Abraham—the Journey Begins Series

Introduction: One of the most important human figures in the entire Bible is Abraham. We know more of his later years than his early years, but even so, his story is fascinating. He had no written copies of the Scriptures, as far as we know, but he had faith and for him that was enough.

These messages are not exhaustive, by any means. Rather, they’re designed to be highlights and expositions of Abraham’s life. The Book of Genesis devotes several chapters to Abraham himself and most of the entire Old Testament to his descendants. We can learn much from Abraham’s life, but more importantly, we can follow the same God that he did!

This first message focuses on some of his early years, before he made a rather disastrous journey to Egypt. May the Lord give us insight into what the Scriptures have to say/

1 The start of his journey

Text: Genesis 11:26-32, KJV: 26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 11 begins with the story of the Tower of Babel but ends with Abram in Haran. One of the saddest parts of this story involves the lapse of most of humanity into the evils of idolatry and wickedness as described in Romans 1:18-32: in just a handful of generations, a small group of eight believers who had survived the Flood (Noah, wife, three sons and their wives) had become a large group of people who had rejected the God of Noah. Some attribute this to the power and influence of Nimrod (Genesis 10:6-12), the son of Cush and grandson of Ham, who even Moses called a “mighty hunter before the LORD”. Alexander Hislop in book “The Two Babylons” and David Daniels in his book “Babylon Religion” give a great deal of additional information about this era and nearly complete rejection of Noah’s God for something else.

Where Abram, as he was then known, fits into this life, born in and living in Ur of the Chaldees, is debatable. The only two choices are that either he, and his ancestors, had remained true to the God of Noah or they had rejected the True God for the various idols and pagan deities worshiped at Ur and perhaps other places. Archaeologists have found “chapels” dedicated to the “moon goddess” and other such places. With all of that going on, Abram and anybody else who wanted to worship the True God would have had a very difficult time, to say the least.

Abram and his brother Haran both found wives, according to verse 29, Sarai and Milcah, respectively. Their faith at this time is unknown but later Sarai was a believer in the God of Abram, too. There was only one problem, namely, that Sarai was not yet able to bear a child. In fact it would be many years in the future before she was able to give Abram a child. Given their ages (Abram was around 75 and Sarai 65, respectively, according to Gen. 12:4) at this time, one wonders if this had ever been an issue before.

But children or not, something happened, and Terah, Abram’s father, took some decisive action. He took Abram and Sarai, and his grandson Lot, with him as they headed towards the “land of Canaan”. Of note is that after the incident at Babel, where God confused the languages of the people and each group (tribe, clan, family; doesn’t matter) settled pretty much wherever they could. Canaan was descended from Ham, and Ham’s descendants settled in the Middle East and in Africa (Genesis 10:6-20). Why Terah decided to go there is nowhere stated, and Abram himself may not have known very much about what was going on. The important thing is that when Terah said, “Let’s leave,” Abram was obedient and followed.

Now, Terah and some of his family (were there other members?) had decided to leave Ur, and head for the land of Canaan, but they made an extended stop before they got there. While there, some life-changing events took place.