And Abram departed as Jehovah had said to him. And Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Genesis 12:4 is the moment Abram finally moves. God had spoken years earlier, but the journey stalled at Haran, and now Abram sets out at seventy-five with his nephew Lot beside him.
The call itself carried a condition. Abram was not offered a blessing to enjoy where he stood; he was told to leave, and the promise waited on his going.
This calling, however special and personal, however much it marked him out for favour, necessarily involved obedience. The call of blessing to Abraham was a call to leave his country for a land which God would show him. Whatever the power acting on his mind might be, obedience was the result. The very terms of the call made it clear — no obedience, no blessing.
An earlier start toward Canaan had stopped at Haran. The difference now is who leads, and how far they get.
Terah, as long as he lived, was a dead weight on Abraham's obedience. But when Terah died, "Abram went, as the LORD had told him." Then the language is pointedly different: "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions … and they set out to go to the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came." There was no failure now, because his faith was no longer hampered by the natural ties that almost always take the upper hand. That was why the earlier move had lacked the power of God to give it effect. Once that weight was gone, the blessing followed at once.
Even the names in this story carry the lesson.
Terah fulfills his name ("delay"), and ends his days at Haran, named after his dead son. Natural things hold him fast, though death is written on them, and memory only keeps the loss fresh. "Haran" means "parched," yet there he stays (and Abram with him) till he dies. Then we find that Terah had been holding back the very man he had led. Abram rises up in the power of a divine call — a call that had come to him, and to him alone at the first.
God said nothing new to Abram while he stayed in Haran. He waited instead of softening His command.
We are not told how long Abraham stayed at Haran. Yet God kindly waited on His servant until he was free of nature's hold and could fully obey His command. There was, however, no adjusting of that command to the circumstances of nature. That would never do. God loves His servants too well to rob them of the full blessedness of complete obedience. There was no fresh revelation to Abraham's soul during his stay in Haran. It is good to see this. We must act up to the light already given, and then God will give us more.
The verse also names Lot, who went with him. Lot is a real believer, but he moves on another man's faith.
Lot appears as a companion who walks alongside people of faith, not as a man who has faith and acts in its energy himself. This marks his path from the beginning. So when he is put to the test, there is only weakness. In how many things do we act alongside those who have faith, before having it for ourselves! The soul will not stand when sifted by temptation, if it is walking in another's light.
Three men in this account answer God in three different ways.
In Terah we have seen the man of nature. He can make a fair profession, but he cannot take the path of faith that leads outside the world. In Abraham we have seen the man of faith. Acting on the word of the LORD, he takes the outside place, though at times he may fail in that path. In Lot we see a true believer, who takes the outside place, not in faith in God, but under the influence of man. We have already read that when Abraham departed from Haran, "Lot went with him."
Abram's age raises a puzzle about the family dates. Writers answer it by saying Abram was not the eldest son.
The conclusion seems to be that Terah's family began when he was seventy years old. Abram was not born till Terah was a hundred and thirty. Abram is named first because Terah's other children were of small importance compared with him. These things should teach us that God cares about moral and spiritual matters, not about dates.
- Delay — "Terah" means delay and "Haran" means parched; a family tie held Abram in a dry halfway place for years.
- Silence — God gave no new word at Haran. He waits for us to act on the light already given, and He does not adjust His command to our circumstances.
- Departure — Once nature's hold broke, Abram went "as the LORD had told him." This time they did not stop short: into Canaan they came.
- Company — Lot "went with him," a real believer walking by another man's faith; such a soul will not stand when tested.
- Age — Abram left Haran at seventy-five, though he was not Terah's eldest son. Scripture orders these lives by spiritual weight, not by birth order.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls that they had obtained in Haran, and they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
Here Abram's journey finally reaches its goal: he takes his household with him, and this time they arrive in Canaan. The wording differs from the earlier start in Genesis 11, so commentators ask who is leading, who is following, and why the first journey stopped at Haran.
In Genesis 11 the family set out for Canaan but settled in Haran. The difference in this verse lies in a single change of subject.
The word of the Lord was now fully honoured, and the result was simple, pure and bright. It was no longer man trying only to hinder: God was obeyed. It is not now "Terah took Abram," but "Abram took Sarai." It was the walk of faith, separate to the Lord, Abram blessed and a blessing.
The same contrast is drawn between nature at the head of the journey and faith at the head of it.
When nature took the lead, we read, "They went forth… from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan." But under Terah's leading they never reach the land. Now, when faith takes the lead, we read again, "They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."
One writer traces the delay to Abram's father. While Terah lived and led, Abram could not obey the call.
Terah, as long as he lived, was a dead weight on Abraham's obedience… God told Abraham to leave his relatives as well as his country. Until he did that, he did not reach Canaan. It would hardly have been proper for Abram as the son to take Terah his father. So "Terah took Abram…" This, however, was not at all according to God's call to Abram. That is why we read, "they came to Haran, and settled there."
Stephen's speech in Acts 7 fills in what happened before Haran. One writer reads the two accounts together and finds two separate calls.
Stephen speaks of the God of glory appearing to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran… As a result he left his country, and perhaps many of his relatives. But his father went with him, along with Sarah and Lot, and they settled in Haran. They stayed there long enough for people to be gained in Haran (Gen. 11:31; 12:5). Then it seems God called him to leave his country, his relatives and his father's house, and come into a land that He would show him (Gen. 12:1). The effect of this call was that he left Haran.
Abram did not travel alone.
We only note here that Abram brought his household with him out of Chaldea and Haran into Canaan. This happened on the same principle as with Noah: the household is linked before God with its head.
Lot travels with Abram, but he moves only because Abram moves.
Not nature now, but the man of faith leads, and they no longer linger on the road; but Lot merely follows Abram, as before he had followed Terah. Abram walks with God; Lot only with Abram. How easy it is, even for a believer, to walk where another's bolder faith leads and clears the way! He can go on without ever searching his own conscience, and without real faith about the way itself.
Notice what the two men already owned when they set out.
When Abraham first entered on the path of faith, and Lot went with him, they took "all their possessions." But it caused no strife (Gen. 12:5). In Egypt, however, Abraham gains great wealth, so that after his restoration we read, "He was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold."
The verse does not stop at Abram setting out.
He might have set out and never finished the journey. But they "came to the land of Canaan." So let us not only have a goal; let us also seek grace to reach it.
Arrival, however, did not mean ownership.
Here we have the position of the heavenly people. God's grace and power have placed them in a heavenly position, pictured by Canaan, and there they live. They have everything in promise, but nothing yet in possession.
- Leader — In Genesis 11 nature led and the journey stopped at Haran. Here faith leads: "Abram took" replaces "Terah took."
- Hindrance — Terah was a dead weight on Abram's obedience; Abram obeyed in full only after that tie was gone.
- Household — His people and possessions travel with him, and God links a household with its head.
- Follower — Lot walks with Abram while Abram walks with God: his faith is borrowed.
- Arrival — Setting out is not arriving. Abram reached the land, yet held it in promise, not possession.