God Calls Abram

Terah’s family included his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was Lot’s father, but Haran died in Ur while Terah was still alive. Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah. Sarai had no child. Later, Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot from Ur towards Canaan, but they came to Haran and settled there. Terah died in Haran.

Then Yahweh spoke to Abram. He told him to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s household, and go to the land God would show him. God promised to make Abram into a great nation, to bless him, and to make his name great. Abram would be a blessing. God would bless those who blessed Abram, judge the one who treated him with contempt, and bless all the families of the earth through him.

Abram went as Yahweh had told him. He was seventy-five years old when he left Haran, and Lot went with him. Abram took Sarai, Lot, all their possessions, and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set out for the land of Canaan, and they entered it.

Abram travelled through the land as far as Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. There Yahweh appeared to Abram and said that he would give that land to Abram’s offspring. So Abram built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.

From there Abram moved to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built another altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name. After that, Abram kept travelling on towards the South. What might it have been like to keep going, one step at a time, where God led?