And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Abram has obeyed God's call and now stands in the land God promised — but he settles nothing, buys nothing and claims nothing, and other people already live there. That gap between the promise and what he found is what the commentators explore.
The verse says Abram passed through the land. He moved across it and took hold of none of it. One writer says this was the right response to what God had promised.
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.
The two place names in the verse have meanings. Writers read them together as one lesson about how a person learns from God.
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.
The same pairing is applied directly to the reader's own reluctance:
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 closing clause is not a throwaway geographical note. Commentators treat it as the first hardship Abram met after obeying. They also point to who he meets there.
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.
Another writer takes the name itself as a warning against a familiar excuse:
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.
The verse says the Canaanites were in the land at that time. Some argue those words were written long after Abram, when the Canaanites were gone. One writer answers that argument.
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...
In a land held by someone else, two things marked Abram's life.
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.
The boldness of that arrangement is worth pausing over:
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.
- Arrive — Abram reaches the promised land but only passes through it. He looks it over and owns none of it, because the promise was that his descendants would inherit it.
- Shoulder — Shechem means "shoulder," Moreh means "instructor." We learn from God when we bend our shoulder to carry responsibility.
- Trial — the Canaanite in the land tested Abram's faith, hope and patience. The answer was not argument, but the Lord appearing to him.
- Focus — God's promise turned Abram's eye away from the land's present owner and onto the One who would give it. Hostile surroundings were never an excuse to stop obeying.
- Altar — Abram owned not a foot of ground. He had two things only: the altar and the tent. He was a worshipper and a stranger, offering sacrifice in full view of the enemy.
And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him.
Abram has just crossed into Canaan, and the land God promised him is already full of other people. Now, for the first time since the call, the LORD appears to him, names the land as a gift for his offspring, and Abram answers with an altar.
God had said nothing new to Abram since he left Ur. The appearing comes only after Abram reaches the place God named.
His first act, on arrival at the plain of Moreh, near Shechem, was to put up an altar. At this spot the LORD appeared to him and renewed His promise: "to your offspring I will give this land." This is the first recorded time God showed Himself since Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans. It illustrates our Lord's words to His disciples in John 14:21: "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Obedience always brings the light and joy of the Lord's presence as its reward to the soul.
Compare what God said at the start with what He says now. The wording has changed, and so has the way God speaks. (The older translation quoted below reads "the LORD had said" in verse 1; the ESV has "the LORD said.")
"The LORD appeared to Abram" — He not only spoke but "appeared." To my mind that word is not casual but deliberate... The first time, all we read is that "the LORD had said." Now we find that "the LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land." Nothing is vague any longer. It is precise. It is not "a land that I will show you," but "to your offspring I will give this land." What is the consequence? There "he built an altar to the LORD" — and not only that, but "to the LORD who had appeared to him." So it is clear to my mind that this was what had to come before worship. Worship waits until the Lord shows Himself.
The verse before this one says the Canaanite was in the land. The order of the two statements is deliberate.
The presence of the Canaanite in God's land was bound to test Abraham. It would be a demand upon his faith and hope, an exercise of heart, a trial of patience... But there, too, he finds the Lord... "The Canaanites were in the land." The Canaanite held it at that moment. So that Abraham's eye would not rest on him, the LORD appears to Abraham as the One who was going to give the land to him and to his offspring forever. So Abraham was taken up with the Lord, and not with the Canaanite... instead of dwelling on Satan's power to keep us out of the inheritance, we should grasp Christ's power to bring us in.
Abram owned none of this land, yet he built. The altar said something to the people around him and something to God.
Abraham had answered God's call and reached the land of his pilgrimage. Then God appeared to him and told him His purpose about his inheritance. Only then did Abram build his altar. You could say he built it in the light of God's purpose. To the Canaanite in the land, the altar was a witness that this pilgrim and stranger among them had a God he worshipped. To God, the altar was the evidence that Abraham wanted to meet His mind and will by having communion with Him.
The place names are not decoration. One writer reads them as a picture of how we learn from God.
We hear of the first halt at Sichem (Shechem), at the oak of Moreh. The first of these words means "shoulder." The second means "instructor." We find instruction when we bow our shoulder to carry the load. He who is willing to do God's will shall know the teaching: he who will learn of Christ must take His yoke.
Commentators differ in emphasis here. Some tie this promise to Israel and the land itself. Others read it through what the New Testament says about Abraham's offspring.
In Galatians 3:16 the apostle is speaking of Genesis 12 and 22, but there he means one special offspring. God made the promise to Abraham alone, and confirmed it to his offspring in Genesis 22... The reasoning in Galatians is that Christ alone is the offspring meant in Genesis 22, where God speaks of the nations of the world. And if we are in Christ, then we too are the offspring of Abraham.
What begins here does not stay a single episode. The altar of verse 7 and the tent of verse 8 become the shape of everything that follows.
"And Abraham built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him." He serves God and enjoys communion with Him. From there he goes to another place and pitches his tent. He builds a new altar to the LORD and calls on the name of the LORD. He is a pilgrim in the land of promise; and that is his entire history... Abraham's tent and altar here shape his whole history, and every experience of faith grows out of those two things.
- Obey, then see. No further light came to Abram until he reached the land God named. Obedience brought the appearing.
- See, then know. What was once "a land that I will show you" becomes "this land" — vagueness replaced by a definite gift.
- Know, then worship. Abram raised the altar to the LORD "who had appeared to him"; worship waits on God making Himself known.
- Worship, then witness. The same altar told the Canaanite that this stranger had a God, and told God that Abram wanted communion with Him.
- Witness, then wait. The land was occupied and the promise still unfulfilled. So Abram lived by tent and altar — a pilgrim whose inheritance rests on the promised offspring.