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 shew thee:
Ver. 1. Now the Lord had said to Abram.] But was not this to command him to do that which was against nature? No, but only against corrupt nature, which must be denied, and mortified, or there is no heaven to be had. Father and friends must be hated (that is, not loved, as "Esau have I hated"), where they hang in our light, or stand in our way to keep us from Christ. Mat 10:37
Get thee out of thy country.] This is a hard saying to flesh and blood; for, Nescio qua natale solum ,& c. But hard or not hard, it must be done, because God bids it; and difficulty, in such a case, doth but whet on heroic spirits, making them the more eager and resolute. It pleased David well to be set to fetch a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. God's kingdom must be taken by violence. It is but a delicacy to dream of coming there in a featherbed. Too many, with Joseph, dream of their preferment, but not of their imprisonment. He that will be Christ's disciple here, and co-heir hereafter, must deny himself; that is an indispensable duty. Abram was old-excellent at it.
And from thy kindred, and father's house.] Who set out fair with Abram - as did likewise Orphah with Ruth - but settled in Haran, which was also in Chaldea, not far from Ur, and would go no farther, after the old man's death. There they had feathered their nests, gathered substance, and got souls, that is servants; Gen 12:4 and, therefore, there they would set up their staff, and afterwards turned again to idolatry. Genesis 31:30 ; Gen 31:53 Jos 24:2 Many follow God as Samson did his parents, till he light upon a honeycomb; or as a dog doth his master, till he meet with carrion; and then turn him up. Demas forsook God, and embracing this present world, became afterwards a priest in an idol-temple, as Dorotheus tells us.
Unto a land that I will show thee.] Yet told him not whither, till he was upon the way, but "called him to his foot," Isa 41:2 that is, to follow him, and his direction. Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit, saith Seneca. Eundum quocunque Deus vocarit, saith another, etiamsi in ea loca migrandum esset -
“ Pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor aestiva recreatur aura:
Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque
Iupiter urget .”