ABRAM TO ABRAHAM: GROWING INTO A NAME

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Michael, in speaking of the Old Testament, said,

 

“Person after person in this Book did not do what God asked. It is truly a Book of lessons to be learned.”

 

Sometimes, that lesson turns on one single three letter word…Here, it is that on which everything hangs in the story Michael and I are focusing on this week. It is the kind of word that can so easily be overlooked and yet, to do so would be to miss the central point of God’s story with regard to His great Patriarch, this icon of Scripture, Abraham, during the time when he was still Abram.

 

 But more than this, to miss that word would be to fail in a much larger sense than in the story of a mere man, no matter how great, how storied. It would actually be to fail to come to understand a more profound point, that is, the very heart and state of mind of God, as they are revealed in this amazing and telling story in Genesis, in the Old Testament.

 

Through the continuing power of the Holy Spirit, Michael and I did not miss this little three-letter word. Now, we will place it in all caps below, as it follows the word LORD:

 

“The LORD HAD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 12:1) NIV

 

Wait a minute, isn’t this the opening line of the beautiful, almost beatific, retelling of the faithfulness of Abram in answering God’s call? Isn’t it all about this Father of Faith as he left his opulent life in cosmopolitan Ur of the Chaldeans and, with blind faith, not knowing where he was being led, followed God to Canaan? Doesn’t every Sunday School teach this story, often on a flannel board? Isn’t it all something every child knows and can understand?

 

Answer: Not quite. For in the midst of this idyllic calling of Abram lies that troubling little three-letter word – “had.” True, there was God’s calling. True, Abraham left Ur. The problem in this picture perfect story is that there was a whole different story that took place between Abram’s call and leave taking from Ur and his actual arrival in Canaan, the destination God had asked him to reach, albeit blindly. God had Abram on a nonstop flight; Abram had, however, booked a trip with one stop – a lengthy one – i.e. a layover in a place called Harran.

 

How right Michael is when he says,

 

“God chooses people for greatness. Some act upon it – a select few.”

 

So, when Genesis 12:1 NIV, cited above, states God HAD said to Abram to leave Ur and go to the place God would show him, the central import of HAD is to state, God did, at a past time, give him these instructions but that Abram did not, in the beginning, do what God said.

 

Instead of following God’s instructions, Abram went directly to Harran. What had he been doing in Harran all this time?

 

The Bible states the answer clearly that Abram had been there “accumulating” people and things. When they finally did leave Harran,

 

“He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, ALL THE POSSESSIONS THEY HAD ACCUMULATED AND THE PEOPLE THEY HAD ACCUMULATED IN HARRAN…”

(emphasis added)

Genesis 12:5) NIV

 

How long had Abram and family been there? Scripture indicates a significant period of time:

 

“…they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. BUT when they came to Harran, THEY SETTLED THERE.

Terah (Abram’s father) lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 11:31) NIV

 

What had they been doing in Harran? ACCUMULATING. Now, we might naturally ask ourselves, did it all just look too bleak to Abram when God called him to go to some unknown place? How could anything God was offering compare to accumulating more things AND people in the known surroundings of Harran? So, what had been God’s offer to Abram when, before Harran, He had given him his call? If Abram would go to the place God would show him, what would he receive from God?

 

“The LORD HAD (Here’s this important word, again, indicating that Abram was still in Ur and had not yet gone to Harran.)said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

 

‘I will make you into a great nation,

And I will bless you,

I will make your name great,

And you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And whoever curses you, I will curse;

And all peoples on earth,

Will be blessed through you.”

(Genesis 12:2-3)

 

After Abram heard THIS amazing promise, that he was about to become the greatest man on the planet, indeed, that every human on Earth would be blessed through him, did he race toward the land to which God would lead him, the land where all of this would take place?

Incredibly, no! He made a bee line to Harran where he started seeking fulfillment in “accumulating” things and people!

 

Has anything changed since those days, or is human nature basically the same? The Dilemma: Follow God and have His constant presence and joy unspeakable here and eternal bliss beyond what we can imagine, OR settle down in Harran and start looking for joy in stuff and people just as flawed as we are?

 

When we hear folks lament that the Old Testament just isn’t relevant today, don’t you have to wonder whether they have read about Adam and Eve, Noah and now Abram? All of these souls were offered everything by the Creator of the Universe. Instead, in the case of Abram, he was still accumulating the things of this world, when God had, in so many words, offered him the world itself.

 

And what was God’s reaction to Abram? Did he say, after Abram and family SETTLED in Harran, “Clearly, after this major disobedience, I’m looking for someone else?” No. The answer is, He waited, patiently, calmly, lovingly.

 

Speaking of settling, how timely is this topic? Today in 2022, don’t we still SETTLE in so many ways? We embrace the temporary when the infinite is offered on a silver platter. We settle for the things we will inevitably lose when God beckons us toward what we cannot lose. Like Abram, we settle in Harran. But like God in Abram’s time, this Almighty Father waits us out – until we see that this “just one more thing and I’ll be happy,” worldview has failed, played itself out. He waits for us to spiritually pack our bags, leave Harran and turn our heads toward the Canaan God HAD offered us all those years before.

 

As with us, the detours of the Harrans finally occupied Abram’s rear view mirrors:

 

“So Abram went as the LORD had told him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran…and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”

(Genesis 13:4,5) NIV

 

God was waiting for him:

 

“The LORD appeared to Abram and graciously said, ‘To your offspring, I will give this land.”

(Genesis 12;7) NIV

 

ONCE AGAIN, we see Eden language, as God begins anew with a now familiar strategy, reborn from that used in the Garden, as well as that of Noah’s day as he began in a new and sinless world.

 

Like Noah, Abram built an altar; Unlike him, he went to build a second altar:

 

“So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

From there, he went on toward the hills, east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD…”

(Genesis 12:7-8) NIV

 

The next part of this verse is highly significant. It marked a return to an earlier time, one which had given God tremendous hope in mankind: Speaking of Abram, Scripture records,

 

“…and he CALLED ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.”

(emphasis added)

Genesis 12:8) NIV

 

After his detour into Harran, Abram had turned a corner. He had tried all that Harran had to offer and had set his heart and mind toward Canaan. Yes, he had brought with him what he had accumulated there, but he had at least begun the journey from Abram to Abraham. He had built altars, he had started to pray.

 

Michael says, “Everything is a stepping stone in Scripture. Abram had begun to see the One who had called Him. He saw that he now was working for God.”

 

Would his path in acknowledging this assignment be straight? Far from it. Next week, we begin to see just how circuitously it would wind through the years. Most importantly, we will see how God reacts to such a winding road, in and out of obedience and faith. It is Abraham’s story. It is our story. And above all of this lack of human consistency, is this God of complete faithfulness.

 

Join us, as we explore Him as exciting, adventurous, beyond brilliant and just quite simply this fascinating God Who, with all His power, is vulnerable. He loves us and He loves His Son, Jesus. The Old Testament chronicles the story of the conflict of the heart of the Father. This Old Testament, so maligned, even ignored, tells a story that unravels preconceived notions as it carries us, transfixed by Him.