Is this inconsistent with the words of the writer to the Hebrews? For some reason, Terah and his family stopped short of Canaan, and remained in Haran. The mid-life crisis would have been past history for him. But at the point of Abrams call, he was a man whose faith was meager; real, but meager. At least two things must be said in response to this question. l. 1. c. 6. sect. Here was the basis for the great name that God would give to Abram. The sovereignty of God in salvation is beautifully illustrated in the call of Abram. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. 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. A physical death interpretation would state that Terah had died and his total lifespan is recorded as 205 years. Terah was born when his father was 29 years of age. Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? 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. 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. Little wonder that men like Peter and not Paul, are our heroes, for we can see ourselves in them. 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. Are there conventions to indicate a new item in a list? Abraham was the tenth generation from Noah through Shem and was born 352 years after the Deluge, in 2018 B.C.E. - 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. 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. On the other hand, He appeared to Moses (Exodus 3:2) in a flame of fire, speaking to him from the burning bush, and to the people of Israel in a pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 14:19, cf. 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. All rights reserved. That is my kind of hero. 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. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region centered upon the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. God was going to make a new nation, not merely revise an existing one. 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. l. 5. c. 24. So he may have found a blossoming trade in Haran. It is true that from the very beginning God had manifested Himself visibly to men; but in the olden time we read nothing of appearances, because before the flood God had not withdrawn His presence from the earth. That is what is implied in the Jewish oral tradition about Abe. vol. Abram came from a pagan home. 2. ch. At Babel men chose to disregard the command of God to disperse and populate the earth. 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. In one sense, the command of God to Abram was very specific. But God had foretold that none need go with Abe except Abe's own household (which included his wife, and any 'employees' or 'servants' that Abe might have acquired). Do you know that after Abram entered the land of Canaan it was another 25 years until he had his son, Isaac? Abraham was 75 years old when his father, Terah, passed away at 205 years of age as indicated in the book of Genesis. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Faith is not developed by living life by some kind of map, but by using Gods Word as a compass, pointing us in the right direction, but challenging us to walk by faith and not by sight. At Shechem, God promised to give this land to Abram (12:7). Abram was a man like you and me. 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. 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. In attempting now to determine the connection between the appearance of the Angel of Jehovah (or Elohim) and the appearance of Jehovah or Elohim Himself, and to fix the precise meaning of the expression Maleach Jehovah, we cannot make use, as recent opponents of the old Church view have done, of the manifestation of God in Genesis 18 and 19, and the allusion to the great prince Michael in Daniel 10:13, Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1; just because neither the appearance of Jehovah in the former instance, nor that of the archangel Michael in the latter, is represented as an appearance of the Angel of Jehovah. 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. Rather than thinking of a new land and a new life, most of us would have been thinking in terms of a rocking chair and a rest home. 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. 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. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the One Abram looked for in the future, to die on the cross to suffer the penalty for mans sin. Beyond this, Abram was destined to become a blessing to men of every nation. There are many speculations on why Terah took his family, left the Ur of the Chaldeans and headed for Canaan. Abram did not even know where he would settle. But as soon as Abram had gone to Canaan, in obedience to the call of God, Jehovah appeared to him there (Genesis 12:7). 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. 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. No wonder God commanded Abram to leave his fathers house (Genesis 12:1)! 63-64. As Abram went from place to place, the will of God must have seemed like a riddle. What was Terah's son named? This is why, despite that Stephen says that God had called Abe the first time prior to when Abe left Ur to settle in Haran, the ending of Genesis 11 credits Terah for taking his household, including Abe, to go to Canaan. 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.. 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. 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. Bob is a pastor/teacher and elder at Community Bible Chapel in Richardson, Texas, and has contributed many of his Bible study series for use by the Foundation. This chapter leaves them about mid-way between Ur and Canaan, where they dwelt till Terah's death. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. God said it. 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). I do not find such people in the Bible. Terah started out well (11:31), journeyed about four months, probably stopped at Babylon and then did something very strange. Besides, Abram and Sarai were no doubt especially dear to him, and he did not wish to lose their society. The Hebrew word for "served" can also mean to "work," hence the tradition that Terah was a craftsman who made idols. "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). 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. Why did God punish Pharaoh for Abrams lie (Genesis 12:17)? 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 people of Haran served the same moon god as the people in Terah's former location, the southern Mesopotamian "city of Ur". And that brings us to the second reason. 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. (Note: The only passage that could be adduced in support of this, viz., Psalm 104:4, does not prove that God makes natural objects, winds and flaming fire, into forms in which heavenly spirits appear, or that He creates spirits out of them. 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. 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). Personally I believe that there is some kind of missionary function being carried out by Abram. 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. God is not only sovereign in salvation, but sovereign in the process of sanctification. (h) Ut supra. People came to offer sacrifices to these idols, or to buy them, and Terah had a thriving business. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. Exodus 13:21. There are nearly 75 references to him in the New Testament. 135 Haran, for example, in Assyrian (harranu) meant main road. Waltke, class notes, p. 14. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30). Abram died at the ripe old age of 175 (25:7-8), a much shorter time than Shem (11:10-11) or Arpachshad (11:12-13). 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. Wis. 13-15). Stephen informs us in Acts 7:2 Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Since Abram was unwilling or unable to leave his father's house, God took Abram's father in death (11:32). Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. Having said this, I do not wish to glorify Abrams faith either, for as we shall see, it was initially very weak. The family were in the city of Haran for five years. If His Word is not true and reliable, then we, of all men, are most miserable.. In the year 1921 B.C. 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. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 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. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran." Abrams life is a growth in faith developed under delayed fulfillment of divine promises. 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). 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. The answer is because God told him to (Genesis ch.12). 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. 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. When Sarah died, he had to buy a portion of the land for a burial site (23:3ff.). Why didn't Abraham tell Isaac the truth in Genesis 22? God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). 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). 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. 5.) 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. So Terah was finally convinced to believe that Shem's advice was right. 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. Then, when Terah returned, saw the mess, and asked Abe what had happened. Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. 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. 133 Although it may appear from a superficial reading of the account in Genesis (11:31-12:1) that God called Abraham while in Haran, thereby contradicting Stephens account that God called Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, the two accounts can be harmonized by noting that Genesis 11:27-32 is a parenthetical account of Terah introduced by a waw disjunctive, and that Genesis 12:1, introduced by a waw consecutive, carries on the main narrative which was discontinued in Gen. 11:26. Bruce Waltke, Unpublished Class Notes, Dallas Theological Seminary, pp. The first time that God told this to Abe, it was God's way of provoking Abe to "get real" about Terah's idolatry. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. 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