In many ways, when Moses composed his history of Abraham’s life, he found himself in a situation that all writers of biblical narratives found themselves. He stood between two worlds. As Moses mediated between “that world” of Abraham’s life and “their world” his contemporary world, he drew connections between the patriarch’s life and the lives of his readers so that they could see the relevance of the stories that he wrote. That is to say, Moses selected and shaped his stories in ways that made it possible for the Israelites following him to see that Abraham’s life had connections to their lives.

Moses connected his accounts to the experiences of the Israelites in three main ways. First, he wrote his stories so that they told the Israelites about the historical backgrounds of things they experienced. And second, he wrote so that his narratives provided the Israelites with models or examples to follow or to avoid. And third, he wrote to show that many of the patriarch’s experiences foreshadowed or adumbrated the Israelite’s experiences.

Take for instance, the way Moses explained the historical background of viewing the land of Canaan as Israel’s homeland. You’ll recall that a number of times during the exodus the Israelites wondered why they had to go all the way to the land of Canaan. Why would Moses not allow them to stop short of entering that land?

Moses addressed this very issue by providing certain details about the historical background of Abraham’s life. In a word, he showed that God had specifically given Abraham a homeland in Canaan so that the Israelites could see why he insisted that they too had a homeland in Canaan.

Moses did not want his original readers to receive the stories of Abraham as mere background information; he described many situations in the patriarch’s life so that they could see a significant number of similarities between the circumstances of Abraham’s life and their own circumstances. These similarities raised moral issues for Abraham’s audience. Moses pointed out that these similarities made it possible for Israel to see examples to follow and to reject. In Deuteronomy 1:26-28, we read these words of Moses to the tribes of Israel:

But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky.’"

One of the ways Moses addressed this fear of the Canaanites was to provide his readers with the example of Abraham facing Canaanites in his day. For instance, we find the first reference to Canaanites in Abraham’s life in Genesis 12:6:

[Abraham] traveled through the land … At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Why did Moses mention the Canaanites’ presence in the land of promise twice in two adjacent episodes? One of his purposes was to show Israel that Abraham’s situation was very similar to theirs. Canaanites were in the Promised Land in Abraham’s day, just as they were in the days of Moses and Israel. Yet, Abraham believed the promises of God and went forward boldly into the land occupied by Canaanites. In this way Moses encouraged his readers to imitate Abraham’s boldness by trusting the promises of God and by going into the land even though Canaanites still occupied it. In this way Abraham became their example to follow.

This general implication for the original audience can hardly be overemphasized. Moses wrote to encourage the nation of Israel following him never to return back to Egypt and to succeed in the conquest of Canaan and this broad implication guides us in our modern application of Abraham’s life. As Christians we are on a journey, a journey that actually completes the journey begun by Israel in the days of Moses. We are moving toward the new heavens and the new earth. So, for us to apply Abraham’s stories properly to our lives, we must pay attention to the ways they instructed the original audience to keep moving toward Canaan.