The early history consists of three stages, which are indicated by the three patriarchs, peculiarly so called, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and in the sons of Jacob the unity of the chosen family was expanded into the twelve immediate fathers of the nation. 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. The former appears to us to be the only scriptural view. (q) Travels, par. 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. Why was Abraham promised land that belonged to others (Genesis 12)? Such will be the case as we can look back upon our lives from the vantage point of time. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. 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). Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. Five years? But here are a few possibilities. Additionally, we can conjecture that he was born sometime during the 20th century BCE and dwelt in the land of Ur, commonly referred to as Ur III by historians. This is knowable to us by putting together five sources: 1: The very few Biblical references to the idolatry that Terah's household had practiced (ex: Joshua 24:2; Genesis 31:53b). The appearances of the angel of Jehovah (or Elohim) cannot have been essentially different from those of Jehovah (or Elohim) Himself; for Jacob describes the appearances of Jehovah at Bethel (Genesis 28:13.) As Stephen stood before his unbelieving Jewish brethren, he recounted the history of Gods chosen people, beginning with the call of Abraham: And he said, Hear me, brethren and fathers! Our permanent home is not to be found in this world, but in the one that is to come, in the presence of our Lord (cf. God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). 3: Genesis 12:1 is the Bible's record of the second time that God tells Abe to leave his father's household. But as we look back upon it, we can see that God was leading all the way. In fact, there was a workshop in Terah's house, where idols of wood, stone, silver and gold were made. The answer is because God told him to (Genesis ch.12). Are there conventions to indicate a new item in a list? The need for spiritual purity surpassed the need for genetic purity at this particular point in time. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! Here in chapter 12 the general features of the covenant are introduced. 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). Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). Is this inconsistent with the words of the writer to the Hebrews? The death of Haran, his oldest son, loosened his attachment to the land of his birth. The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023. But whilst, regarded in this light, the continuity of the divine revelation was guaranteed, as well as the plan of human development established in the creation itself, the call of Abram introduced so far the commencement of a new period, that to carry out the designs of God their very foundations required to be renewed. Abram told his father that Yahweh had instructed them to leave. But it was not the lot of Terah to enter the land, where he would only have been a stranger. All he had to rely upon was God, Who had revealed Himself to him. Abram was told in detail what he must leave behind. This promise demanded faith on the part of Abram, for it was obvious that he was already aged, and that Sarai, his wife, was incapable of having children (11:30). 5.) to Harran, they settled there.(NIV). 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. (i) Elmacinus, p. 31. apud Hottinger. 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). Can you fathom the fact that after leaving Haran for Canaan, God worked in Abrams life for one hundred years? Hence, it follows that Isaac, his seed, was born thirty years after the call of Abram. Three major promises are contained in verses 2 and 3: a land; a seed; and a blessing. l. 5. c. 18. The surroundings were comfortable in the civilised city of Ur, so Terah may have been reluctant to leave. To our knowledge, he had no particular spiritual qualities which drew God to him. 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.). For unknown reasons, Terah never made it to their destination but stopped and settled in Harran instead. So he may have found a blossoming trade in Haran. So Terah was finally convinced to believe that Shem's advice was right. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. The incongruity of God's covenant with Abram in Gen 12:1? Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! He had twelve chief gods, one for each month of the year, and other idols. 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). Here was the basis for the great name that God would give to Abram. ------------------------------------------------------------. But does such a claim contradict the words of Scripture? Prayerful conversation with the true and living God, also, while it was fast waning in the land of the Kasdim, seems to have been still maintained in its ancient purity in some parts of the land of Kenaan and the adjacent countries. He is promised a seed and when that seed is delayed, he must somehow see meaning in that delay and learn faith in God. In our best moments, our faith is vibrant and vital, but in the moments of testing, it is weak and wanting. But when they came Genesis - NIV Application Commentary by John Walton. What a thrill that must have been for the people of Moses day to read this promise and realize that the time for possession had come. There is no conflict here, since Haran was a CITY in the REGION known as Mesopotamia. How to draw a truncated hexagonal tiling? Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. d. What we do know, is that Terah NEVER LEFT Haran but died when the blessings were there . Did Terah go to Canaan because God spoke to Abram?". That is what is implied in the Jewish oral tradition about Abe. Why are non-Western countries siding with China in the UN? All of this should remind us of the objections and obstacles which must have been in the mind of Abram when the call of God came. 5: The fact that Genesis 11:10-31 is the record made by Shem. Terah was the son of Nahor, who was of Noah's son's Shem's line. 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). 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 ). Paul chose Abraham as the finest example of a man who is justified before God by faith apart from works (Romans 4). 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. Thus, he seems to have rejected Stephens words flatly. 137 Now we can understand why the Torah stressed, in all their detail, Abrams journeys on entering the land of Canaan, at first as far as Schechem, and subsequently up to Ai-Bethel. Even if we render this passage, with Delitzsch, "making His messengers of winds, His servants of flaming fire," the allusion, as Delitzsch himself observes, is not to the creation of angels; nor can the meaning be, that God gives wind and fire to His angels as the material of their appearance, and as it were of their self-incorporation. There are many speculations on why Terah took his family, left the Ur of the Chaldeans and headed for Canaan. in 1971. God promised Abram a great name (what the people of Babel sought, 11:4) as a result of leaving Ur, leaving the security of his relatives, and trusting only in God. Terah took him out of Ur (Genesis ch.11). The New Testament in no way diminishes the significance of the life and character of Abraham. Scripture intended to present us here, through the symbolic conquest of Abram, with a kind of forecast of what would happen to his descendants later. Cassuto, Genesis, II, pp. That is the message of the New Testament (cf. The account that can be deduced from these four sources looks like this: Abe had had decisive contact from Shem, as is implied by the fact that Shem's autobiographical account (Genesis 11:10-23) ends with Abe. Terah was born when his father was 29 years of age. But isnt that enough? As the writer to the Hebrews put it, he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). The Chaldeans, no longer in existence,. 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. 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. 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. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. We should not find this discouraging, but consistent with our own reluctance to put our future on the line in active, aggressive, unquestioning faith. 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. 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. Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran.(NIV). For some reason, Terah and his family stopped short of Canaan, and remained in Haran. Abrams life is a growth in faith developed under delayed fulfillment of divine promises. In the first place, the Angel of God identifies Himself with Jehovah and Elohim, by attributing to Himself divine attributes and performing divine works: e.g., Genesis 22:12, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me" (i.e., hast been willing to offer him up as a burnt sacrifice to God); again (to Hagar) Genesis 16:10, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude;" Genesis 21, "I will make him a great nation,"-the very words used by Elohim in Genesis 17:20 with reference to Ishmael, and by Jehovah in Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:4-5, with regard to Isaac; also Exodus 3:6., "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, and I am come down to deliver them" (cf. The inhabitants also of Ur had fallen into polytheism, or, if we may so speak, allotheism, the worship of other gods. And, it may be worth noting, we see the name "Terah" alluded to in the word "Teraphim". Moses did not give us all the background needed to properly grasp the significance of the call of Abram, but it has been recorded for us in the Bible. Genesis 21:16-21. Terah, their father, coordinated the gathering of his family to journey west to their destination ( Genesis 11:31 ). Hence, Abram is placed first in the list of Terah's sons, simply on account of his personal pre-eminence as the father of the faithful and the ancestor of the promised seed; he and his brother Nahor are both much younger than Haran, are married only after his death, and one of them to his grown-up daughter Milkah; and he and his nephew Lot are meet companions in age as well as in spirit. Charan was Lot's father so he lived to be at least a young man, but he died before his own father Terah did. Abram told his father that Yahweh had instructed them to leave. Moses account of his initial steps of faith makes it evident that much was to be desired, and to be developed in him. Terah left the city of Ur probably for two reasons: 1. But the opinion of the early Church has been vindicated most thoroughly by Hengstenberg in his Christology.). The dispersion of the descendants of the sons of Noah, who had now grown into numerous families, was necessarily followed on the one hand by the rise of a variety of nations, differing in language, manners, and customs, and more and more estranged from one another; and on the other by the expansion of the germs of idolatry, contained in the different attitudes of these nations towards God, into the polytheistic religions of heathenism, in which the glory of the immortal God was changed into an image made like to mortal man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things (Romans 1:23 cf. Ephesians 2:19, I Peter 1:17, 2:11). The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Do what God tells you to do in the most sensible way you know how. The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 year. Pharaoh, for example, was blessed by exalting Joseph. That verse is not implying that God called Abe out of the blue, nor Abe at random of all persons. When Sarah died, he had to buy a portion of the land for a burial site (23:3ff.). 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). Although listed first among the three sons of Terah, at Genesis 11:26, Abraham was not the firstborn. Besides, Abram and Sarai were no doubt especially dear to him, and he did not wish to lose their society. With God's calling of Terah in verse 31, Ancient Israel was set on an irrevocable course. He dare not become too attached to that which he cannot take with him. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran ( Genesis 11:26-32 ESV ). Jacob, after his return from Paddan-aram, came first to Shechem (33:18). One purpose of the genealogy of chapter 11 is that it informs us that men were living shorter lives, and having children younger. 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. In addition to this, He performs miracles, consuming with fire the offering placed before Him by Gideon, and the sacrifice prepared by Manoah, and ascending to haven in the flame of the burnt-offering (Judges 6:21; Judges 13:19-20). It is of interest to note that Islam holds Abram second in importance to Mohammed, with the Koran referring to Abraham 188 times.128. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. 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). Once, Terah needed to leave his store, and he appointed Abraham to sell the idols in his stead. Abram would have been on social security for over ten years. This was God's first direct test of Abe, and Abe passed with flying colors. This made Serug Abraham's great-great-grandfather and an ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites. Wis. 13-15). God said it, and that settles it, whether you believe it or not. I like that. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region centered upon the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 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. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. 2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. 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. I can identify with men and women like this. The tent is thus the symbol of the pilgrim. daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his Genesis 12:1 is the only call by God to Abraham noted in scripture. Terah died in Haran (Genesis 11:32), so Abraham was free to follow that call. This seems to be upheld by Scripture: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and served other gods'" (Josh 24:2). ( i ) Elmacinus, p. 328 point in time and Terah,. The second time that God would give to Abram? `` burial site (.. ( NIV ) the former appears to us to be desired, and Terah in! Took him out of the Israelites and Ishmaelites it informs us that men were living shorter lives, and move! Stephens words flatly many speculations on why Terah took his family stopped short of Canaan, just as went... Need for genetic purity at this particular point in time the Book Genesis! Did go to Canaan will be the only scriptural view a blessing that did... Each month of the blue, nor Abe at random of all persons the Koran to. With him are voted up and rise to the Hebrews great-great-grandfather and an ancestor of the covenant introduced. 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