LESSON V.--JANUARY 30.

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM.--GENESIS 12:1-9.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.--GENESIS 12:2.
      TIME.--About B. C. 1921.
      PLACE.--In Haran, east of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Gen. 11:22-32; 26:24-26; Acts 7:1-8; Gal. 3:5-29; Hebrews 11:8-16.
      LESSON ANALYSIS.--1. The Divine Call; 2. Pilgrims Seeking a City; 3. The Altar of God Built.

INTRODUCTION.

      The name of Abraham looms up as one of the great representative men of the world. Like Adam and Noah he belongs to mankind rather than to the Jewish race. Paul bases an argument on the fact that he was yet [39] uncircumcised when he was called and approved of God. Three of the great religions of the earth venerate him as a great spiritual father, the Jews who are his fleshly descendants, the Mahometans who cherished his name as the "Father of the Faithful" and the ancestor of the Arabian tribes to which Mahomet belonged, and the Christian world who are made children of Abraham by faith and heirs of the promise.

      Abraham was a descendant of Shem, and the son of Terah, born in "Ur of Chaldees," a city or district whose locality is not certainly known, but somewhere in the valley of the Euphrates. His kindred were nomads, like the wandering Arabs, with great flocks of sheep and cattle which they drove from pasture to pasture. The earth was not yet densely inhabited, the whole human race being estimated at about thirty millions, and there was abundant room, even in settled lands, for the pasturage of flocks. Though society was primitive and simple there are indications of a sad apostasy since the days of Noah. The glimpses given of society in Canaan and, Egypt indicate that idolatry prevailed, that licentiousness existed, and the depravity of certain cities in the valley of the Jordan brought upon them an awful destruction.

      1. THE DIVINE CALL.--1. Now the Lord had said to Abram. The translators are in error in giving the verb the pluperfect form. It should read, "said," and probably refers to a call given in Haran. Stephen, in Acts 7:2, speaks of a call received in Ur of the Chaldees. This probably caused the migration of Terah and his family, including Abraham, to Haran, but there the tribe paused for a season and Terah never went farther. This second call directs Abraham to leave his father's family behind and to push on. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred. The fact that Stephen declares that a call came to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, and that Gen. 11:31 says that "Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they went forth from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan," indicate that Terah was at first leader in the movement, but from some cause be never went farther than Haran. It was probably because he had abandoned the purpose of removing to Canaan that Abraham is commanded, not only to leave his country, but "his kindred and his father's house." By "thy country" is meant Haran, which was a part of the great valley in which Abraham had been reared. To a land that I will show thee. Of Canaan Abraham could personally know nothing. In that remote age nothing was known of the geography of the world, a desert separated Mesopotamia from Palestine, what lay beyond the desert was unknown, and in seeking a new country he would go forth into a dark, mysterious world, walking by faith instead of sight. [40]

      2. I will make of thee a great nation. There are several clauses in the promise to Abraham of which this is the first and refers to his descendants. Among the purposes of God was the founding of the Jewish race, "a great nation," composed of the blood and offspring of Abraham. And I will bless thee. Personally, the blessing of God shall rest upon the patriarch, and we see it signally realized, in the prosperous, peaceful, happy life, and in the greatness of his name among his own contemporaries. Certainly the promise that "his name should be great" has had a wonderful fulfillment. Nearly half the human race honor Abraham as a great religious father. We think it safe to say that no other one man has been so widely venerated. Thou shalt be a blessing. A good man is always a blessing, but the promise has a wider scope. It is a prophecy of the spiritual blessings of mankind which should be bestowed through the race of Abraham as a medium.

      3. I will bless them that bless thee. God's blessing was to extend to Abraham's friends and followers, and the enemies of Abraham were to be subject to God's curse. Abraham was called "the friend of God," but God was also his friend. In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. This clause reveals the real reason why Abraham was called. It was not merely for his sake, or merely to found the Jewish nation, but for the sake of the spiritual blessing of mankind. "In thee" means "through thee," that is, through the seed of Abraham. It is so expressed in chapter 22:18, and 26:4. "In no sense can it be pretended that the nations of the earth have been blessed in Abraham and his seed, except as they are depositories of that divine knowledge which through them has become the heritage of the nations, and as the chosen race of which came the Messiah, the Redeemer of mankind. In this sense the promise, wonderful in the circumstances under which it was made, has been more wonderfully fulfilled."--Conant. About 4000 years ago these words were uttered to Abraham. To-day we can look at the nations and see whether it has been fulfilled. Christ, the seed of Abraham, has changed the face of the earth, given it a new civilization, and filled the nations that rule the earth with his light.

      Let it be observed that these promises were not made to a Jew; the Jewish race was not founded; Abraham was a Chaldean shepherd; it was not until many years later that he was circumcised as a mark of a national covenant. This grand promise of Christ, of a blessing upon an families, or nations, was given to a Gentile instead of a Jew. [41]

      II. PILGRIMS SEEKING A CITY.--4. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither be went." His prompt obedience of a command that separated him from all that he had ever known, demonstrated his faith. The family of Terah, his father and brethren, were left behind; Lot, his nephew, and of course, Sarai his wife, were taken, as well as all their property, consisting largely of flocks, and the numerous dependents of a great pastoral chieftain, "the souls that they had gotten in Haran." Abram was seventy-five years old. Stephen says, Acts 7:4, that Abraham departed after Terah's death; but Gen. 11:32 says that Terah was 205 years old when he died, and 11:26 seems to imply that he was seventy when Abraham was born. If these figures are correct, Terah was 145 years old when Abraham went to Canaan, and lived sixty years afterward. It is by no means certain, however, that we are to conclude that Terah was seventy when Abraham was born; the latter may have been the youngest son, mentioned first as the greatest, and seventy may have been the age when his first was born. The Samaritan Pentateuch, in some respects more reliable than the Hebrew copies, gives the age of Terah at his death as 145, instead of 205. If he was seventy at Abraham's birth, he died the very year that Abraham started to Canaan, according to this reading.

      5. And they went forth into the land of Canaan. We must keep in mind that Abraham was a great pastoral chieftain, a prince like an Arabian Sheik of our own times. He was attended, wherever he journeyed, by his flocks and thousands of servants and tribesmen. At one time we see him leading 318 "trained servants," men drilled in the art of war, to battle. As manners have remained stereotyped for thousands of years in the East, we can form a pretty correct idea of Abraham's march, from observing that of a Bedouin encampment. Dean Stanley thus pictures it: "All the substance that they had gathered" is piled high on the backs of the kneeling camels. "The souls that they had gotten in Haran" run along by their sides. Round them are their flocks of sheep and goats, and the asses moving underneath [42] the towering form of the camels. The chief is there, amid the stir of movement, or resting at noon under his black tent, marked out from the rest by his cloak of brilliant scarlet, by the fillet of rope that binds the loose handkerchief to his head, by the spear he holds in his hand to guide the march, or to fix the encampment. The chief's wife, the "princess" of her tribe, is there in her own tent, to make the cakes, or to prepare the usual meal of milk and butter; the servant or child is ready to bring in the red lentile soup for the weary hunter, or to kill the calf for the unexpected guest. Into the land of Canaan they came. The line of march would lead up the Euphrates, then across the desert to Damascus, where Abraham may have obtained his chief servant, Eliezer of Damascus; and the land of Palestine would be entered from the north.

      6. And Abram passed through the land to Sichem. Entering from the north, passing down the Jordan valley, the beautiful and fertile spot of Shechem, or Sychar, "the garden of Palestine" would be in his course. It is evident that the land was thinly settled, for this delightful valley, well watered with springs, was open to the pasturage of his flocks. He was entering upon ground that his race would render historic. Here Jacob would afterwards encamp, also a pilgrim from Haran; here Jacob's well was dug; here the bones of Joseph were buried; here the blessings and the cursings of the law were given; and here "One greater than our father Jacob" taught the Samaritans the way of life. The plain of Moreh. More correctly the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land. This statement is made in order that the reader may know that the same occupants were in Palestine who held possession 400 years later. At that later period there was implacable enmity between Abraham's seed and the Canaanites, but he dwelt with them in peace.

      III. THE ALTAR OF GOD BUILT--7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram. This is the third revelation made to Abraham of which we have record; the first in Ur of the Chaldees, the second in Haran, and the third when he had reached the land to which the Lord directed him. This special revelation was needful that he might certainly know that he had reached the destined home of his race. The revelation contained just one item. To thy seed will I give this land. It was not promised to him, but to his seed, and all he ever owned in fee simply was a burial place. He remained to the last a dweller in tents without a fixed habitation. It was 400 years before his seed entered into possession. There he builded an altar unto the Lord. Full of gratitude and [43] reverence for the revelation, he at once made the spot a temple by the erection of an altar of sacrifice, at which he officiated as priest. There was then no sacerdotal caste; the head of the family was the priest of his household; here, in this spot so renowned in history, the first altar to Jehovah, of which we have record, was reared; thus, as it were, openly taking possession of the promised land in the name of Jehovah. The altar was reared on the spot where the Lord appeared. The memory of this great event was perpetuated and the place was regarded as a sanctuary for many generations. See Josh. 24:26. It should be noted that wherever Abraham fixed his abode there he reared an altar, as at Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Beersheba. Who appeared unto him. This is the first direct mention of the Lord appearing to any mortal. His voice was heard by Adam, and he spoke to Noah, but here he appears to Abraham; how we are not told, whether in vision, or by an angel.

      8. And he removed thence unto a mountain east of Bethel. He still journeyed, as his immense flocks exhausted the pastures, to the southward, and he pitched his tent between Bethel and Hai. Here, as was the custom of his life, he built an altar, and "called on the name of Jehovah." It will be observed that Lord, in the Hebrew "Jehovah," is the name by which God revealed himself to his chosen people. In an age when idols were called gods, it was needful that the one God should choose some distinctive name. Hence, as far back as the days of Seth the true worshipers "began to call on the name of Jehovah," on the Eternal, the one Eternal God, which the name expresses. See Gen. 4:26.

      9. And Abram Journeyed, going still toward the south. He journeyed by repeated encampments, as the necessities of pasturage required, partly, we fancy, to survey the land which he saw by faith occupied by a great nation of his descendants.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      Prompt, unquestioning, unconditional obedience to God is the fruit of faith. No man who dallies with the word of the Lord, puts off obedience, or seeks to modify his ordinances, can claim to be a believer.

      Faith justifies, but the faith that justifies is a faith that moves to action. The faith of Abraham, which secured the divine favor, was strong enough to carry him from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan.

      The man of faith, at God's command, will go forth where God tells him, [44] even not knowing where his steps will lead. Thus did Abraham. Thus did Paul and all the ancient saints. Thus did Luther. Thus does every one who surrenders himself to God. He walks henceforth by faith and not by sight.

      A man must love God and his work better than father and mother and kindred. "If a man love father and mother, etc., more than me he is not worthy of me," says Christ. If kindred will not go with us when we start to seek an abiding city we must leave kindred and go.

      ABRAHAM'S DISTINCTION.--Abraham was called to be the head of a great family; the founder of a great nation; the representative of the family covenant and its first and Illustrious exemplar; the progenitor of the Desire of all nations, the Hope of the world, the Messiah; and coupled with his lineal posterity, the repository of God's truth and promises--his offspring were the people with whom God dwelt and by whom he was publicly worshiped for ages in the presence of the idolatrous nations of the earth; over whom God became their earthly sovereign, their recognized King and God.--Cowles.

      ABRAHAM'S FAITH.--In him was most distinctly manifested the gift of faith. In him, long before Luther, long before Paul, was it proclaimed in a sense not less clear and universal than the preaching of the apostles, that man is justified by faith. *   *   *   His faith, in the literal sense of the word, is known to us only by his works. He and his descendants are blessed, not as the Koran states, because of his adoption of the first article of the creed of Islam, but because he had "obeyed the voice of the Lord, and kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes and his laws." Gen. 26:5; 18:19.--Dean Stanley.

      Every family of worshipers, wherever it abides, whether at Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba, London, or Canton, should rear its family altar like Abraham, and every head should officiate at that altar as the family priest.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Point out the geography, the home in Ur of the Chaldees, the abiding place in Haran, the long march to Canaan, the stopping places in Canaan. 2. Describe the family and surroundings of Abraham, his life as a shepherd chieftain, a dweller in tents, moving with flocks and tribe from pasture to pasture, or journeying across the desert. 3. Emphasize the call of God, why made, God's great purposes, why Abraham was chosen, because of supreme fitness. 4. Show how the call was obeyed, the demonstration that Abraham was a man of faith, how faith shows itself, why Abraham is called "father of the faithful." 5. Note the revelation of God at Shechem, its purpose, the erection of the altar and why. 6. Point out the character of the Abrahamic worship, the altar under the open sky, the father-priest. 7. Especially note, the climax of interest in this lesson, the Messianic promise. Show how each promise to Abraham was fulfilled, and especially how "in him all the families of the earth are blessed." 8. Inculcate the duty of building altars to Jehovah everywhere. Every family hearthstone and every closet can be one, and every man and woman and child a priest to offer incense. [45]

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: