The word “Hebrew” simply means “one who crosses over.” Abram (henceforth Abraham) was the first man to be called a Hebrew because he “crossed over” the border of his country and entered into a foreign country. Anciently, most people lived their lives without ever leaving their nation of birth. For many, their world rarely extended beyond a day’s walk from where they were born. The fact that Abraham left his home in Ur of the Chaldees and entered the land of the Canaan was most unusual–hence the title “Abraham the Hebrew” (Gen. 14:13).

With the exception of his nephew Lot, Abraham left his family, his friends and his heathen religion–everything that his life consisted of–behind when he departed from Ur of the Chaldees and traveled to Haran. God then told him to leave Haran and go to a distant and totally foreign land. Here is where the “father of the faithful” first showed us how to react to God’s Word. Upon receiving his “marching orders,” “Abram departed AS THE LORD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM (Gen. 12:4). At that time there was no written Word of God, so Abraham simply did what God had verbally told him to do–no questions, no comments, no suggestions–just immediate obedience.

This is the reaction God commands of His true children who today have His written Words from which to receive their “marching orders.” He arranged to have His Words recorded and preserved to serve as teaching instructions for His end-time church (Eph. 2:2/ 1 Cor. 10:11) which came into being on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. He has also provide apostles to teach and guide His true saints as they “walk as Jesus walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) which is required in order to receive eternal life. The “walk” (conduct of life) is according to the spiritual footsteps of the “good Shepherd” Who has trod that one and only path before them and left instructions in His Holy Bible as to how to follow it. Those footsteps lead to His church (the kingdom of heaven–the strait gate–Mat. 7:13,14) where His ministers provide instructions for them which is designed to bring individual God seekers to the required spiritual level which, if maintained until the end, will result in salvation, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:22. As Scripture reminds us, that walk is not an easy one.

The Apostle Paul tells us that when Christ returned to heaven following His resurrection He gifted HIS CHURCH with pastors, apostles, evangelists and teachers “for the PERFECTING of the saints, for the WORK of the ministry, for the EDIFYING (exalting) of the body of Christ until we ALL come to the UNITY OF THE (one and only) FAITH, and of THE (one and only) KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, until we come TO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST” (Eph 4:11-14). Earlier in his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Paul had emphasized that there is only “ONE CHURCH, ONE HOLY SPIRIT, ONE CALLING, ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL WHO IS ABOVE ALL AND THROUGH ALL AND IN YOU ALL” (Eph. 4:1-6). What does this TRUTH tell us about the two-headed, multi-bodied religious absurdity known as “the church”? It tells us that IT IS AN ABOMINATION TO GOD. IT IS COMPRISED OF HUNDREDS OF IDOLS (CHUCHES–CHRISTENDOM’S GOLDEN CALVES) THAT SELF-SERVING MAN HAS CREATED TO REPLACE ALMIGHTY GOD AS HIS SOURCE OF TRUTH. “THE CHURCH” IS THE VISIBLE ENEMY THAT GOD’S TRUE MINISTERS BATTLE ON A DAILY BASIS. THE POWER BEHIND THIS ENEMY OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IS SATAN–THE “GOD OF THIS WORLD” AND THE GOD OF “THE (WORLDLY) CHURCH.” HE IS THE FATHER OF LIES WHO HAS BLINDED THE MINDS OF HIS PARISHIONERS SO THAT THEY CANNOT RECEIVE THE LIGHT OF CHRIST’S GLORIOUS GOSPEL (2 Cor. 4:4).

Paul reminds God’s ministers and their disciples that their true enemy is not the people within Satan’s church system. He tells us in Ephesians 6:12 that “we do not war against flesh and blood (people), but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high (heavenly) places.” The Prophet Ezekiel reminds us that heaven is everything above ground level where birds fly and build their nests (31:6). We live in the lowest level of heaven. Recall that Paul acknowledged three heavens (2 Cor. 12:2).

When Abraham “crossed over” into Canaan–the land God had promised his (Abraham’s) descendants because of his obedience–he did what the majority of mankind had never done. He had left everything that was sure, that was familiar, that was safe and predictable behind. In today’s travel-ready world it is nothing to enter a foreign country and stay there as long as one desires. Why does the traveler have no fear of the unknown? Because he knows that he can return to everything that is sure, familiar, safe and predictable at any time. Not so with spiritual Hebrews.

Another aspect of “crossing over” from where one has lived in spiritual comfort and safety is what inevitably confronts the Hebrew when he crosses the border and enters into the unfamiliar spiritual life of the true believer. What did Abraham face as soon as he entered Canaan? Turn to Genesis 12 to find out. Beginning with verse six we find that Abraham has entered the land that God has given him (vs 7). –the land of Canaan–where he built an alter (place of worship) to the Lord. He then traveled farther into Canaan to Bethel and built another alter to the Lord and called upon Him. All was going well until …. In verse ten we find that God had sent him into a land that was in the midst of a famine. Abraham’s testing had begun. Here is where we find faithful Abraham falling short of God’s expectations. This is where Abraham lost some of his faith. Instead of staying put where God had sent him and depending upon Him to feed him, his servants and his animals, he left Canaan and went (crossed over) into Egypt. As Revelation 11:8 tells us, God equates Egypt with sin, sin as vile as homosexuality. Note that He equates Egypt and sin-soaked Jerusalem to “Sodom.”

The Holy Scriptures remind us that sin separates us from God, weakening us so that another sin usually follows the first one. Such was the case with Abraham who, having left Canaan, had to lie to the Egyptians about his wife Sara. This is what happens when we fail to do EXACTLY what God tells us to do. But this was not the first mistake Abraham had made. Read Exactness: The Key To Spiritual Success. Key word–Exactness.

As this series, and life itself, will show, when a spiritual Hebrew “crosses over” from his previous Satan-directed life to a God-directed life one can expect problems to arise. As Jesus warned, those problems often involve those whom the Hebrew loves the most (Mat. 10:36). Read the series titled Persecution using that key word. Remember Paul’s warning that “All who will live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). Jesus tells us that “He who endures (persecution while keeping sin out or his life) to the end will be saved” (Mat. 10:22). Being a TRUE spiritual Hebrew is not for the weak-willed. This is why we are told to “count the cost” of true discipleship before me “cross over” to where God abides. Which leads us to the next part of the series in which we will enter the door to where God’s true saints abide L.J.