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Genesis 12:1-3b-6
● Gen 12:3b . . And in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed.
The Hebrew word translated "in you" is a bit ambiguous. It can also mean
"through you" and/or "by means of you".
Abram eventually found out that the above prediction concerned a great
grandson of his.
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad."
(John 8:56-57)
The "blessing" in focus is no doubt the one below.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did
not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should
be spared through Him. (John 3:16-17)
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)
● Gen 12:4a . . Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him,
Although Abram didn't "went forth" exactly when God told him to; he finally
did; and that's what counts. Jonah didn't "went forth" when he was told to
go either, but God prepared a large fish to persuade him to stop fooling
around and get a move on; and he finally complied.
● Gen 12:4b . . and Lot went with him.
That was an err on Abram's part. He was told to leave his native land and to
leave his father's house. He wasn't supposed to take any relatives along with
him: and Lot wasn't a child; he was a grown man capable of operating a
ranch on his own so it's not like Abram would have abandoned Lot an
orphan.
● Gen 12:4c . . Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
That hardly seems like a sensible age to reinvent one's self and begin a new
life; but Abram was relatively young yet in his own day, and still had 100
years of life left to go.
To give a perspective on just how long 100 years is: from today in 2017; it
would be only five years after the sinking of the Titanic, one before the end
of WW1, six years before Poncho Villa's demise, and two years till the
ratification of the 18th Amendment-- horse and buggy were common in New
York City, and Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp were still alive.
I was born in 1944. The average life expectancy of a man born that year is
roughly 62. Abram lived to the ripe old age of 175 (Gen 25:7-8). So, at the
time of his migration to Canaan, Abram was about the equivalent of me at
26.
Abram's wife Sarai was even perkier. She was nine years younger than
Abram (cf. Gen 17:1 and Gen 17:17). But Sarai only lived to 127; forty eight
years less than her husband (Gen 23:1). The average life expectancy of a
woman born in 1944 is about 67 years. So Sarai would have been the
equivalent of a female version of me at 25 when they migrated to Canaan
had she survived to her husband's ripe old age of 175. Precisely why Sarai's
life was cut short is unknown; but I think it's okay to assume it was just
natural causes.
● Gen 12:5 . . Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot,
and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they
had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan; and
they arrived there.
I'm pretty sure Sarai anticipated this move. Abram had probably been
talking about it ever since God appeared to him in Ur so I seriously doubt it
disrupted her life like a bolt out of the blue.
From Haran (Haraan Turkey) it's well over 400 miles south to the West Bank
in Palestine. You can imagine the difficulty of making such a trip what with
no automobiles, no trains, no buses, no taxi cabs, no airplanes, no paved
surface highways, and no graded roads. It was all trails and dirt paths; and
all on foot, or on the back of an animal, or in a cart pulled by an animal.
People traveled like that for millennia before powered conveyances were
invented and became widespread. Practically all modern means of travel
were invented in the 20th century AD.
In only just the last 120 years or so of Man's existence has there been
airplanes and horseless carriages. Man went from the Wright Brothers to the
moon in just sixty-six years.
The previous thousands of years before Karl Benz's production of gasoline
powered motorwagens; people were very slow moving, and travel was
arduous, inconvenient, and totally earth-bound. In those days, a pioneer's
greatest obstacle to migration was distance.
It's significant that Abram wasn't required to dispose of his worldly goods in
order to follow God. Abram later became an exceedingly rich man and God
never once asked him to give it all away to charity.
Riches are bad only if they have such a hold upon a person that they must
compromise their integrity to hang on to it. For that person, it's better to be
poor. But it would be wrong to impose poverty upon everyone because not
everyone is consumed with survival, avarice, and greed.
● Gen 12:6 . . Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of
the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites
were in the land.
The Canaanites were Canaan's descendants-- Noah's bad-apple grandson.
The Canaanites probably didn't have complete control of the land at this
time, merely a presence, same as Abram. But they were definitely in
progress of getting control. By the time Joshua invaded, roughly four
hundred years later, Canaan's clan was pretty well rooted in Palestine.
Abram's welfare wasn't improved by coming out west to Canaan. His home
town Ur was a modern city with decent accommodations. But out on the
frontier, it was rugged. Palestine in that day was no Utopia. It was more like
the conditions which faced our own early day American pioneers and
settlers. There were communities scattered here and there, but for the most
part, it was wild, wooly, and untamed.
Abram, now paying attention to God, is going where he's told and moving in
all the right directions. The next two moves are preceded by altars; upon
which, we can safely assume, were offered the traditional Noah-style burnt
offering. Altar sites were hot-spots; viz: locations for making wireless
contact with God; sort of like what the Temple at Jerusalem became in later
years.
/
Genesis 12:1-3b-6
● Gen 12:3b . . And in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed.
The Hebrew word translated "in you" is a bit ambiguous. It can also mean
"through you" and/or "by means of you".
Abram eventually found out that the above prediction concerned a great
grandson of his.
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad."
(John 8:56-57)
The "blessing" in focus is no doubt the one below.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did
not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should
be spared through Him. (John 3:16-17)
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)
● Gen 12:4a . . Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him,
Although Abram didn't "went forth" exactly when God told him to; he finally
did; and that's what counts. Jonah didn't "went forth" when he was told to
go either, but God prepared a large fish to persuade him to stop fooling
around and get a move on; and he finally complied.
● Gen 12:4b . . and Lot went with him.
That was an err on Abram's part. He was told to leave his native land and to
leave his father's house. He wasn't supposed to take any relatives along with
him: and Lot wasn't a child; he was a grown man capable of operating a
ranch on his own so it's not like Abram would have abandoned Lot an
orphan.
● Gen 12:4c . . Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
That hardly seems like a sensible age to reinvent one's self and begin a new
life; but Abram was relatively young yet in his own day, and still had 100
years of life left to go.
To give a perspective on just how long 100 years is: from today in 2017; it
would be only five years after the sinking of the Titanic, one before the end
of WW1, six years before Poncho Villa's demise, and two years till the
ratification of the 18th Amendment-- horse and buggy were common in New
York City, and Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp were still alive.
I was born in 1944. The average life expectancy of a man born that year is
roughly 62. Abram lived to the ripe old age of 175 (Gen 25:7-8). So, at the
time of his migration to Canaan, Abram was about the equivalent of me at
26.
Abram's wife Sarai was even perkier. She was nine years younger than
Abram (cf. Gen 17:1 and Gen 17:17). But Sarai only lived to 127; forty eight
years less than her husband (Gen 23:1). The average life expectancy of a
woman born in 1944 is about 67 years. So Sarai would have been the
equivalent of a female version of me at 25 when they migrated to Canaan
had she survived to her husband's ripe old age of 175. Precisely why Sarai's
life was cut short is unknown; but I think it's okay to assume it was just
natural causes.
● Gen 12:5 . . Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot,
and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they
had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan; and
they arrived there.
I'm pretty sure Sarai anticipated this move. Abram had probably been
talking about it ever since God appeared to him in Ur so I seriously doubt it
disrupted her life like a bolt out of the blue.
From Haran (Haraan Turkey) it's well over 400 miles south to the West Bank
in Palestine. You can imagine the difficulty of making such a trip what with
no automobiles, no trains, no buses, no taxi cabs, no airplanes, no paved
surface highways, and no graded roads. It was all trails and dirt paths; and
all on foot, or on the back of an animal, or in a cart pulled by an animal.
People traveled like that for millennia before powered conveyances were
invented and became widespread. Practically all modern means of travel
were invented in the 20th century AD.
In only just the last 120 years or so of Man's existence has there been
airplanes and horseless carriages. Man went from the Wright Brothers to the
moon in just sixty-six years.
The previous thousands of years before Karl Benz's production of gasoline
powered motorwagens; people were very slow moving, and travel was
arduous, inconvenient, and totally earth-bound. In those days, a pioneer's
greatest obstacle to migration was distance.
It's significant that Abram wasn't required to dispose of his worldly goods in
order to follow God. Abram later became an exceedingly rich man and God
never once asked him to give it all away to charity.
Riches are bad only if they have such a hold upon a person that they must
compromise their integrity to hang on to it. For that person, it's better to be
poor. But it would be wrong to impose poverty upon everyone because not
everyone is consumed with survival, avarice, and greed.
● Gen 12:6 . . Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of
the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites
were in the land.
The Canaanites were Canaan's descendants-- Noah's bad-apple grandson.
The Canaanites probably didn't have complete control of the land at this
time, merely a presence, same as Abram. But they were definitely in
progress of getting control. By the time Joshua invaded, roughly four
hundred years later, Canaan's clan was pretty well rooted in Palestine.
Abram's welfare wasn't improved by coming out west to Canaan. His home
town Ur was a modern city with decent accommodations. But out on the
frontier, it was rugged. Palestine in that day was no Utopia. It was more like
the conditions which faced our own early day American pioneers and
settlers. There were communities scattered here and there, but for the most
part, it was wild, wooly, and untamed.
Abram, now paying attention to God, is going where he's told and moving in
all the right directions. The next two moves are preceded by altars; upon
which, we can safely assume, were offered the traditional Noah-style burnt
offering. Altar sites were hot-spots; viz: locations for making wireless
contact with God; sort of like what the Temple at Jerusalem became in later
years.
/