Terah may have told Abraham why he was leaving Ur and why he decided to settle in Haran. Nahor lived 119 years. 129 Cyrus Gordon has suggested that the true Ur of Genesis 11:31 is to be found in northern Mesopotamia, probably northeast of Haran. It is shrouded in mystery to Jewish scholars as to why Terah began the journey and as to why the journey ended prematurely. 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. Ur was a large and prosperous city-state in Mesopotamia (present-day southern Iraq). God was going to make a new nation, not merely revise an existing one. 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. (6) The Christian walk is a process of growth in grace. He must leave his country, his relatives, and his fathers house. 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.) 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. 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.). I guess he was mad that you were allowing yourself to be misled by the other, false idols.". "And Terah died in Haran." Do not expect that God will indicate each turn in the road with a clearly marked sign. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran ( Genesis 11:26-32 ESV ). (4) The Christian walk is rooted in the reliability of the Word of God. Terah received instructions from God to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into the land of Canaan. Abram came from a pagan home. (k) Ibid. For some reason, Terah and his family stopped short of Canaan, and remained in Haran. daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they Terah was born when his father was 29 years of age. This would be a slow, arduous and dangerous journey. But as we look back upon it, we can see that God was leading all the way. Do you know that after Abram entered the land of Canaan it was another 25 years until he had his son, Isaac? 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. Chapter 12 begins a new division in the book of Genesis. 2. Abram was told in detail what he must leave behind. But this exclusiveness contained from the very first the germ of universalism. And if we are honest with ourselves, that is just about where most of us are. Five years? 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. we get two critically different instances in which God told Abe to go to Canaan without his father's household. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 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. Shem had converted Abe. The Hebrew word for "served" can also mean to "work," hence the tradition that Terah was a craftsman who made idols. Terah, Jewish literature records, was a craftsman who made idols. When he is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, he must obey with a willing heart of love, yet somehow see through to balance the command with the promise of the seed of a nation and leave the outcome to God and to find in God all sufficiency. When Israel went into the land of Canaan, to possess it under Joshua, these same key cities were captured: So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; (Joshua 8:9). Terah is the one who told the people to leave Ur Kasdim in the book of Genesis, not Abram. The Christian life is not knowing exactly what the future holds, but knowing Him Who holds the future. We must confine ourselves to the passages in which "the Angel of Jehovah" is actually referred to. In the land of Uz, a Shemite, perhaps even at a later period, lived Job; and in the neighboring districts of Arabia were his several friends, all of whom acknowledged the true God. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! 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. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran." Moses tells us that Abram was 75 when he entered the land of Canaan. This land never belonged to Abram in his lifetime, even as God had said (15:13-16). l. 5. c. 24. 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. 58-64. 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). 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.". Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! 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. Abraham was a man of great faithafter years of testing by God. It was not in Haran, as a casual reading of Genesis 12 might incline us to believe, but in Ur. Terah started out well (11:31), journeyed about four months, probably stopped at Babylon and then did something very strange. 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. Without it we are inclined to think that the call of Abram came at Haran, rather than at Ur. 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. 134 Cassuto, the great Jewish scholar disagrees. To our knowledge, he had no particular spiritual qualities which drew God to him. 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). Did Terah go to Canaan because God spoke to Abram?". But even if the address in Genesis 22:16, where the oath of the Angel of Jehovah is accompanied by the words, "saith the Lord," and the words and deeds of the Angel of God in certain other cases, might be explained in this way, a created angel sent by God could never say, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," or by the acceptance of sacrifices and adoration, encourage the presentation of divine honours to himself. How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts? Thirdly, the Angel of Jehovah is also identified with Jehovah by the sacred writers themselves, who call the Angel Jehovah without the least reserve (cf. (q) Travels, par. 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. - 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. The relationship between the command of God to Abram in verse 1 and the incident at Babel in chapter 11 should not be overlooked. Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? - All this occurred as a type for the future, that Israel might know and lay to heart the fact, that bodily descent from Abraham did not make a man a child of God, but that they alone were children of God who laid hold of the divine promise in faith, and walked in the steps of their forefather's faith (cf. It is there that the specific details of the covenant are spelled out. Acts 7:2-4 supports this single call theory: The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Life Span. Later he was instructed to go up to Bethel (35:1; cf. We should not find this discouraging, but consistent with our own reluctance to put our future on the line in active, aggressive, unquestioning faith. Abraham received only one call (Genesis 12:1). 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. ), without any angelic form being visible in either case. Starting in Genesis 11:27, we have the account of Terah's (Abraham's father) family line. Yes, God twice told Abra(ha)m to "leave your father's household, and go to the land of Canaan." 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. The Word of God is sufficient for mans faith. 31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. (r) Cartwright's Preacher's Travels, p. 14, 15. Abram would have been on social security for over ten years. 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. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. 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 believe it? Here in chapter 12 the general features of the covenant are introduced. 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. It is difficult to believe that Abrams public act of worship was not noted and viewed with particular interest by the Canaanites. 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. Genesis 2:5). Then, when Terah returned, saw the mess, and asked Abe what had happened. He is promised a seed and when that seed is delayed, he must somehow see meaning in that delay and learn faith in God. The foundation for this was laid by God in the call and separation of Abram from his people and his country, to make him, by special guidance, the father of a nation from which the salvation of the world should come. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. It could be that they left in obedience to the call of God, which we read more of in Genesis 12. But why did they intend to go into the land of Canaan? As Abram subsequently continued this migration in simple dependance upon Gods guidance (Genesis 12:1), it was probably the Divine rather than the human purpose that is here expressed. God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). 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. Did Abraham leave Haran before or after his father died? No wonder God commanded Abram to leave his fathers house (Genesis 12:1)! Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). The pluperfect tense (had said) is both grammatically legitimate and exegetically necessary. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. It is of interest to note that Islam holds Abram second in importance to Mohammed, with the Koran referring to Abraham 188 times.128. On the form in which God appeared, in most instances, nothing is related. vol. 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. In the final analysis, that is all anyone can have. 2. ch. 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). Terah left the city of Ur probably for two reasons: 1. Why did Terah leave the city of Ur? They sought blessing in the product of their own labors, rather than in the promise of God. Rather, your question should be: why did Abraham leave Haran. verse 6). However, Abraham discouraged potential customers from buying the idols, explaining to them the futility of worshipping statues that were only fashioned that very day. l. 1. c. 6. sect. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. 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. 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. It was both a very early and a very late outpost of Chaldean power. (Tomkins Studies on Times of Abraham, 55ff.). 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