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To sojourn somewhere is to stay there temporarily. It is an interim of time from place to place. That break in your journey could be for many reasons, such as: a vacation, to visit a loved one or friend, to bury someone, to work for a phase of time, or to just confirm an area for future dwelling. A sojourner is the last one to come into camp and the least important in the camp. A sojourner’s value is not considered as high as the permanent dweller’s value. A sojourner, by definition, is one who stops and starts along a journey or a path. He is transient. He is just passing through.
As a sojourner, his responsibility is to acquiesce to the customs and laws of the land where he temporally dwells. He should not go around flagrantly breaking laws and intruding on the regular flow of life. Or should he? It really depends on the sojourner’s reception. The inhabitants of the occupied area either accept outsiders or they choose to be leery of them. Each place a sojourner travels to is different, with different people, laws, customs and judicial systems.
One could make the argument that all those were sojourners when YHVH confused their tongues and scattered the people. It took time for people of like minds and actions and speech to find each other again. The trust that they once shared would take time to establish with the new people in new relationships. Perhaps these are reasons that YHVH divided the peoples into the nations. The difficulty in developing trusting and long-lasting relationships should be handed over to YHVH so that they are cared for properly. To develop these out of the flesh is, most often, self-serving and seeking the benefits of the relationship instead of seeking the benefit of the other individual. Without the ongoing practice of relationship building, there is a lack of the ability to walk completely in Torah. This journey is called walking in trust, relationship and community through YHVH’s teachings and instructions. It is The Way.
Sojourning is about building relationships. It is about influencing others and being influenced all at the same time. If you go to a family’s home and are invited to stay for an extended period of time, there is the inevitable impact in the exchange of lives within the same living environment. Adjustments are made and routines are altered to prefer one another in love. When done successfully, cohabitation takes place and new routines are forged, along with, new habits and alternative ways of thinking about home situations. At first these are all very uncomfortable and everyone feels tense, but soon after, the rhythm of everyday life takes over and the sojourner and the hosts all have a sense of normalcy.
Abraham was a sojourner in the land of Canaan, specifically, the Oaks of Mamre later to be called Hebron. He walked circumspectly and never assumed authority or oversight over what was not his or YHVH’s possession. His humility as a sojourner is seen readily in the negotiation of the field of Ephron as a burial site for Sarah. As Abraham’s wife, Sarah was also a sojourner. Neither had the right to be buried in an area where they were visitors. That right is saved for the inhabitants and owners. It is a resting place for the inhabiter’s people to dwell in life and death. The ability to be gathered to one’s people is as much physical as it is spiritual. Just as a husband and wife are made into one flesh, a like minded family or, even community, believing in the one true Elohim is connected as one body of believers. When one person is amiss or out of order, then there is a gap within the group and only that person or YHVH can fill the void.
By purchasing the plot of land for a burial site for Sarah and himself, Abraham secures the right for burial and nationalization. Once ownership is fulfilled, the new owner takes on the rights of the community and the obligation to be an upright member of the community as well.
Certainly there is no coincidence in the presence of YHVH. The death of Sarah proved to be the opportune time to make a land purchase and begin a process that YHVH promised. The seed that issued forth from Sarah’s womb was born in the land and, by laws of nature, was a citizen of that land. It is not ironic at all that the life of Isaac and the death of his mother were tied together in possession and fulfillment of a covenant. If “all things do work together for the good for those that love YHVH and are called according to His purpose”, then the passing of Sarah would prove to be an alteration that would encompass the entire land that Abraham had previously walked. YHVH has orchestrated everything around us to have the maximum yield and benefit for His kingdom as possible. Moreover, since He is the Creator of all things, then all things are possible for Him to accomplish.
Sojourning is no exception. Something must transpire for the sojourner if he remains within the place of visitation. Likewise, someone will change as well. When change does not occur, it is either time for the sojourner to leave, be kicked out or the inhabitants must compromise and be changed to become a new people. If the sojourner leaves, according to Yeshua, the dust from the town they visit should be shaken from their feet. If the members of the environment reconciles with change, then restoration occurs and the people become part of another nation, a greater nation.
Abraham sojourned with the promise that his seed would possess the land. Isaac is the benefactor to receive the land Abraham purchased. YHVH uses this foreshadow to show us an inheritance to the children of Israel and, sequentially, foreshadows the land of Israel as our inheritance from YHVH as His chosen people that will dwell there perpetually.
For now, however, remember that we are sojourning through this present world. Although, we are considered as “aliens and strangers” in this world1 we must pass through in order to receive the inheritance. Our sojournings are not unlike that of Abraham. He left his father’s household and became a stranger in a strange land. We are, also, strangers who left our first love of YHVH from the garden of Paradise. Ultimately, He sent us Messiah, His Son, to be reconciled back to Him. We become the beneficiaries of the covenant rewards of obedience unto Him. The land that our forefathers left was the land of Promise. Due to disobedience and rebellion toward the Benefactor, the Creator, a land of hope in both a spiritual journey and a physical location were taken away and given to others until the fullness of punishment is complete. Their iniquities have visited us generation after generation separating the people from the Promise and the land of Promise. Even as Yeshua’s blood was shed for us, it flowed down and mingled with the eretz to redeem the land as well.
It is an ongoing cycle. Even as we die, and are buried, or remain until Yeshua returns, our feet will leave this earth and all the dust that clings to them will be knocked away as we go to be with Him. It is when our reigning Messiah returns to rest His feet upon the mountain that we will be able to live in a completely yielded land of possession as a completely yielded people of His possession. But before this can happen, we must walk out the salvation that has been given to us by having faith in YHVH and obeying the teachings and instructions (Torah) that He gave to us. We said earlier that without the ongoing practice of relationship building, there is a lack of the ability to walk completely in Torah. The two main components of Torah that Yeshua said all of the Law and the Prophets are summed up in are “You shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Anywhere we are, no matter what we are doing, we can still love YHVH exponentially. However, if we do not have others around us, then we miss the opportunity to walk in Torah to the fullest measure.
Torah tells the children of Israel how to treat the sojourner because they were once strangers in the land of Egypt. They should recognize the longings for a better life or familiar surroundings. As sojourners in a strange land now, we not only recognize others as foreigners, but we know first hand what it is like to be different and not to belong to the culture and society around us. Yet, through all of this, and because of all of this, we must find a way to love those around us, even as we want to be loved. This is not for their love for us or to long for their approval or affection, but to be a witness of the Love of YHVH. We are His arms reaching out to the lost and dying so that they may find the path out of the lost land and a place of forever sojourning away from the presence of YHVH. Those of us sojourning in this realm of reality, the world as they know it, are not sojourners at all, but reside in the kingdom of heaven here on earth. The presence of YHVH is around us, hovering over the yearning of our souls that He has touched with the light and breath of His Ruach. When the strangers of this world and the strangers to YHVH meet, there is collision where choices must be made. If residence is taken by either, then the resident must change.
It is a thin line to be sure. Bad company does corrupt good morals. To inhabit a land that we are not called to live in or to overstay our welcome is to be out of the will of YHVH and quench His presence in our lives. Our spirituality will be compromised. Our sojourning will have been in vain as the inhabitants look at us with satisfaction of swaying us to their point-of-view. Yet, as we walk in the steps of righteousness, with Messiah walking for us, we issue seeds of righteousness into a land where YHVH waters and grows and reaps a harvest for Himself. As sojourners, our efforts must be spent on living without compromise and with the capacity to love whomever YHVH sends to us. As sojourners, we must walk the spiritual land of His Word and Kingdom so that the spiritual will be made manifest in our lives and for those around us. Our sojourning is the covenant established with Abraham made real by Messiah’s life through us becoming a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Sojourn as if their souls depend on it. That is the reason He has called you in this land in this hour.
Our hope and promise lies ahead of us. Someday our wanderings will end. Meanwhile, we are traveling towards our appointed destination to Mount Zion, the City of the King. “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of YHVH will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHVH, to the house of the Elohim of Yacov; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Tzion, and the Word of YHVH from Jerusalem…2” Sojourn well, beloved. |
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