f CHAPTER II. FIRST CALL. Causes of the migration-The call; its nature; Abram's obedience- THE history of Abram's call is not fully given in Genesis. driven from their home. Either of these suppositions the passage in Genesis would allow us to adopt. An explanation of the movement much nearer to the truth is given in the Book of Judith (chap. v. 6-8), from the mouth of Achior the Ammonite. "This people," said he to Holofernes, “are descended of the Chaldæans, and they sojourned heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers which were in the land of Chaldæa. For they left the way of their ancestors, and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew so they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and sojourned there many days; " or, as the Latin version puts it, "thus abandoning the ceremonies of their fathers, which consisted in the worship of many gods, they worshipped one god of heaven, who commanded them to depart thence and to dwell in Charran." Doubtless this account is based on the facts of the case. The Chaldæan religion was not altogether tolerant. The monarch gave the word to his subjects. Public opinion was thoroughly Erastian, and elected to believe what the ruling power proposed to its acceptance. "I make a decree," said Darius in after years (Dan. vi. 26), "that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel." So an attack on the prevalent faith was not likely to be allowed to pass without notice, and a preacher of monotheism would have found himself opposed both actively and passively, by open persecution as well as by tacit reproof and official discountenance. The legends mentioned above invariably show Abram as a devout believer in one God, and suffering persecution for his faith. But the true signification of the change of residence is given by St. Stephen in his speech before the Sanhedrin (Acts vii. 2, 3), where he states that Abram had had a direct revelation from God before the Lord appeared unto him in Charran. "The God of glory," he says, "appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." The tradition of monotheism, handed down from Noah and his sons, had doubtless never been lost, though overlaid with accretions and combined with many superstitions; and to such a mind as Abram's it must have had a vast attraction which discredited all the allurements of idolatrous worship. Never till now has any mention been made of a distinct appearance of the Lord to man, and what the expression imports has occasioned some perplexity. When God spake to Adam in Eden, or to Noah, the mode of the Divine manifestation is not expressly stated. That the appearance in the present case was not a direct vision of Jehovah in a bodily form is certain, for "6 no man hath seen God at any time." That it was not a subjective impression on the seer's mind without any objective reality, the wording of the passage seems to necessitate; but it may be questioned whether this appearance was that of a created angel or of the Son of God, anticipating, as it were, the Incarnation. There are many passages in both Testaments which imply that such manifestations were made by created angels, acting as messengers of, or personating, the Lord; but the majority of the Fathers always held that, on the most solemn occasions, it was the Logos who appeared to the men of old, assuming an angelic form or imparting His immediate presence to the revealer of His will. This is He whom Malachi (iii. 1) calls "the Angel of the Covenant," whom the LXX. in Isaiah ix. 6 term "the Angel of mighty counsel,” and who, while designated "the Angel of God," is often identified with God Himself. We may reverently conclude that it was the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Only Begotten Son, who appeared to the patriarch at Ur, and called him to leave his country and to fare forth on an unknown journey. This first call was accompanied by no promise; it demanded simple obedience. This was Abram's training; by little and little God was leading him to his great sacrifice; as he answered one call, another and a greater was ready for him. Every step forward was an advance towards the final and consummating summons. The old story tells how, in gazing on the starry heavens, he learned to adore the Creator, and felt the nothingness of the idolatry and creature worship which satisfied his family and countrymen. "When night overshadowed him," says the Koran," "he saw a star, and said, 'This is my Lord.' But when it set, he said, 'I like not those that set.' And when he saw the moon rising, he said, 'This is my Lord.' But when the moon set, he answered, 'Verily, if my Lord direct me not in the right way, I shall be as one of those that err.' And when "Speaker's Commentary," on Gen. xii. 7. • Quoted by Stanley, "Jewish Church," Lect. i. he saw the sun rising, he said, 'This is my Lord. This is greater than the star or moon.' But when the sun went down, he said, ‘O my people, I am clear of these things. I turn my face to Him who hath made the heaven and the earth.'" Thus was he educating himself for greater things. He was called to make a great sacrifice, and he obeyed. He might have argued that the summons was too indefinite; it assigned no limit to the migration. He was a childless man, and had no sons to send forth to other territories; his present substance was sufficient for his wants. The enmity of his countrymen might be overcome by some slight compromise or reticence concerning his opinions. Why should he leave ease and comfort, and go forth into unknown dangers and cares? Was it really the voice divine that claimed this sacrifice at his hands? But no such considerations influenced his actions. We do not indeed know anything of his character and feelings before this time; but there must have been a certain fitness in the recipient of this revelation; his antecedents must have prepared him for the demand; such claim on his obedience was not altogether strange and unexpected. And he was equal to the occasion. Like all noble minds, he rose higher with the emergency. When the call came it found him ready to hearken and obey. He had habituated himself to listen to the Divine voice in his heart; and he was thus well prepared for further measures of grace. This new revelation of God to Abram led to immediate results. It could not lie barren in his soul; it involved action, zeal, sacrifice. The old legend' tells how, like Gideon, he burned to the ground the idol temple of his native place (which may well be true), and how Haran perished in the flames as he tried to rescue the images of the gods whom he still served. This latter statement is so far confirmed by the sacred record, in that it says that Haran "died before his father in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees." Josephus ("Antiq.” i. 6. 6) adds that it was grief for this death of his son that impelled Terah to leave his native place. St. Jerome recounts a tradition of the Hebrews, which has been mentioned above, to the effect that for this outrage on the national religion Abram was cast into the fire, which he refused to adore, and was miraculously * "Book of Jubilees," chap. xii. preserved. This story is founded on the rendering of Ur as 56 fire," in Gen. xi. 28, thus—instead of "in Ur of the Chaldees," "in the fire of the Chaldees." This version is found in the Latin Vulgate-Neh. ix. 7 : "Qui elegisti Abram, et eduxisti eum de igne Chaldæorum." Following the Divine impulse Abram left Ur and proceeded some three hundred miles northwards to Haran, accompanied by his father and his family and dependents. How Terah was induced to quit his old home we are not told. It may be that the son's faith had enlightened the father's mind, and made him loathe the superstitions that once held him captive, so that he was eager to free himself from the sight and chain of degrading associations; or it may be that Terah's act, in contradistinction to that of Abram, sprang from merely human motives, but, God so ordering it, coincided with the Divine summons, and made a way for its accomplishment. Whither this call was to lead finally seems not to have been disclosed at first. It is true that Terah is said (Gen. xi. 31) to have left Ur "to go into the land of Canaan;" but this is probably mentioned from the writer's own knowledge and in anticipation of the more definite statement in the next chapter. At this time the destination of the movement was left uncertain. Abram was to depart unto a land which God would in due course show him (Acts vii. 3). As in God's providence we are led gradually on our course, and are bidden not too carefully to forecast the future, so Abram's part now was to leave his old home, and to trust to other revelation to teach him what to do hereafter. spiritual side of the movement. represent it as the migration of a clan with all its slaves and property. Thus Terah, the head, takes with him his son Abram with his wife Sarai, and his grandson Lot with his wife, and all his household effects, and advances slowly up the stream seeking new pastures, or a spot sufficiently clear of inhabitants where he might settle. Such a position he found at Haran, and arresting his further march, made for himself a second home, and remained here during the rest of his life. This was the inward or The outward view would Of the route taken by Terah and his family from Ur to Haran, we have no account.' The shorter way would lead 1 Mr. Allen's romance, "Abraham: his Life, Times, and Travels, as by a Contemporary," gives a lengthy account of this journey, from which I have derived some references. |