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After Terah's death, the Lord in His grace calls Abraham again; note the word `had'
in the AV. "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham" (Gen. 12: 1), and is referred to by
Stephen in Acts 7: 2.
Upon the death of his father God said to Abraham:
"Get thee out of thy country (for Haran was in the same `country' as Ur, even though
a great trek divided the two cities), and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house
(this reference to his father's house is not mentioned by Stephen), unto a land that I will
show thee" (Gen. 12: 1).
On the surface there appears to be a discrepancy when we compare these two calls
together. Terah evidently "knew" that "Canaan" was the objective, yet according to
Heb. 11: 8 Abraham went out `not knowing' whither he went. The word used by the
Apostle in Heb. 11: 9 for "knowing" is epistamai:
"To obtain, and thus have a knowledge of anything by proximity to it, or as a result of
prolonged attention: in contrast with the process of getting to know it, and with a mere
casual dilettante acquaintance with it" (Appendix 132.1 5: Companion Bible).
To Agrippa, who was `an expert' in Jewish customs and questions (Acts 26: 3), Paul
could say "The king knoweth of these things" (Acts 26: 26) using epistamai, for
Agrippa alone of his judges was versed and expert in such matters. Now both Terah and
Abraham knew of the land of Canaan, and knew that in that land the inheritance was to
be found, but he had no expert knowledge, nothing to equip or warn him of the
requirements of such a journey, he went out not well equipped humanly speaking for
such a response. The same could be said in a greater degree, when Abraham responded
to another call to go to a mountain which God would show him, and there offer up his all,
there too, he went humanly speaking ill equipped and unversed in the requirements that
would be made of him. In each case Abraham `believed' and went forward where the
ordinary man of `sense' would have drawn back.
This feature therefore is not without its bearing upon the great lesson we are out to
learn. When thinking of our inheritance and the pathway that leads to its enjoyment we
need to remind ourselves that:
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them
unto us by His spirit" (I Cor. 2: 9, 10).
Abraham was no worldly wise `expert', he was an unworldly and simple believer.
God promised to `show' Abraham the land that was to be the inheritance both of
himself and of his seed, yet we read the whole of chapter 12:, and on nearly to the end
of chapter 13: before that promise was fulfilled. If we ask why? the answer is not that
God was `slack concerning His promise', but that Abraham had failed to fulfil the
conditions that were attached.