Genesis 12:4

These verses are Abram’s answer to the call of Genesis 12:1–3. There the LORD told him to leave his country, his kindred and his father’s house for a land that God would show him, and promised to make of him a great nation and to bless all the families of the earth in him. The answer comes in a few words: “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him.” The verb for spoken, dâbar, is the ordinary word for speaking or telling, and the phrase ka’asher dibber elav Yᵉhôvâh, “as the LORD had spoken unto him”, ties the whole journey to what God had said. Abram had heard a clear word from God, and he went because of it.

The English “departed” comes twice in this verse and stands for two Hebrew verbs. The first is yâlak, to walk or go. The second is yâtsâʼ, to go out, used here of going out of Haran.

Haran was a busy trading city in northern Mesopotamia, where the old trade routes crossed. Abram’s father Terah had set out from Ur of the Chaldees with Abram and Lot and settled in Haran, and he died there (Genesis 11:31–32). Abram now takes up a journey his father left unfinished. In his world a man’s identity, safety and living were bound up with his clan and his family’s land, so leaving them put him at great risk, with God’s promise as his only security. It also meant leaving the idolatrous ways of the land he came from.

Scripture holds up this moment as the pattern of faith: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8). Paul points to Abraham as the man who believed God and had it counted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:3), and he says that all who are of faith are the children of Abraham and are blessed with him (Galatians 3:6–9). Abram’s faith was active, and it cost him his home. God chose him by grace for his own purpose, and Abram trusted God’s word enough to move his whole household on the strength of it.

Abram took with him “Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran”. The substance is their goods and livestock. God had already prospered Abram in Haran, and the wealth he gathered there equipped him for the journey and for the life ahead. A large household with servants and herds was a mark of standing for herdsmen of that day, and it was also what made such a journey possible.

“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem”. The verb ʻâbar means to cross over or pass through, and mâqôwm, place, means a place or spot, from a root meaning to stand. Sichem is Shechem, at modern Nablus, a fertile valley town on the old trade routes between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Its name means “shoulder” or “ridge”, probably from the lie of the land. “The plain of Moreh” is often rendered “the terebinth of Moreh” or “the oak of Moreh”, a great tree or grove that everyone knew. Moreh means “teacher”, so it may have been a place where people went for instruction or for oracles. At this very spot the LORD appears to Abram in the next verse.

“And the Canaanite was then in the land.” Kᵉnaʻanîy means a Canaanite, an inhabitant of Canaan, and the same word can mean a merchant, which suits a people known for trade. The adverb ʼâz, “then”, places them there at the moment Abram arrived. When Abram came, around 2000–1800 BC, Canaan was a settled land of many peoples and city-states, with towns, farms and religions of their own, among them the worship of many gods and fertility cults.

“And the LORD appeared unto Abram”. The verb râʼâh is the usual word for seeing, and in this form it means to let oneself be seen, to appear. The LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the eternal God who has life in himself, showed himself to Abram. This was a theophany, a real and personal meeting with God, though Genesis leaves the manner of it undescribed. Abram had come into the land on God’s word, and now, in the land, God came to him and confirmed the call.

“Unto thy seed will I give this land”. The promise of verses 1–3 now has a place: this land, the very ground where Abram stood as a stranger. Zeraʻ, seed, means seed or grain and also offspring, so it speaks of the generations to come after Abram and of the nation they would become. God made this promise to a man who was still childless and owned only his tent. Stephen draws this out: “And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child” (Acts 7:5). God repeats and widens the promise after Lot leaves (Genesis 13:14–17).

The land stands at the heart of the covenant. It gave a real place in which God’s promises of a great nation and a blessing for all peoples would be worked out. Israel would become a nation there, the temple would be built there, and there the Messiah would be born and carry out his ministry.

Abram answered God’s appearing with worship: “there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” The verb bânâh means to build or set up, used both literally and figuratively. The altar, mizbêach, comes from zâbach, to sacrifice, and it was a structure, usually of earth or unhewn stones, for burning sacrifices. The same word names both the LORD’s altar and the heathen altars that Israel was later told to destroy. The Canaanites had altars to their own gods across the land, and Shechem was already an old place of worship. Abram’s altar there belonged to the LORD.

That altar meant several things at once. It was worship and thanks for God’s appearing and his promise. It was a memorial of the place where God had spoken. It was a public confession, in a land full of other altars, that Abram belonged to the LORD, and it set that place apart for him. Abram built it to the LORD “who appeared unto him”, and the same verb, râʼâh, ties his worship to the meeting that called it out. Jacob would later do the same at Bethel (Genesis 35:7).

“He removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel”. From Shechem Abram moved south, deeper into the land. A mountain, har, may have been chosen for safety or for its view. Bethel, Bêyth-ʼÊl, means “house of God”, from bayit, house, and ʼēl, God, and it would become important in Jacob’s life (Genesis 28:19). Hai, ʻAy, is Ai, a name Strong’s takes as a form of the word for a ruin or heap. Both were Canaanite towns on the trade routes, and Abram camped between them, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east.

“And pitched his tent”. The verb nâṭâh means to stretch out, and ʼôhel is a tent, a word Strong’s links to a root meaning to be clear or to shine, since a tent can be seen from far off. Abram lived in a tent among walled towns, a sojourner in a land promised to him and still held by others. He built altars for God in that land and lived in a tent himself. Hebrews says of him, “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:8–10). God’s people are sojourners in this world as he was, and their hope and security rest in God’s promise and his presence.

“And Abram journeyed”. The verb nâçaʻ means to pull up tent pegs, and so to set out or journey. “Going on” is from hâlak, to walk or go, and the Hebrew phrase behind “going on still”, haloch venasoa, is literally “going and journeying”. Abram moved on by stages, striking camp and pitching it again.

“Toward the south” is negeb, which means south and also names the Negeb, the dry region of southern Canaan, named from its drought. It lay between the more fertile central hills and the desert, and life there depended on wells and seasonal rain. Herdsmen with large flocks had to keep moving to find pasture and water, so Abram’s route fits the life he lived. The dry south also leads into the next verse, where famine drives Abram down into Egypt (Genesis 12:10). The path God gives his people can lead through hard country, and there he deepens their trust in him, as he did with Joseph (Genesis 37–50).

The blessing promised to all the families of the earth comes through Christ, the seed of Abraham, and Abram’s journey points to his. Christ left the glory of heaven and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6–8). He learned obedience by the things he suffered and became the author of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:8–9). His blood is the blood of the new testament, shed for many (Matthew 26:28), and as its mediator he secures an eternal inheritance for those who are called (Hebrews 9:15). He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Abram’s altars point to the one sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all (Hebrews 10:10–14), through whom we have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). Canaan was held by its peoples, and a greater enemy held us, sin, death and the devil. Christ triumphed over the powers on the cross (Colossians 2:15) and through his death destroyed the one who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14–15), and a rest remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9–11).

Abram left his country at God’s call, and Christ calls those who come after him to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Whoever is in Christ is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).

These verses show us a God who speaks first, who calls a man out of his home, who comes to meet him in a strange land, and who makes a promise that only he can keep. Abram had God’s word, God’s appearing at Shechem and an altar wherever he stayed, and with these he lived in a tent among the Canaanites. We hold the same promise in Christ, the seed to whom it was made, and we are sojourners as Abram was, looking for the city whose builder and maker is God. The LORD who led Abram stage by stage still orders the steps of his people, and he still hears those who call upon his name.