Chapter 3
by David Holland
It is written that in a deep sleep Abraham heard God say to him,
“know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not
theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four
hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve,
will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.”
(Genesis 15: 13-15)
Moses, as the writer of the first five books of the Bible, was certainly
aware of the prophecy spoken to Abram about the fate of his descendants.
He knew that from verse 16 of Genesis 15 that Abram’s descendants
would come back to the land of the Amorites in the fourth generation
after leaving this “land not theirs” known to Moses as Egypt.
So from this scripture we see that God promised the land to Abram
in his dream while he was in the land of the Amorites, just after his
meeting with Melchizedek. The place was north-east of present-day Jerusalem
and probably just east-northeast of Jericho. This was on the
eastern bank of the Jordan River near the place where the Children of
Israel were to cross the Jordan over 400 years later.
Jacob declares a double portion for Joseph to take from the hands of
the Amorite nation. (Genesis 48:22) This further confirms that, at the
time of Moses, the children of Joseph have a right to part of the land
of the Amorite and the land of Canaan. (Genesis 28:15) Since Moses
wrote these scriptures, he must have been aware of these facts. As a result
Manasseh, a tribe of the son of Joseph, occupied lands east of the
Sea of Galilee, known today as the Golan Heights in Israel and lands
to the west of the Jordan River.
All the stories of the ancestors of the Hebrews would have been
available to him as a Prince of Egypt and more likely from his mother,
a Hebrew woman of the tribe of the Levites who became his wet nurse
after Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him. (Exodus 2:7-8)
Moses, knowing something of the timing of his life, and the destiny
of the Hebrew people according to the stories and history, would have
taken an intense interest in the events of the past, and would have believed
he was a big part of the Hebrew people’s future.
However, the young Moses, as with many of us, started to take
God’s purpose into his own hands. He saw the injustice of the treatment
of the Hebrew slaves by their Egyptian masters and overthrew
one Egyptian by killing him. After this action Moses was surprise to see
the Hebrews condemning him rather than banding together and following
him in a coup d’état. He became anxious of Egyptian reprisals due
to the killing of the Egyptian and fled to the wilderness of Midian,
away to the south of the Dead Sea on the shores of the Red Sea.
Moses’ time to fulfil his destiny had not yet come. He had to wait another
40 years until he was 80 years old. This age typifies an age of
new beginning and a historic age to start the work of God. It is likely
Abram was also this age when he started God’s work after meeting
with Melchizedek.
So Moses was able to write the Genesis story down due to his privileged
background, and recorded the success of Abram in being blessed
by God and Melchizedek, but only fleetingly mentions the failure of Terah.
Most of the stories of Genesis are about the goodness of the ancestors
of Jacob and how they made good even through adversity.
Terah, however, who started a journey to Canaan, is not mentioned
in an overly negative light, but only in a fleeting notation.
Moses was in the process of building a nation. Infusing some cohesion
into the people he was leading. Negative stories would have detracted
from the moral rightness of the people of Israel and their cause
to take part of the Amorite lands, as well as the land of Canaan, which
were promised to Shem and his descendants by Noah. (Genesis
9:25-27)
Moses had been trained by the court of Pharaoh to govern, and although
factual, the history of Genesis was written with the interests of
governance and providing legitimacy to the people of Israel. This legitimacy
provided the way for a vision and the engine that finally allowed
Joshua to take the ‘Promised Land’.
But it was four hundred years, prophesied by God to Abram, before
Abram’s descendants would emerge from captivity at the hand of God
through Moses.
Four hundred years, as with 40 years wandering about the Wilderness
of Sin, signifies a time of judgement. Forty years for judgement
for the unbelief of the people in the favour of God to take the land
promised to them, and four hundred years in slavery for possibly another
transgression not noted in the Bible.
As it was that Abram was called to go to the land of Canaan at age
75 years, so it was that Terah was first told to go to the land of Canaan
48 years earlier at the age of 75 years. However, unlike Abram he delayed
some 40 years until his son Haran had grown up, had three children,
Micah, Iscah and Lot and much of his immediate family had
died including, his wife, mother to Sarai, his other wife, mother to
Abram, his daughter in-law and wife to his youngest son, Haran his
youngest son and Iscah the daughter of Haran.
Then, after a suitable mourning time of up to 12 months, Terah proceeded
towards Canaan’s lands.
What a terrible neglect of a command from Almighty God. Terah
was weak and lacking in faith. He did not trust God for provision for
him in the new land and for his little son, Haran, who was about 5
years old at the time God spoke to him to go to the new land.
I believe that Abram understood the reason for the prophetic word
about the slavery of his descendants. He understood the cause was the
neglect of Terah, his father, to act upon his responsibility as Abram
later did in his stead. And Abram understood the reason why God had
told him to go from his father’s house and family, but go to a land God
would show him. (Genesis 12:1)
But it was Melchizedek, Priest of the Most High God, who was waiting
for a suitable man of the descendants of Noah to take the mantle
of the blessing and the knowledge of the land of Canaan which was
promised to a descendent of Shem.
So, because of Terah, the man of God had to wait a further fifty
years until Abram came to his notice in the valley below his mountain
realm, in the land of Salem.
This mountain is mentioned in Bible scriptures in many places. In
the following chapter we will investigate some of these.
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