After a 6-week hiatus, our first readings at Mass return to the Book of Genesis. Today we take up where we left off, after the pre-historical stories of the Creation and the Fall. Starting today, we begin following the datable history of Israel, starting approximately 1,800-years before Christ was born. We will hear the stories of Abram (later to be called Abraham), his son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob, and the 12 sons of Jacob, most notably Joseph, his youngest. As we will see, the last word in Genesis will be “Egypt”, introducing us to the next book of the Bible, Exodus, with the Israelites now living as slaves in Egypt.
Remember that it was not until Moses, long after these historical events occurred, that these oral traditions were written down. So although we have moved into the domain of history, it does not mean that everything described is a credible news reporter’s eyewitness report. We are still very much reading legend and myth. These are stories that were told and retold to succeeding generations to give them a sense of pride in themselves as a people. That having been said, modern archeology has already confirmed many of the events that are described in Genesis.
At the end of Chapter 11, before the hiatus, we are told that Tarah brought his son Abram with his childless wife, Sarai, out of Ur in Chaldea, their ancestral home in what is now southern Iraq. His intention was to settle in Canaan, but when they reached a place called Haran, they settled there instead. Haran was in northern Mesopotamia (now part of Iraq).
Our reading today (Genesis 12:1-9) begins with a call from God to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Abram is being told to leave the settled world of the post-Babel nations and begin a pilgrimage with God to a better world of God’s making. God then makes his first great promise to Abram: He will make Abram the father of a great nation; he will make his name great. God promises blessings on all who bless Him and a curse on all those who curse Him. God concludes saying “all the nations of the earth shall find blessing through you”.
Putting his trust in God’s word, Abram leaves Haran with his wife, Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated between them (mainly flocks and herds), and the “persons” they had acquired in Haran. These “persons” would include slaves and retainers forming part of the extended household of Abram and Lot. One gets the impression that they were very prosperous.
Prompt obedience, grounded in faith, characterizes Abraham. He cuts off all earthly ties and sets out for an unknown land. It will be the first of the great acts of faith and trust in God’s word that will make Abraham a model of faith for future generations. It will be renewed when the promise is repeated in Chapter 15, and really put to the test when God asks for the sacrifice of his only legitimate son, Isaac, on whom the fulfilment of the promise depends.
When they reached Canaan, they went as far as “the sacred place at Shechem, by the terebinth of Moreh”. Terebinths are a family of large, spreading trees that grow largely isolated from each other and other trees. Because of their expansive canopies, they provide copious shade, and several species provide useful products, including turpentine and edible nuts (think pistachios).
Even though Canaanites were already living there, God promises the land to Abram and his descendants. It is worth noting that at this point, Abram did not have any children, let alone a son, by his wife Sarai. The “descendants” God mentions were only a promise yet to be fulfilled. It is on the basis of this promise that Abram and his descendants claimed a sacred right to this land as their home. In the course of time, the original inhabitants, the Canaanites, would come to symbolize an idolatrous people who did not recognize the lordship of God and did not deserve to keep the land as theirs.
In acknowledgement of God’s promise, Abram builds an altar. This was the first of several altars that Abram would erect at various places where he had special spiritual experiences.
From there, Abram moved to the hill country, to a place between Bethel on the east and Ai on the west. Bethel is just north of Jerusalem and was an important town in the religious history of God’s people. Only Jerusalem is mentioned more often in the Old Testament. Here, he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord. Then he was on the move again and went by stages to the Negeb, the semi-desert area in southern Palestine.
The virtue for which Abram (Abraham) would become a model was his deep faith and trust in God’s promises, however unlikely they were of being fulfilled. It begins with his answering God’s call to leave the familiarity of his homeland and settle down in an unknown territory with which his people had no former connection.
This faith in God’s providential care is something we need to cultivate. God may call us to strange places and situations. He sometimes asks us to leave the familiar and take risks with the unknown. Sometimes it takes the form of a ‘vocation’ or calling to a particular way of life. May we have the faith that Abraham had in answering God’s call.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!