Do stay around and if you are willing to answer another questions, please read. And if we are honest with ourselves, that is just about where most of us are. Terah is the one who told the people to leave Ur Kasdim in the book of Genesis, not Abram. The faith to which we are called is not faith in a plan, but faith in a person. No stop along the path was irrelevant or without purpose. Map of Ancient Mesoptomia (Courtesy israel-a-history-of.com). Hence, his desire to keep up his connection with Abram, who was called of God. The Chaldeans, no longer in existence,. To our knowledge, he had no particular spiritual qualities which drew God to him. But does such a claim contradict the words of Scripture? l. 4. sect. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30). 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. God said it, and that settles it, whether you believe it or not. I like that. The sovereignty of God in salvation is beautifully illustrated in the call of Abram. Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. He is promised a seed and when that seed is delayed, he must somehow see meaning in that delay and learn faith in God. Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! l. 1. c. 6. sect. 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, . Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. Men of all nations would be blessed by the Scriptures which, to a great extent, came through the instrumentality of the Jewish people. Personally I believe that there is some kind of missionary function being carried out by Abram. In any event, Abraham "set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan" ( Gen 12:5 ). 139 . 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. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Consequently, Terah was 130 years old when Abraham was born (205 -75 =130). (n) Though the oracle of God came to Abram, yet the honour is given to Terah, because he was the father. Little wonder that men like Peter and not Paul, are our heroes, for we can see ourselves in them. Abram was a man like you and me. 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. Barnes' Notes on the Bible And Terah took Abram. 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. The pluperfect tense (had said) is both grammatically legitimate and exegetically necessary. "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. But Terah was influenced by other motives to put himself at the head of this movement. (m) Geograph. (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. Terah, their father, coordinated the gathering of his family to journey west to their destination ( Genesis 11:31 ). Judges 2:1). Conclusion Abrahams blessing was largely to be seen in his descendants. 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. 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. 24. 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. Yes, God twice told Abra(ha)m to "leave your father's household, and go to the land of Canaan." Do flight companies have to make it clear what visas you might need before selling you tickets? Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). 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. Terah was the son of Nahor, who was of Noah's son's Shem's line. 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. 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. I would hope that our study of the initial period of his life indicates otherwise. God commanded Terah to leave Ur of Chaldees for the land of Canaan in Genesis 11:31. b. Terah received instructions from God to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into the land of Canaan. God has said that all men are sinners, deserving of, and destined to eternal punishment. 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. 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. Did Abraham leave Haran before or after his father died? He said in his comments on Genesis 12:7. God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). It should first of all be said that it was the route we would have expected him to have taken if he were going in that direction. 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. But it was not the lot of Terah to enter the land, where he would only have been a stranger. (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 . 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. At least two things must be said in response to this question. 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. However, Abraham discouraged potential customers from buying the idols, explaining to them the futility of worshipping statues that were only fashioned that very day. Stephen informs us in Acts 7:2 "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Charan was Lot's father so he lived to be at least a young man, but he died before his own father Terah did. 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). p. 282. For the essential unity of the Angel of Jehovah with Jehovah Himself follows indisputably from the following facts. 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. Wiki User 2012-12-08. But in Genesis 18:1. it is stated that three men came to Abram, one of whom is introduced as Jehovah, whilst the other two are called angels (Genesis 19:1). "Now these are the generations of Terah. (3) The Christians walk is a pilgrimage. Genesis 16, where He is mentioned for the first time, contains no distinct statement as to His shape, but produces on the whole the impression that He appeared to Hagar in a human form, or one resembling that of man; since it was not till after His departure that she drew the inference from His words, that Jehovah had spoken with her. Filial piety, no doubt, kept Abram watching over the last days of his venerable parents, who probably still cling to the fond hope of reaching the land of his adoption. I am saying that Abram obeyed God in faith, but it was a very little faith, and a very late faith. "And Terah died in Haran." Beside this, we frequently read of appearances of the "angel of Jehovah" (Genesis 16:7; Genesis 22:11, etc. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023. 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. The inhabitants also of Ur had fallen into polytheism, or, if we may so speak, allotheism, the worship of other gods. 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. We will examine these, first of all, for the purpose of obtaining a clear conception of the form in which the Angel of Jehovah appeared. It is there that the specific details of the covenant are spelled out. We reached the conclusion that God called Abram to leave Ur in order to travel to Canaan, and he did that before Terah's death, although he 176. by Ray. verse 6). Although, for example, the knowledge and worship of the true God had been preserved in the families of Shem in a purer form than among the remaining descendants of Noah, even in the house of Terah and worship of God was corrupted by idolatry (Joshua 24:2-3); and although Abram was to become the father of the nation which God was about to form, yet his wife was barren, and therefore, in the way of nature, a new family could not be expected to spring from him. Do you know that after Abram entered the land of Canaan it was another 25 years until he had his son, Isaac? Why did Lot offer up his daughters to be gang raped? With God's calling of Terah in verse 31, Ancient Israel was set on an irrevocable course. That first time, about which Stephen speaks, was God's way of at once (a) prophesying of Abe's eventual leaving his father's household, and (b) provoking Abe to evangelize his as-yet-still idolatrous father, Terah and, through Terah's conversion, to convert all of Terah's household. Broken down with fatigue, he halts for a season at Haran to recruit his wasted powers. We should not find this discouraging, but consistent with our own reluctance to put our future on the line in active, aggressive, unquestioning faith. I respect Abraham for not only leaving the security of his father's home, but also the familiarity of his father's faith. 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. 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. The need for spiritual purity surpassed the need for genetic purity at this particular point in time. Once, Terah needed to leave his store, and he appointed Abraham to sell the idols in his stead. 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. Terah is mentioned in Jesus' genealogy in Luke 3:34. 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. Abram would have been on social security for over ten years. 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. 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. It is only when God wishes us to depart from the expected that we should look for guidance that is spectacular or unusual. Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. Historians share that the father of Serug was Reu. 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). But isnt that enough? However, for whatever reason Terah decided to cut his journey short and settle everybody in a place called Haran. Without it we are inclined to think that the call of Abram came at Haran, rather than at Ur. But as soon as Abram had gone to Canaan, in obedience to the call of God, Jehovah appeared to him there (Genesis 12:7). l. 1. c. 6. sect. But when they came 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. How to draw a truncated hexagonal tiling? 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. 3, app.). 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. 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. But here are a few possibilities. Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? Terah wanted to leave Ur because he was afraid a war would start. In Genesis 11, we read that Terah came from Ur of the Chaldeans. 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. Here in chapter 12 the general features of the covenant are introduced. (Antiqu. 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 such, it would have been an act flowing from faith. So we know that Abraham told his father Terah to leave, because God appeared to Abraham, not Terah. Terah may have told Abraham why he was leaving Ur and why he decided to settle in Haran. 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? 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. Abram told his father that Yahweh had instructed them to leave. How utterly irreconcilable this fact is with the opinion that the Angel of Jehovah was a created angel, is conclusively proved by Revelation 22:9, which is generally regarded as perfectly corresponding to the account of the "Angel of Jehovah" of the Old Testament. Accordingly, the name of the true God was known and revered, at least in outward form, wherever Abram went, throughout the land. There are ample evidences of elaborate wealth, skilled craftsmanship, and advanced technology and science.131 All of this tells us something of the city which Abram was commanded to leave. For the nation was to grow out of the family, and in the lives of the patriarchs its character was to be determined and its development foreshadowed. Most of the errors so popular in Christian circles concerning the nature of the life of faith can be corrected by a study of the life of Abraham. Three major promises are contained in verses 2 and 3: a land; a seed; and a blessing. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region centered upon the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These appearances, which were constantly repeated from that time forward, must have taken place from heaven; for we read that Jehovah, after speaking with Abram and the other patriarchs, "went away" (Genesis 18:33), or "went up" (Genesis 17:22; Genesis 35:13); and the patriarchs saw them, sometimes while in a waking condition, in a form discernible to the bodily senses, sometimes in visions, in a state of mental ecstasy, and at other times in the form of a dream (Genesis 28:12.). 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. 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. How long have you been a Christian, my friend? Though proceeding by easy stages, the aged patriarch seems to have been exhausted by the length and the difficulty of the way. So we know that Abraham told his father Terah to leave, because God appeared to Abraham, not Terah. Exodus 3:2 and Exodus 3:4, Judges 6:12 and Judges 6:14-16, but especially Exodus 14:19, where the Angel of Jehovah goes before the host of the Israelites, just as Jehovah is said to do in Exodus 13:21). Secondly, consistent with this approach, the author does not stress the timing of Abrams obedience. And in the land of Kenaan was Melkizedec, the king of Salem, and the priest of the Most High God. 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. 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