Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.”
(Genesis 13:18)

Whenever Abram heard from the Lord, he built an altar and worshipped. Whenever Abram moved from one place to another – at least to stay for any significant period of time – he built an altar. Abram wasn’t perfect and didn’t get everything right. In fact, he got some doozies wrong. But his relationship with the Lord wasn’t based on performance. It was founded on Abram consistently seeking the Lord and worshipping Him.

Mamre became Abram’s home base. Although he later also lived at Hebron – where he buried his wife Sarai. Hebron was also the first place that David lived as king (2 Samuel 5:1-5).

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויאהל אברם, he moved his tent from there and pitched it from one place to another until he arrived at Eloney Mamre. This is not the same אלון מורה mentioned in 12,6. The previous place was located in the plain, and the owner of that site was called Moreh. Here we speak of at least two plains belonging to a person called Mamre, the brother of Eshkol and the brother of Aner. אשר בחברון, within the general area of Chevron. ויבן שם מזבח, in order to call people to worship the Lord G’d at the altar he had built there. Wherever Avram made a permanent halt, stayed for a period, he used to build an altar and preach in the name of the Lord.’