 48:29 (NIV)

In recent posts I’ve mentioned that throughout human history land has meant life. Owning land means you have a place to put up permanent shelter, grow crops, and raise livestock. Land has tangible value. Land meant prosperity.

Living my entire life in Iowa, I perhaps understand this better than some. Iowa farmland is among the richest, most productive in the entire world which means that it is of great financial worth. Because of this, living in Iowa gives you a front row seat to what land can do to the human heart.

Land becomes the golden calf for many individuals and families. Many years ago I pastored a small rural church. In the back pew in one corner sat one man every Sunday. Every Sunday, in the opposite corner as far away as possible, sat his neighbor. They had a boundary dispute between their land decades before and so they never spoke and avoided one another like the plague. I did funerals for patriarchs of family farms in which one child and their family refused to be in the same room with another child and their family all because of dispute over how the land was distributed. I have watched bitterness and resentment over the inheritance of land shrivel men’s souls. And yes, it’s even driven individuals to take out their anger the way Cain did with Abel.

The ancient nation of Israel knew this same paradigm. Remember that the nation was originally 12 tribes from the same family. Moses originally allotted the land among the tribes.

Some tribes had more land. Others had far less. As history wore on, disputes arose. Civil War broke out. The nation fractured in two.

As Ezekiel pens his final chapters, there is no longer a nation of Israel. It was conquered. Its capital city and temple were destroyed. Zeke’s vision is of a restored Israel and a new allotment of a restored nation. No more division between north and south. He envisions one united nation in which each tribe gets an allotment of land that looks like a twelve-layered cake from top to bottom, north to south. Each tribe gets it’s own layer that’s roughly the same size as every other tribe. It is a vision of twelve family tribes living in peace and harmony. No disputes of bigger or smaller, there is equal inheritance. There is shalom.

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And that brings me back to the fact that the entire Great Story from Genesis to Revelation is about God restoring shalom between Himself and humanity. It’s the way it was before a snake slithered into the Garden. It’s the way the Great Story ends with God and humanity living in perfect shalom in a new heaven, a new earth, and a new holy city. It is what God wants me to experience each day amidst the trials of living in a fallen world with other fallen individuals. It’s what God wants me to strive for and share with others.

In the quiet this morning, my spirit is reminding me of two men I know who grew up on family farms. Each of them got the shaft when it came time for the family farm to be passed to the next generation. Both men know the journey of grief, anger, and resentment that comes with that particular reality. Each of these men have shared with me their story, and they are both incredibly blessed, filled with joy in their lives and families. Both of them, disciples of Jesus, shared with me how they consciously and deliberately surrendered their will and desire to God. They let go of resentment, put their trust in God, and sought their inheritance from Him. Each of these men have ultimately prospered. Each has found and is experiencing shalom.

What Ezekiel is describing on a macro level as he finishes his prophetic book is what God wants me to experience on the micro level, right here, today.

Shalom, my friend. Have a good weekend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Shalom

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Shalom! (CaD Ezk 47) – Wayfarer

Then he led me back to the bank of the river.  When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.
Ezekiel 47:6b-8 (NIV)

When most people hear the Hebrew word “Shalom” it is understood as a greeting like “Hello” or “Bonjour.” And that’s because “Shalom” is used as both a greeting and a departing salutation, more like “Aloha.” But what many people don’t know is that Shalom which is literally translated into English as “peace” has a meaning that cannot be simply contained by one comparable English word.

Shalom is a word that embodies a larger sense of wholeness, well-being, good health, rest and tranquility. It is both a greeting but also a blessing to the person to whom you say it. Shalom is derived from the root word “Shalam” which is used repeatedly in Exodus 21 and 22 regarding instructions for “making things right” between people when there has been material loss or injury. God was instructing his people to “make it right” (Shalam) which becomes the foundation for the wholeness, well-being, peace, rest, and tranquility of Shalom.

This is important in understanding what is being described in this vision Ezekiel is having of the restoration of his defeated and destroyed nation in these final chapters. On a macro level, everything Zeke is describing is the “making things right” on multiple levels. His vision is of ultimate Shalom.

In today’s chapter, there are three amazing concepts being communicated.

First, Zeke sees a river that flows out of the temple he’s just described. The temple is the source of a river of life that flows out of the temple into the Dead Sea and turns the Dead Sea into a living, flourishing source of life and provision for all. This foreshadows two things. First, it foreshadows Jesus, who says Himself that He is Living Water springing up to transform any who are dead in their sins to eternal life (or, you might say, ultimate Shalom!). It also foreshadows the vision John is given of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In fact, I encourage you to read and compare the first part of today’s chapter with those last two chapters of the Great Story.

Second, in Zeke’s vision he’s given the general boundaries for the restored Promised Land that God had always promised to His people where they would find Shalom. Throughout the history of humanity, land means life. From the land we find security, shelter, provision, and prosperity.

Finally, and this is huge, God tells Zeke that “foreigners living among you” are to be considered “native-born Israelites.” In other words, there is no longer any distinction between Jews and the Gentile outsiders. God’s shalom is for everyone. Everyone becomes a child of Abraham. Everyone is given an inheritance of God. Everyone is an heir of the Divine. Everyone is given an allotment of God’s ultimate shalom.

In the quiet this morning, I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness and the desire He has expressed from the beginning for humanity to experience shalom. I’m reminded what Jesus told His followers just moments before His arrest and just hours before His execution. He told them that they can expect trouble and suffering in this world, but He also told them “Peace (Shalom) I leave with you; my peace (shalom) I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Yesterday morning, Wendy shared a song with me that I had never heard before (I’m really awful at keeping up with current culture!) by Jelly Roll called “I’m Not Okay“. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It gets to the heart of what Jesus was saying to His followers, to us, to me. Even when things are not okay, everything is going to be alright.

Shalom, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

If Only…

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If Only… (CaD Ezk 45) – Wayfarer

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Ezekiel 45:9 (NIV)

When you live in Iowa your entire life and feel a civic responsibility, there’s a certain mindshare that politics and national issues take up. Certainly the Iowa Caucuses are a major part of that. A year ago you could meet and hear any number of the Presidential candidates right here in our little town. Usually the venue is packed.

Hearing the issues the candidates talk about and how they plan to address large scale, complex problems stirs thoughts about how one might re-order the world. Approach an issue one way and you create one negative consequence. Approach the same issue a different way and you create a different negative consequence. Pretty soon I begin to have “If only” thoughts and conversations in my head.

“If only we could eliminate the Tax Code and start from scratch.”
“If only the Founding Fathers had included term limits.”
“If only we could rid the entire system of corruption.”

In the past few chapters, Ezekiel envisioned an ideal new Temple that has , to this point in history, never been built. I discussed the various interpretations regarding why it has never been built in the post/podcast on Ezekiel 43 entitled The Mystery. In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision now shifts to an idealized vision of the restoration of Israel. I have to remember that as Ezekiel is having this vision the nation had been conquered, Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple had been destroyed. It’s as if there’s now an opportunity to envision how things could be “if only” they can return and start from scratch.

This idealized vision of their nation’s restoration begins with “when you allot the land” because security and prosperity begin with having land to build homes and grow crops and raise livestock necessary to survive and thrive. And the first allotment of the land described is God’s. It’s a giant, square sacred space at the center of everything and the center of that square is God’s sanctuary. Adjacent to it is a new square holy city within the giant square and Zeke says, “it will belong to all Israel.”

So we have a nation with this giant sacred space and God at the center. There’s also holy city. All of this land doesn’t belong to the king, land barons, property developers, oligarchs, or powerful blue blood families. It belongs to everyone.

Throughout the Great Story, beginning in Exodus, God has been trying to provide humanity with a vision for how things can and should be. But there’s a pesky issue that has to be addressed. Zeke addresses it right up front in verses 9-12. The princes of the past have been power hungry, greedy, and corrupt. And, this is always the problem when you begin to play “If only…” games in your head and dream up ideal situations.

People are not always ideal. We have pride and out of control appetites that make us hurt one-another with our selfishness, anger, jealousy, envy, and hard-hearted resentments. This the thing that I always find missing when candidates talk about systemic changes to fix complex problems. Solutions start with a change in the hearts and lives of people.

That’s what Jesus would come to tell us. Large, systemic changes begin with God changing me.

If only I will surrender and allow Him to do so.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Rest

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Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord.
Leviticus 25:2 (NRSV)

When you grow up in Iowa, you gain an appreciation for the earth. There are close to 90,000 farm operations in our state and 30.5 million acres of Iowa land is dedicated to agriculture. But the importance of the land goes much deeper than the sheer market value of its produce. The land is a part of people’s heritage. It gets into their souls and becomes a part of who they are.

I find it fascinating that in the ancient Hebrew law God’s principle of rest was extended beyond human beings to the land. Rest is not just something human’s need. It’s something woven into the fabric of creation. Living things need rest. Humans need rest. Animals need rest. Plants need rest. The land needs rest.

I am reminded this morning that when God created Adam and Eve, the task given to them was agriculture. They were caretakers of the Garden. When cast out of the Garden, it was clear from God’s words to Adam that agriculture would continue to be at the core of humanity’s existence. There is a natural connection between humanity and creation that God wove into our DNA. I have never been a farmer and my family has never farmed, but when you live in Iowa you get the connection. The land requires care taking. A part of taking care of living things is making sure there is sufficient rest.

Work hard today. Then rest well.

 

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Chapter-a-Day

“Give Me Land, Lots of Land…”

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So they finished dividing the land.
Joshua 19:51 (NRSV)

When I was in college I took a semester off and worked as an abstractor. It was tedious, monotonous work. In the morning a stack of property abstracts sat on my desk in the Polk County Office Building. One by one I would walk a legal history of property around the Recorder’s Office checking various land and tax records for buyers, sellers, and the property itself to make sure that the abstract was accurate and no one was trying to pull something (on at least one occasion, I caught people attempting to do just that).

That semester my acquaintance with property records and their arcane legal descriptions gave me an appreciation for the value and importance we humans place on land.

“Give me land, lots of land, with the starry sky above!”

I finished my college career and a few years later found myself leading a congregation in a small Iowa farm town of 300. As a city boy, this was my first real exposure to the way farming exists for so many in my home state: legacy, business, family, inheritance, and life. It is hard to appreciate just how inseparable people become with the land they and their family possess.

Every Sunday there two old farmers who sat in the back pews as far away from one another as possible. The two had a long standing dispute over a boundary line and fence between their adjacent properties. They never spoke to one another.

As I read through today’s chapter, which is basically an ancient abstract, I had all sorts of thoughts about land and the value we place on it. The property descriptions laid out in these chapters are so black and white, but you have to believe that there are all sorts of stories and emotions that the book of Joshua does not record. Families feeling cheated that another tribe got more land. A tribe thinking they should have such and such a village, river, well, forest amidst their property. Tribes disputing exactly how to interpret what it meant that the boundary “touched Tabor.” In time, these tribes would end up in a bloody civil war. How much bad blood was rooted in resentments hidden in these property descriptions.

This morning I’m thinking about God’s original admonishment that we should “subdue” the earth, and how we may have misinterpreted His intent. History teaches me that we’re really good at misinterpreting things. I’m thinking about Jesus who owned so little and encouraged his followers to hold on loosely to the things of this earth (including, I imagine, the earth itself). I’m thinking about Iowans intimate relationship with the land from which we make our livings and feed the world. I’m pondering the ways that possessions, including that same land, can end up coming before and between relationships.

I’m happy not to be an abstractor.

Chapter-a-Day

After Dinner Blessing

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When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:10 (NIV)

The harvest here in Iowa is in full swing. Gorgeous, dry fall weather means that the corn and bean fields are full of combines and grain trucks bringing in the land’s bounty. When you live in Iowa, even if you have nothing to do with farming, you feel a keen connection to the land and the seasons of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting. It’s part of the fabric of daily life in the heartland.

Wendy and I love our meals with family and friends. We love setting the table, making a good meal, opening the wine, and sharing long hours of laughter and conversation over the food and drink. Especially during the harvest season there is a extra sense of gratitude I feel for God’s provision, the land which produces the abundance we enjoy, and those who labor to produce it.

The verse above is one that I have memorized and, quite regularly, at the end of a good meal it will come to mind as we sit in the contented afterglow of our feast. It is tradition at our table to say a prayer of blessing at the beginning of our meal, but this verse has taught me that it is every bit as appropriate to say a word of thanks and gratitude after “you have eaten and are satisfied.”

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Chapter-a-Day

The Conversational Dance of Cultures

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Chapter-a-Day Genesis 23

Ephron answered Abraham, “My lord, please listen to me. The land is worth 400 pieces of silver, but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.”

So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and paid the amount he had suggested—400 pieces of silver, weighed according to the market standard. The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction. Genesis 23:14-16 (NLT)

In case you didn’t notice it, today’s chapter is a conversational dance between Abraham, who was a wayfaring nomad without a country to call home, and the Hittite leaders among whom Abraham and his household were currently living. I’m sure that this was a formalized little conversation they went through in that culture when haggling over a plot of land. Notice how they negotiate the price and location of the burial site while maintaining the same basic conversation:

  1. Abraham insists on buying the land
  2. The Hittites insisting on giving it to him.

Abraham promises to pay full price for the land three times, and with each subsequent offer a little bit more information is given. Each time the Hittites offer to give it to him and maintaining an air of generosity. Each counter provides another scrap of information to the deal being made. At the end of the little conversational dance, the location of the land, the current owner, and the value are all established. Abraham pays the full price in front of the appropriate witnesses and the deal is done.

This is not unlike a conversation two midwestern people might have over a lunch tab, in front of their witnessing neighbors, at the Windmill Cafe uptown:

Hank: (waiting until Arvin grabs the check from the table before reaching for it) Let me get that…

Arvin: No, no. It’s my turn to buy today.

Hank: But, I’m the one who invited you to lunch. I should pay for it.

Arvin: Yeah, but I’m pretty sure you got it last time. I got it.

Hank: But, my Blue Plate Special was more than your Meatloaf Sandwich. At least let me pay for my own lunch.

Arvin: Nah. Don’t worry about it. Not a problem. You can get it next time.

Hank: Well, at least let me get the tip, then.

Arvin: Yeah, okay.

Hank: Thanks. I owe you.

Arvin: You betcha. Don’t mention it. You don’t owe me a thing.

Hank: Alright, then.

The more things change, the more they stay the same 😉

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