Genesis 12:8: A tent on the ridge with a town on either side of it, and an altar
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 12:8
Abram moves on, climbs into the hills, and settles nowhere. He pitches a tent and builds an altar between two towns — Bethel, "house of God," and Ai, "a heap of ruins" — and the verse raises one question: why does a man promised a whole land own nothing in it but a tent and an altar?
The Tent
The wording marks a change.
Abraham and those with him answered God's call by faith, and so became strangers and exiles. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit says that they "acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13). This stands out in his history. In Haran, Abraham stayed for a time, and we read that he "settled there." Once he reached the land, we read that he "pitched his tent," like a man with no fixed home. We also read that he "passed through the land." As a stranger he had only a tent in this world. As a pilgrim he was passing through to another world.
Hamilton Smith (older translations read "dwelt there" and "strangers and pilgrims")
The Altar
The altar is Abram's answer to something God did first.
He built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. Again he built an altar, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he called upon the name of the LORD. The revelation of the LORD produces worship. The basis of worship is a conscious and precious relationship with the LORD. Abram knew the LORD's grace toward him; therefore he worshipped Him and called upon His name.
Together the two objects give the shape of the man.
The tent and the altar clearly present him to us as a stranger and a worshipper. As such, he was a man entirely separated from the course of this evil world.
The Position Between Two Towns
The names on both sides of the tent matter.
He worships in the fullness of blessing, and then his "tent" also comes into view for the first time, pitched on the mountain east of Bethel. "Ai" means "a heap of ruin." It is the city that resists the power of Israel in Joshua, after Jericho falls to the ground. It is as if the ruins of Jericho had risen up against those who had lost God's victorious presence, their strength. As a picture, Ai is no doubt the ruined old creation. So Abram pitches his tent between a judged world and the "house of God," with both in view.
Calling on the Name
The last clause of the verse has a cause behind it.
Calling on the name of the LORD showed Abram's knowledge of the LORD and his dependence on Him. The altar was the outward evidence of his link with God, a testimony for everyone to take account of. But his calling on the name of the LORD was not only a profession of faith in Him. It was also the evidence of a living link formed by the call of God. Abram would never have called on the name of the LORD if God had not first called Abram while he was in Ur of the Chaldeans. God's call gave him the power to answer it. That call also gave him the desire and understanding to call upon the LORD's name.
Worship on Occupied Ground
The land is not yet his, and the Canaanites are still in it. That is where the altar goes up.
Abram was not called to drive out the Canaanite. Yet we find his altar to the LORD on the very ground of the wicked nations, and his tent as well. Here is a worshipper and a stranger in the very place where the Canaanite was flourishing. Here is an altar with the smoke of accepted sacrifice rising in the very face of the enemy. It is a wonderful sight. We may well travel back in spirit to the tent pitched between Bethel and Ai. There we can bless the LORD, who could sustain the pilgrim father and his household in true worship in the enemy's own stronghold.
The Place He Had to Come Back To
This spot becomes a fixed point in Abram's story. The rest of the chapter shows the cost of leaving it.
Pressed by circumstances, he does not consult God. He finds himself in the presence of the world, where he had sought help and refuge, and he denies his true relationship with his wife. The world cherishes him, and God at last judges that world, sending Abram out of it again. During this whole period, and until he had returned to the place from which he started, he had no altar.
Summary
- Call — God spoke first; Abram could only call on that name because that name had already called him out of Ur.
- Tent — in Haran he settled; in the promised land he only pitches a tent. He is a stranger passing through to another world.
- Altar — the LORD appeared, and worship followed. Revelation produces worship, and tent and altar together mark Abram as stranger and worshipper.
- Position — the tent stands between Bethel, "house of God," and Ai, "a heap of ruin." God's dwelling is on one side, a judged world on the other. Abram keeps both in view.
- Return — Egypt cost him the altar; not until he came back to this exact place did he have one again.
