God Calls Abram

Welcome! To Our Ancient Future Story: Navigating Scripture Through the Eyes of Family. Where I share with you, Biblical stories, as a family member would tell a story around the dinner table. As children of God, we are a part of God’s family, and His family story has a lot of history. Each week, we will take one story and talk about it, the cultural, historical, geographical, and sociological impacts. We will be looking at these stories from the perspective of our ancestors, through the lens of ancient times, in hopes of learning more about our family. This is Our Ancient Future Story.

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Hello everyone, I’m Vic, Welcome to Our Ancient Future Story! I am so excited that you are here! We have a great story we are going to dive into today! I wanted to start off by talking to you about beginnings. This beginning may look a little bit different than the one your use to, because it starts in the middle of an even bigger story. When we think about the beginning of the Bible we immediately think about Creation and Fall of mankind. But the beginning of God’s family starts in a different place. It starts in Genesis chapter 12 where God speaks to Abraham for the first time. And this is the story we will be talking about today. 

 [HISTORICAL FUN FACT: At this point in the story Abraham went by Abram, and his wife, Sarah went by Sarai. So, I will be referring to them by those names, until we reach their official name change in Genesis 17.] 

 But before we dive into our story, I wanted to catch us up on where our story today takes place in our family tree. If you listened to our last episode, we broke down the genealogy from Adam to Jesus. Today we are going form Adam to Abraham. There are many, many people in our family between Genesis 1 and Genesis 12. And I want to take a moment and refresh our memories of them. This part may be a little technical but hang with me, because I promise it will help us see how all of our family stories fit together. 

 So, first on our family tree is ADAM and EVE. They had a son named SETH. His Great-great-great-grandson was ENOCH. Enoch’s son was named METHUSELAH. 

 Before Methuselah died, he had a son named, LAMECH. Lamech’s son was the infamous NOAH. Noah had three boys, SHAM, Ham, and Japheth. Today we will follow the line of Sham. 

After the flood Sham fathered many children, and seven generations later, a man named TERAH was born. Terah was born in the part of the world known as the Fertile Crescent. Specifically, in the Region of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates River. This region was known as the Fertile Crescent because surrounding it, is nothing but desert. But here in this land, people, animals, and plants could live and grow, without the harsh climates of the desert. Due to the seemly perfect living conditions, many people settled in villages in this region. 

 Terah dwelt in the land of Ur of Chaldeans, a city in the Region of what would become Babylon. Here he fathered three sons, ABRAM, Nahor, and Haran. Haran died at an early age, but Abram and Nahor both took wives. Nahor married Milcah and Abram married SARAI, who was barren. Terah moved his whole family from Ur of the Chaldeans and headed for the land of Canaan, by way of the Fertile Crescent. This is the same Canaan that God would later promise Abraham to possess. But before they arrived, they came to a city of Haran and settled there. And this is where we pick up our first story, of when God calls Abram.

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 Abram, who is now 75 years old, is living in Haran with his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. One day Abram heard the LORD say "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So, Abram went. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions and headed for the land that God would show them. They left not knowing where they were going, they blindly followed the LORD. They traveled south through the land of Canaan and took a pit stop in Shechem, and set up camp by a tree, known as the Oak of Moreh. At this time, the Canaanites Inhabited this land. 

[HISTORICAL FUN FACT: For those of you who may not know, the Canaanites were the descendants of Canaan. Remember Noah and his three sons Sham, Ham, and Japheth? Ham is the father of Canaan. During this time, it was not uncommon for a person or family to name the land they inhabited after themselves.] 

 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land."  In response Abram built an alter to the LORD. [SIDE NOTE: Alters were usually built after one has had a spiritual encounter. But more on that later.] From his campsite in Shechem, Abram continued south. He camped between Bethel and Ai, set up an altar, and worshiped the LORD. Then Abram journeyed on towards the Negev. which would become the southernmost region Israel. 

And that is where our story for today ends. Abram and Sarai on this journey of following the LORD. They are the beginning of God’s redemptive plan to bring his son Jesus into the world. Jesus would be born as a baby in a manger, grow up living a perfect life, die for the sins of all humanity, and rise again, opening the door for all people to have perfect unity with God again. What was broken in the Garden, would ultimately be redeemed through Abram and Sarai’s family tree. They just didn’t know it yet.

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 So, let’s dig into our story a little bit. It opens with God coming to Abram, who is now 75 years old, and telling him, go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and your family will be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. In hearing this, Abram, picks up his family, he takes his wife Sarai, his nephew lot, all of their possession, and everything they gathered from the land Haran where they were living, and he moves them to the land that God will show him. 

The first thing we need to know about the ancient civilization culture, is how they saw the gods. In this culture the gods and goddesses held so much power. The gods ruled every part of life, the sun, moon, stars, rain, harvest, oceans, land, trees, birth, death, government, economy, the list goes on and on. If it existed in the culture the gods were involved because everything operated and existed at the hands of the gods. Therefore, humanity worshipped in response. Yet, despite all this power, the gods and goddess could be petty and dramatic. Take a moment and think about the great mythological stories you read in school. How did the gods interact with one another? How did they interact with humans? These gods could be bought, traded, and manipulated if a person was smart enough to outwit them. 

This was the world of Abram and Sarai. And this is the world of where our story begins. In fact, until Yahweh enters the story, this manipulation, petty and dramatic understanding of the gods was all that existed. They were outside the Earth and unless they needed something from a human they stayed outside the Earth. But then Yahweh enters the story. 

 [HISTORICAL FUN FACT: the name Yahweh is not in our English bibles instead it shows up as LORD in all caps. But in Hebrew the word is Yahweh the name of God].

 Genesis chapter 12 starts out with “Now the LORD (or Yahweh) said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”” (ESV). 

So, here is Abram, a polytheistic cultured nomad from Mesopotamia, talking to an unknown God, about moving to a new Country. This would seem unusual, except that the Ancient Civilization held a belief about personal gods. A personal god was a god that spoke to only one person about their life, family and future. The god would randomly (or in some cases not so randomly) choose a human, and that human does the bidding of that particular god. Of course, the god comes prepared to offer promises of descendants, greatness, land, blessing, wealth, and protection, in order to persuade the individual to do what they have asked.

Interestingly enough, Yahweh approaches Abram the same way. Genesis 12:2-3 says this: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the Earth will be blessed.” (ESV). 

I don’t know about you, but my initial question to these verses was, Why does Yahweh approach Abram this way? Perhaps because this was the culture. Abram would’ve understood what was happening. Sarai would’ve understood what is happening, when Abram told her. God has this way of always speaking to humanity in ways we can understand. 

 So, in hearing this, Abram went. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all their servants and possessions and headed south towards Canaan. 

So, now you may be wondering, why does Abram just bring his wife and his nephew? I mean couldn’t he convince the rest of his family to come with him on this journey? It’s a good question! And there are a couple reasons. The first lies in the previous chapter, Genesis 11:27-32. 

“Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.” (ESV)

 Wow! That was a lot, so let’s break it down. Terah was Abram’s Father. Haran and Nahor were Abram’s brothers. But Haran, Lot’s Father, dies before Terah moves the family to the city of Haran in the North Eastern region Mesopotamia. 

Due to the family structure in the Ancient World, the oldest male takes responsibility of the wife and children left behind when a father passes away. Sometimes this is the Grandfather, other times it is an older brother, or even the oldest son if they are of adult age. But in this case Terah, being the Grandfather takes responsibility for Lot. He then moves the whole family to this new city, Haran. It’s here in this city that Terah dies at the age of 205. At this point, Abram, being the oldest Son of Terah takes on the family responsibility of taking care of his brother’s son, his nephew Lot.

The 2nd Reason lies in Genesis 12:1 Yahweh comes to Abram and tells him "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”  Abram was instructed to leave his father’s house. 

Today, in 2021, when we talk about leaving our parent’ home it is because we are moving out, going to college, or becoming our own individualized person and preparing for a family of our own. But in Abram’s time, this was not common. Actually, it was very unheard of and a little disrespectful to do so. For a son, to leave their father’s house was to say, “You are now dead to me, I am the new Patriarch of a new family.” 

The term Father’s House or Beth-Av in Hebrew is not a single house, with many rooms. But instead, it was more like a cluster of homes built together in a particular spot. Every son born to that family, before they got married, would build onto this cluster of homes. They would build onto their father’s house. They would make their home apart of the Patriarch’s Beth-Av. Daughters were the only ones who could move away. Once she was married she would go and live in her husband’s father’s house.

But God told Abram to Leave his Beth-Av and go to the land that He would show him. Abram went with Yahweh. But his brother Nahor stayed in the Beth-Av. 

 So, Abram, Sarai, and Lot are travelling south towards Canaan, and they came to an Oak tree, known as the Oak of Morah, in the land of Shechem. Here God speaks to Abram again and says, “To your offspring I will give this land” (12:7). It is interesting to note that God chose the place at Shechem to make this promise, because this place becomes a sacred place in Israel. Over 500 years later Joshua would establish the covenant here. The Tabernacle would be here. This land that God promised Abram, he actually gave his people. 

After the LORD finished speaking, Abram built an altar to worship the LORD. Now I have to pause here for a moment because, I’m sure some of you are thinking, if this encounter with God was the first deity experience of Abram’s life how does he know how to build an altar? And that is a great question. Abram knew how to build an altar because he and his family had participated in altar worship back in Ur. An Altar was typically constructed in areas where people had encountered a deity. It was sacred ground. In Ur, this place was known as a Ziggurat. It was a massive structure seen from miles in all directions. In the Ziggurat, “lived” the moon god, Sin. And all the people of the region would come to this place and worship him. So, by now Abram was already well versed in the typical order of worship for a powerful god. Since he had likely done it many times growing up. 

Now, here he is in Shechem, having a spiritual experience with Yahweh and his response is the same. Build an alter and worship the deity who spoke to me. 

After he finished worshipping, he continued to travel, and he came to the hill country between Bethel and Ai, he stopped and again built an alter and worshipped. This place is significant because of the roles that Both Bethel and Ai play in Israel’s history. Bethel or Beth-el, in Hebrew, means House of God. This is where Jacob hid from his brother Esau after stealing his birthright. And the city of Ai will be a negative mark on Joshua’s conquest of the Promise Land. 

After Abram finished worshipping, he continued his journey down to the Negev, south of Canaan. The Negev was desert land that one had to cross to get to Egypt. This will be the same spot Israel will spend 40 years wandering around after the Exodus. 

Abram settles here, and that is where we will pause and pick up next time, when we discuss God’s covenant with Abram. 

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 Before we go, I want to read the scripture from which our story comes from in Genesis 12:1-9 in hopes that after hearing all of the history, perhaps this story will be brought into new light for us. Let’s Read

“Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So, Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So, he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.”

 –Genesis 12:1-9 ESV

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Thank you for listening to today’s episode of Our Ancient Future Story, I hope that you really enjoyed it! This episode was written and produced by Vic Harmon. Executive Produced by Amanda Gilliam. Music is Embarking on Adventure by Evan MacDonald. Be sure to follow us on Instagram @ourancientfuturestory. 

See you next week! Bye!