Abraham's City of Foundations

March 25th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 11:10 …for [Abraham] was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

What must Abraham have thought after God appeared to him in Ur, promising him a land where he would be blessed and where his name would be great (cf. Gen. 12:1-3)? Since it is known through archaeology that Ur of the Chaldees where Abraham lived was a thriving metropolis, Abraham must have imagined an even greater land in Canaan! After all, God was calling Abraham out of his pagan land and perhaps into a divine land, commissioning him to make a journey of over one thousand miles. What must Abraham have thought during his journey there?

Now after God called Abraham, his initial response to God appears to have been met with some trepidation. Genesis 12:1 reveals that God called Abraham out of Ur in Mesopotamia while he was worshiping foreign gods (Josh. 24:2), and He told him to not only depart from his home country but also to leave his relatives behind. Yet not only did Abraham take his father Terah with him, he also took another relative named Lot with him, along with his wife Sarai, and they did not travel to Canaan initially but to Haran. Abraham was 75 years old at that time (12:4), so he had 75 years of accumulated possessions to leave behind, not to mention friends and family. After his father died in Haran, perhaps at his father’s behest and God’s prodding, Abraham obediently traveled to Canaan (Acts 7:2-4) with both his wife and his nephew Lot. Why Abraham took his father and his nephew is not stated nor does Scripture reveal why they stopped in Haran and for how long. But if Abraham had left Ur when God initially called him, and if he truly believed that the land of Canaan was some Paradise on earth as Hebrews 11:10 reveals, we have to wonder why he delayed as he did and why he took family members after having been told to leave his relatives behind.

At any rate, by the time Abraham did begin making his way to the land of Canaan, Hebrews 11:10 reveals exactly what he was thinking. If the city of Canaan was as wicked as it would later become, its reputation had to have been known to Abraham. If so, he must have wondered why the Almighty God would want him to live there among such pagan idolators. After all, he had left such a land in Ur. Though we might assume that Abraham was thinking that God was going to make him into some sort of king in Canaan, Hebrews 11:10 reveals something else. In truth, Abraham had come to believe that Canaan was just a land; the ultimate land Abraham was looking for was a city whose “architect and builder is God,” not Nimrod who had built great cities (Gen. 10:8-12) and not Canaan, the wicked grandson of Noah (10:15-20). The city Abraham imagined was “the city which has foundations.”

The Apostle John, who lived circa 2000 years after Abraham, writing the vision that Jesus Christ gave him in the Book of Revelation, spoke of the heavenly city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven in the future to rest upon a renewed earth (Rev. 21:1-2). John describes this city as having “foundations”—12 foundation stones (21:14). Of course these “foundations” are referring to stability in contrast to the tents Abraham and his sons were accustomed to on earth. Therefore, what Abraham was “looking” for, in contrast to simply a new home in Canaan, was a special city whose “architect and builder” was God. Abraham was ultimately looking for his final resting place—the heavenly city and the “rest” it symbolizes for both him and his offspring.

Although God promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants as an eternal inheritance, during his lifetime and that of his sons Isaac and Jacob, God “gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground” (Acts 7:5). In fact, the only land Abraham ever owned in Canaan during his lifetime was a tomb he purchased for his deceased wife Sarah from the Hittite people near Hebron—(Gen. 23). After almost 100 years of living in Canaan, this was all Abraham and his sons actually owned. Abraham, however, hoped for much better things!

The point is that Abraham’s faith was not in the land of Canaan per se but in heaven. He was thus patient while in Canaan, waiting on God, believing He would be true to His word. The ultimate Promised Land was heaven, then and now. This of course in no way minimizes the importance of the actual land as part of God’s promise to Abraham and his offspring—both physical and spiritual. The land of Canaan in Abraham’s day was simply the near fulfillment of what God will ultimately fulfill—the new Jerusalem on the new earth: “But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity” (Ps. 37:11). “Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

Food For Thought
What was true for Abraham is also true for Christians. We too have God’s promise of land —even the land of Israel where we will reign with Christ on a new earth in the heavenly city of Jerusalem. Our calling is to trust and obey Christ and look forward to that land. By faith we thus live as aliens and sojourners on this earth, living in constant dissonance with the world as we await our ultimate inheritance. So, be careful of trying to make this world your final destination!