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God’s Promise to Abram
By Peace | July 14, 2008
Among the tribes of Israel, the story was told of Terah and his sons. Terah, the descendant of Shem (Noah’s eldest son), lived in Ur in Chaldea. He had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Abram married Sarai but they had no children, since Sarai was sterile. Haran also married, and had a son, Lot, but died soon after. Terah left Ur, taking Abram and Sarai and Lot his grandson with him, intending to go to the land of Canaan. Before reaching Canaan, they settled in the city of Haran, where Terah died.
In the land of Haran, there lived a man called Abram. Abram was the son of Terah who was descended from Shem. Terah and his family had returned to Haran after living in Ur, when one day God said to Abram,”Leave your country, and your kinfolk, and your father’s house, and go to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram heeded what the Lord had said and departed; he was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. With him he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their goods and cattle, and the people they had gathered in Haran. And they went into the land of Canaan.
And they passed through Canaan to Shechem in the plain of Moreh which was occupied then by the Canaanites. At Shechem God appeared to Abram and said,”This land I will give to your people.” And Abram built an altar to the Lord at Shechem. Then Abram moved and came to a mountain to the east of Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. Here too he built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord before continuing his journey to the south.
There was famine in the land, so Abram continued to Egypt and lived there until the famine was over. Then he returned to the place between Bethel and Ai where he had built an altar and there he again called on the name of the Lord.
