Then Abraham's servant and the men with him ate and drank, and spent the night there. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me go back to my master."

But he said, "Don't make us stay. The LORD has made my journey a success; let me go back to my master."

After he had finished speaking with Abraham, the LORD went away, and Abraham returned home.

Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters good-bye, and left to go back home.

Abraham answered, "Make sure that you don't send my son back there!

The LORD, the God of heaven, brought me from the home of my father and from the land of my relatives, and he solemnly promised me that he would give this land to my descendants. He will send his angel before you, so that you can get a wife there for my son.

Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.

and stay with him for a while, until your brother's anger cools down

and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send someone to bring you back. Why should I lose both of my sons on the same day?"

And there was the LORD standing beside him. "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and Isaac," he said. "I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.

Remember, I will be with you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you."

I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you dedicated a stone as a memorial by pouring olive oil on it and where you made a vow to me. Now get ready and go back to the land where you were born.' "

And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God made him move to this land where you now live.

God did not then give Abraham any part of it as his own, not even a square foot of ground, but God promised to give it to him, and that it would belong to him and to his descendants. At the time God made this promise, Abraham had no children.

By faith he lived as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God.

They did not keep thinking about the country they had left; if they had, they would have had the chance to return.

Instead, it was a better country they longed for, the heavenly country. And so God is not ashamed for them to call him their God, because he has prepared a city for them.