God told Noah and his sons to prosper and reproduce (Gen 9) and that they did (Gen 10)! Many generations after Shem had died came Abram (Gen 11).
When we are introduced to Abram in the Bible he is buried (so to speak) deep in a long list of lineage after Noah’s son Shem. Random odd names begetting names we don’t use in today’s culture (Genesis 11) lead us to one familiar name, Abram. We don’t know his great grandfather or his father much but we know Abram (who became Abraham). He must have had some truth passed down to him from his forefathers. After the flood Noah worshiped God calling Him “The God of Shem”. That tells me that Noah was very pleased to see that Shem walked with God much like he had and like his great grandfather Enoch had.
Abram was born to Terah and had 2 brothers: Nahor and Haran. Nahor was named after his grandfather, Terah’s father. Nahor married Milcah and Abram married Sarai. I’m not sure who Haran married but his son Lot is mentioned a lot in this part of The Bible.
Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah, in the town he was born & raised in, Ur of the Chaldeans. Terah took his grandson (Haran’s son), Lot and his (Terah’s) son and daughter in-law Abram & Sarai from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan but when they got to a place called Haran, Terah died. Was he was heart sick for his son, Haran, who died back in Ur? Perhaps it was of old age and his allotted time to die, the Bible doesn’t say.
Ur of the Chaldeans is where Iraq is now and Canaan is where Isreal is now. The place Haran is where modern day Syria is. See the rivers around the cities listed on the map? The rivers represent life. That’s where food grew and where it was sold. People lived near the rivers and found water wells there too for drinking and to also water their animals. The rivers and waterways also represented the highways, when folks traveled they traveled on those routes in order to fuel up on food and water and to be nearby other people and the amenities they offered.
Ur is nearby where the Tower of Babel probably was. Ur had ziggurats with temples on top (pic below) where they would worship many false gods to include the moon god called sin. How ironical is that? Lol. And yet Abram believes in and worships the One True God! That takes faith, to know the Truth when you hear it despite what the raging contemporary fad is and stand in that.
So when Abram was 75 his elderly father who was maybe around 200 years old took him and his wife and their nephew from their hometown where they were known and had a reputation and was there a hope of an inheritance there? What did they leave behind? All I can surmise is that Abram probably left a brother, Nahor and his wife Milcah and their kids.
Today it would take us around 15 hours to drive from Ur to Haran. I don’t know how long it would take us on foot but it takes 15 hours to drive from Stanwood WA to the middle of Wyoming or to drive from Crossville TN to San Antonio TX. I think that it would take around 60-90 days on foot but I don’t know if they were strong at their ages or if they rode any animals.
I can testify, as you know if you’ve been reading these writings the last few years, it is a lot to ponder on a journey like that. Lots of shedding what was behind and perhaps bonding with their nephew Lot. Did they cherish him like a son and did he cherish his uncle Abram as a father? Why did Nahor stay behind?
Terrah dies in Haran at age 205. That’s huge but Abram isn’t left fatherless without direction. God speaks and gives Abram a vision. He tells him to leave his hometown and his relatives and go into a land that He will give him. God tells Abram that He will bless him and make him to be a blessing.
Gen 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
All the families of the earth? That is a very specific sect of people. Something rich to ponder.
Abram obeys, he exercises faith in God and his nephew Lot comes too. They went to a new land they had never traveled through before, Canaan.
You know…..Canaan from the tribe of Noah’s grandson who was cursed to be a servant to his uncle’s tribes, Shem & Japheth. Canaan’s father was a Ham, must have made it through the flood on the Arc praying to beetles and the moon. I would dare to guess that he despised His father’s faith and came up with peculiar beliefs born of stress and disdain of his father and his father’s God. Look at all his descendants, they settled in Egypt, loaded with false gods and they spread across Israel and they lived on out towards the east in Mesapatonia to include Babel. Canaan’s father showed scorn and exposed his father’s nakedness in gossip to his brothers.
Noah had seen it all in his formative years, where he had come from, he knew all about the wrong path and I speculate so had Abram.
I’ve been researching and writing and I’ve got more to share with you!!!! But that is for another day.
I’ll finish on a personal note. A year and a month ago Asher and I started to learn about God’s Kingdom laws and our lives have taken a radical change for the better because our faith walk with God is going deeper! The things we started learning from The Capps ministry in Arkansas 10 years ago have been expanded on through the Keesee ministry out of Ohio with Faith Life Church and the Faith Life Institute. The things that are hidden in plain sight in The Holy Bible are very well taught through these ministries. We have a better faith walk in God and (Galatians 1:4) He is helping us through Jesus who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age!!!!! We are dancing on the graves that we once lived in!!!!!
I’ve already written more about this faith walk through The Bible so let me know in the comments section that you are ready for more.