CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 12:4. And Lot went with him] Kurtz understands that “God had not intended that Lot should join Abram on his journey. This (he says) is sufficiently manifest from his later history. But God allowed it, probably, from condescension to Abraham’s attachment to his family.” It would be more strictly proper to say that, as the narrative presents it, Lot joined the company of his own prompting, and not by Divine command, as in the case of Abram. It was, therefore, upon his own responsibility (Jacobus).—Seventy and five years old] Abram’s age at the second stage of his journey is now mentioned. Hence we can determine that he departed from Ur five years before.—
Genesis 12:5. All their substance that they had gathered] Heb. All their gain which they had gained. A term descriptive of property, whether in money, cattle, or any other kind of possessions.—And the souls they had gotten in Haran] Heb. And the souls which they did (or made). Nephesh, here used, denotes collectively the persons (servants) taken with them from Haran—as in Ezekiel 27:13. The Sept. renders it πασαν ψυχην, every soul. The verb to do, or make, here used, is rendered by the Sept. εκτησαντο, acquired—as Deuteronomy 8:17; Genesis 1:12. The Chald. renders, “All the souls he had subdued unto the law.” Some understand it, therefore, of proselytes made to the true religion from among the heathen at Haran. But the general sense which best suits the context is that of bond-servants, which Abram had acquired. These were gotten commonly by conquest, or by money. Here it seems to be the latter (Jacobus).—Gotten] Strictly, made, descriptive of the gain in slaves, male and female (Lange). Not only gotten, as secular property, but had made obedient to the law of the true God (Wordsworth).—
Genesis 12:6. The place of Sichem] Some understand the expression as meaning the neighbourhood of Sichem; others, of the site where it afterwards stood—speaking by way of anticipation. Most expositors regard the words, “the place of,” as redundant—the place Sichem. It may more likely mean “town or village of Shechem.” At the time of Jacob’s arrival here, after sojourning in Mesopotamia, Shechem was a Hivite city, of which Hamor, Shechem’s father, was chief man. And it was at this time that Jacob purchased from him “the parcel of ground” (of the field) which he gave to his son Joseph, where was Jacob’s well (John 4:5). The name means “shoulder” or “ridge” (Jacobus.) Shechem was one of the oldest towns in Palestine.—Plain of Moreh] The rugged and mountainous nature of the country seems to forbid the idea of any “plain” existing there. The best authorities render the Heb. alion Moreh, “the oak of Moreh.” The name may have been derived from its owner or planter. Oaks, from their great size and durability, would be convenient as landmarks in those early ages. They were also a meeting-place for the performance of religious rites.—And the Canaanite was then in the land] This notice was most probably added to show that the land was not empty at that time, but that the subsequent promise implied a displacement of inhabitants then in possession. Nothing can be more natural than such a notice; and there is not the slightest reason for supposing it to be an interpolation of later date than the narrative itself (Alford). These words note the great obstacle Abram had to contend with. “The author of Genesis evinces in this clause his knowledge of the Canaanites, pre-supposes their nature and character to be known in such a way as a late writer could not do” (Jacobus).—
Genesis 12:7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram] This remarkable phrase first occurs here. We know not in what manner God appeared to Abram, but in some way he felt that God spoke to him. “The possibility of God appearing to man is antecedently undeniable. The fact of his having done so proves the possibility. On the mode of His doing this it is vain for us to speculate” (Murphy).—Unto thy seed] Not unto thee. To Abram himself “He gave none inheritance in it; no, not so much as to set his foot on” (Acts 7:5) (Murphy).—Will I give this land] God at first signified His purpose of merely showing to Abram a distant land in which he was to sojourn; he now speaks of giving it, but not immediately to himself, but to his seed; doubtless for a further trial of his faith (Bush).—And there builded he an altar unto the Lord] In Shechem, as Jacob did afterwards (Genesis 23:20). Thus, by means of a religious act, he assumed the proprietorship of the land. The sanctuary stood here in the time of Joshua (Joshua 24:1; Joshua 24:25-26), and the law was proclaimed with blessings from Gerizim, and curses from Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:12; Joshua 8:33-35). Here, also, Joshua gave his parting counsels to the people (Joshua 24:1; Joshua 24:25).—
Genesis 12:8. And he removed from thence unto a mountain] Heb. mountainwards—indicating the nature of the district, and not any particular mountain. A similar expression in Genesis 19:30.—Bethel] This name signifies “house of God.” At this time the place was called Luz, and did not become Bethel until so named by Jacob after his vision (Genesis 28:19). “It does not appear that any town was ever built on the precise spot to which Jacob gave this name; but the appellation was afterwards transferred to the adjacent city of Luz, which thus became the historical Bethel. Modern researches have not been able clearly to identify the site of this ancient city; but there is a ruined village and monastery about eighteen miles south of Naplons or Shechem, and north of Jerusalem, which is generally supposed to indicate very nearly the spot” (Bush)—On the west] Heb. “from the sea,” or seaward. The expression rests upon the fact that the Mediterranean Sea was the western boundary of Canaan. In the same way, “the desert” is used for “the south” (Psalms 75:6), where “from the south” is the rendering of the Heb. “from the desert.”—Hai] Heb. The Ai. The word means, a heap of ruins. The H represents the Heb. definite article. It was a royal city of Canaan, and was the first taken by the Israelites after the passage of the Jordan (Joshua 7:3-5). The exact site is not known.—Called upon the name of the Lord] As “Jehovah.”—
Genesis 12:9. And Abram journeyed, going on still towards the South] Heb. “He broke up his encampment, going and pulling up southwards.” Thus he advanced from place to place by degrees, according to the customs of nomadic life; but his general direction was southwards. The fact is noticed in Hebrews 11:10.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 12:4-9
ABRAM ON HIS JOURNEY.—THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH
Faith in God implies something more than listening to His voice, and receiving as truth what He reveals. It is a living principle which must show itself in action. Abram is now on his journey in obedience to the command of God. We have here an instance of the belief of the heart, as distinguished from a mere intellectual assent. When a man believes with the heart, he acts upon that belief; he is full of energy, and to obey the will of God is his meat and drink—the means by which his true life is sustained. We have here an example of the obedience of faith.
I. It was prompt (Genesis 12:4). Abram had left Ur of the Chaldees, and now he must leave Haran, the place of his father’s sepulchre. Devotion to the memory of an aged parent might tempt him to linger there, but he obeys the stronger claims of God and presses forwards to the Promised Land. He breaks the closest ties of nature, and having just light enough to walk by—but not for full knowledge—he accepts the difficulties and trials of a life of faith. Like St. Paul, he acted upon his convictions at once, gave no opportunity for counter influences to operate, and “conferred not with flesh and blood.” There was in his obedience an appearance of hurry, of impetuosity. Worldly prudence imposes caution upon men in taking any new important step. Friends and interests have to be consulted, and probabilities of success must be calculated. A wise man, in the affairs of this life, will do nothing rashly. Hence the popular maxim that “second thoughts are best.” And that maxim is true when applied to ordinary affairs, for in these to act on the first impulse is unsafe. But this advice is not good when applied to matters which concern the soul. In those things which regard the conscience, first thoughts are the truest and best. He is a wise man in the things of this world who pauses to consider before he commits himself to any important step, but he is a foolish man who, in the things of the eternal world, delays between the thought and the action. When God commands, to delay is to be disobedient. Faith makes haste to obey. The children of faith, in serving God, are set free from all other masters. The authority under which they act is supreme, and therefore they have no need for deliberation. Such was Abram—ready to hear the Divine voice, prompt to obey it.
II. It was considerate of the interests of others. After the death of his father, Abraham took his providential place as the leader of the colony. He sought to urge others to obedience to the Divine will by the force of his authority, or by the milder influence of his example. He was known to his Maker as one who would command his household after him, and win them to the ways of righteousness. True piety is never selfish. He who has received the mercy of heaven catches the spirit of the Divine benevolence, and longs for others to share the same blessings. He partakes of that blessed Spirit whose chief attribute is liberality. Abraham was not content to be a solitary servant of God—to be absorbed in attention to the salvation of his own soul. Religion contemplates no man as an isolated portion of humanity, but rather in his relation to others. The fire of devotion is not only hot within, but resplendent without, giving light to all around. The lights of the world, like the sun, are public—they are intended to bless far and wide. The call of Abraham had regard to the spiritual interests of others. Religion implies society. Where “two or three are gathered together,” God is present to bless. It is not in lonely solitude that the righteous man enjoys the blessings of salvation; he partakes thereof with others. God designed to found a Church by means of His servant Abraham, who was thus to be a source of blessing to all nations. The life of faith acquires a sublime value by the consciousness that its blessings are shared by other souls.
1. The believer’s joy is increased. Religion is not a cold assent of the understanding, but engages the affections of the heart. When the heart is full, the joy that swells it must overflow.
2. The believer’s idea of God is enhanced. He thinks of the benevolence of God as plenteous and wide.
3. The believer’s faith is greatly strengthened. It is possible to imagine a faith so real and well-founded that a man could hold it against all the world. Still, he who is quite alone in his faith labours under great disadvantages. He is liable to many discouragements, and often tempted to doubt as to whether he is right. A man’s confidence is greatly increased when he meets with another believer. Religion in man requires the aid of society.
III. It was maintained in the midst of difficulties. To all human appearance, Abraham had little else than discouragement throughout the whole of his course. However much he might have been inwardly supported, an ordinary observer could not discern that he had received any real benefit from his belief in God.
1. He was a wanderer in the land which God had promised to give him. He has no estate or dominion there assigned to him, but travels about as a wanderer from place to place. This was a continual difficulty in the way of faith in a promise that God would give him that land to dwell in.
2. He is beset by enemies. “The Canaanite was then in the land” (Genesis 12:6). Others were already in possession, so that he could not pass through the country without challenge. One would have thought that, having received the Divine promise, which seemed to speak of temporal good in abundance, his way would have been made clear before him, and he would have but to rest and enjoy.
3. The Divine promise opened up for him no splendid prospect in this world. The land was to be given not to himself but to his “seed.” In the case of the patriarch himself the promise appeared to point to an earthly reward, but in reality had no such fulfilment. To Abraham himself “He gave none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on” (Acts 7:5). The promise referred to things remote and beyond the limits of his own earthly life. Here was faith which could trust in God against all appearances, and when denied of a present earthly reward. The children of this world are under the tyranny of the present. They believe that one now is worth many hereafters—one good actually in possession is worth more than a doubtful and late reversion. The faith of Abraham regarded a prospect higher than this world. It was enough for him that God had spoken and He would fulfil His word in His own way.
IV. It respected the outward forms of piety. Abraham was not satisfied with private devotion—with those exercises of the soul, which, though true and real, are invisible to others. He made a public profession and exhibition of his faith. He “built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8). Of such an action we may say—
1. It was unworldly. When the men of this world find a fruitful plain, they build a city and a tower to enhance their own greatness, and to transmit their fame to coming generations. The children of faith make it the first duty to raise an altar to God. They regard all things as consecrated to Him whose they are, and whom they serve. The action of Abraham in building an altar amounted to the taking possession of the land for God. Thus the believer holds the gifts of Providence as the steward of them, and not as their possessor.
2. It satisfied a pious instinct which meets some of the difficulties of devotion. It is difficult for man to realise the invisible without the aid of the visible. Hence the pious in all ages have built places in which to worship God. This arises from no desire to limit God in space; but in order that men might feel that He is present everywhere, they must feel that He is specially present somewhere. God meets man by coming down to his necessity.
3. It was a public profession of his faith. Abraham was not one of those who hid the righteousness of God in his heart. He made it known to all around him by outward acts of devotion. Such conduct glorifies God, and gives religion the advantage that is derived from the corporate life of those who profess it.
4. It was an acknowledgement of the claims of God. By building an altar and calling upon the name of the Lord, Abraham confessed that all claims were on the side of God and not on that of man. He confessed that sin requires expiation, and that all true help and reward must come to man from above. The only religion possible to man is that of penitence and faith.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 12:4. Obedience to the utmost of the Word of God is the necessary issue of a sound faith.—(Hughes.)
The rule of the believer’s life is what God has spoken. The Divine word directs him in the way.
No sooner did Abraham receive the Divine command than he obeyed it. When acting in the ordinary affairs of life, and from mere worldly considerations, prudence may dictate delay, and the propriety of consulting friendly advice, but when the call is evidently from above, when the direction is clearly from God, to be dilatory is to be disobedient. Faith is prompt in compliance, and makes haste to execute the will of our Heavenly Master. Though the journey to be undertaken was above three hundred miles in length, and rendered formidable by deserts, high mountains, and thick forests, yet the patriarch implicitly puts himself under the conduct of that Providence whose summons had called him forth, and following its leadings bade defiance to difficulty and danger. (Bush.)
Every true believer longs for companions in his faith.
“So Abram departed.” So starts the spirit of faith. Long is the struggle to leave “father’s house.” To go forth “not knowing whither we go,” is trial enough. To go forth from “Father’s house” at once seems impossible. Thus the old man of our fallen spiritual life, though it cannot really help us to Canaan, is still clung to. Indeed, at first it seems to help us. It is written, not Abram took Terah, but “Terah took Abraham;” for often some energy which is really corrupt is active, apparently in a good direction, when the elect is called. But Terah never passes Jordan; he can reach Chanan, no further. Having got thus far he has been long enough pilgrim, “he dwells there.” … Once with the old man leading us we went forth to go into the land of Canaan; but we only got to Chanan and dwelt there. But the old man was buried; then again we started to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan we came.—(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)
Genesis 12:5. He who shows the obedience of faith is fitted to be a leader of other souls.
Piety moves along the lines of natural affection. A man may desire most of all the salvation of his own household, without deserving the imputation of narrowness and partiality.
No great spiritual work is wrought in any soul without affecting many others.
Though the sense of “making proselytes” is not conveyed by the words in their primary meaning, yet they are expressly thus rendered in the Jerusalem Targum; and the Chaldee paraphrase has, “All the souls which he had subdued unto the law,” and the fact that Abraham is afterwards said to have had three hundred and eighteen trained (Heb. catechised) servants in his house, as well as his acknowledged character as a pious man, makes the supposition altogether probable. The true sense of the phrase, at any rate, so nearly approximates to this, that we cannot hesitate to adduce the example of Abraham as an admonition to us, that, wherever the providence of God shall place us, there we are to labour to be “makers of souls,” to gain proselytes to our Heavenly Master, to increase to the utmost the number of those who shall devote themselves to His fear and service.—(Bush).
Faith moveth souls only to the Land of Promise. Such was Canaan, Hebrews 11:9; good in itself, Deuteronomy 8:7-9; Ezekiel 20:6; Jehovah’s Land, Hosea 9:3; Holy Land, Zechariah 2:12; Land of Immanuel, Isaiah 8:8; a type of heaven, Hebrews 11:9-10.—(Hughes).
Genesis 12:6. Pilgrimage is noticed first. Abram dwells in tents to the end, possessing nothing here save a burial place. And the spirit in us, which obeys God’s call, will even yet dwell in tents and be a pilgrim. The old man may rest in outward things and be settled, but the spirit of faith has here no certain dwelling-place. Its tent is often stretched by rains and winds; yet the spirit of faith lives, and by these very trials is kept from many snares. For the called one cannot be as Moab, “settled on his lees.” “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, he hath settled on his lees, he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remaineth in him, his scent is not changed” (Jeremiah 48:11). Abram, and David, and Israel, have all been emptied from vessel to vessel. Pilgrimage is their appointed lot, because true life is always progressing, moving. In the course of this discipline, trials befall them which others never meet with; failures, too, are seen, such as we never see in the prudent worldly man. When did Nahor go down to Egypt, or deny his wife? When did Saul, like David, go down to Achish, and play the madman? But in this same course God is seen, and man is learnt.—(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)
The children of faith are but pilgrims in this world. Others are in possession of the land: they are bound elsewhere.
The believer should follow the command of God, though, to all human appearance, no definite end be reached. A strong faith should be able to bear the utmost trial.
This first halting place of Abram and his household in the Land of Promise was the “City of Samaria, called Sychar,” where Our Lord sowed the early seeds of His Gospel doctrine in His conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4:5); and it was the same place at which Philip first preached in the transition of the Christian Church from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 7:5), where it should be rendered “a city of Samaria”—the phrase being the very same in the Greek as in John 4:5—(Jacobus).
The enemies of God are still in the land through which we pass in our faith’s journey. The believer is more than a pilgrim on the earth, he is also a stranger.
Genesis 12:7. He who created the spirit of man can have access to it in whatever way it pleases Him.
God does more than act upon men by the outward circumstances of life. He can appear to the spirit of man and impress it by His presence and His word.
“And the Lord appeared unto Abram.” A reference to various other passages where a similar event is described, leads to the belief that such manifestations were vouchsafed for the most part in dreams and visions of the night, when supernatural revelations were made in such a way as to carry the evidence of their Divinity along with them. But until we know more of the nature of spirits and of the mode of spiritual communications, we must be content to abide in comparative ignorance on this whole matter. Certain it is that that Almighty power which has raised our bodies from the dust, which has formed the eye and planted the ear, and whose inspiration hath given us understanding, can avail itself of any avenue that it pleases to reach the sentient spirits of His creatures, whether in their sleeping or waking moments, and impart the knowledge of His will. To the pious and humble mind it will be matter rather of devout admiration and praise than of curious research, that the Father of our spirits is thus pleased to manifest His presence in the secret chambers of the soul, and by unknown channels to infuse strength, peace, confidence, and refreshing joy into the hearts of His servants, who are disposed to make sacrifices and to encounter perils for His sake. The Scriptures teem with assurance to such that they, like Abraham, shall not fail of their reward, even in the present life.—(Bush.)
In the deepest trials God often manifests Himself most clearly. If the call of faith seems hard to flesh and blood, the warrant of it will be made all the stronger. The revelation of God is graduated to the needs of the soul.
When God is seen by the inner eye, then only has a man true spiritual knowledge. All other religion but that which is in this way derived is but the religion of tradition or authority; and does not rest upon that real knowledge of the truth which comes of the vision of God. The “inspiration of the Almighty” is the source of man’s understanding and true wisdom.
God reveals Himself and His purposes gradually, so rewarding one degree of faith as to beget another. The land was first shown to Abraham, and afterwards the promise was uttered that God would give it to him.
“There he builded an altar unto the Lord.”
1. The spiritual feelings of the soul express themselves in outward acts of devotion.
2. The gifts of God should be consecrated to His service. Noah thus consecrated the new world, and now Abraham the Land of Promise.
3. The believer should assure himself of a title to his inheritance. Abraham, by building an altar, took possession of the land on the ground of the right secured to him by faith. However poor and unpromising the prospect around us, we can secure our title to the heavenly Canaan.
As he went along he erected altars to commemorate the mercies of God, and to remind his posterity that this was really their own land. Here we have that strange feeling of human nature, the utter impossibility of realising the invisible except through the visible. Churches, what are they built for? To limit God and bind Him down to space? or to explain God to us, to enable us to understand Him, and to teach us that not there only, but in every place He is present? Consider then what the land of Canaan became. Gradually it was dotted over with these stones, teaching the Israelites that it was a sacred land. What these stones did for the Israelites our memory does for us; it brings back in review our past life. Remember, I pray you, what that life will be to you when it all appears again. Blessed, thrice blessed, is the man to whom life is as it was to Abram, dotted over with memorials of communion with God. But your life—that guilty thought and act, that unhallowed feeling—dare you see it come before you again? I pray you remember that this return of all the past, to memory, in the day when God shall judge your life, is no dream, but one of the things that must be hereafter.—(Robertson.)
Wherever he had a tent God had an altar, and an altar sanctified by prayer.—(Henry.)
Abraham erected an altar.
1. As a protest against the idolatry around him. He was everywhere surrounded by idolatrous neighbours, and it was due to his high calling to show allegiance to the true God. As the Canaanites were a fierce and proud people he would thereby expose himself to persecution. But he would not deny God even at the peril of his life.
2. As a pious example to his household. He was a man of some social distinction—the lord of a large household. We hear afterwards of his having “three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his own house.” How great must have been the influence of his example upon these! They saw continually before them a hero of the faith who was not ashamed to confess the true God, amidst the ridicule and scorn of the heathen around him.
3. As a recognition of an atoning sacrifice for sin. Ever since the Fall all worship had to take account of the fact that sin requires expiation. “Though nothing is here stated of sacrificial offering yet the building of an altar fairly implies this.”—(Jacobus.)
On the hill east of this sacred ground Abram built another altar, and called upon the name of the Lord. Here we have the reappearance of an ancient custom instituted in the family of Adam after the birth of Enoch (Genesis 4:26). Abram addresses God by His proper name Jehovah, with an audible voice in his assembled household. This, then, is a continuation of the worship of Adam with additional light according to the progressive development of the moral nature of man.—(Murphy).
It is the characteristic of the members of the true Church of God that they call upon His name.
Genesis 12:9. We may on various occasions change places, provided we carry the true religion with us; in this we must never change.—(Fuller).
Abraham pulled up and pitched his tent, from point to point, during the course of his journey. Such is our condition as Christians. We have here “no continuing city,” but are moving towards a permanent home. We do not dwell in tents, but our habitations in this world are sufficiently moveable to remind us that our true rest is not here. There is no fixity in our human life. Our houses change their inhabitants often, and we are passing on to other scenes.
To all points, East, and West, and South, God orders the motions of the saints, to leave some savour of His truth everywhere.—(Hughes).
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Abram and History! Genesis 12:1-20.
(1) The unchanged habits of the East, says Stanley, render it a kind of living Pompeii. The outward appearances, which, in the case of the Greeks and Romans, we knew only through art and writing—through marble, fresco, and parchment—in the case of Jewish history we know through the forms of actual men living and moving before us, wearing the same garb, speaking almost the same language as Abram and the patriarchs.
(2) From Ur of the Chaldees, remarks Landels, comes forth, in one sense, the germ of all that is good throughout succeeding generations. His appearance, like that of some great luminary in the heavens, marks an epoch in the world’s history. A stream of influence flows from him—not self-originated, but deriving its existence from those heaven-clouds of Divine dew of blessing resting upon this lofty summit of his soul.
(3) Widening as it flows, and promoting, in spite of the occasional checks and hindrances it meets with, spiritual life and health, that stream is vastly more deserving of exploration and research than the streams of the Lualaba and Niger, or the sources of the Nile and Zambesi. Such exploration and research will be productive of incalculable benefit to those who engage therein with right motives and aspirations.
“Truth springs like harvest from the well-ploughed field,
And the soul feels it has not searched in vain.”—Bonar.
Father of Faithful! Genesis 12:1-9. Here we have—
1. The Call (Genesis 12:1);
2. The Command (Genesis 12:1);
3. The Covenant (Genesis 12:2);
4. The Conditions (Genesis 12:3);
5. The Compliance (Genesis 12:4);
6. The Conversion (Genesis 12:7); and
7. The Considerations.—The call was from God. The command was to leave his native land. The covenant was protection and preservation, etc. The condition was that of simple trust and confidence. The compliance was that Abraham journeyed first to Haran, thence to Canaan. The conversion of Abraham was evidently the erection of the “altar,” erected wherever he pitched his tent. And the considerations are
(1) That God calls and commands each of the sons of men to come out from a world lying in wickedness, and make life a pilgrimage to heaven.
(2) That God covenants and conditions with each of the sons of men obeying this call to crown their lives with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
(3) That God counts and compensates for all sacrifices and sufferings endured in complying with His call with the Crown of Life that fadeth not away.
“One of the chivalry of Christ! He tells us how to stand
With rootage like the palm, amid the maddest whirl of sand.”—Massey.
Abram’s Call! Genesis 12:4.
(1) The Talmud, in face of Genesis 12, asserts that Abram left Ur on account of Nimrod’s attempt to kill him. The king’s design, however, was frustrated by Eleazar, a slave of Abram, whom Nimrod had presented to him. He told Abram of the king’s dream—of the interpretation which the wise men put upon it—and of the king’s design to kill him. So Abram hastened to the house of Noah, and remained there hiding while the servants of the king searched his own home and the surrounding country in vain, and he remained a longer time—even until the people had forgotten him. Then Abram said to Therach, his father, “Let us all journey to another land; let us go to Canaan.” And Noah and his son Shem added their entreaties to his, until Therach consented to do as they wished. And they went forth to Charran.
(2) The Scripture asserts a Divine call. It assures us that this Divine call did not include the name of the land to which he would take them. It authorises the belief that Abram obeyed God’s command in simple faith, i.e., in entire ignorance of the “where.” And it associates Charran with Abram’s emigration only so long as Terah lived. The puerilites and perversions of the Talmudic Tales bear on their faces their own condemnation as false witnesses; whereas God’s word has on it the impress of truth.
“Pure is the Book of God, with sweetness filled;
More pure than massive, unadulterate gold;
More sweet than honey from the rock distilled.”—Mant.
Obedience of Faith! Genesis 12:4.
(1) Suppose a man were to build a tower without any foundation, intending to place the foundations on the roof. What would happen it is easy to surmise. The fabric would very soon give way. Many do this in spiritual things. They place “the foundations of faith” upon the superstructure of obedience. It is obedience that must rise up on the basis of faith. “Trust in God and do the right,” is a wise maxim; but some make the proverb an inverted pyramid. Place Pharaoh’s great pyramid on its apex, and we can easily conceive the result. Abram first believed, then obeyed God.
(2) “Hasten onward with your troop to yonder ravine; hold your ground there until I arrive with the main body of the army.” Such were the orders of the great general to one of his brigadier officers, and he was obeyed. But whence sprang the subaltern’s obedience? He trusted his general’s “Until I arrive with the main body of the army.” Faith was not the blossom, it was the root, and obedience the flower. Abram’s obedience—so prompt and perfect—had its root in Divine trust. Believing God, he obeyed, and went forth, not knowing whither.
“Yes! strong in faith I tread the uneven ways,
And bare my head unshrinking to the blast;
And if the way seems rough, I only clasp
The hand that leads me with a firmer grasp.”—Lynch.
Moral Emigration! Genesis 12:5.
(1) When Abram announced his determination to go forth, his keen-sighted friends doubtless inquired to what land he was directed. But the intending emigrant knew not. They would suggest that all might be a delusion; or that it might be far off, and the way perilous; or that, even should it be reached, he might find it a bleak and inhospitable desert. But Abram trusted God on all points.
(2) When Bunyan allegorized the sinner’s call from the City of Destruction, he fully realised its analogy to that of Abram. To the dwellers in the “City of Destruction” the “Promised Land” was more or less a doubtful realm—if not doubtful in its existence, certainly so in its locality and characteristics. But the moral pilgrim would not be deterred from the Divine emprise. He trusted God on all points.
(3) When a young man receives the Divine call to forsake a world lying in wickedness, and become a stranger and sojourner in the earthly land of “promise and grace,” what efforts are put forth by friends to dissuade him from such an emigration. Many, alas! have failed in the fiery ordeal. They have not been able to resist the plausible insinuations, the subtle surmises of professed friends. They have not trusted God on all points.
“Faith feels the Spirit’s kindling breath
In love and hope, that conquer death;
Faith brings us to delight in God,
And blesses e’en His smiting rod.”
Canaan Route! Genesis 12:5. Westward they went. Two days’ travel would bring them to the border of the Euphrates, which would be about ten or twelve feet deep. On rafts of skin, Abraham’s goods and chattels would be carried to the western bank; or he may have used boats—circular boats, “round like a shield,” as an old historian describes them—built of willow boughs, covered with skins and smeared with bitumen. Once on the west side, a seven days’ journey would bring him to Aleppo. The Arabs have a tradition that Aleppo derives it name from “haleb,” because Abraham’s servants here milked the kine to give to the poor inhabitants. Thence Abraham would proceed to Damascus, and southward to Canaan by way of the beautiful upland district of Gilead and Bashan. On his way, from crag and peak, the pilgrim would catch many a glance of the “Home of his pilgrimage.”
“From every mountain’s rugged peak
The promised land I view;
And from its fields of fragrant bloom
Come breezes laden with perfume,
To fan my weary brow.”
Moreh! Genesis 12:6. Abraham crossed, no doubt, at the ford of Bethabara. Here would rise before him a stretch of mountain country, several thousand feet high. The only way to enter upon it would be by the ravines of the watercourses, known as the wadys. These are steep and winding, and often narrow. Most of them are dry, except in the rainy season. But sometimes they widen out into little valleys and strips of meadow, with a spring gushing up. One of these wadys opens with a beautiful rich plain, and as it leads to the place of Sichem probably this was Abraham’s selected route. One translation says that Abram came to the “plain,” but the Hebrew word is “oak” of Moreh, a little plain between the rocky ridges known as Ebal and Gerisim. No more beautiful and fertile region could the patriarch have selected for his pilgrim tent and altar.
“The fresh young leaves on the hoar oak trees
Quivered and fluttered in glee;
And the merry rills from the mighty hills
Shouted his lullaby.”—Schönberg.
Divine Repetitions! Genesis 12:7.
(1) In many aspects there is a remarkable parallel between this portion of Genesis and the Gospel narratives of the New Testament. Here we have the Son of God calling Abraham, first in Ur, then in Haran. In the life of David we have this reiteration, so to speak, of Divine will, a reiteration apparent in the prophetic calls. In the New Testament we have the Son of Man calling the disciples twice over at the beginning of His ministry, and again twice over after His resurrection. Even in the Acts of the Apostles Paul seems to have had a similar double call. The same Divine repetitions reappear in the Apocalyptic annals of the Patmos seer.
(2) The spiritual lesson is that God’s Holy Spirit often repeats His call—the second being in more emphatic and explicit terms. It has been suggested that Abraham was remiss in complying with the call in Ur, hence its repetition in Haran. But this is mere conjecture. The analogy of faith is progressive—a fuller development of the Divine ideal and intention. The captain gives his soldiers a general apprehension of his design and their duty, and on the march he more fully unfolds his design and unveils their duty.
“So, darkness in the pathway of man’s life
Is but the shadow of God’s providence,
By the great sun of wisdom cast thereon,
And what is dark below is light in heaven.”—Whittier.
Promised Possession! Genesis 12:7.
(1) Old Canaan was a very nice country. Yet in itself it was scarcely worth while promising in possession. It was nothing to the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar, of Cyrus, of Alexander, of the Cæsars, or of the sovereigns of England. “Is it not, therefore,” asks Gibson, “perfectly obvious that the ‘promised possession’ was not the gift of so many acres, but of a land separated from the nations, from heathenism, from the wickedness of a corrupt world. And that for the ‘world’s sake.’ ”
(2) It was the Lord’s startling statement to the proud children of Abram after the flesh, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.” Messiah’s day had begun in Abraham’s day; the patriarch saw it, and was glad. The day of salvation was scanned by Abram on hope’s lofty summit by faith’s eye, as Moses surveyed the promised land from Nebo’s towering height. “This land” expanded and widened out into the “renewed world.” He beheld the fertile and fruitful fields of the Messianic land of grace.
“He heard the promise as one hears
The voice of waters through a wood;
And Faith foreran th’ appointed years,
And grasp’d the substance of the good.”
Heart-Hunger! Genesis 12:8.
(1) The amœlia, a small jellyfish or speck, driven by its instinctive craving, searches for that in the environment which is fitted to its use. It then makes its whole self into a stomach to wrap about the food which it has secured. Under excitement from this instinctive craving, the locusts go forth in bands, and, braver than the Amazonian warriors of Ashantee, scale walls and smother with their dead bodies the fires which are lit to oppose their progress. In the world of struggling races, this instinctive unrest acts like a mighty hammer to spread out the nations, and fuse them under its blows. This craving, pure and simple, is constitutional, and, therefore, Divine in its origin. In the case of man, the introduction of sin, while it has distorted that craving, has intensified the hunger.
(2) The traditions, therefore, about Abram have doubtless a solid substratum of truth. Abram craved after God. His heart hungered after a knowledge of God. Augustine of Milan tells of a “deep-seated craving” which he long tried to satisfy. Such was the heart-hunger of Abram when God revealed Himself as the true and satisfying food. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon the earth that I desire in comparison of Thee.” When Abram fed upon this knowledge of God he was satisfied. We do not say that “heart-hunger” ceased. Far otherwise. Each feast of the heart upon Divine knowledge whetted the appetite for more, while it furnished strength and ministered satisfaction.
“Still, still without ceasing.
I feel it increasing,
This hunger of holy desire.”—Guyon.
Travelling South! Genesis 12:9.
(1) There are in this country about forty-five species, says Neil, of the orchis. All these plants are pilgrim-travellers. The early purple, Orchis Mascula, every year throws out a new bulb or tubercule, always on the side towards the south. By this means it always changes its position, and little by little advances to the southward. It thus steadily travels on to the bright home of this family of flowers in the tropics—the cloudless land of sun.
(2) And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. The soul, which has heaven for its home patiently grows heavenward—growing up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Southward from the cold, bleak wastes of worldly conformity—southward to the warm haunt of everlasting flowers—the land of unclouded sunshine.
“So live that you each year may be,
While time glides softly by,
A little farther from the earth,
And nearer to the sky.”
Pilgrim Purpose! Genesis 12:9.
(1) Dwellers in houses are exposed to dangers such as the dwellers in tents do not fear. Passive waters become stagnant, while the ruffled waves abide incorrupt. Abram’s tent was often searched by winds and rains; yet he was safe from the stagnancy of city life. The gipsy knows little or nothing of the fevers associated with settled dwellings of brick and stone. Moab’s ease leads to Moab’s being settled on his lees; whereas, Israel by captivity learns what is in his heart towards God, and what is in God’s heart towards him.
(2) Abram’s tent-life was a Divine purpose. It was linked with the encountering of storms and tempests. But the lofty pine of Norway becomes statelier, and strikes its roots more firmly amid the crevices of the mountains, the more the breezes battle amid its spreading boughs. “If my life has been one of trouble, it has also been one of much spiritual blessing. I gained more strength and acquired more knowledge from my varying experience of calm and storm, than otherwise I should. It is through the Divine mercy.”
“Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance,
Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream:
But grasped in the great struggle of the soul,
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.”—Bonar.