The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. He left Haran, not because it was the easiest thing to do, but because God intended for him to do it. The incongruity of God's covenant with Abram in Gen 12:1? He obeyed unquestioningly the commands of God, from whom he received repeated promises and a covenant that his "seed" would inherit the land. If the city which Abram was told to leave was great, the home he left behind seems to have been less than godly. Wiki User 2012-12-08. That is my kind of hero. Beyond this, Abram was destined to become a blessing to men of every nation. For neither in the New Testament nor in the Alex. Stephen informs us in Acts 7:2 Brothers and fathers, listen to me. People came to offer sacrifices to these idols, or to buy them, and Terah had a thriving business. In any event, Abraham "set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan" ( Gen 12:5 ). "A faith, which laid hold of the word of promise, and on the strength of that word gave up the visible and present for the invisible and future, was the fundamental characteristic of the patriarchs" (Delitzsch). "Abraham was a man of faith that works; Isaac, of faith that endures; Jacob, of faith that wrestles" (Baumgarten). Rauwolff, who was in this town A. D. 1575, calls it Orpha; his account of it is this (q), that it is a costly city, with a castle situated on the hill very pleasantly; that the town is very pleasant, pretty big, with fortifications well provided; and that some say it was anciently called Haran and Charras: a later traveller (r) says, who also calls it Orpha,"the air of this city is very healthful, and the country fruitful; that it is built four square, the west part standing on the side of a rocky mountain, and the east part tendeth into a spacious valley, replenished with vineyards, orchards, and gardens: the walls are very strong, furnished with great store of artillery, and contain in circuit three English miles, and, for the gallantness of its sight, it was once reckoned the metropolitical seat of Mesopotamia. But at the point of Abrams call, he was a man whose faith was meager; real, but meager. This I believe to be a significant observation, for many Christians seem to feel that Gods way is the way of the bizarre and the unusual. However, for whatever reason Terah decided to cut his journey short and settle everybody in a place called Haran. 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. - From these varying forms of appearance it is evident that the opinion that the Angel of the Lord was a real angel, a divine manifestation, "not in the disguise of angel, but through the actual appearance of an angel," is not in harmony with all the statements of the Bible. And as all our texts agree in the numbers here involved, it is obvious that the same adjustment of years has in this case to be made, whatever system of chronology is adopted. And later in the story Rachel, Terah's great-great-granddaughter, does seem keen to hold on to the Teraphim (household idols) as if they were a family heirloom (Gen 31:19). Besides, Abram and Sarai were no doubt especially dear to him, and he did not wish to lose their society. Abrams age was not a factor in favor of leaving Ur for some unknown land either. Outside the Land, it was given to Abraham only to hear the Divine voice (v. 1); but here, in the land destined to be specifically dedicated to the service of the Lord, he was also vouchsafed the privilege of a Divine vision. U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1964), II, p. 328. I am saying that Abram obeyed God in faith, but it was a very little faith, and a very late faith. Nearly one-fourth of the book of Genesis is devoted to this mans life. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. (l) Hist. Why did God punish Pharaoh for Abrams lie (Genesis 12:17)? Many reach to Charran, and yet fall short of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come thither. Aben Ezra suggests, that the agreeableness of the place to Terah caused him to continue there; but it is very probable he was seized with a disease which obliged them to stay here, and of which he died. When you stop to think about it, Abram had no concrete, tangible proof that a life of blessing lay ahead, outside of Ur, away from his family. Genesis 16, where He is mentioned for the first time, contains no distinct statement as to His shape, but produces on the whole the impression that He appeared to Hagar in a human form, or one resembling that of man; since it was not till after His departure that she drew the inference from His words, that Jehovah had spoken with her. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran." Genesis 11:26-32 tells that Terah was a son of Nahor, the son of Serug, who was a descendant of Shem. (2) Abrams spiritual life continued through the sovereign work of God. 3: Genesis 12:1 is the Bible's record of the second time that God tells Abe to leave his father's household. The early Church regarded Him as the Logos, the second person of the Deity; and only a few of the fathers, such as Augustine and Jerome, thought of a created angel (vid., Hengstenberg, Christol. Thus, he seems to have rejected Stephens words flatly. Why are non-Western countries siding with China in the UN? Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). Having called Abram, it was God Who providentially brought Abram to the point of leaving home and homeland and entering Canaan. First letter in argument of "\affil" not being output if the first letter is "L". 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. Terah coordinated the journey, intending to go to this new land, but stopped in the city of Haran along the way, where he died at the age of 205. And lastly, it appeared still more manifestly in the twin sons born by Rebekah to Isaac, of whom the first-born, Esau, was rejected, and the younger, Jacob, chosen to be the heir of the promise; and this choice, which was announced before their birth, was maintained in spite of Isaac's plans, or that Jacob, and not Esau, received the blessing of the promise. God was going to make a new nation, not merely revise an existing one. Kharan, and was so called in Accadian times, in which language the word means road, being, according to Mr. Sayce, the key of the highway from the east to the west. The people of Haran served the same moon god as the people in Terah's former location, the southern Mesopotamian "city of Ur". The report of this comparatively favorable state of things in the land of Kenaan would be an additional incentive to the newly enlightened family of Terah to accompany Abram in obedience to the divine call. The question arises, therefore, whether the angel of Jehovah, or of God, was God Himself in one particular phase of His self-manifestation, or a created angel of whom God made use as the organ of His self-revelation. Context. What are some tools or methods I can purchase to trace a water leak? God told Abram to leave without knowing where the path of obedience would lead, but believing that God was leading as he went. 131 The city of Ur on the lower Euphrates River was a large population center, and has yielded extensive information in the royal tombs which were excavated under the direction of Sir Leonard Wooley and the sponsorship of the British Museum and the museum of Pennsylvania University. This remains to be proven. They followed the Euphrates River, with their herds, to the Paddan Aram region. "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. 1. Do not expect that God will indicate each turn in the road with a clearly marked sign. 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. Terah received instructions from God to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into the land of Canaan. God commanded Terah to leave Ur of Chaldees for the land of Canaan in Genesis 11:31. b. in 1971. Secondly, the Angel of God was recognised as God by those to whom He appeared, on the one hand by their addressing Him as Adonai (i.e., the Lord God; Judges 6:15), declaring that they had seen God, and fearing that they should die (Genesis 16:13; Exodus 3:6; Judges 6:22-23; Judges 13:22), and on the other hand by their paying Him divine honour, offering sacrifices which He accepted, and worshipping Him (Judges 6:20; Judges 13:19-20, cf. Through all of his experiences he must come to see God as the origin of all that will endure. Stagers, Genesis, p . As a perfectly new beginning, therefore, the patriarchal history assumed the form of a family history, in which the grace of God prepared the ground for the coming Israel. Now Abram was one hundred years old when Isaac was born, and consequently the call was given when he was seventy years of age - about five years before he entered the land of Kenaan Genesis 12:4. Why did Terah leave the city of Ur? I found your contribution useful +1. 5.) In this life we cannot expect to fully possess what lies in the future, but only to survey it. When he is promised a land, and when that land is not given, he must look beyond the promise to its Maker so that he may understand. 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. In Galatians chapter 3 Paul wrote that Christians are the sons of Abraham by faith, and therefore, rightful heirs to the blessings promised him (Galatians 3:7,9). Secondly, consistent with this approach, the author does not stress the timing of Abrams obedience. What is the ideal amount of fat and carbs one should ingest for building muscle? The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? ), or of "Elohim," and the "angel of Elohim" (Genesis 21:17; Genesis 31:11, etc. The pluperfect tense (had said) is both grammatically legitimate and exegetically necessary. - All this occurred as a type for the future, that Israel might know and lay to heart the fact, that bodily descent from Abraham did not make a man a child of God, but that they alone were children of God who laid hold of the divine promise in faith, and walked in the steps of their forefather's faith (cf. It may be supposed at at that time God had then called Abe, and Abe's response to God's call was the dramatic ploy that Jewish oral tradition says that Abe did: Abe was determined to do anything necessary to try to convince his father, Terah, to take Shem's witness to heart. This made Serug Abraham's great-great-grandfather and an ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites. Starting in Genesis 11:27, we have the account of Terah's (Abraham's father) family line. (n) Nat. We are, as I said before, never told why he packs it in in Ur and heads for Canaan. Vos, Genesis and Archaeology, pp. Exodus 13:21. I believe it. From these events in the early stages of Abrams growth in grace several principles are found which depict the walk of faith in every age, and certainly in our own. And the guidance vouchsafed had for its object the calling forth of faith in response to the promise, which should maintain itself amidst all the changes of this earthly life. U. Cassuto, a Commentary on the Book of Genesis ( Jerusalem: the Magnes,... To do, but it was a very little faith, and Terah had a thriving business and into... Short and settle everybody in a place called Haran he packs it in in and. Ideal amount of fat and carbs one should ingest for building muscle came. And go into the land of Canaan path of obedience would lead, but because God intended for him do. 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