The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1
The voice of God to Abram 4000 years ago was the beginning of biblical history as well as one of the most significant events in the history of the human race. Historians are sloppy on the biblical documents as they fail to give them due consideration when they make their historical pronouncements. Our educators avoid teaching about the voice of God because they consider it to be irrelevant religious dribble whose proper venue is Sunday School. Both of these highly educated factions are wrong and they should rather judge events by the long lasting consequences these events set in motion.
Few events in history have had a greater impact on the life of more human beings than the voice of God. The importance of the voice should be at the top of the list with the taming of fire and the discovery of the wheel since these three events are with us to this very day. Why should the voice of God to Abram have a lesser value than a few spectacular pyramids that have proven to be the dry bones of a long ago dead civilization? Why should we study the great empires of the ages that have risen and fallen like the desert sands in the winds? The Roman empire had the longest run of 500 years but the impact of the voice of God to Abram has never and will never go away.
The family of Abram is from Mesopotamia somewhere in the delta region of the Euphrates River. There, in Ur of the Chaldeans, Abram heard from God as recorded in Genesis 12 : 1 and without giving us any details, the voice makes just a simple statement. We don’t know how old Abram was when he heard the voice, possibly a teenager. We do know, however, that the family of Abram was of the Arab peoples from present day Iraq. At some point in the life of Abram his family migrated north settling in Harran which would be close to present day Mosul, Iraq. There Abram raised his family in tribal fashion and amongst the greater family of his father Terah.
Migration is the wrong word for their journey from Ur for it was more than a casual relocation. God spoke to Abram and the word from God filtered through the entire family even influencing their father and tribal leader Terah. We are told at the end of Genesis 11 that Terah gathered the family “and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan (11:31)”. That’s right, Canaan, “the land that I will show you”(12:1). The journey toward the land of promise started as a tribal affair, “But when they came to Harran, they settled there.(11:31)” The tribe lived comfortably in Harran for years, stopping short of the directions given to Abram by the Voice. Abram was 75 when his stay in Harran came to an end.
As we live in the now and 4000 years removed from the voice of God to Abram, can we not relate to settling for less than the voice would have for us? Have there not been times in our lives when settling was an easier path, when delay seemed reasonable? Abram would say to us it is never to late for confession. The memory of the voice of God and the direction to “Go” must have haunted Abram during these years in Haraan. Leaving the supposed securities of this world is the starting line for this new monotheism that has broken upon this world. It is a monotheistic voice that calls the people of the voice to step away from all other life supports, “to go from your country, your society (people, tribe or greater family), and your father’s household", anything less is but a polytheistic religion.
G.Goslaw
Landers
