Main news for 20 February 2026

Abraham is 75 years old. However one regards that number, he is plainly already at an unsuitable age to pull up stakes and go into the unknown. If we remember other examples, Peter is over forty, an age when it is considered that a person should have everything settled. John, on the other hand, is far too young to decide anything.

Whoever we look at, there is no age suitable for answering the voice of God. We can never be responsible enough, wise enough, good enough to get up and go to the mountain, to another land, into complete uncertainty, in order to see what it is not yet possible even to speak about.

The history of the people of God begins with the calling of Abraham. What was unusual here was not that Abraham heard the voice of God. In those days, to hear the voice of a deity or a spirit was not so unusual; it happened, if not to everyone, then to many people at least once in life. What was unusual was Abraham's reaction itself, his answer to God. Nor was the point that God called him somewhere, to a new and unknown land. Abraham, or rather Abram then, lived in the northern part of Mesopotamia, and in his time many tribes were moving from those places toward Palestine, some of them neighbors of Abraham. The road to Palestine was already known, and Abraham must have known something about Palestine itself.

The point lay elsewhere. Abraham was already old; he was over seventy. At that age, to undertake something radical and decisive was at the very least unreasonable: that was a young person's business. And most important, the God who called Abraham was, in essence, an unknown God to him. Today we understand who is addressing Abraham. Abraham himself still knew nothing about God. Of course, this unknown God promises a great deal, but will He be able to fulfill what He has promised? Until then no one around had heard of Him. Who knows what one can expect from Him? The gods and spirits of the pagans were far from always truthful, and Abraham did not know who was speaking to him.

All that remained was to trust this unknown God, or to refuse Him. Judging in human terms, the second choice was perhaps more prudent. But for some reason Abraham acts differently. Why? We have no answer to that question. He simply believed, and that was all. His heart told him that this unknown God could be trusted.

Abraham trusted Him. Once, and for the rest of his life. And he became the father of the people of God. Sometimes people ask: what if he had said "no" to God? Would all God's plans have gone to waste? No, of course not. God will always find coworkers for Himself on earth. He would have called someone else. But that someone else would not have been Abraham. And then the history of God's people would have been a different history of a different people. But Abraham said "yes" to God. And the Jewish people became the people of God. His people. History does not know the subjunctive mood. This applies to salvation history too, in full measure.

What could a historian tell us about Abraham's migration? He could tell us, perhaps, that in the age of the Patriarchs many Semitic tribes migrated west, settling across the broad dry steppe that stretched from the western borders of Mesopotamia to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. That Abraham certainly was not the first chief to lead his kinsmen into Palestine. That in antiquity many people heard the voices of gods and spirits, and not so rarely, and they listened to those voices. That, of course, when a person was already past seventy, it was still rather late to begin a new life and set out on a not very long but very dangerous journey; one could decide on such a thing only under special circumstances.

But no historian will tell us about the most important thing, because historical sources are silent about that most important thing. And that is no surprise: the most important thing is hidden deep in Abraham's heart. Having heard the voice of the God still unknown to him, he believed and went where this unknown God called him. He went fully understanding that no one guaranteed him anything: he still had to come to know the One who called him more closely in order to understand with whom he was dealing. And here everything depended only on Abraham's own choice. God does not force him to do anything; He only calls him to follow. Could Abraham have said "no" to God? Yes, of course; a human being is free. But then, when we said "the people of God," we would mean another people with another history.