Genesis 12:1-9 • Abram/Abraham - on to the Promised Land
- Steve Schott
- Jul 28
- 8 min read
• Our last time together in Genesis we looked at the lineage of Noah. Specifically the first segment of the line of Christ, from Noah to his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson, Abram. This is the beginning of what is called the "Patriarchal History". Previously, in chapters 1-11 we had the "Primeval History", a period where the focus was on world events and how they affected the people in it. In the "Patriarchal History", which runs from chapter 12 to chapter 50 at the end of the book, we will see that the focus changes to one family and how they affected the world they lived in. The first in this family is Abram/Abraham, to be followed by Isaac, then Jacob/Israel, then the sons of Israel. I'll remind you that chapters 1-11 covered a period of 2,009 years. The balance of the book, dealing with the 4 generations of this one family, all 39 remaining chapters, only covers a period of 307 years.
• We are first introduced to Abram at the end of chapter 11. In Genesis 11:22-32 (read here if you want)
we saw that there were a few issues with Abram and his immediate family. They were...
► Issue 1 – 2 Nahor’s • Grandfather & grandson
→ Two Nahor's are mentioned in this text Terah's father and son.
► Issue 2 – Triplets???
→ The 3 sons of Terah are all listed in Gen 11:26 as being his sons when he was 75.
► Issue 3 – Nahor & Milcah?
→ Nahor married his niece. Milcah is Nahor’s brother Haran’s daughter.
► Issue 4 – Sarai
→ Sarai, Abram's wife, is actually his half-sister.
► Issue 5 – 2 Haran's • A person and a place
→ Haran, Abram’s brother, Lot’s father, who had already died in Ur.
→ Haran, the place where they stopped on their way to Canaan.
• Click here to see the entire dialogue about these issues in my previous post.
• I mentioned last time that for some unknown reason, at least unknown until the passage we will be looking at today, Terah, if it were in modern times, would have been an Iraqi, who lived near the Persian Gulf, for some reason decided to move his entire family 1,200 miles to the northwest, to a town/region called Haran. In fact, Gen 11:31 says that "they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan (emphasis mine); and they went as far as Haran, and settled there." If I'm reading that correctly, the actual intent was to go to what is now Israel, but they parked themselves in Haran. My guess is that Terah became ill, or was just too old to continue. How long they tarried in Haran is unknown, BUT, now that Terah has died, we will see that the trip will re-start now, and today we'll also find out why they even began.
► Genesis 12:1-9 → "1Now the LORD said to Abram,
• This is called the Abrahamic Covenant.
→ Technically, this passage is only the introduction of the Covenant; the actual covenant is made in chapter 15 where God calls it a covenant and makes a sacrifice.
→ 3 parts to the covenant…
1st • Land – God promises that Abram the possession of land.
2nd • A Great Nation – i.e., lots and lots of family members. Abram the childless will have an uncountable number of descendants.
3rd • Blessing – both blessings received and blessings for others that will emanate from his family. Most importantly we understand that the most significant of those blessings is Jesus Christ Himself, and the salvation He provides for anyone who will trust in Him.
• And this brings us to Issue 6...
► Issue 6 – Where did Abram hear this promise from God?
→ When reading through this text, it seems that God spoke these words to Abram while he was in Haran, just after his father Terah died. And maybe He did, BUT…
→ Acts 7:2-4 says… “2And he (Stephen speaking to the High Priest and the Sanhedrin) said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’ 4Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.”
→ So which is it? Did God say these words to Abram in Ur or in Haran?
→ 2 basic explanations…
• The repeat theory – Quote from MacArthur Study Bible… ”Abram was still in Haran (11:31) when the call was repeated (Acts 7:2) to go to Canaan.” (↓ note 1)
• The non-chronological theory – sometimes in the Scriptures, some historical events are shared in a non-chronological order. This could be an example of a statement that God made to Abram in Ur, but isn’t shared with us until now, because since his father’s death, he is now for all intents and purposes the patriarch of the family, so now he has the freedom to be the decision maker of the family, and now he’s going to finish the journey he was called upon to pursue.
→ Either way, based on the Acts passage, we know that the words were initially heard in Ur, but are now going to be acted upon.
► 4So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
→ v4 • Pretty cut and dried – Abram and Lot left Haran when Abram was 75.
5Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
→ v5 • Abram, Sarai, Lot, and the “persons which they had acquired in Haran”.
• Not sure how many had come with them, if any, from Ur, but these mentioned are from Haran.
• Gen 14:14 tells us that at one point there were 318 “trained men”, probably shepherds who would be trained to do battle with wild animals, or with thieves, in order to protect their flocks, most likely all servants.
• This passage mentions that they were “acquired” in Haran. Of the 318, it is said in Gen 14:14 that these were “born in his household”. My speculation is that they were servants of Terah, who followed him to Haran, and became Abram’s servants in Haran, upon Terah’s death.
• “Many possessions”…
→ sheep???
→ The implication being that they were rich. You’d need to be if you were going to be responsible to feed hundreds of people every day.
6Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.
→ v6 • Shechem • about 425 miles from Haran (which is in modern Turkey, just north of the Syrian border). About 30 miles north of Jerusalem.
• Oak of Moreh – just another tree, but significant enough to have a name. This was probably a stand-alone tree, or one of significant stature, or one that was at a specific location (worship?) for the locals in the area. Which were…
→ Canaanites – He was headed after all to the land of Canaan. Both a confirmation that he had “arrived”, but also looking forward to when they would be an enemy needing to be conquered.
7The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
→ v7 • While at Shechem, specifically at the Oak of Moreh, The LORD (YHWH) appears to Abram and reminds him of 2 things…
1 • he’s going to have descendants.
2 • he’s going to own this land (or his descendants will).
→ both of these are reminders of the promise he already heard from God at both Ur and Haran.
• Abram builds an altar and worships.
8Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
→ v8 • Mountain between Bethel and Ai.
• about 20 miles south of Shechem and 10 miles north of Jerusalem.
• Bethel means “house of God” and Ai means “heap of ruins”.
→ Bethel was actually called "Luz" at this time, but in Gen 28:19 Jacob will rename this place Bethel. There are several places in Genesis where Moses refers to a location by what was it's current name at the time he wrote. It may be that Abram called it Bethel, and during the time of slavery in Egypt, the time between Genesis and Exodus, it had been renamed to Luz, but later Jacob will re-institute the name Abram had originally named it. We don't know for sure, but I speculated to try to account for the reference to Bethel here, compared with Jacob naming it later.
• Abram built another altar and worshipped.
→ v9 • Kept moving south. Possibly to find adequate feed for his livestock.
• Negev means “south”.
• This area would be south of Hebron, which is south of Jerusalem, toward the Sinai Peninsula.
► This story really starts with God reaching out to Abram, revealing Himself to him in a personal way. The God of the universe, YHWH Himself, sends Abram on a journey, filled with promises for not only his own future, but for the future of his descendants, and ultimately for everyone who will ever live.
And the promises?
1st • Land → His family specifically will have a home, a piece of land we now know as Israel, that will be theirs forever.
2nd • A great nation → Not only will his family be large, but it will grow to become a nation. Pretty impressive for a guy with no kids.
3rd • Blessing → Both personal, and to his family, but also through them to the rest of the world. The greatest expression of this promise of blessing is the salvation that will be provided by Jesus Christ.
► And we too, as believers, being grafted into Abraham's family by faith, are a part of this. The best part, being connected to our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, the same way Abraham was, by faith. Abraham's faith was looking forward and trusting in God to fulfill His promises (which He did). When we get to Genesis 15, we'll see Abram's faith acknowledged by God. Our faith is looking back to what Jesus has already done on our behalf. And looking forward to being with Him in heaven in the future.
Photo • 7/02/2025 - Moki Dugway, a 3 mile dirt section of UT-261 just north of Mexican Hat, UT
To see more about Moki Dugway, click here... https://steve9637.wixsite.com/2025a/pnw-04b
“Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org”
note 1 - MacArthur, J., Jr., ed. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed., p. 32). Word Pub.
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