Today we begin Genesis Chapter 12.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
In Genesis chapter 11, we are told that Terah, his son Abram, his grandson Lot and his daughter-in-law Sarai left their hometown called the Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the Land of Canaan.
However, for whatever reason Terah decided to cut his journey short and settle everybody in a place called Haran.
Terah ends up dying in Haran.
This ends Chapter 11.
Then in the first verse of Chapter 12 we are immediately told that God commanded Abram to leave his native land to a “land I will show you“.
Based on this narrative, one would automatically assume that Abraham received his call from God in the land of Haran.
However, let’s take a look at the first two verses in Chapter 7 of The Book of Acts.
“Then the high priest said, ‘Are these things so?’. And he said, ‘Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you.”
So if this eyewitness account in Acts is also taken into account, it appears that God called Abram during his journey to Haran and not after he arrived in Haran.
Regardless of when exactly he received the call from God, it is obvious that Abram’s family was steeped in paganism.
Haran was the crossing point of multiple important highways and a center of the cult devoted to the moon-god Sin.
That’s right.
The name of this god was actually “Sin”.
Leave a Reply