The time had come for a great step forward in God's purpose for human salvation. It was time for the downward moral trend to be reversed. So God planned to develop a people, a nation, that would demonstrate His standards and be His witness to the world. One man must be a worthy ancestor of such a people, one who would became known as the "father of the faithful". He must be known for his sterling faith and inflexible loyalty to the Most High God, in the midst of a world given over to idolatry. The Lord looked down and saw His man.

Abu-Ramu (Abram), youngest son of Tarakhu (Terah), was of Semitic stock in lineal descent from Shem, son of Noah. He was married, as was common in that culture, to his elder brother's daughter Sarai, ten years younger than himself, a citizen of the Sumerian city of Ur, at that time at the head of the Persian Gulf. His vocation in life is unknown, but since Ur was a thriving seaport and industrial centre he was probably in industry or commerce. Born and brought up in the world's most advanced civilization, he would have been well educated and reasonably wealthy. There would seem to be no reason why he should not expect to continue through life in the manner of his fellows and eventually die, respected by all who knew him, in the fullness of days, which at that time was about two centuries. But God had other plans.

Abram worshipped and served the true God, probably one of very few in Ur of the Chaldees who did so. According to Jewish tradition his father worshipped idols, with a profitable business in making idols and images of the gods. With sixty-one major gods and a vast number of minor deities his business could not have lacked variety and most certainly would have been brisk. How Abram came to separate himself from the worship of the land and yield his allegiance to the One God is also unknown. His earlier ancestors, four or five generations back, never wavered in their loyalty. A Talmud legend tells how Abram first worshipped the sun and later realized that its Creator was even greater —"Then Abram knew God, and said 'There is a higher Power, a Supreme Being, these luminaries are but his servants, the work of his hands'. From that day, even until the day of his death, Abram knew the Lord and walked in his ways."

He probably had access to written records dating from five centuries earlier when men knew only one God and worshipped Him alone! They were records not only of Eden, the Flood and the Tower of Babel, more or less as we have them now in the Book of Genesis, but other stories of ancient times that have not survived and are unknown to us. Relics of these other stories passed into the legends of Israel and reappear in apocryphal books such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. In Abram's day there was intense literary activity and every Sumerian city had its library in which its citizens could consult the writings of past times. The student could take the tablet of his choice from the shelf, impress its number and his personal seal on a clay tablet to acknowledge receipt, leaving that with the librarian to ensure the tablet's return. He would take his selection home to read at leisure. It is likely that Abram, of studious mind, had read these ancient stories and looked beyond the idolatry of his father, grandfather and great grandfather. He took as his heroes his forebears of earlier times such as Peleg, Heber and Salah, men who served and revered the Most High God in the days before idolatry came into the world. He might well have been fully aware of the promise that was made right at the beginning, that the seed of a woman would one day undo the work of the serpent. He might not have been altogether surprised, when, one day, in the quietness of his room, alone in communion with God, he became conscious of a Voice, impressing itself upon his mind, even although he could not be sure it was sounding in his ears.

"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and make your name great... and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves". (Gen.12.1-3 RSV). Long and earnestly must Abram have pondered the call. Where would the Lord send him? In what other land would he be able to serve the Lord better than in Ur? There was no revelation, only the realization that God was calling him. Abram, the Hebrew, was to play a part in God's plan of salvation. Perhaps it was at this point that Abram realized that idolatry could not go on for ever and that one day God would restore the ancient Golden Age of which the old stories had spoken when all men would worship God in spirit and in truth. Much later Jesus was to say "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." (John 8.56). God had spoken to him; He had called him and wanted him for an unrevealed purpose that would culminate in the blessing of all families of the earth. His only reply could have been "Here I am Lord, send me". So Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees to follow the Lord's leading not knowing whither he went.

Abraham did not go alone. His wife Sarai accompanied him and his nephew Lot and his father, Terah. In fact it would seem that Terah took the initiative (Gen.11.31). Why did Terah, who worshipped idols, probably comfortably settled in Ur, join his son Abraham in what must have seemed a foolhardy enterprise? The answer probably lies in the political situation of the time. The independence of Ur was threatened by Elam in the east and Babylon in the north. Abram's grandfather had lived at the peak Ur's power and glory. Terah saw the 'writing on the wall' and decided to quit while it was possible. Haran was much like Ur and he could still carry on his manufacture of idols. Nahor must have followed later.

The migrants left just in time. Soon Ur was under Babylon-Elam domination. One day as dawn was breaking over the cornfields surrounding the city and early sunlight glinted over the River Euphrates the usual caravans of merchants set out for Phoenician cities on the Great Sea. It was a thousand miles and would take many months. With them went Terah and his family, with all their worldly possessions. They were setting out for a new home in a strange land which they would reach in seven or eight weeks.

In three days they reached Uruk — Erech of Gen.10.10 and associated with Nimrod. Three more days and they were in Shuruppak, a city of legends about Noah. Abram would see the high walls of Babylon in five more days. This powerful city began as the 'Gate of God' but was now 'Gate of the gods'. For the next two weeks they traversed the plain of Sumer, the vast wheat belt, watered by innumerable canals with the River Euphrates meandering through the orchards of figs and olives, peaches and apricots. As they traveled this hundred mile valley with everlasting sunshine, Abram might well have wondered what land could be more desirable.

The caravan would wend its way forward to the foothills of Aram (Syria). Here lived the racial kinsmen of Abram, Semites who still cherished the true worship of God. Did Abram have time while traders transacted business, to inspect the stately buildings with their inscriptions, unknown to the modern world until recently. Was this the place he was looking for? Before them now was the most arduous part of the journey with its constantly ascending tracks. Beside them foamed the river; mountains rose either side. A day's march was shorter and rests were longer. For the city dwellers it must have seemed a sore trial but the merchants had been many times before. They would scramble down a slope, ford a stream and then scramble up the other side. Did Abraham think of his old comfortable home in Ur?

Then, one day, two months after leaving Ur they would round a spur of the mountain and there ahead of them lay the towers and pinnacles of a magnificent city built in the shape of a crescent moon. This was Haran the twin-city of Ur, Terah's destination, Abram knew that it was a city as full of idolatry as Ur and could not be the land to which God was leading him to the land of the promise. "When they came to Haran they settled there". We do not know how long they lived in Haran but the implications of Genesis 22 would indicate some twenty years, "And Terah died in Haran. "(Gen 11.31, 32).

With the death of Terah the post-Flood era, which began with Shem, came to an end. It began, as did the world before the Flood with one man and his immediate descendants loyal to God and serving Him in sincerity. It ended, as did that other world, with men forsaking the true God and descending into all kinds of idolatry and sin. Now, once again, God was to make a new start with one man, Abraham. Once again the torch of truth would be held aloft to enlighten the world. The story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is that story. It led to One who was the True Light that lights every one who comes into the world.

THE END  

AOH