Genesis 12:1

There came the moment when God — "the God of glory" — made Himself known to a poor dark idolater, and won his heart forever. It was not a new religion that Abram learned, nor a new set of opinions, but he came to know a Person. The result was that, like the Thessalonians later, he turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

The revelation and the renunciation were as cause and effect. The second was possible in the strength and joy of the first. The glory of Ur of the Chaldees faded before the God of glory. As he eagerly stretched out his hands toward the one, Abraham turned his back on the other.

If we only look at the Hebrew, there is room for discussion. Its tenses took their sense from the context, and old and new versions differ. But God has given us help here, and all who are humble enough to value it may be glad. Stephen, in Acts 7:2-3, makes it certain that the Lord appeared and gave this call in Mesopotamia, not in Haran. The call came there. Abram carried it out only in part while Terah lived, for Terah was quite content to settle in Haran. But after his death the power of the Lord's call revived in Abram's heart.

From both these passages it plainly appears that Terah and his family moved, as Genesis 11:31 records, because "the God of glory" had revealed Himself to Abram. But it does not appear that Terah had any such revelation from God. He appears as a hindrance to Abram more than anything else. Until he died, Abram did not come into the land of Canaan — the destination God had appointed for him.

Abraham is not told to stay in the city of Ur and deal with man's wickedness. He is not told to improve its social conditions, reform its home life, or make it a better and brighter world. He is called to come out of it in every form. He is to leave the political world — "your country"; the social world — "your kindred"; and the family world — "your father's house."

It is not that we are to despise government — it is still God's appointment. Nor can we neglect family ties — they are ordered of God. Nor are we to stop being courteous and kind and doing good to all people as we have opportunity. But God calls us, as believers, away from taking part in the world's political activities, its social round, and the whole sphere where unconverted members of our families find their pleasure without God.

Later, Abram may find that obeying this command means staying in a land where nothing but starvation seems to await him. But even so, God had not qualified the command in any way. The word was simple and definite: "the land that I will show you." It should have bound Abram just as much when famine surrounded him as when peace and plenty prevailed. Famine should not have persuaded him to leave the land, and abundance should not have persuaded him to stay. The words that carried weight were, "I will show you."

To preserve a testimony to Himself, God called Abram right out of the evil, to become a pilgrim and stranger in the earth. Mankind was already divided into nations under God's government. Now it would see a division of another kind — a godly line separated from the mass of the ungodly. This was a division produced by divine grace.