HEBREW WORD STUDY – HE MADE OTHERS CALL – ויקרי  

Genesis 12:8:  “And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he built an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. 

I was reading something interesting in the Jewish Talmud this morning in Sotah 10a: “And he call” is vayakrei in Hebrew and one sage suggest that it should be read as “he made others call.”   The Talmud goes on to explain that this is to teach us that Abraham caused God’s name to be spoken in the mouths of all passersby.  How did he accomplish this?  After travelers ate and drank in his home they wanted to bless him.  But he would say to them: “Did you not eat food from my storehouse? Your food has been provided by the God of the world!  Thank, praise and bless the God who spoke the world into being.” 

In Genesis 12:8 from this simple word vayakrei – he mad others call we discover that Abraham was the first foreign missionary. The Talmud teaches he set up a sort of bed and breakfast house for travelers, sort of like a hostel.  Then he would have evening devotions with them where he would tell them about the God of the Universe. 

Something that has always fascinated me with these men of God in the Bible is that God was involved in every aspect of their lives.  They were human and they made their mistakes, committed their share of sins and transgressions, yet the name of God was continually on their lips.  I remember the first time I saw the movie Fiddler on the Roof, a story of a Russian Jewish community, I walked away with just one major impression. This whole Jewish community, working hard to earn a living and providing for their families, living under persecution and just trying to survive had one thing in common.  The name of God was continually on their lips.  Everything the people did and said, somehow was related to God and their relationship with him.  Tevye the main character was a picture of the entire community as he continually carried on casual conversations with God.  Yet, there were more formal times, like during the Sabbath, when he would wear his tallit and pray formal prayers.  Still, while going on his daily life making his milk deliveries he would just converse with God like he would any person walking alongside him.  In the song, If I Were A Rich Man, Tevye sums it all up when he lists all things he would do if he were rich.  He lists how he would provide for his family and community but when it came to himself he asked for only one thing, “I would have the time I lacked to sit in the synagogue and pray and maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall. I would discuss the Holy Books with the learned men seven hours every day and that would be the sweetest thing of all.”  How many Christians do you know could say that their greatest desire would be to sit and discuss the Word of God seven hours every day?  Would this be your desire?

I don’t see this in the Christian community.  We have our worship on Sunday but once out of church, we talk of the latest athletic events, politics, and jobs and rarely does God’s name come up.  I have always been amazed when I would sit with rabbis and listen to them talk, they would discuss God, not theology, not doctrine, not church growth, but just discuss the nature and love of God.  Then I would sit with pastors and they would discuss family matters, social gatherings, the sports events and when I would try to steer the conversation to God they would somehow quickly derail that conversation to bragging how their daughter or son just got accepted to some Christian college. 

I am a Christian, I was raised in a Christian community, I hold to the tenets of my Christian faith but when it comes to the admiration of Godly men and women I fear I have very few Christians on that list.  My list is made of men like Abraham and Joseph who continually kept the name of God on their lips, rabbis who could speak of nothing else but God and his love and of course that fictional character, Tevye, who lived a simple life walking and talking daily with God and vayakrei causing others to call on God.