January 12, 2023 – Thursday
Genesis NIV
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
Comments
When I first read this, I thought how brave and faithful of Abram to leave in his old age … or older age. Then I went back to 11:26 and discovered when Abram was born, his father Terah was 70 years old and in verse 32 that he lived to a ripe old age of 205.
We are not told why, but when Terah was maybe 140 years old, 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there. The whole entourage traveled from Ur through Babel/Babylon, then Accad, then Mari, then Rezeph, and finally arriving at Harran after covering approximately 641 miles. Map and distances provided here.
Nothing is written about the trip from Ur to Harran and the next thing we read is about God talking to Abram with directions to go and promises for him as well.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
And from there we have our verse of the day, 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. His father would have been 145 years old with another sixty years left. Nothing is written about the relationship between Abram and his father, but with no negative words about his departure I would surmise his father approved as he had initially set out for Canaan himself with his entire family.
Later we find in verses 6-7, 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. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. So, he traveled from Harran to Canaan where the great tree of Moreh at Shechem was, a distance of over 400 miles through Carchemesh, then Aleppo, next Hamath, and Damascus, to arrive finally at Shechem.
I was really taken by all of this when I read that Abram started out on this trip of faith at the age of 75 which I thought too fairly old. But later I found out Abram, later Abraham, lived to be 175 years old. Thus maybe not so old to start with.
Bottom Line: Does not matter your age when God calls upon you to go forth and do something. We are to go forth and do as He wishes us to do on faith.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, You spoke to Abram and now You speak to us through Your Word. Let Your Word speak clearly to us so that we may do as You wish us to do. Let the Holy Spirit guide us to walk in Your Will. – In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
RileyD, nwJ
Riley D. Driver – Pastor
Calvary Chapel of Dayton
in Beavercreek