Answering the Call

Genesis 12

Terah was a man from the city of Ur, in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates River, now a part of Iraq.  In those days, that land was one of the great centers of civilization, not far from the failed tower of Babel.  It was also a godless land, like the others around it, but God still made himself known to those who would listen to his voice.

This Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor (named after Terah's father), and Haran.  Haran, the youngest, died in Ur, but not before he produced a son and heir named Lot.  Abram married Sarai, a near relative, but she bore him no children.  Things were hard for Terah and his family in Ur, and he decided finally to move with them to the land of Canaan, far to the west.  They stopped short of their goal, and settled in the city of Haran, after which Terah had named his youngest son.  Terah live out the rest of his days there, and died at the ripe old age of 205.

After his father's death, Abram received a very specific message from God.  "Leave your father's house and your kinfolk.  Go from here to a land I will show you.  If you do, I will make a great nation from you, and I will bless you beyond measure, and make your very name great.  You will be a source of blessing, even to the entire earth.  My blessing will fall on those who bless you, and my curse on those who curse you."

At that point, Abram was seventy-five years old, and had thought to spend his life there in Haran, among his family and friends.  Nonetheless, he had learned to trust God, and not question him.  Not even knowing where he was going, he gathered up his wife, and all his possessions, and left Haran.  His nephew Lot went with him, but Nahor's family stated behind.  Following his inward leading, Abram went to Canaan, just as his father had started out to do all of those years before.  When he arrived finally at the plains of Moreh, in the southern part of Canaan, the Lord appeared to him, and spoke to him again.  "I will give this land to your descendents," he said.  Abram built an altar of stones to worship God, then moved from that place to another one west of Bethel.  There, he set up his tents for a while, and set up another altar to worship God.  Because of the size of his flocks, and the dryness of the land, he could not stay in one place long, and he continued to move south.

The time came when there was a drought in the land, which brought famine with it.  The wealthy land of Egypt was nearby, so Abram decided to go there to find food, and wait out the famine.  Despite her advanced years, his wife Sarai was still a beautiful woman, and Abram was afraid he might be killed for her sake.  "If anyone asks," he told her, "tell them you're my sister, which is true as we reckon kinship.  If they know you're my wife, I won't stand a chance if some powerful man wants you."

Sure enough, Sarai's beauty attracted the eyes of Pharaoh, the king of all Egypt, accounted for a god by his people.  He showered gifts on Abram, and took Sarai into his palace, intending to use her as one of the concubines in his harem.  Before he took her to bed, though, disaster fell on the palace, and it was swept by a sudden plague of disease.  When Pharaoh sought the reason for this sudden calamity, God spoke to him, and told him it was on account of Sarai, who was Abram's wife, not his sister.

The angry pharaoh called Abram before him.  "What are you trying to do to us?  Why didn't you tell us this woman was you wife, instead of claiming her as your sister?  You've brought the wrath of your God down on our heads.  Take your wife, and everything you own, and leave."

Pharaoh's officers made sure Abram obeyed the order, and he left Egypt, bound once more for Canaan.  By this time, Abram was a very wealthy man, thanks in part to what the Egyptians had given him.  He had large herds of livestock, as well as large quantities of silver and gold.  He returned to where he had lived before, between Bethel and Hai, and set up his tents again.  Lot went with him, along with his own flocks and herdsmen.  The seeds of trouble between the two kinsmen had already been sown.