Context No. 3626 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 21:30-34: in context

30He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.” 31Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there. 32So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. 33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. 34Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.

After a dispute over a well is settled, Abraham makes a covenant of peace with Abimelech at Beersheba. And then a small, beautiful detail: Abraham plants a tamarisk tree, and there he calls on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

He plants a tree, a thing that grows slowly over many years, and worships God as the Everlasting One. There is a quiet faith in this. Abraham, a sojourner who owned no land and lived in tents, plants a tree he may never see fully grown, an act of hope and permanence, and anchors it in worship of the God who is eternal. In an unsettled, wandering life, he marks a place with the worship of the Everlasting God, planting for a future he trusts entirely to God's keeping. There is wisdom in doing lasting, hopeful things and rooting them in the worship of the eternal God, even when our own days are uncertain and passing quickly away.

Do I anchor my uncertain, passing life in the worship of the Everlasting God, doing hopeful, lasting things rooted in trust of the One who endures forever?

Sources

Genesis 21:33: "Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God."
Genesis 21:31: "Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there."
Psalm 90:2: "Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."