Was Abram Quick To Obey God?

Genesis 11:31–32 ESV Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

The story of Abram begins in the last verses of Genesis 11, with him living with his family in Ur of the Chaldeans (= Mesopotamia). Abram’s father, Terah, brought the family out from Ur Kasdim, intending to head for Canaan. However, for some unstated reason, they stopped over along the way at Haran and settled there. Terah died in Haran without ever reaching Canaan as he had originally planned. What comes next in the biblical text is chapter 12:

Genesis 12:1–4 And Jehovah said to Abram,
“Go for yourself from your land,
and from your kindred,
and from the house of your father,
to the land which I will show you,
And I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you,
and make great your name,
and you shall be a blessing,
and I will bless the ones who bless you,
and the one who despises you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the land shall be blessed!”

And Abram went, just as Jehovah spoke to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy five years old when he went out from Haran.

From this passage, Abram is often put forth as an example of how a believer should be ready to obey God. Indeed, if we read this passage on its own, it would seem as if right after God commanded him to “go for yourself from your land...”, Abram immediately got up and “went, just as Jehovah spoke to him” in ready and eager obedience. However, according to Stephen, God actually spoke these words to Abram “while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran” (Acts 7:2–3)!

So, what really happened was that when God commanded Abram to leave his land and his father’s household, he did not leave immediately as God had commanded him. He only left his land when his father Terah decided to take the family to Canaan. In other words, Abram left his land not out of obedience to God, but out of convenience for himself; he was merely tagging along!

But why was Abram so unwilling to obey God? Well, think about it: During Abram’s time, leaving one’s land and family was a very dangerous thing to do; it involved leaving one’s comfort zone and treading into the unknown, exposed to untold dangers. Hence, it is understandable that Abram would have wanted a good enough reason to abandon all his advantages to obey God.

So, what reason did God give to Abram? “I will make you a great nation.” How do you think Abram might have felt about that? Well, consider his situation. In Genesis 11:30, we are given a very important piece of information: “Sarai (Abram’s wife) was barren; she had no child.” God’s promise presupposed that Abram would have children, but Abram’s situation was such that he could not have any children; his wife was barren!

Even so, Abram’s lack of trust in God was inexcusable. Jehovah, the God who had promised to make him a great nation will definitely be faithful to provide him children one way or another (and he is well able to!), but Abram refused to believe that; he could not see the fulfilment of God’s promise past his wife’s barrenness.

But in Abram’s faithlessness, we see the faithfulness of God. God, being God, always has his way of getting his way. If the fulfilment of God’s promise depended upon Abram’s obedience, then God would bring about Abram’s obedience. By his sovereignty, God dragged Abram out of his land by directing Terah to bring his family out of Ur, and then pushed Abram into Canaan by bringing about Terah’s death. This is how Stephen could say that it was God who “caused him to be migrated” into the land of Canaan (Acts 7:4).

If Abram, the father of faith himself, began faithless, then there is hope for us yet!