PART ONE

The World of the Patriarchs

Abraham never owned a house in the land God promised him. He lived in a tent his whole life, moving from place to place with his flocks and herds. To understand the patriarchs, we have to understand the life of the tent and the well.

The Life of a Nomad

The patriarchs were what we call semi-nomadic herdsmen. Their wealth was counted in animals: sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, and camels. Animals need grass and water, so the family moved with the seasons, following the pasture.

The Bible tells us plainly that Abram “was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis 13:2). Yet with all that wealth, he still lived in a tent. The tent was not a sign of poverty. It was simply the home of a people on the move.

The tents of that time were usually woven from black goat hair. The hair cloth shrank and tightened when it got wet, which helped keep out the rain. In the heat, the sides could be rolled up to let the breeze through. A curtain divided the tent into sections, often with a separate area for the women. Sarah was “in the tent” when the Lord visited, listening from behind the door (Genesis 18:9-10).

Pitching the Tent and Building the Altar

Look at how often Abraham’s tent and his altar appear together. “And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent… and there he builded an altar unto the LORD” (Genesis 12:8). Again, “Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD” (Genesis 13:18).

Wherever the tent went up, the altar went up. The tent was temporary, but the worship was constant. Abraham’s home moved, but his God did not.

The Well: Life in a Dry Land

In a dry land, the well was the center of life. Wells were dug by hand, sometimes very deep, and they were precious. A family that dug a well had a claim to that water, and fights over wells were common.

We see this in the life of Isaac. “And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham” (Genesis 26:18). Stopping up someone’s well was an act of hostility. It was a way of saying, “You are not welcome here.” Isaac’s herdsmen dug new wells, and the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled over them. Isaac named those wells Esek (contention) and Sitnah (hatred). Finally he dug one that no one fought over and called it Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD hath made room for us” (Genesis 26:22).

Wells were also places of meeting. Abraham’s servant found Rebekah at a well (Genesis 24). Jacob met Rachel at a well (Genesis 29). Moses met his wife Zipporah at a well (Exodus 2). Because the women of the village came to draw water in the cool of the evening, the well was where a stranger could meet the families of a town. Many centuries later, Jesus would sit by Jacob’s well and meet a woman of Samaria (John 4).

Strangers and Pilgrims

The tent life of the patriarchs carried a spiritual lesson. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10).

Abraham lived in a tent because he knew this world was not his final home. He held the promise, but he had not yet received it. He lived as a stranger and a pilgrim, looking ahead to something God would build.

What It Means for Us

Believers today are still tent-dwellers in a spiritual sense. Peter calls us “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). Paul calls our body an “earthly house of this tabernacle” (2 Corinthians 5:1). We are not meant to settle down so comfortably in this world that we forget where we are going.

Like Abraham, we are called to build the altar wherever we pitch the tent. Every new season, every new address, every new chapter of life is a place to call on the name of the Lord. And like Isaac, we may have to dig again the wells that the enemy has stopped up, the old wells of prayer, the Word, and worship that our fathers and mothers in the faith once drank from.

Pointing to Christ

John tells us, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The word translated “dwelt” carries the idea of pitching a tent. The Son of God came and lived among us in a body, the way the patriarchs lived in their tents. And at Jacob’s well, He offered water that no Philistine could ever stop up: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14). Christ is the living well in the dry land, and He is the builder of the city Abraham was looking for.