The Calling of Abram - His Arrival in Canaan, and Temporary Removal to Egypt

(GENESIS 11:27-13:4)

WITH Abram an entirely new period may be said to begin. He was to be the ancestor of a new race in whom

the Divine promises were to be preserved, and through whom they would finally be realized. It seemed,

therefore, necessary that, when A bram was called, he should forsake his old home, his family, his country,

and his people. Not to speak of the dangers which otherwise would have beset his vocation, a new

beginning required that he should be cut off from all that was "behind." Had he remained in Ur of the

Chaldees, he would at best only have been a new link in the old chain. Besides, the special dealings of God,

and Abram's faith and patience, as manifested in his obedience to the Divine command, were intended to

qualify him for being the h ead of the new order of things, "the father of all who believe." Lastly, it was

intended that the history of Abram, as that of his seed after him, should prepare the way for the great truths

of the Gospel, and exhibit as in a figure the history of all who through faith and patience inherit the

promises. Hitherto, God had only interposed, as in the flood, and at the confounding of tongues, to arrest

the attempts of man against His purposes of mercy. But when God called Abram, He personally and actively

interfered, and this time in mercy, not in judgment. The whole history of Abram may be arranged into four

stages, each commencing with a personal revelation of Jehovah. The first, when the patriarch was called to

his work and mission;(Genesis 12-14) the second, when he received the promise of an heir, and the covenant

was made with him;(Genesis 15, 16) the third, when that covenant was established in the change of his name

from Abram to Abraham, and in circumcision as the sign and seal of the covenant;(Genesis 17-21) the

fourth, when his faith was tried, proved, and perfected in the offering up of Isaac.(Genesis 22-25:11) These

are, so to speak, the high points in Abram's history, which the patriarch successively climbed, and to which

all the other events of his life may be regarded as the ascent. Descending the genealogy of Shem, Abram

stands tenth among "the fathers" after the flood. He was a son - apparently the third and youngest - of

Terah, the others being Haran and Nahor. The family, or perhaps more correctly the tribe or clan of Terah,

resided in Chaldea, which is the southern part of Babylonia. "Ur of the Chaldees," as recently again

discovered,30 was one of the oldest, if not the most ancient, among the cities of Chaldea. It lies about six

miles away from the river Euphrates, and, curious to relate, is at present somewhere near one hundred and

twenty-five miles from the Persian Gulf, though it is supposed, that at one time it was actually washed by its

waters, the difference being accounted for by the rapid deposit of what becomes soil, or of alluvium, as it is

Thus Abram must in his youth have stood by the seashore, and seen the sand innumerable, to which his

posterity in after ages was likened. Another figure, under which his posterity is described, must have been

equally familiar to his mind. It is well known that the brilliancy of a starlit sky in the East, and especially

where Abram dwelt, far exceeds anything which we witness in our latitudes. Possibly this may have first led

in those regions to the worship of the heavenly bodies. And Abram must have been the more attracted to

their contemplation, as the city in which he dwelt was "wholly given" to that idolatry; for the real site of Ur

has been ascertained from the circumstance that the bricks still found there bear the very name of Hur on

them. Now this word points to Hurki, the ancient moon-god, and Ur of the Chaldees was the great "Moon-

city," the very center of the Chaldean moon-worship! The most remarkable ruins of that city are those of t he

old moon-temple of Ur, which from the name on the bricks are computed to date from the year 2000 before

Christ. Thus bricks that are thirty-eight centuries old have now been brought forward to bear witness to the

old city of Abraham, and to the tremendous change that must have passed over him when, in faith upon the

Divine word, he obeyed its command.

Jewish tradition has one or two varying accounts to show how Abram was converted from the surrounding

idolatry, and what persecutions he had to suffer in consequence. Scripture does not indulge our fancy with

such matters; but, true to its uniform purpose, only relates what belongs to the history of the kingdom of