Abram Enters the Promised Land
by Eric Engelmann
All content © 2023 Static Force, LLC
When are we?
About 2090 BC. After Noah and before Israel existed. Abram is alive at this time.
Where are we?
We’re seeing Abram’s early view of the promised land. It's an area called Shechem.
By way of background, Abram is not alone on this trip. He brings flocks, herds, family and servants with him. He originally started in a place from the south called Ur and stopped with his family in Haran. Then he brought his people to the promised land. It's hundreds of miles from Haran to Shechem.
Scripture
Listen for the word “altar”.
Genesis 12 Verse 1
The Lord said to Abram:
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.
NOTE: Abram let God's words sink into his ears. He thought about the promises God gave him.
Continuing with Verse 4
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh.
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.
That's the end of the passage.
Abram probably used rocks to make the altar. These are probably undressed rocks -- natural ones. There's no mention of chiseling the rocks and there’s no mention of anyone else in the company seeing the Lord except Abram.
So, why build an altar? I think Abram started building altars to mark God’s faithfulness. There were a lot of promises given to Abram, and Abram staked a lot of his life to leave and migrate hundreds of miles to go to a place he didn’t know about.
Building this “first” altar is about like marking the fulfillment of the first verse in the passage. Listen for the word *show*
The Lord said to Abram:
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
God showed the land to Abram. An altar marks the occasion. There are a lot of other promises Abram was given – listen to verses 2 and 3 again:
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
In the future
Abram’s name will be changed to Abraham, and he’ll build more altars.
Shechem will become a busy place, especially for Abraham's descendants.
Further in the future, Jesus – whose mother will descend from Abraham – will appear in flesh and be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.
Later, the writer of the New Testament letter to the Hebrews will say in the 11th chapter:
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents.
May the faith that fulfills God’s promises live in our hearts. We may see how busy Shechem will be in episodes to come.
All content © 2023 Static Force, LLC