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Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

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‘ F<br />

11 :27-32 GENESIS<br />

in Haran, and from thence, when ‘his father was dead,<br />

God removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell,”<br />

that is, Canaan. It must be admitte4 at Stephen’s speech<br />

before the Sanhedrin bears the stamp accuracy through-<br />

out. Of course there could have been a repetition of the<br />

Divine call in Haran after Terah’s death, but any positive<br />

evidence of this is lacking in the Scripture story. It would<br />

seem that immediately after the death of Terah, Abram<br />

set forth on his long pilgrimage with .his wife Sarai and<br />

his nephew Lot. The Divine call ap<br />

was definitely a call to Abram to separ<br />

“kindred,” which may have had reference to Nahor or<br />

other members of Terah’s household. Terah may well<br />

have had other offspring who are not mentioned because<br />

they had no subsequent interrelationships with Nahor,<br />

Bethuel and Laban, all three of whom are mentioned later<br />

in the patriarchal narratives (Gen. 22:20-23, 24:15, 2f:20,<br />

28:1-2), The Divine call was much more than a call to<br />

Abram to separate himself from his kindred-it was a<br />

Divine call to separate himself from the idolatrous tendencies<br />

which had developed in Terah’s household.<br />

We may safely conclude, I think, that the Call to<br />

Abram for his pilgrimage of Faith was first made to him<br />

in Ur; that his father Terah and brother Nahor and their<br />

households, for whatever reason or reasons that may seem<br />

possible, accompanied him to Haran; that Abram lingered<br />

there until Terah died, at which time Nahor elected to<br />

remain in that region, but Abram set out for the Land of<br />

Promise with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. We are<br />

told explicitly that Abram was 75 years old when he<br />

entered upon this pilgrimage.<br />

This was the second landmark ip the progressive<br />

actualization of God’s Eternal Purpose, the first having<br />

been the pronouncement of the mysterious oracle of Gen.<br />

3:15 in ye the Seed of the Woman. It has been rightly<br />

stated that Abram’s journey to the Promised Land was “no<br />

34

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