Abram came from a pagan home. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell" Acts 7:2-4. they came unto Harantwo days' journey south-southeast from Ur, on the direct road to the ford of the Euphrates at Rakka, the nearest and most convenient route to Palestine. Genesis 11:27-32 gives a genealogy leading up to Abram and Sarai, beginning with Terah, Abram's father. God commanded Terah to leave Ur of Chaldees for the land of Canaan in Genesis 11:31. b. So we know that Abraham told his father Terah to leave, because God appeared to Abraham, not Terah. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. Abram was, in our vernacular, no spring chicken when he left Haran for Canaan. If we fix our eyes upon the method of the divine revelation, we find a new beginning in this respect, that as soon as Abram is called, we read of the appearing of God. That is my query, Hi Carel, welcome to the BH site. While the exact meaning of the expression, called upon the name of the Lord may not be known, worship is surely described. Think of it. The final promise was that of blessingblessing for him, and blessing through him. At Shechem, God promised to give this land to Abram (12:7). The writer to the Hebrews pointed to Abraham as an illustration of a man who walked by faith, devoting more space to him than any other individual in chapter eleven (Hebrews 11:8-19). God had never forbidden anyone from going with Abe. 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. Yes, God twice told Abra(ha)m to "leave your father's household, and go to the land of Canaan." From Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. (The date that Abram left the city of Ur and other patriarchs' timelines can be read here. Did Abraham meet Jacob as alluded in Hebrews 11:9? I see Terah took Abram, Lot & Sarai to go to Canaan, & died on route in Haran, seemingly before God spoke to Abram to leave his country. The need for spiritual purity surpassed the need for genetic purity at this particular point in time. 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. Terah and his family had been chosen by God to establish His seed on earth. Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. This whole calculation exactly agrees with the incidental statement of Paul to the Galatians Gal 3:17 that the law was four hundred and thirty years after the covenant of promise. How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts? I hope that's helpful Clive. The Redeemer was to come from the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), then from the descendants of Seth, then Noah, and now Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3). God was going to make a new nation, not merely revise an existing one. As Abram went from place to place, the will of God must have seemed like a riddle. Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. They sought blessing in the product of their own labors, rather than in the promise of God. This covenant is the thread which ties the rest of the Old Testament together. 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 gives some background on the people in the family, interesting little tidbits about the individuals and events that occurred. Did Terah go to Canaan because God spoke to Abram?". Barnes' Notes on the Bible And Terah took Abram. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. 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). It will be observed, also, that we have set down seventy opposite Abram as the date of his call, from which is counted the definite period of four hundred and thirty years to the exodus. So we know that Abraham told his father Terah to leave, because God appeared to Abraham, not Terah. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran and said to him, Depart from your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you (Acts 7:2-3). God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). 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. Once in the land of Canaan, the route taken by Abram is noteworthy. (Antiqu. Terah set out on his journey, no doubt, as soon after the call of Abram as the preparatory arrangements could be made. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. Can a VGA monitor be connected to parallel port? Do what God tells you to do in the most sensible way you know how. In this life we cannot expect to fully possess what lies in the future, but only to survey it. First letter in argument of "\affil" not being output if the first letter is "L". The tent is thus the symbol of the pilgrim. Is quantile regression a maximum likelihood method? 128 S. Schultz, Abraham, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975, 1976), I, p. 26. Do you believe it? Although no direct evidence of Abrahams residence is available, it is significant that the city of Ur reflects a long history preceding Abrahams time, possessing an elaborate system of writing, educational facilities, mathematical calculations, business and religious records, and art. On the form in which God appeared, in most instances, nothing is related. For neither in the New Testament nor in the Alex. (Note: In the old Jewish synagogue the Angel of Jehovah was regarded as the Shechinah, the indwelling of God in the world, i.e., the only Mediator between God and the world, who bears in the Jewish theology the name Metatron. God also appeared to Moses at the time of his call (Exodus 3:2, etc.). To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. I believe it. Terah ends up dying in Haran. Terah, it seems, decided to stay in the northern Mesopotamian "city of Haran," (no connection with his son Haran) rather than continue the journey to Canaan, which was the family's original intent. In the triple number of the patriarchs, the divine election of the nation on the one hand, and the entire formation of the character and guidance of the life of Israel on the other, were to attain to their fullest typical manifestation. 14-15. Why do scholars think Abraham came from Ur in Mesopotamia? The land, as we have already said, is implied in verse 1. The call of Abram is recorded for us in Genesis 12:1: Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your fathers house, to the land which I will show you., A better rendering of the first sentence of this call is found in the King James Version and in the New International Version, both of which read, The Lord had said to Abram, . Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? 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.). God said it, and that settles it, whether you believe it or not. I like that. (p) Itinerarium, p. 60. 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. It was not in Haran, as a casual reading of Genesis 12 might incline us to believe, but in Ur. So, according to that oral history, Abe one day waited for Terah to go out of Terah's idol-making shop, and then Abe smashed all the idols except the biggest one that stood prominently in the corner of the shop. (3) The Christians walk is a pilgrimage. - Terah takes the lead in this emigration, as the patriarch of the family. Chapter 12 begins a new division in the book of Genesis. (1) Abrams faith was commenced at the initiative of God. l. 4. sect. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 year. (i) Elmacinus, p. 31. apud Hottinger. It was not until chapter 15 that a full description of the land was given: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: (Genesis 15:18). Much more important than where he was, God was concerned with who he was, and in Whom he trusted. 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. Pharaoh, for example, was blessed by exalting Joseph. 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). No wonder God commanded Abram to leave his fathers house (Genesis 12:1)! He left Haran, not because it was the easiest thing to do, but because God intended for him to do it. (h) Ut supra. This intimates that he would have proceeded with the others to the land of Kenaan if his life had been prolonged, and likewise that they did not leave Haran until his death. For the greater part of the temple furniture summed up in this passage, of which it is stated that Solomon made them of gold, was composed of pure gold; and if some of the things were merely covered with gold, the writer might easily apply the same expression to this, because he had already given a more minute account of their construction (e.g., Genesis 3:7). Secondly, consistent with this approach, the author does not stress the timing of Abrams obedience. Wiki User 2012-12-08. Still, there may have been some tradition in the family, or knowledge handed down from patriarchal times, which made them look upon Canaan as their land of hope; and the expedition of Amraphel, king of Shinar, and others against the south of Palestine, recorded in Genesis 14:1-16, and confirmed by our large present knowledge of these popular movements, shows that we must not assume that, far removed from one another as were Babylonia and Canaan, therefore they were lands mutually unknown. At least two things must be said in response to this question. What more should we require than Gods Word? 2. ch. The command of God to Abram was in conjunction with an appearance of God.134 While Moses mentioned only an appearance of God after Abram was in the land (12:7), Stephen informs us that God appeared to Abram while in Ur (Acts 7:2). . We must confine ourselves to the passages in which "the Angel of Jehovah" is actually referred to. Does With(NoLock) help with query performance? The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. The mid-life crisis would have been past history for him. 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. Terah died in Haran (Genesis 11:32), so Abraham was free to follow that call. Why did God punish Pharaoh for Abrams lie (Genesis 12:17)? I do not find such people in the Bible. (4) The Christian walk is rooted in the reliability of the Word of God. On the other hand, Gods command was deliberately vague. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. The first eleven chapters have often been called primeval history. The last chapters are known as patriarchal history. While the effect of mans sin has become increasingly widespread, the fulfillment of the promise of God in Genesis 3:15 has become more selective. 5: The fact that Genesis 11:10-31 is the record made by Shem. In Genesis chapter 11, we are told that Terah, his son Abram, his grandson Lot and his daughter-in-law Sarai left their hometown called the Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the Land of Canaan. 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. In the words of Vos, Regardless of when Abraham left Ur, he turned his back on a great metropolis, setting out by faith for a land about which he knew little or nothing and which could probably offer him little from a standpoint of material benefits.132. To move toward Canaan ( 11:31 ) priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the.. The name of the pilgrim things must be said in response to this.. The book of Genesis would have been past history for him, and his family had been chosen by to... It, and his family here, when they intended to go on to Canaan of ''..., and his Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries the Bible and Terah took his Abram. X27 ; s father for Abrams lie ( Genesis 11:32 ), so Abraham free. 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries really enjoyed your Bible study settles it, and blessing through him and cookie policy Elmacinus... 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