Friday, August 26, 2016

Genesis 12:4-5 comments: into the land of Canaan


4 ¶  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5  And Abram took 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; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Abram obeyed God and took his nephew with him, the servants and possessions they had acquired in Haran, and entered the land of Ham’s grandson, Canaan. Haran, the village which ruins some believe lie in Southern Turkey, should not be confused with Abram’s brother in 11:27, Lot’s father, who died in Ur before the family left. The question might be asked, did Terah found the village and name it after his dead son? Haran is used as a person’s name later as well. Abram, who will eventually be renamed Abraham, left the religious associations of his father as commanded.

Joshua 24:2  And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 3  And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

They may have then traveled northwest from Ur several hundred miles and settled in Haran, from whence Abram and company would travel southwest to Canaan. Haran, when translated from the Greek language, rather than the Hebrew here, will be spelled Charran in Acts 7:2,4. The CH is pronounced as a K when you find it in the Bible transliterated from one of the original languages. Think of Nebuchadnezzar or Michael. But when we moderns say Cherubims we use the CHA sound, not the K sound. Words that are directly from English like checker in 1Kings 7:17, of course, would be exceptions to this rule.

Abram, being 75 years old, is not elderly in the way we would think today. Prior to this time, as you read, many people lived hundreds of years. Their natural abilities, their appearance, would have remained far more youthful than we would consider a 75 year old’s body to be today although the upper age limit of men was rapidly falling in the new environment after the Flood and Abram will consider himself old and beyond the age of fathering children fairly soon.

Genesis 17:1  And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect…17  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

Terah, Abrahams father, lived to be 205. (Genesis 11:32). When the dispersal at Babel occurred the lifespan dropped dramatically. See also in chapter 11 Peleg’s lifespan of 239 years as opposed to his father, Eber, who lived 464 years.

Regarding the word souls, in the Old Testament, as the operation of God in separating the soul from the sins of the flesh referred to in Colossians, chapter 2, has not taken place yet, soul and souls are used to include the physical presence of the person or beast spoken of as well as the soul, which is tied to the flesh until Christ’s resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in those people who believe and are given faith.

Numbers 31:28  And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:

For those who do not believe that some beasts have souls and spirit also note;

Job 12:10  In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

Ecclesiastes 3:21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

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