The giants of the faith seem to be sterling characters with no evident flaws, with machine-like discipline, and unfaltering faith. The Christian life is not knowing exactly what the future holds, but knowing Him Who holds the future. It could be that they left in obedience to the call of God, which we read more of in Genesis 12. This is why, despite that Stephen says that God had called Abe the first time prior to when Abe left Ur to settle in Haran, the ending of Genesis 11 credits Terah for taking his household, including Abe, to go to Canaan. This faith Abram manifested and sustained by great sacrifices, by enduring patience, and by self-denying by great sacrifices, by enduring patience, and by self-denying obedience of such a kind, that he thereby became the father of believers ( , Romans 4:11). Such will be the case as we can look back upon our lives from the vantage point of time. Yes, God twice told Abra(ha)m to "leave your father's household, and go to the land of Canaan." Abrams life is a growth in faith developed under delayed fulfillment of divine promises. Now Abram did leave Ur and go to Haran, but it appears to me that this was only because his pagan father decided to leave Ur. It was both a very early and a very late outpost of Chaldean power. 2. Terah, their father, coordinated the gathering of his family to journey west to their destination ( Genesis 11:31 ). Now the promise to Abram was four hundred and thirty years before the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt Exodus 12:40. If so, when God spoke to Abraham, Abraham would remember that God had spoken to his father, Terah, which would make it more imperative for Abraham. The need for spiritual purity surpassed the need for genetic purity at this particular point in time. No wonder God commanded Abram to leave his fathers house (Genesis 12:1)! This covenant is the thread which ties the rest of the Old Testament together. And if we are honest with ourselves, that is just about where most of us are. The sovereignty of God in salvation is beautifully illustrated in the call of Abram. and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; that is, as Jarchi interprets it, Terah and Abram went forth with Lot and Sarai, or "with them" may mean with Nahor and Milcah: for Josephus (h) says, that all went into Charan of Mesopotamia, the whole family of Terah; and the Arabic historian (i) is express for it,"Terah went out from Chorasan, and with him Abram, Nahor, Lot, his children, and their wives, and he went to Charan, where he dwelt:''and it is certain, if Nahor and his wife did not set out with them, they followed them afterwards, for Haran was the city of Nahor, where his family in later times dwelt, see Genesis 14:10 what moved Terah to depart from Ur of the Chaldees seems to be the call of God to Abram, which, though after related, was previous to this; and he acquainting his father Terah with it, he listened to it, being now convinced of his idolatry and converted from it, and readily obeyed the divine will; and being the father of Abram, is represented as the head of the family, as he was, and their leader in this transaction; who encouraged their departure from the idolatrous country in which they were, and set out with them to seek another, where they might more freely and safely worship the true God. To this hope our Lord, the Messiah, spoke, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad (John 8:56). He had twelve chief gods, one for each month of the year, and other idols. He left Haran, not because it was the easiest thing to do, but because God intended for him to do it. As we will see next week, the Lord in His grace reached into a family that did not know Him and called Abram out to create a people devoted to Himself. Furthermore even though the call was to Abraham, God had stirred the heart of Terah to begin the journey to the very place he promised to Abraham so that when Terah died Abraham continued in God's divine will. On the form in which God appeared, in most instances, nothing is related. Faith is not developed by living life by some kind of map, but by using Gods Word as a compass, pointing us in the right direction, but challenging us to walk by faith and not by sight. l. 1. v. 105. God said it, and that settles it, whether you believe it or not. I like that. Here was the basis for the great name that God would give to Abram. Judges 2:1). That verse is not implying that God called Abe out of the blue, nor Abe at random of all persons. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. ), without any angelic form being visible in either case. Consequently such passages as Psalm 34:7; Psalm 35:5-6, etc., where the angel of Jehovah is not more particularly described, or Numbers 20:16, where the general term angel is intentionally employed, or Acts 7:30; Galatians 3:19, and Hebrews 2:2, where the words are general and indefinite, furnish no evidence that the Angel of Jehovah, who proclaimed Himself in His appearances as one with God, was not in reality equal with God, unless we are to adopt as the rule for interpreting Scripture the inverted principle, that clear and definite statements are to be explained by those that are indefinite and obscure. But when He had established a covenant with him after the flood, and thereby had assured the continuance of the earth and of the human race, the direct manifestations ceased, for God withdrew His visible presence from the world; so that it was from heaven that the judgment fell upon the tower of Babel, and even the call to Abram in his home in Haran was issued through His word, that is to say, no doubt, through an inward monition. In any event, Abraham "set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan" ( Gen 12:5 ). It is probable that the revelation Abram had received from heaven was the means of removing this cloud from his mind, and restoring in him the knowledge and worship of the true God. The answer is because God told him to (Genesis ch.12). Terah is identified as the person who arranged and led the family to embark on a mysterious journey to Canaan. He simply wrote, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out. Let us remember that Abram did go to Canaan, just as Moses went to Egypt, but not without considerable pressure from God. This view was adopted by many Romish theologians, by the Socinians, Arminians, and others, and has been defended recently by Hoffmann, whom Delitzsch, Kurtz, and others follow. Do you know that after Abram entered the land of Canaan it was another 25 years until he had his son, Isaac? Abrams early history is partly that of his gradual disentanglement from country, kindred and fathers house, a process not completed until the end of chapter 13. Derek Kidner, Genesis (Chicago: InterVarsity Press, 1967), p. 113. This was God's first direct test of Abe, and Abe passed with flying colors. Do stay around and if you are willing to answer another questions, please read. Why did Abraham banish Ishmael (Genesis 21:14). A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. Though Josephus (j) represents it in this light, that Terah hating the country of Chaldea, because of the mourning of Haran, he and all his went out from thence: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there; which Josephus (k) calls Charan of Mesopotamia, and yet Stephen speaks of Abraham being in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charan; but then Mesopotamia is to be taken both in a more general and a more limited sense; in general, it took in Mesopotamia and Chaldea, and in the eastern part of it was Ur of the Chaldees, and when Abram came from thence to Haran, he came into Mesopotamia, strictly so called. I am greatly distressed by the glamorizing of heroes, especially by Christians. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran." He is removed to the better country, and by his departure contributes no doubt to deepen the faith of his son Abram, of his grandson Lot, and of his daughter-in-law Sarai. He alone offers man the righteousness necessary for eternal life. The foundation for this was laid by God in the call and separation of Abram from his people and his country, to make him, by special guidance, the father of a nation from which the salvation of the world should come. Those who recognized the hand of God in Abram and his descendants would be blessed by contact with them. What more should we require than Gods Word? 305-306. Genesis - NIV Application Commentary by John Walton. Do what God tells you to do in the most sensible way you know how. (q) Travels, par. We have already seen that Abram was seventy-five years of age at the death of Terah. David saw Him by the threshing-floor of Araunah, standing between heaven and earth, with the sword drawn in His hand and stretched out over Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 21:16); and He appeared to Zechariah in a vision as a rider upon a red horse (Zechariah 1:9.). All that the Septuagint rendering proves, is that the translators supposed "the angel of the Lord" to be a created angel; but it by no means follows that their supposition is correct.). I would hope that our study of the initial period of his life indicates otherwise. Can you fathom the fact that after leaving Haran for Canaan, God worked in Abrams life for one hundred years? It was not in Haran, as a casual reading of Genesis 12 might incline us to believe, but in Ur. But isnt that enough? At the same time, it does not follow from this use of the expression Maleach Jehovah, that the (particular) angel of Jehovah was essentially one with God, or that Maleach Jehovah always has the same signification; for in Malachi 2:7 the priest is called Maleach Jehovah, i.e., the messenger of the Lord. Chapter 12 begins a new division in the book of Genesis. What is the best way to deprotonate a methyl group? 14-15. While not all Bible students agree on the location of Ur,129 most agree that it is the Ur of southern Mesopotamia, on what used to be the coast of the Persian Gulf. 2: In Acts 7, verses 2 thru 4, Stephen states that God had called Abe prior to when the group had settled in the town called Haran. So he may have found a blossoming trade in Haran. Abram was called, that through him all the families of the earth might be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). It is there that the specific details of the covenant are spelled out. While what was to be left behind was crystal clear, what lay ahead was distressingly devoid of detail: to the land which I will show you.. The former appears to us to be the only scriptural view. We have already mentioned the significance of Psalm 127 in relation to the efforts of man at Babel. When Israel went into the land of Canaan, to possess it under Joshua, these same key cities were captured: So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; (Joshua 8:9). They lived in a city called Ur . Terah had still been an idolater, when God called Abe the first time. If God therefore would fulfil His promise, no more to smite the earth with the curse of the destruction of every living thing because of the sin of man (Genesis 8:21-22), and yet would prevent the moral corruption which worketh death from sweeping all before it; it was necessary that by the side of these self-formed nations He should form a nation for Himself, to be the recipient and preserver of His salvation, and that in opposition to the rising kingdoms of the world He should establish a kingdom for the living, saving fellowship of man with Himself. Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. He does not invest heavily in that which will not last. Cassuto concludes that Abrams journey unknowingly outlined the territory which would belong to Israel, and that the places he stopped symbolically forecast the future conquest of the land.137 In an additional comment, Cassuto adds the fact that these places were also religious centers of Canaanite worship.138 In effect, Abrams actions of building altars and proclaiming the name of the Lord prophesied the coming time when true religious worship would overcome the pagan religion of the Canaanites. The tent is thus the symbol of the pilgrim. as an appearance of "the angel of Elohim," and of "the God of Bethel" (Genesis 31:11, Genesis 31:13); and in his blessing on the sons of Joseph (Genesis 48:15-16), "The God (Elohim) before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God (Elohim) which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads," he places the angel of God on a perfect equality with God, not only regarding Him as the Being to whom he has been indebted for protection all his life long, but entreating from Him a blessing upon his descendants. version of the Old is used as a proper name; it is a simple appellative, as is apparent from the fact that in every instance, in which further reference is made to an angel who has appeared, he is called , with or without . Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30). He would have to take a roundabout route staying on "the fertile crescent," rather than taking a direct route across the desert. But this important difference has been overlooked, that according to Greek usage, denotes an (any) angel of the Lord, whereas according to the rules of the Hebrew language means the angel of the Lord; that in the New Testament the angel who appears is always described as without the article, and the definite article is only introduced in the further course of the narrative to denote the angel whose appearance has been already mentioned, whereas in the Old Testament it is always "the Angel of Jehovah" who appears, and whenever the appearance of a created angel is referred to, he is introduced first of all as "an angel" (vid., 1 Kings 19:5 and 1 Kings 19:7). One year? When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. 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