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These items will give the reader some idea of what we intend, but the above list is
temporary, and must be revised when the subject is considered as a whole. At the
moment we are concerned with the onward progress of the true seed, and have reached
the moment when, at the death of Terah, Abram was free to `pass over' and become
`Abraham the Hebrew'.
At Gen. 12:, the nations of the earth go into the background and only come into the
record as they touch the land and people of Israel. The channel through which the Seed
should come is now narrowed down to one man, a descendant of Shem, and to that man a
promise was given of a land as well as of a seed, for they were to become a nation.
"Unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen. 12: 7).
The delay occasioned by the action of Terah was seized upon the enemy and this will
be made clear if we put two passages together:
"And Terah took Abram . . . . . to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto
Haran, and dwelt there" (Gen. 11: 31).
"And Abram . . . . . went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of
Canaan they came . . . . . and the Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen. 12: 5, 6).
Before we can rightly proceed, some understanding of the Scriptural meaning and
intent of `the Canaanite' is called for, for it is evident that this people were Satan's
countercheck to the Divine plan. Canaan, was one of the sons of Ham, his brothers being
Cush, Mizraim and Phut (Gen. 10: 6). From Cush came Nimrod, the beginning of whose
kingdom was Babel, and from Canaan sprang Sidon, Heth and the Jebusite, the Amorite
and others who became known as `Canaanites'. The circumstances of the birth of
Canaan are unrevealed, but the record of Gen. 9: 20-29 is highly significant and calls
for examination.
"And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard" (Gen. 9: 20).
Now this may be an innocent straightforward statement, containing no hidden or
ulterior meaning; and yet, we ask, why does the Scripture use this form of speech, and
say "He began to be"? The reader will remember that we found it necessary to retranslate
Gen. 4: 26 "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord", by "Then men
profanedly called upon the name of the Lord". We find this word `began' in the opening
of that ominous passage Gen. 6:, when the sons of God saw the daughters of men, and
when there were giants in the earth. We observe that this same word `began' is used of
Nimrod, the rebel. "He began to be a mighty one" (Gen. 10: 8). At the building of the
tower of Babel, the Lord said "this they begin to do" (Gen. 11: 6), so that we find that in
the space of Gen. 1:-11:, which covers the history of the ancient world, from creation to
Abraham, chalal occurs five times, each occurrence being associated with an attack upon
the purpose of God, either by the profaning of the name of the Lord, the irruption of the
sons of God, the founding of Babel, or by this reference to Noah.
There is evidence that at the Flood such disturbance took place as to alter materially
meteorological conditions, and what before had provided `wine that maketh glad the