Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. As the writer to the Hebrews put it, he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). 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. Abraham was the tenth generation from Noah through Shem and was born 352 years after the Deluge, in 2018 B.C.E. (Antiqu. Terah may have told Abraham why he was leaving Ur and why he decided to settle in Haran. Abram was secure and comfortable in Ur, a great city. It would be many years before Abram would fully grasp that this heir that God had promised would come from the union of he and Sarai. Terahs migration was partly perhaps a movement of a tribe of the Semites northwards (see Note on Genesis 11:28), made restless by the Elamites, who about this time overran Western Asia; but chiefly it had a religious motive: for Ur was the especial seat of the worship of the moon-god, Sin; and though Terah had not attained to the purity of Abrahams faith, yet neither was he altogether an idolater. Why didn't Abraham tell Isaac the truth in Genesis 22? Terah, Abraham's father, was grieving for his son Haran. Acts 17:27). 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. 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. The Chaldeans, no longer in existence, predate Israel. He believes that the land is thus divided into three regions: one extending from the northern border to Shechem, the second from Shechem as far as Bethel, and the third from Bethel to the southern boundary.136. Now Abram obeyed God by faith and entered into the land of Canaan, but only after considerable preparatory steps had been taken by God. Why did God allow Lots daughters to later have sex with their father? Such will be the case as we can look back upon our lives from the vantage point of time. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023. Think of it. The faith to which we are called is not faith in a plan, but faith in a person. Technically, the covenant with Abram is not found in chapter 12, but in chapters 15 (verse 18) and 17 (verses 2,4,7,9,10,11,13,14,19,21) where the word covenant appears. Is quantile regression a maximum likelihood method? We often read of Abraham, the man of faith, supposing that he was always that kind of man. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). 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. The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. (5) The Christian walk is simply doing what God has told us to do and believing that He is leading us as we do so. Genesis 11:27-32 gives a genealogy leading up to Abram and Sarai, beginning with Terah, Abram's father. Genesis 2:5). Abram did not even know where he would settle. He had twelve chief gods, one for each month of the year, and other idols. This points to the fact that Ur may have been one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the Tigris-Euphrates area when Abraham emigrated northward to Haran. Schultz, Abraham, ZPEB, I, p. 22. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. This covenant is the thread which ties the rest of the Old Testament together. Stephen clarifies the time that Abram was first called of God. A look at a map of the ancient world of patriarchal times would indicate that Abram traveled the well-trodden roads of his day.135 This route was that commonly traveled by those who engaged in the commerce of those days. 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 it was not the lot of Terah to enter the land, where he would only have been a stranger. 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.. Why is the article "the" used in "He invented THE slide rule"? It is only when God wishes us to depart from the expected that we should look for guidance that is spectacular or unusual. So Terah had two reasons to leave the city of Ur of the Chaldees. Men of all nations would be blessed by the Scriptures which, to a great extent, came through the instrumentality of the Jewish people. It is shrouded in mystery to Jewish scholars as to why Terah began the journey and as to why the journey ended prematurely. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. Isaac also was strong in patience and hope; and Jacob wrestled in faith amidst painful circumstances of various kinds, until he had secured the blessing of the promise. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. The second promise of the Abrahamic Covenant was that of a great nation coming from Abram. Terah, Jewish literature records, was a craftsman who made idols. No stop along the path was irrelevant or without purpose. He left Haran, not because it was the easiest thing to do, but because God intended for him to do it. Terah was accordingly two hundred years old when he undertook the long journey to the land of Kenaan; for he died at two hundred and five, when Abram was seventy-five. ------------------------------------------------------------. rev2023.3.1.43266. God also appeared to Moses at the time of his call (Exodus 3:2, etc.). 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. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. Terah took him out of Ur (Genesis ch.11). That settles it. The preacher said it could be said even shorter. Who the messenger or angel of Jehovah was, must be determined in each particular instance from the connection of the passage; and where the context furnishes no criterion, it must remain undecided. Here was the basis for the great name that God would give to Abram. God called him to leave that city and to exchange his townhouse for a tent. Little of the culture, religion, or philosophy of the people of Ur was to be a part of what God planned to do with His people, Israel. At the time of the call, Abram did not know where this land was. Charan was Lot's father so he lived to be at least a young man, but he died before his own father Terah did. 4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. The angel of God, who shows the sacred seer the heavenly Jerusalem, and who is supposed to say, "Behold, I come quickly" (Revelation 22:7), and "I am Alpha and Omega" (Revelation 22:13), refuses in the most decided way the worship which John is about to present, and exclaims, "See I am thy fellow-servant: worship God.". Hence, they all abode in Haran for the remainder of the five years from the date of Abram's call to leave his native land. Well, it was written in Genesis that his birth name was Abram, before God changed his name to Abraham, and that he was the son of Terah. l. 5. c. 18. (n) Nat. Can patents be featured/explained in a youtube video i.e. 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. (k) Ibid. Five years? I respect Abraham for not only leaving the security of his father's home, but also the familiarity of his father's faith. 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. 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. He does not invest heavily in that which will not last. 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. Twenty years? 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. 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. In Genesis chapter 12 we come not only to a new division and an important theological covenant, but most of all to a great and godly manAbraham. Genesis 21:16-21. We are not inclined to be impressed with Abrams age because of the length of mens lives in olden times, but Genesis chapter 11 informs us that mans longevity was much greater in times past, than in Abrams day. God said it. One of the first questions I had to answer for my current project was: why would only part of Abraham's family leave Ur? - Terah takes the lead in this emigration, as the patriarch of the family. 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. Had Abrams spiritual life depended solely upon his faithfulness, the story of Abram would have ended very quickly. God called him in Ur, but Abram did not leave his fathers house or his relatives. Terah, their father, coordinated the gathering of his family to journey west to their destination ( Genesis 11:31 ). How to delete all UUID from fstab but not the UUID of boot filesystem. Nearly one-fourth of the book of Genesis is devoted to this mans life. Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? 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. 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. Cassuto has suggested that the places mentioned (Shechem, Bethel, the Negev) are significant. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. 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