The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you…. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12:1, 6-8)
The area where I once lived in South Dakota is a genuine plain. We lived in a town that was eight miles from U.S. Highway 81. When we turned west and drove two miles toward that highway, we could see three tall trees standing in the distance near the intersection six miles away. We could drive that entire stretch without losing sight of those three trees. I often drove with an eye on them. The land was flat enough, the road was straight enough, and the trees were tall enough. There was another constant which made that experience possible: the trees never moved.
In our survey of trees in the Bible, we’ve encountered several purposes for trees, including beauty, food, deliverance, and peace. Today we encounter another purpose for trees in the Bible – landmarks.
When Abram was living in Ur of the Chaldeans, the Lord had prompted him to travel “to the land I will show you.” Abram migrated for decades until the Lord met him again at the great oak tree of Moreh near Shechem and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” The tree became a landmark to record the location and announce the climax of Abram’s soon-to-end journey. The oak tree marked the spot.
In response, Abram built an altar to the Lord. Commentators have noted that when Abram built the altar and called on the name of the Lord, he also proclaimed the name of the Lord. That’s comparable to pioneers of the American West who built churches wherever they went, marking the end their journeys and the proclamation of the gospel.
We still regard trees as landmarks. At the climax of a 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, an oak tree served as a landmark of redemption. I used to live in northern Ohio near where the tree in the movie was located. It was struck by lightning in 2011 and eventually was cut down. That oak tree no longer marks the spot.
Next time, we’ll encounter more trees that served as a landmark in Abram’s life.
Prairie Pastor 