Secondly, consistent with this approach, the author does not stress the timing of Abrams obedience. 2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. 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. 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. 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. Answer: Family Origin and Early History. But this exclusiveness contained from the very first the germ of universalism. Conclusion Ur was in the southern part of Mesopotamia, and was the starting point for Abraham's journey to Canaan. ''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. (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 . (The date that Abram left the city of Ur and other patriarchs' timelines can be read here. Terah wanted to leave Ur because he was afraid a war would start. In our best moments, our faith is vibrant and vital, but in the moments of testing, it is weak and wanting. The faith to which we are called is not faith in a plan, but faith in a person. ------------------------------------------------------------. are patent descriptions/images in public domain? The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran and said to him, Depart from your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you (Acts 7:2-3). John 14:1-3). Answer Terah is known in the Bible as the father of Abram (known later as Abraham), who in turn received the covenant promise of God regarding the future birth of His Son, Jesus. The heroes of the Bible are men with like passions (James 5:17) and feet of clay. 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. We must remember that Cassuto, as a Jew, did not regard the New Testament to be authoritative. To our knowledge, he had no particular spiritual qualities which drew God to him. (r) Cartwright's Preacher's Travels, p. 14, 15. Wis. 13-15). Josephus says this, "Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran (his son), they all removed to Haran." "They came to Haran and dwelt there." Genesis 2:5). 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). Did Abraham meet Jacob as alluded in Hebrews 11:9? The second promise of the Abrahamic Covenant was that of a great nation coming from Abram. 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. Three major promises are contained in verses 2 and 3: a land; a seed; and a blessing. This land never belonged to Abram in his lifetime, even as God had said (15:13-16). 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. Haran was in the north, where Terah, Abraham's father, had taken him after Terah's father died (Genesis 11:27-32). 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). . 130 Cf. Terah, it seems, decided to stay in the northern Mesopotamian "city of Haran," (no connection with his son Haran) rather than continue the journey to Canaan, which was the family's original intent. (p) Itinerarium, p. 60. Terah set out on his journey, no doubt, as soon after the call of Abram as the preparatory arrangements could be made. 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. We have already seen that Abram was seventy-five years of age at the death of Terah. daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. Abram was called, that through him all the families of the earth might be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). 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. 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). 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. Why did God allow Lots daughters to later have sex with their father? The account that can be deduced from these four sources looks like this: Abe had had decisive contact from Shem, as is implied by the fact that Shem's autobiographical account (Genesis 11:10-23) ends with Abe. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell" Acts 7:2-4. they came unto Harantwo days' journey south-southeast from Ur, on the direct road to the ford of the Euphrates at Rakka, the nearest and most convenient route to Palestine. 129 Cyrus Gordon has suggested that the true Ur of Genesis 11:31 is to be found in northern Mesopotamia, probably northeast of Haran. Did Abraham receive a call to leave Ur as alluded to in Acts 7:2-4? 176. by Ray. Terah traveled 150 miles out of his way. 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. . 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. Genesis - NIV Application Commentary by John Walton. Now the promise to Abram was four hundred and thirty years before the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt Exodus 12:40. Hence, it follows that Isaac, his seed, was born thirty years after the call of Abram. Through all of his experiences he must come to see God as the origin of all that will endure. Stagers, Genesis, p . God had called him to gather his family and leave Ur behind. Once in the land of Canaan, the route taken by Abram is noteworthy. verse 6). Though proceeding by easy stages, the aged patriarch seems to have been exhausted by the length and the difficulty of the way. (n) Nat. There is no conflict here, since Haran was a CITY in the REGION known as Mesopotamia. The dispersion of the descendants of the sons of Noah, who had now grown into numerous families, was necessarily followed on the one hand by the rise of a variety of nations, differing in language, manners, and customs, and more and more estranged from one another; and on the other by the expansion of the germs of idolatry, contained in the different attitudes of these nations towards God, into the polytheistic religions of heathenism, in which the glory of the immortal God was changed into an image made like to mortal man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things (Romans 1:23 cf. Terah died in Haran (Genesis 11:32), so Abraham was free to follow that call. 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.) God has said that all men are sinners, deserving of, and destined to eternal punishment. 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.". The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 year. The inhabitants also of Ur had fallen into polytheism, or, if we may so speak, allotheism, the worship of other gods. How unlike mans ways are from Gods. d. What we do know, is that Terah NEVER LEFT Haran but died when the blessings were there . 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. Even to Noah He revealed Himself before the flood as one who was present on the earth. One year? 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. Why did God punish Pharaoh for Abrams lie (Genesis 12:17)? 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. Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 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. At least two things must be said in response to this question. Balaam He met in a human or angelic form, with a drawn sword in His hand (Numbers 22:22-23). 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. (k) Ibid. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? God providentially led Terah to pull up roots at Ur and to move toward Canaan (11:31). The force of these facts has been met by the assertion, that the ambassador perfectly represents the person of the sender; and evidence of this is adduced not only from Grecian literature, but from the Old Testament also, where the addresses of the prophets often glide imperceptibly into the words of Jehovah, whose instrument they are. - 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 need for spiritual purity surpassed the need for genetic purity at this particular point in time. 137 Now we can understand why the Torah stressed, in all their detail, Abrams journeys on entering the land of Canaan, at first as far as Schechem, and subsequently up to Ai-Bethel. How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts? (4) The Christian walk is rooted in the reliability of the Word of God. (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. But at the point of Abrams call, he was a man whose faith was meager; real, but meager. (o) -----------Miserando funere Crassus, Assyrias latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas. It is only when God wishes us to depart from the expected that we should look for guidance that is spectacular or unusual. In any event, Abraham "set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan" ( Gen 12:5 ). (m) Geograph. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! I would have assumed that Terah was a God-fearing man, who brought up his son, Abram, to believe in only one God, unlike the people of his day, but this was not so. Terah had still been an idolater, when God called Abe the first time. What are some tools or methods I can purchase to trace a water leak? 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. We must confine ourselves to the passages in which "the Angel of Jehovah" is actually referred to. Over 40 Old Testament references are made to Abraham. But it seems in Genesis only the call to leave Haran is recorded. And, most important, I can find hope for a person like myself. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his 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 should not find this discouraging, but consistent with our own reluctance to put our future on the line in active, aggressive, unquestioning faith. This covenant is the thread which ties the rest of the Old Testament together. (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. 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. 5: The fact that Genesis 11:10-31 is the record made by Shem. Such was true in Abrams 1ife.139 Such is the case with every believer. 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. And that brings us to the second reason. (j) Ut supra. Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. 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. That verse is not implying that God called Abe out of the blue, nor Abe at random of all persons. Thus, he seems to have rejected Stephens words flatly. He dare not become too attached to that which he cannot take with him. Such will be the case as we can look back upon our lives from the vantage point of time. 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. The surroundings were comfortable in the civilised city of Ur, so Terah may have been reluctant to leave. The pluperfect tense (had said) is both grammatically legitimate and exegetically necessary. 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. "Now these are the generations of Terah. 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. 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