In recent weeks I have posted on the call and journey of Abraham as described in Genesis 12:1-9. Previous posts have dealt with God's call, Abraham's response, what it means to "call upon the name of the Lord," and the life of faith described as "the journey." Here my concern is with Genesis 12:5-6, and my question is, what does it mean to live with the Canaanites?
[5] And Abram took Sar'ai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,
[6] Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Genesis 12:5-6 (RSV).
Walter Brueggemann quoting Gerhard Von Rad's Old Testament Theology: Volume 1, says this:
Here [in Genesis 12] it is better to recognize that the presence of Canaanites points to two religious realities. First, the promise of God is never easy to believe and practice. It must always be believed and practiced in the midst of those who practice more effective and attractive ways. Abraham is called always to be a minority report among those who live and manage society against the promise. Second, Abraham is called to a relation with the Canaanites. Whereas some older commentators see the Canaanites simply as embodiments of paganism to be resisted, Von Rad rightly sees that Abraham is brought by God "into a completely unexplained relationship" with the Canaanites. On the one hand, there is no evidence in the Abraham tradition of conflict with the Canaanites. ... The Canaanites are, perhaps, a temptation to Abraham, for their ways were surely attractive in contrast to the slow-paced way of Yahweh's promise. On the other hand, there is also no evidence that Abraham seeks to convert them. Abraham's work is not to convert and build a church. Rather, he is to live among them, to practice and believe the promise. His task is not to impress or even to bear witness to God, but simply to permit the reality of blessing to be at work. The statement of verse 6 suggests a delicate living of a promissory presence which is neither to destroy nor convert but to mobilize the power of life in behalf of others.
W. Brueggemann, Commentary on Genesis, 123-124 (John Knox Press 1982).
The Canaanites offer a way of life different from that of the believer. They bring temptation. The believer must be a "minority report" among the Canaanites. But we have to live with the Canaanites, and in doing so we must "practice and believe the promise." (I'm not going to waste energy identifying who among my friends and associates might be a Canaanite, but it's safe to say that we live in a secular culture in which "the promise" is not relevant.) God's "promissory presence" is at work in the life of the believer who is to "mobilize the power of life in behalf of others." Often the believer sees no difference between his promissory life and the life of others who have no interest in the promise. How does the believer respond to those kinds of discouraging feelings? Serve others, worship God in the Eucharistic assembly, reflect on his word, pray, and most important of all, believe that the promise is at work. This is the life of faith, believing in things unseen. As Brueggemann says, it is never easy to believe and practice the promise.
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