I can think of nothing more exciting than embarking upon a new beginning. My family life was not great, so I longed for the time when I would become a legal adult and could set my sails for an unknown, but better, life. From my youth, I sought God and felt ready to go wherever faith would take me.
With a powerful summons, God called Abram into relationship and his life began anew. While he previously lived in a state of barrenness, God’s promise restored Abram’s hope for the future. With God leading him, Abram felt assured he would not journey alone.
Ur was a major Sumerian city located in ancient Mesopotamia. This region of the world was first inhabited by the descendants of Shem, who long held great power and influence there. Abram and his father, Terah, were not new settlers in Ur.
During the four centuries that elapsed since the flood, infidelity continued to progress. Over time, these people degenerated from the true faith and fell into idolatry. Even the Shemite portion of the human family had become almost totally corrupted. Abram’s faith had created a gulf between him and his father’s house. He worshipped one God. They were idolaters. If the knowledge of salvation were to not be completely banished from the earth, a second Divine intervention was necessary.
The call of Abram took place when he was seventy years old, five years before the death of Terah. God’s call contained both a command and a promise. For renouncing all his natural ties, God promised to increase him into a numerous people, to make of Abram a great nation. He promised to bless him with material and spiritual prosperity and make his name great by elevating him to honor and glory. And God promised that Abram was not only to receive blessing and be blessed of God, but that he would be a blessing and become the means of blessing to others.
Upon leaving Ur, it’s possible that neither Abram nor Terah knew what their final destination would be. Abram was not told that Canaan was the land until he reached Canaan. True obedience remains content with the current duty as presented and waits for further details. Our knowledge need go no further ahead than to guide our next step.
Terah’s journey was in search of a home and pasture only. With both on the same bank of the Euphrates, it was easy to go from Ur to a place in northern Mesopotamia they called Haran after Abram and Nahor’s brother. Following Terah’s death, his family went no further. They remained there with Nahor in Haran. Only Abram and Lot went on from there.
It is highly probable that God appeared to Abram twice and that the same words were spoken to him both times, first in Ur and again in Haran. Crossing the deep, broad and rapid river meant making the irrevocable decision to cut loose from one’s past life. Only Abram, the man of faith made that commitment. Out of compassion and a sense of responsibility for his nephew, Abram took Lot with him.
Wherever Abram pitched his tent, he built an altar. In keeping communion with God, his life was permeated with worship. When we fill our lives with the consciousness of Divine presence, the world’s temptations cease to draw us. Our common tasks will then feel fresh and interesting because we see God in them.
The call of Abram represents the call of people, by the grace of God, out of the world and from among the people of it. We, the called, are to renounce the things of the world, not be conformed to it, and even in some cases, to forget our own people. We are called to cling to the Lord and follow him wherever he leads us. May we respond to God’s call with faith and dare to move forward into the unknown with the hope of his promised blessing.
Becoming Biblical 