Before we jump into things, let’s begin with a quick look at a family tree:

 

As you might recall from my earlier notes our friend Noah had three sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now Shem had a bunch of children, who had a bunch of children, who had a bunch of children, until finally a man named Terah was born.* This is where our next story begins. When Terah was 70 years old he had three sons named Haran, Nahor, and Abram. Here’s a quick look into their lives:

 

Haran died before his father did in the same place that he was born. This place was called “Ur of the Chaldeans.” However, while he was alive he did manage to have a son named Lot, as well as two daughters named Milcah and Iscah.

 

Nahor married Milcah, his niece.** Keep in mind that marrying within your family was common at this time.

 

Abram married his half sister Sarai. She was Abram’s father’s daughter, but not his mother’s. Sarai had a bit of a problem though—she wasn’t able to have kids. This is key to their story.

 

Now remember that God has been hard at work, trying to get humanity back to the way it was supposed to be before the fall of man that had happened back in the Garden of Eden—

 

And it has not been working out the way it was supposed to. 

 

Humanity got to such a drastic point of sin that God flooded the earth, wiping out all humanity except the eight on the Ark. It was better to destroy the human race rather than watch it destroy itself. 

 

Terah decided to move out of Ur of the Chaldeans and into Canaan along with Abram, Lot, and Sarai. However, when they reached a place called Haran (the place, not the person) they decided to settle there.

 

This is where Abram becomes a very important character in the Bible because God chooses him out of the rest of the humans at the time to become the common ancestor of a great nation later down the road. God speaks to Abram to make a deal with him on this idea:

 

“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

 

And Abram was obedient. I mean, why not, right? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

 

He was 75 years old when he left Haran and everything he knew for God’s chosen land, which turned out to be the ever-so-popular land of Canaan. This land would later become the major land that Israel would claim, as well as the land that Christianity would rise out of. So God must have strongly favored this land and hoped to have his people there. 

 

Abram took his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, and all the possessions and people he had gained at his former home and set off for this land. And as one might expect, Abram came to find that the Canaanites occupied the land of Canaan at this time. Abram continued onward through Canaan, and after having traveled through a part of the land named Shechem, Abram set up camp beside a tree called the “Oak of Moreh.”

 

And here something amazing happens. 

 

God “appears” to Abram. And yes, the word “appears” is the word used in every translation I’ve looked at. God APPEARS.

 

The One True God appears to Abram in some way, shape, or form.

 

You know how angels always have to say “fear not” when they first show up because people are freaked out to see them? Well now the actual God has appeared to Abram…

 

Don’t wet your pants buddy.

 

 

How would you react?

 

 

“I will give this land to your descendants,” God tells him. 

 

And that’s the extent of the conversation. But man, what a rush those eight words must have been.

 

An appearing God…

 

Abram is so moved by this experience that he builds an altar right there where God appeared to him.

 

From here, Abram moved south and set up camp in the hill country between two places called Ai and Bethel. He also set up another altar to God here as well. This is actually quite a common form of worship to God that Abram does. Next, Abram steadily made his way south into a place called the Negev.

 

Now if you’re anything like me, you’re really confused about taking in all of these cities and countries and areas and people’s names and distinguishing people’s names from the names of cities and so on and so forth and what not. So let me try to clear the air a little bit real quick. Abram put quite a couple miles on his feet since he left Ur of the Chaldeans. He is about to make his way into Egypt as well just to make his journey even longer. Here’s a map so you can kind of get the idea of what’s going on here.

 

Click here to enlarge.

Once you get all your thoughts organized feel free to continue.

 

Now as I stated before Abram decided to leave for Egypt next. This was because there was a harsh famine in the land he was in. But when he gets to Egypt, Abram asks his wife to do quite a difficult thing I would imagine.

 

It ends up that Sarai is actually a very beautiful woman, and this frightens Abram. He is sure that when the Egyptians see her they will kill him so that they can have her for their own. And for this reason he sets up his difficult plan. He tells Sarai to inform the Egyptians that she is his sister (which is somewhat true). This way they will let Abram live.

 

That’s a tough idea to take in isn’t it? It must have been a very difficult choice to make. Abram would have to let his wife possibly be in the arms of another man—and that’s not something anyone to handle. But then again what if Abram is right? What if the Egyptians would kill him for his wife? Perhaps Sarai would much rather go through with this plan then loose her husband for good. After all, if he’s still alive there’s still a chance they can get out of this mess and back together. She would probably be 10 times as devastated to have her husband killed and then taken away to live with another man she didn’t love. And apparently the thought of this happening isn’t all that unreasonable since they decide to put their plan in action.

 

Quite a cookie…

 

And Abram was spot on with his theory that the Egyptians would want his stunningly beautiful wife. The princes of Egypt talked very fondly of her to Pharaoh and as soon as you know it, she was taken to Pharaoh to live with him.

 

Strangely enough, for this very reason Abram made it quite well in life. He started to take in quite a bit of sheep and cattle, donkeys, servants, and camels because of his relation to Sarai.

 

But don’t forget that God was on Abram’s side all the way and that He planned on using him to build a great nation. He saw their struggle and He stepped into help.

 

God made Pharaoh and his entire palace seriously sick and Pharaoh came to find out why. His wife was married! Talk about a soap opera. So he called on Abram, knowing that he had upset the One True God.

 

“What’s this that you’ve done to me?” Pharaoh asked. “Why didn’t you tell me that she’s your wife? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister’ so that I’d take her as my wife? Here’s your wife back—take her and get out!”

 

And with that, Abram and Sarai were sent out of the country along with everything they possessed.

 

Abram’s still alive.

Reunited with Sarai.

And the two are quite a bit richer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Also note that while people are having children, the life span of your average human being back then is decreasing quite significantly as God had told humanity that it would.

 

**Nahor was also Terah’s father’s name, so Terah probably named his son in honor of him.