This chapter leaves them about mid-way between Ur and Canaan, where they dwelt till Terah's death. He came in the same form to Gideon, and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah with a staff in His hand (Judges 6:11 and Judges 6:21); also to Manoah's wife, for she took Him to be a man of God, i.e., a prophet, whose appearance was like that of the Angel of Jehovah (Judges 13:6); and lastly, to Manoah himself, who did not recognise Him at first, but discovered afterwards, from the miracle which He wrought before his eyes, and from His miraculous ascent in the flame of the altar, that He was the Angel of Jehovah (Judges 13:9-20). 5: The fact that Genesis 11:10-31 is the record made by Shem. One year? Abram came from a pagan home. Josephus says this, "Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran (his son), they all removed to Haran." 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. 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. Cassuto has suggested that the places mentioned (Shechem, Bethel, the Negev) are significant. 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. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! Terah was the son of Nahor, who was of Noah's son's Shem's line. And that brings us to the second reason. For unknown reasons, Terah never made it to their destination but stopped and settled in Harran instead. we get two critically different instances in which God told Abe to go to Canaan without his father's household. 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. 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. Exodus 13:21. 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. 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). No stop along the path was irrelevant or without purpose. The surroundings were comfortable in the civilised city of Ur, so Terah may have been reluctant to leave. Many reach to Charran, and yet fall short of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come thither. Though proceeding by easy stages, the aged patriarch seems to have been exhausted by the length and the difficulty of the way. (l) Hist. He had twelve chief gods, one for each month of the year, and other idols. Terah started out well (11:31), journeyed about four months, probably stopped at Babylon and then did something very strange. So Terah had two reasons to leave the city of Ur of the Chaldees. Did Terah go to Canaan because God spoke to Abram?". 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. But Terah was influenced by other motives to put himself at the head of this movement. l. 1. v. 105. They followed the Euphrates River, with their herds, to the Paddan Aram region. 134 Cassuto, the great Jewish scholar disagrees. The former appears to us to be the only scriptural view. The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 year. Having said this, I do not wish to glorify Abrams faith either, for as we shall see, it was initially very weak. Rather, your question should be: why did Abraham leave Haran. Terah had still been an idolater, when God called Abe the first time. It's A Mystery Until This Day Terah turned north of his route to Canaan. It was not in Haran, as a casual reading of Genesis 12 might incline us to believe, but in Ur. Five years? Much of Abrams first moves were neither purposeful nor pious, but rather were a more passive response to external forces. 58-64. Ur was a large and prosperous city-state in Mesopotamia (present-day southern Iraq). So, according to that oral history, Abe one day waited for Terah to go out of Terah's idol-making shop, and then Abe smashed all the idols except the biggest one that stood prominently in the corner of the shop. Why was Abraham promised land that belonged to others (Genesis 12)? God told Abram to leave without knowing where the path of obedience would lead, but believing that God was leading as he went. 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. When Terah died, Abraham was free to set out from Haran on his way to Canaan. There are nearly 75 references to him in the New Testament. 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. The giants of the faith seem to be sterling characters with no evident flaws, with machine-like discipline, and unfaltering faith. God is not only sovereign in salvation, but sovereign in the process of sanctification. That is what is implied in the Jewish oral tradition about Abe. Jacob, after his return from Paddan-aram, came first to Shechem (33:18). Ur was in the southern part of Mesopotamia, and was the starting point for Abraham's journey to Canaan. The land, as we have already said, is implied in verse 1. 3, app.). Anyone who then wanted to join Abe to go on to Canaan was up to them. Twenty years? Terah wanted to leave Ur because he was afraid a war would start. That's why they, including Abe and his wife, settled in Haran: they settled there in order to allow their father to live out the rest of his very old life in peace and ease. God said it. Secondly, consistent with this approach, the author does not stress the timing of Abrams obedience. (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. A priest implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the country. Question:Clive wrote"I really enjoyed your Bible study. Abrams life is a growth in faith developed under delayed fulfillment of divine promises. Terah took him out of Ur (Genesis ch.11). In particular, I want to underscore the process which God employed to strengthen Abrams faith and make him the godly man he became. The incongruity of God's covenant with Abram in Gen 12:1? 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. ), or of "Elohim," and the "angel of Elohim" (Genesis 21:17; Genesis 31:11, etc. 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. 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. The family were in the city of Haran for five years. (m) Geograph. Hence, his desire to keep up his connection with Abram, who was called of God. 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 James referred to Abraham as a man who demonstrated his faith to men by his works (James 2:21-23). 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. This promise demanded faith on the part of Abram, for it was obvious that he was already aged, and that Sarai, his wife, was incapable of having children (11:30). When Sarah died, he had to buy a portion of the land for a burial site (23:3ff.). 63-64. But we know from Stephens words that the call came to Abram at Ur (Acts 7:2). Pharaoh, for example, was blessed by exalting Joseph. He believes that the land is thus divided into three regions: one extending from the northern border to Shechem, the second from Shechem as far as Bethel, and the third from Bethel to the southern boundary.136. 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. Since Abram was unwilling or unable to leave his fathers house, God took Abrams father in death (11:32). Genesis 21:16-21. They lived in a city called Ur . There may well have been political or economic factors which made such a move expedient, apart from any spiritual considerations. "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). Terah is mentioned in Jesus' genealogy in Luke 3:34. 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. Terah is identified as the person who arranged and led the family to embark on a mysterious journey to Canaan. According to the biblical book of Genesis, Abraham left Ur, in Mesopotamia, because God called him to found a new nation in an undesignated land that he later learned was Canaan. At both Shechem and Bethel he built altars, like Abram, his grandfather (33:20; 35:7). However, Abraham discouraged potential customers from buying the idols, explaining to them the futility of worshipping statues that were only fashioned that very day. 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