You may take it, then, that it is the men of faith who are Abraham's sons. By faith Abraham obeyed the call to go out to a land destined for himself and his heirs, and left home without knowing where he was to go. By faith he settled as an alien in the land promised him, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs to the same promise. Any person who has lived for long in a foreign country knows the insecurity, the loneliness, the disorientation, and the alienation that comes with being a perpetual stranger. In our time, we call the phenomenon culture-shock.
Man is a creature of territory.
We develop a special feeling for an area and its culture. We feel most at ease with our own kind of people. We feel secure when we are among those who have been molded by the same social experiences as we. Even in our day of much travel, Americans abroad stay in American-type hotels, eat American foods, and speak English. This basic human trait was, I think, no less operative in the ancient world.