The Calling of Abram (Genesis 11:27-12:9)

 We now turn to the story of Abraham (formerly known as Abram) and Sarah (formerly Sarai). 

Abraham and Sarah first appear with the names Abram and Sarai in Genesis 11. At the end of that chapter, we are given Abram’s genealogy. Abram is the son of Terah. We are not given the name of Abram’s mother. What does this tell you? If you haven’t learned already, it tells you that the book of Genesis derives from a patriarchal culture. It’s the fathers that count most. The mothers are barely if at all mentioned. In Genesis 11, there is no mention of a mother, not to mention the name of a mother. No daughter is mentioned by name. In fact, the first time a woman is named is with Sarai in verse 29. Even here, she is named as Abram’s wife. 

Abram, the son of Terah and an unnamed mother, had two brothers, Nahor and Haran. Haran dies at a younger age but not before he has two children - a son named Lot and a daughter named Milcah.

We’re not sure when Haran dies, but it is thankfully before his daughter marries his brother Nahor. You read right. Nahor, the late Haran’s brother, married his brother’s daughter, his niece, Milcah. Imagine family feast in the wake of that happening. Nahor’s fate is not a pleasant one, unsurprisingly. However it could have been worse considering his choice of spouses. Nahor is mentioned later in the book of Joshua (24:2) as an idolater, worshiping gods other than Yahweh. A little more recent to our story in Genesis 11, Father Terah doesn’t take Nahor with him when takes the rest of the family West. I wonder why!?

As for Abram and Sarai, they endure a reality particularly difficult in those days. They are unable to bear children. 

So Abram, his circumstances are not so easy. He’s lost one brother relatively young. His other brother married his and Abram’s niece, causing a stir I’m sure. He’s not able to bear children of his own. And he doesn’t have a settled home place. His father Terah is taking him, Sarai, and his nephew Lot on the road, Canaan bound. 

Terah and the clan don’t make it to Canaan. Instead, they settle in the town of Haran (not to be confused with the prematurely deceased Haran, Terah’s boy). That’s after traveling some from the region of Ur to Haran which is in modern day Turkey. As for the location or Ur of the Chaldees, scholars disagree. The majority believe Ur is in modern-day Iraq, some 1,000 miles from Harran. Others believe Ur is just some 30 miles north of Harran. I tend to agree with the former view. Genesis 11 implies it is a long journey. Thirty miles is not that, even on foot back in the day.

As Genesis 12 opens, the focus turns to Abram. Yahweh’s calls on Abram to depart from his clan and set out on his own with Sarai. The language at the beginning of Genesis 12, verses 1-2, mirror the language of being ordained where one is set apart for a greater calling. That’s what Yahweh is doing here. He is ordaining Abram as the chosen father to a nation, specifically Yahweh’s chosen people.

Then a covenant forged between Yahweh, Abram, and the nation Abram and Sarai will conceive. This is the second covenant God has made, the first being with Noah in Genesis 9:8-17. With Noah, Yahweh covenanted that  “‘never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’” 

With Abram the covenant is broader in scope. And it comes in two parts, 12: 2-3 and 12:7. In vs. 2-3, Yahweh declares, “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 the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Set apart and having received the first part of this original covenant, Abram takes Sarai and sets out toward Canaan. In v. 7, while en route to Canaan, Yahweh gives part two: “To your offspring I will give this land.”

The map shows us the whole journey. We will stop our journey at Negeb in verse 9.

I’d like to note one more thing before closing. In the town of Shechem, Abram does something very crucial. He builds an altar. Again, there is preference for this in the Noah story. After the Noahic covenant is affirmed, Noah builds an altar (8:20). After the original Abramic covenant is a fully affirmed, Abram similarly builds an altar.  

An altar for us represents worship. Hence, in the Christian tradition, ordinations follow suit. When a person is ordained, their set-apartness is confirmed and a covenant is avowed to pastor faithfully in Christ’s church. What follows? Worship commences. Any important, sacramental event in church life includes worship. This practice goes all the way back to Noah and Abraham.