But we know from Stephens words that the call came to Abram at Ur (Acts 7:2). All he had to rely upon was God, Who had revealed Himself to him. Why was Abraham promised land that belonged to others (Genesis 12)? People came to offer sacrifices to these idols, or to buy them, and Terah had a thriving business. On the other hand, Gods command was deliberately vague. 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. Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran.(NIV). Abraham was the tenth generation from Noah through Shem and was born 352 years after the Deluge, in 2018 B.C.E. 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. First letter in argument of "\affil" not being output if the first letter is "L". 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). But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. God commanded Terah to leave Ur of Chaldees for the land of Canaan in Genesis 11:31. b. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023. The second promise of the Abrahamic Covenant was that of a great nation coming from Abram. 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. We gather also that the Divine summons came to Abram in Ur (see Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7; Acts 7:2), but we learn in Genesis 12:1 that his final destination was not then definitely told him. All rights reserved. When Abram had an encounter with God, [1] this brother directed his family to leave their native land and go to the land of Canaan. Did Abraham receive two messages, one when he left Ur with his father Terah & the other when he left Haran with Lot?. (Note: The force of this difference cannot be set aside by the objection that the New Testament writers follow the usage of the Septuagint, where is rendered . 133-134. "Now these are the generations of Terah. (n) Nat. Personally I believe that there is some kind of missionary function being carried out by Abram. God called him in Ur, but Abram did not leave his fathers house or his relatives. (m) Geograph. "Abraham was a man of faith that works; Isaac, of faith that endures; Jacob, of faith that wrestles" (Baumgarten). Even to Noah He revealed Himself before the flood as one who was present on the earth. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. Abram told his father that Yahweh had instructed them to leave. Wiki User 2012-12-08. Why did Terah want to leave Ur? 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. Chapter 12 begins a new division in the book of Genesis. There are nearly 75 references to him in the New Testament. 134 Cassuto, the great Jewish scholar disagrees. First, what would motivate Terah to uproot his family and leave the great city of Ur to travel 1,000 miles to the land of Canaan? And, it may be worth noting, we see the name "Terah" alluded to in the word "Teraphim". Stephen calls it Charran it is by Herodian (l) called by Ptolemy (m) Carrae, by Pliny (n) Carra, a city famous in Lucan (o) for the slaughter of Crassus, by whom it is called an Assyrian city. It follows that he was born when Terah was one hundred and thirty years old, and consequently sixty years after Haran. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. Much of Abrams first moves were neither purposeful nor pious, but rather were a more passive response to external forces. 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. Can a VGA monitor be connected to parallel port? Historians share that the father of Serug was Reu. 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. 135 Haran, for example, in Assyrian (harranu) meant main road. Waltke, class notes, p. 14. Terah traveled 150 miles out of his way. The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. Beyond this, Abram was destined to become a blessing to men of every nation. Is quantile regression a maximum likelihood method? No wonder God commanded Abram to leave his fathers house (Genesis 12:1)! Some of These two were the pivots, upon which all the divine revelations made to the patriarchs, and all the guidance they received, were made to turn. I can identify with men and women like this. Gordons view is held by Harold G. Stiflers, A Commentary on Genesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), pp. The lesson we may need to learn is this: very often the way God would have us go is the most sensible way that we would have chosen anyhow. It grows through time and through testing. Therefore, the failures are not mentioned. And if we are honest with ourselves, that is just about where most of us are. Terah was the son of Nahor, who was of Noah's son's Shem's line. Hence the new form which the divine guidance of the human race assumed in the call of Abram was connected with the general development of the world, - in the one hand, by the fact that Abram belonged to the family of Shem, which Jehovah had blessed, and on the other, by his not being called alone, but as a married man with his wife. 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. It is difficult to believe that Abrams public act of worship was not noted and viewed with particular interest by the Canaanites. Terah's Descendants. Ultimately, the whole world was blessed by the coming of the Messiah, who came to save men of every nation, not just the Jews: Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith that are sons of Abraham. 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. Terah, their father, coordinated the gathering of his family to journey west to their destination ( Genesis 11:31 ). But at the point of Abrams call, he was a man whose faith was meager; real, but meager. In this life we cannot expect to fully possess what lies in the future, but only to survey it. Why do scholars think Abraham came from Ur in Mesopotamia? 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). This is the reason why we have placed one hundred and thirty (seventy and sixty), in the genealogical table opposite Terah, because the line of descent is not traced through Haran, who was born when he was seventy, but through Abram, who by plain inference was born when he was one hundred and thirty years old. In any event, Abraham "set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan" ( Gen 12:5 ). Since Abram was unwilling or unable to leave his fathers house, God took Abrams father in death (11:32). There are, of course, evidences for the reasonableness of faith, but at the bottom line we simply must believe what God has said to us in His Word. 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). With the choice of Abram and revelation of God to man assumed a select character, inasmuch as God manifested Himself henceforth to Abram and his posterity alone as the author of salvation and the guide to true life; whilst other nations were left to follow their own course according to the powers conferred upon them, in order that they might learn that in their way, and without fellowship with the living God, it was impossible to find peace to the soul, and the true blessedness of life (cf. Besides, Abram and Sarai were no doubt especially dear to him, and he did not wish to lose their society. God said it. Yes, God twice told Abra(ha)m to "leave your father's household, and go to the land of Canaan." More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! The surroundings were comfortable in the civilised city of Ur, so Terah may have been reluctant to leave. What was Terah's son named? Once, Terah needed to leave his store, and he appointed Abraham to sell the idols in his stead. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. The Chaldeans, no longer in existence,. 5.) Not only did Terah worship idols, but he even operated a business selling deities. 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. The final promise was that of blessingblessing for him, and blessing through him. Since Abram was unwilling or unable to leave his father's house, God took Abram's father in death (11:32). It is there that the specific details of the covenant are spelled out. 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. He is promised a seed and when that seed is delayed, he must somehow see meaning in that delay and learn faith in God. 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. First, the emphasis of Hebrews 11 is on faith. Terah is the one who told the people to leave Ur Kasdim in the book of Genesis, not Abram. 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). Hence, also, Abram lingers in Haran, waiting to take his father with him to the land of promise, if he should revive so far as to be fit for the journey. Ur was a large and prosperous city-state in Mesopotamia (present-day southern Iraq). vol. to Harran, they settled there.(NIV). (Antiqu. How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts? Pharsal. 3: Genesis 12:1 is the Bible's record of the second time that God tells Abe to leave his father's household. Why didn't Abraham tell Isaac the truth in Genesis 22? Balaam He met in a human or angelic form, with a drawn sword in His hand (Numbers 22:22-23). Much of Abrams blessing was to come in the form of his offspring, but there was also the blessing that would come in the form of the Messiah, who would bring salvation to Gods people. Had Abrams spiritual life depended solely upon his faithfulness, the story of Abram would have ended very quickly. Terah was just too old, by that time, to actually make any life in Canaan, and might even have died from the long journey that would have been required to get all the way to Canaan. Do you realize that it was probably years from the time Abram was called in Ur until he ended up in Canaan. Of this long period his seed was to be a stranger in a land that was not theirs for four hundred years Genesis 15:13. Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. 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. Can you fathom the fact that after leaving Haran for Canaan, God worked in Abrams life for one hundred years? 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.) 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. Joshua gives us helpful insight into the character of Terah in his farewell speech at the end of his life: And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods (Joshua 24:2). 58-64. The Chaldeans, no longer in existence, predate Israel. Did Abraham meet Jacob as alluded in Hebrews 11:9? If His Word is not true and reliable, then we, of all men, are most miserable.. 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. Little wonder that men like Peter and not Paul, are our heroes, for we can see ourselves in them. 5.) 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. Did Terah go to Canaan because God spoke to Abram?". 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. 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. Twenty years? So Terah had two reasons to leave the city of Ur of the Chaldees. In other cases He revealed Himself merely by calling and speaking from heaven, without those who heard His voice perceiving any form at all; e.g., to Hagar, in Genesis 21:17., and to Abraham, Genesis 22:11. ), without any angelic form being visible in either case. This land never belonged to Abram in his lifetime, even as God had said (15:13-16). Do what God tells you to do in the most sensible way you know how. Men of all nations would be blessed by the Scriptures which, to a great extent, came through the instrumentality of the Jewish people. Abram would have been on social security for over ten years. The site of the great city was first discovered in 1854, and has since that time been excavated, revealing much about life in the times of Abram.130 While the actual period that Abram lived in Ur may be a matter of discussion, we can say with certainty that Ur was justified in its boast of being a highly developed civilization. daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they - On the other hand, the objection is raised, that in the New Testament, which is confessedly the Greek rendering of , is always a created angel, and for that reason cannot be the uncreated Logos or Son of God, since the latter could not possibly have announced His own birth to the shepherds at Bethlehem. Life Span. 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. Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. That is my kind of hero. It was not in Haran, as a casual reading of Genesis 12 might incline us to believe, but in Ur. We should not find this discouraging, but consistent with our own reluctance to put our future on the line in active, aggressive, unquestioning faith. It gives some background on the people in the family, interesting little tidbits about the individuals and events that occurred. Here was the basis for the great name that God would give to Abram. 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. May God enable us to grow in grace as we walk the path which He has ordained, and as we continue to study the growth of the faith of Abram over many years. Ur was in the southern part of Mesopotamia, and was the starting point for Abraham's journey to Canaan. He would have to take a roundabout route staying on "the fertile crescent," rather than taking a direct route across the desert. 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. 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. 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). 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. 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. He quoted the shopworn saying, God said it. For , constructed with two accusatives, the second of which expresses the materia ex qua, is never met with in this sense, not even in 2 Chronicles 4:18-22. Terah started out well (11:31), journeyed about four months, probably stopped at Babylon and then did something very strange. Bob was born and raised in a Christian home i More, The Net Pastors Journal, Eng. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------. we get two critically different instances in which God told Abe to go to Canaan without his father's household. God was therein posing to Abe the idea of rejecting Terah as unworthy of Abe's full evangelistic effort. While the exact meaning of the expression, called upon the name of the Lord may not be known, worship is surely described. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region centered upon the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 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. Many reach to Charran, and yet fall short of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come thither. (o) -----------Miserando funere Crassus, Assyrias latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas. There are many speculations on why Terah took his family, left the Ur of the Chaldeans and headed for Canaan. When Sarah died, he had to buy a portion of the land for a burial site (23:3ff.). 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). Do not expect that God will indicate each turn in the road with a clearly marked sign. In the final analysis, that is all anyone can have. - Thus, walking in faith, the patriarchs were types of faith for all the families that should spring from them, and be blessed through them, and ancestors of a nation which God had resolved to form according to the election of His grace. l. 4. sect. 4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. . Genesis 2:5). 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. Ur was in the southern part of Mesopotamia, and was the starting point for Abraham's journey to Canaan. Josephus says this, "Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran (his son), they all removed to Haran." Thank God our spiritual lives are ultimately dependent upon His faithfulness and not ours. The incongruity of God's covenant with Abram in Gen 12:1? 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, . Conclusion This was God's first direct test of Abe, and Abe passed with flying colors. (p) Itinerarium, p. 60. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. I found your contribution useful +1. At the time of the call, Abram did not know where this land was. Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). ), or of "Elohim," and the "angel of Elohim" (Genesis 21:17; Genesis 31:11, etc. Though proceeding by easy stages, the aged patriarch seems to have been exhausted by the length and the difficulty of the way. It only takes a minute to sign up. Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). God said it, and that settles it, whether you believe it or not. I like that. I do not find such people in the Bible. There is a dispute about that too, if we take into account the Samaritan Pentateuch we accept a version that states that Terah only lived 145 years. Such will be the case as we can look back upon our lives from the vantage point of time. God also appeared to Moses at the time of his call (Exodus 3:2, etc.). The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? No stop along the path was irrelevant or without purpose. Do you know that after Abram entered the land of Canaan it was another 25 years until he had his son, Isaac? l. 5. c. 18. The revelations consisted almost exclusively of promises; and so far as these promises were fulfilled in the lives of the patriarchs, the fulfilments themselves were predictions and pledges of the ultimate and complete fulfilment, reserved for a distant, or for the most remote futurity. We must remember that Cassuto, as a Jew, did not regard the New Testament to be authoritative. 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. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 year. We must confine ourselves to the passages in which "the Angel of Jehovah" is actually referred to. Terah wanted to leave Ur because he was afraid a war would start. 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. 'S full evangelistic effort s journey to Canaan wonder God commanded Terah to leave Ur he. Free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan over the country, even God. Is surely described of the second time that God tells Abe to leave Ur of Chaldees for the of... Also appeared to Moses at the point of Abrams call, Abram did not the. 3:2, etc. ) L. ( bob ) Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M is. From Ur in Mesopotamia ( present-day southern Iraq ) his stead aged patriarch to. Seminary with his Th.M News hosts as God had said ( 15:13-16 ) ( ). Entered the land for a burial site ( 23:3ff. ) you looking! Not regard the New Testament over ten years to Harran, they there! 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