†. Gen 11:28 . . Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his
native land, Ur of the Chaldeans.
The Grim Reaper cares not for the age of its victims, whether young or
whether old. Haran died before his dad. Many a parent has buried their
children before they even had a chance to live.
You know, anybody can die; it's not all that difficult; and people don't have
to be old nor do they have to be especially intelligent. Even the young, the
inexperienced, and the stupid do it all the time.
†. Ecc 2:16 . . For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered:
in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must
die.
†. Ecc 9:10-12 . . For the time of mischance comes to all. And a man cannot
even know his time. As fishes are enmeshed in a fatal net, and as birds are
trapped in a snare, so men are caught at the time of calamity, when it
comes upon them without warning.
†. Zch 1:5 . .Your ancestors, where are they? and the prophets: do they live
for ever?
†. Gen 11:29 . . Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the
name of Abram's wife being Sarai and that of Nahor's wife Milcah,
the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
Nahor married a niece; the daughter of his brother Haran. And Abram,
according to Gen 20:12, married a half sister; the daughter of his father
Terah. Such close marriages were later forbidden in Moses' covenanted law.
But as Genesis has shown all along, at this early date close marriages were
neither forbidden nor particularly dangerous from a genetic point of view,
and so were not uncommon. Adam's family married among themselves; and
so did Noah's. They really had no choice about it. There just weren't any
other people available for spouses at the time.
Close inbreeding was neither a sin nor a problem in those days. But it sure is
now. You wouldn't dare engender children with a sister or a brother or a
niece nowadays. The risk of birth defects is just too high. It's notable that as
longevity decreased, so did the margin of safety in marrying relatives. The
quality of the human body was seriously deteriorating.
†. Gen 11:30 . . Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.
This is the very first recorded incident of a human reproductive malfunction.
Other than the reduction in longevity; the human body seems to have been
running on all eight cylinders up to this point. But who was the problem; was
it Abram or Sarai? It was Sarai because Abraham later engendered a child
by one of Sarai's servant girls.
One of the first horrors the human family witnessed was Abel's death. No
one had ever seen a human being dead before. And now this. A woman who
couldn't conceive. It must have been stunning and unbelievable. All the
women in history up to this point were cranking out babies like rabbits and
mice.
But this was double bad for Sarai. Not only could she not have a family of
her own, but you know how the tabloids feed on unusual events. Well . . this
was one for the books. Sarai, in her day, was a true freak of nature.
Everyone would point at her and whisper in hushed tones saying: Look!
There she is! That's the one we saw on 20/20.
She must have felt terribly inferior, and you can just imagine what that did
to her self esteem too. Sarai was a gorgeous piece of work, but her womb
had no more life in it than a stack of 8x11 Xerox paper.
I'm a man; so how can I possibly understand Sarai's personal grief? Only
another barren woman can understand what Sarai must have felt. There are
women who don't care about children. But Sarai doesn't strike me as one of
those. And even if she didn't care for children, it would have still been a
comfort in her mind to know that at least she could have some if she wanted
to.
†. Prv 30:15-16 . .There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four
things say not; "It is enough" -- the grave; the barren womb, the earth that
is not filled with water; and the fire.
†. Gen 11:31a . .Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son
of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram,
and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of
Canaan;
Ur's ruins are approximately midway between the modern city of Baghdad
Iraq, and the head of the Persian Gulf, south of the Euphrates River, on the
edge of the Al Hajarah Desert. The site of Ur is known today as Tall al
Muqayyar.
In antiquity, the Euphrates River flowed near the city walls; and thus Ur was
favorably located for the development of commerce and for attaining political
dominance. The biblical name "Ur of the Chaldees" refers to the Chaldeans,
who settled in the area about 900 BC. By the 4th century BC, the city was
practically forgotten, possibly as a result of a shift in the course of the
Euphrates River.
Water played an important role in the location of ancient civilizations. The
Sahara desert, for example, was once a pluvial region with lakes. When
geological forces caused the loss of rainfall and surface water, the Sahara
became the dry waste it's famed for today and consequently its inhabitants
had to relocate.
Ur was enclosed by oval walls thirty feet high, which protected not only the
city, but two harbors as well. Sir Leonard Woolley discovered that the
inhabitants benefited from well-planned streets, and houses with high
standards of sanitation. The houses appear to have been constructed to
remain cool in the hot summers and some may have been two-storied.
House walls adjoined the streets. Homes featured an inner courtyard onto
which their rooms faced; just like Judah's home in the Charleton Heston
movie Ben Hur.
†. Gen 11:31b . . but when they had come as far as Haran, they
settled there.
According to Gen 12:1, God took an interest in Abram while he was in Ur,
before he left with Terah to travel to Haran. After sharing his vision with
Terah, the dad quite possibly became interested in a new life himself, having
recently lost a son. The land where he then lived held bad memories and,
probably not wanting to lose touch with any more of his family if Abram
were to move away, he suggested that they all travel together; which is a
perfectly good idea considering the dangers they were likely to encounter en
route. But the dad didn't have the heart for it really. The old gentleman
decided to settle in Haran instead of going all the way to Canaan like the
original plan called for.
From Ur, Canaan is dead west and just about the same distance as Haran.
But instead of going directly to Canaan, they went north, following the trade
routes. I think I would have too. Terah's family was a lot safer going from
town to town along the fertile crescent. It would take longer to get to
Canaan, but they would be in better shape upon arrival. There are some who
like to keep their foot on the gas and push on through when they travel. But
that is very tiring. It's far better to stop often, eat, and rest before moving
on. The towns along the northern route could provide them with needed
supplies for the journey too.
But Haran (modern Charran or Haraan) is too far out of the way really. It's
clear up in Urfa Turkey on the trade route to Ninevah. Terah could have
turned south a lot sooner and gone on down to Canaan via Damascus. But I
think that by then, he'd lost interest in Canaan and decided that Haran was
the place for him. And Abram, probably not wanting to leave his dad alone
there, stayed on too.
Cont.
/
native land, Ur of the Chaldeans.
The Grim Reaper cares not for the age of its victims, whether young or
whether old. Haran died before his dad. Many a parent has buried their
children before they even had a chance to live.
You know, anybody can die; it's not all that difficult; and people don't have
to be old nor do they have to be especially intelligent. Even the young, the
inexperienced, and the stupid do it all the time.
†. Ecc 2:16 . . For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered:
in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must
die.
†. Ecc 9:10-12 . . For the time of mischance comes to all. And a man cannot
even know his time. As fishes are enmeshed in a fatal net, and as birds are
trapped in a snare, so men are caught at the time of calamity, when it
comes upon them without warning.
†. Zch 1:5 . .Your ancestors, where are they? and the prophets: do they live
for ever?
†. Gen 11:29 . . Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the
name of Abram's wife being Sarai and that of Nahor's wife Milcah,
the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
Nahor married a niece; the daughter of his brother Haran. And Abram,
according to Gen 20:12, married a half sister; the daughter of his father
Terah. Such close marriages were later forbidden in Moses' covenanted law.
But as Genesis has shown all along, at this early date close marriages were
neither forbidden nor particularly dangerous from a genetic point of view,
and so were not uncommon. Adam's family married among themselves; and
so did Noah's. They really had no choice about it. There just weren't any
other people available for spouses at the time.
Close inbreeding was neither a sin nor a problem in those days. But it sure is
now. You wouldn't dare engender children with a sister or a brother or a
niece nowadays. The risk of birth defects is just too high. It's notable that as
longevity decreased, so did the margin of safety in marrying relatives. The
quality of the human body was seriously deteriorating.
†. Gen 11:30 . . Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.
This is the very first recorded incident of a human reproductive malfunction.
Other than the reduction in longevity; the human body seems to have been
running on all eight cylinders up to this point. But who was the problem; was
it Abram or Sarai? It was Sarai because Abraham later engendered a child
by one of Sarai's servant girls.
One of the first horrors the human family witnessed was Abel's death. No
one had ever seen a human being dead before. And now this. A woman who
couldn't conceive. It must have been stunning and unbelievable. All the
women in history up to this point were cranking out babies like rabbits and
mice.
But this was double bad for Sarai. Not only could she not have a family of
her own, but you know how the tabloids feed on unusual events. Well . . this
was one for the books. Sarai, in her day, was a true freak of nature.
Everyone would point at her and whisper in hushed tones saying: Look!
There she is! That's the one we saw on 20/20.
She must have felt terribly inferior, and you can just imagine what that did
to her self esteem too. Sarai was a gorgeous piece of work, but her womb
had no more life in it than a stack of 8x11 Xerox paper.
I'm a man; so how can I possibly understand Sarai's personal grief? Only
another barren woman can understand what Sarai must have felt. There are
women who don't care about children. But Sarai doesn't strike me as one of
those. And even if she didn't care for children, it would have still been a
comfort in her mind to know that at least she could have some if she wanted
to.
†. Prv 30:15-16 . .There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four
things say not; "It is enough" -- the grave; the barren womb, the earth that
is not filled with water; and the fire.
†. Gen 11:31a . .Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son
of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram,
and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of
Canaan;
Ur's ruins are approximately midway between the modern city of Baghdad
Iraq, and the head of the Persian Gulf, south of the Euphrates River, on the
edge of the Al Hajarah Desert. The site of Ur is known today as Tall al
Muqayyar.
In antiquity, the Euphrates River flowed near the city walls; and thus Ur was
favorably located for the development of commerce and for attaining political
dominance. The biblical name "Ur of the Chaldees" refers to the Chaldeans,
who settled in the area about 900 BC. By the 4th century BC, the city was
practically forgotten, possibly as a result of a shift in the course of the
Euphrates River.
Water played an important role in the location of ancient civilizations. The
Sahara desert, for example, was once a pluvial region with lakes. When
geological forces caused the loss of rainfall and surface water, the Sahara
became the dry waste it's famed for today and consequently its inhabitants
had to relocate.
Ur was enclosed by oval walls thirty feet high, which protected not only the
city, but two harbors as well. Sir Leonard Woolley discovered that the
inhabitants benefited from well-planned streets, and houses with high
standards of sanitation. The houses appear to have been constructed to
remain cool in the hot summers and some may have been two-storied.
House walls adjoined the streets. Homes featured an inner courtyard onto
which their rooms faced; just like Judah's home in the Charleton Heston
movie Ben Hur.
†. Gen 11:31b . . but when they had come as far as Haran, they
settled there.
According to Gen 12:1, God took an interest in Abram while he was in Ur,
before he left with Terah to travel to Haran. After sharing his vision with
Terah, the dad quite possibly became interested in a new life himself, having
recently lost a son. The land where he then lived held bad memories and,
probably not wanting to lose touch with any more of his family if Abram
were to move away, he suggested that they all travel together; which is a
perfectly good idea considering the dangers they were likely to encounter en
route. But the dad didn't have the heart for it really. The old gentleman
decided to settle in Haran instead of going all the way to Canaan like the
original plan called for.
From Ur, Canaan is dead west and just about the same distance as Haran.
But instead of going directly to Canaan, they went north, following the trade
routes. I think I would have too. Terah's family was a lot safer going from
town to town along the fertile crescent. It would take longer to get to
Canaan, but they would be in better shape upon arrival. There are some who
like to keep their foot on the gas and push on through when they travel. But
that is very tiring. It's far better to stop often, eat, and rest before moving
on. The towns along the northern route could provide them with needed
supplies for the journey too.
But Haran (modern Charran or Haraan) is too far out of the way really. It's
clear up in Urfa Turkey on the trade route to Ninevah. Terah could have
turned south a lot sooner and gone on down to Canaan via Damascus. But I
think that by then, he'd lost interest in Canaan and decided that Haran was
the place for him. And Abram, probably not wanting to leave his dad alone
there, stayed on too.
Cont.
/
