Genesis 12:5–6

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.

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."

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 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

He came to stay for a while, not to settle. He moves from place to place, and in every place it is only a tent he pitches. The God of glory had told him that He would show him the land. His descendants would have it forever, but he himself would only see it. And so we find him looking it over, but not settling on any of it. For this was the right answer to such a promise... The Canaanite was then in the land and held the soil. Abraham did not argue with him over a single foot of it. He looked it over. He owned it only as faith and hope own a thing. He looked for no inheritance of his own there and then.

We hear of the first stop at Sichem (Shechem), at the oak of Moreh. The first of these words means "shoulder," the second "instructor." It is when we bend our shoulder to carry a load that we are taught. Whoever is willing to do God's will, will know the teaching. Whoever wants to learn from Christ must take His yoke.

Shoulder speaks of bearing responsibility. This is a first step of real value for the child of God. Too many of us would rather avoid responsibility. But if we accept the place of bearing a responsible witness for the Lord Jesus, we will be well taught, as Moreh — "teacher" — implies.

The presence of the Canaanite in God's land was bound to be a trial to Abraham. It would be a demand on his faith and hope, an exercise of heart, a test of patience... But there, too, he finds the Lord... The connection between the two statements is beautiful and touching. The Canaanites were in the land at that time. So that Abraham's eye would not rest on the Canaanite, who then held the land, the Lord appears to him as the One who was going to give that land to him and to his descendants forever. So Abraham's attention was on the Lord, not on the Canaanite.

Canaanite means "trader." That reminds us there are people who claim to be Christians but only use it to make money. This is a real trial of faith for those who want to walk with God. But despite the Canaanites, Abram would take up proper responsibility and learn from God. Let us also not use the Canaanites as an excuse for failing to obey the word of God fully.

There is no ground for saying that these words, or Genesis 13:7, mean the Canaanites and Perizzites were gone from the land by the time the writer lived. They show that the first, if not the second, were in the land when Abram entered it... We can easily understand that this was a trial to Abram. But he did not have to wait for the days of Moses, or of Joshua, to know that these invaders and all the others were doomed...

They are in the place of strangers, that is clear ("at that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land"). They have nothing in possession, "not even a foot's length"; everything rests on their valuing the promises. They have just two things, the altar and the tent. Journeying about, and worshipping God, they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Abram was not called to drive out the Canaanite. Yet we find his altar to the Lord, and his tent too, on the very ground of those wicked nations. He was a worshipper and a stranger in the very place where the Canaanite was doing well. The smoke of an accepted sacrifice rose from his altar right in front of the enemy. It is a wonderful sight.