Genesis 12:5: The road Genesis 11:31 set out on, finished
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 12:5
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.
Who Takes the Lead
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."
Why Haran Held Him
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."
Two Calls, One Account
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.
The People He Brought With Him
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: Following a Man
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."
Arrival and Possession
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.
Summary
- 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.
