Genesis 11:27 - 15:21

We meet Abram

Another interesting read today.
I never caught it before but Abram's father Terah was taking everybody from Ur of the Chaldeans to Caanan and along the way they stopped and settled in Haran.

If you grew up in church you know the bit that is in 15:7 -
"I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take3 possession of it."

The thing that caught me this time though was that the response to this "calling" was begun by Terah. I always thought of it as: God spoke, Abram went. But in context Abram was already going, in response to God's calling, before God even spoke the words. Otherwise God would have said something like , "I brought you out of Haran...".

I always am intruiged too by Abram's trip to Egypt. Aside from the fact that this is the first of several instances of God calling his chosen one(s) out of Egypt, I find it interesting that Abram shows up, kind of works the system by saying that Sarai is his "sister", and then is blessed because of it! Scripture tells us she is his half-sister so it isn't an out and out lie but I'm not sure how to interpret his actions and God's respone to them.

We also get the first reference to the "Hebrew's" in 14:13..
"One who escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew..."
Just a quick glance on the internet shows multiple interpretations of THAT title.

Melchizedek shows up.
Try looking up theories on THIS guy...including one that points out genealogically how this could be Shem, the son of Noah, Abram's multiple great grandfather!
The phrase "a priest after the order of Melchizedek" will show up later in scripture too so this is not an insignificant guy.

Sheesh, one day's reading and I could wind up sturying just these bits for WEEKS.