Who Actually Was Called — Terah or Abram?

God wants us to obey His will. However, sometimes, we may not get a lot of clarification on what His plans are. This fuzziness makes us question if we are on the right path. We know, however, that God knows what our choices in life will be and will work it out to His glory. This daily devotional looks at how God makes sure we are where He wants us to be.

Nuggets

  • God gives us enough direction about His plans for us to get us moving in the right direction.

  • God knows where He wants us to be and what He wants us to do — and every decision we will make about doing that.

  • God has His plans for us, but He may not share everything up front so that we can build trust in Him

Flowers with caption Who Actually Was Called -- Terah or Abram?

Terah was moving his family. Notice where he was moving to – Canaan. It doesn’t say God called Terah to move to Canaan, but that was where He wanted Abram to be.

Let's Put It into Context

We may or may not be familiar with who Abram was under that name. It means “father is exalted.”

We probably know what God changed His name to — Abraham. That means “father of a multitude.”

Because of his faith, Abraham became the first Hebrew patriarch. That is why he is called “father of the Jews.”

A Family on the Move

"Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there" (Gen. 11: 31 NIV)

God gives us enough direction about His plans for us to get us moving in the right direction.

We can look at this several ways. Let’s say God did call to Terah. He started out in obedience, and then decided he wasn’t up to the journey. Terah could have been the father of nations – and he knew where he was going.

But something happened, and Terah stopped. “… but when they came to Haran, they settled there” (Gen. 11: 31 ESV).

Scriptures doesn’t say why they stopped. Did Terah get tired of the road? Did his belief that God was going to provide in the end fizzle out? Did he get sick and die?

Regardless, the outcome was the same. When Terah bowed out, God used Abram.

Or God could have been planning to use Abram all along. He was just taking preliminary steps to get Abram “… to the land I will show you” (Gen. 12: 1, NIV).

Maybe God had to use Terah’s move to get Abram used to the idea of going to live somewhere else. You know how we are – we fight change. Maybe God thought Abram would go for the idea if He got him started in the right direction.

God Has a Plan

God knows where He wants us to be and what He wants us to do — and every decision we will make about doing that.

Well, that is all speculation. We won’t know the answers to the questions until we ask them in glory.

However, we do know one thing – God worked out His plan for Abram’s life. He got Abram to Canaan. Whatever part God had planned for Terah to play, He got Abram to Canaan, so He could make His promises.

God has a plan for our lives, also. Sometimes we may not obey Him, but God already has that worked into the plan. He lets us have our own free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.

But God already knows what we are going to decide. He’s got that all written into the plan. His Will will be done. We have to have the faith to let Him work.

God’s Silent Plans

God has His plans for us, but He may not share everything up front so that we can build trust in Him.

Abram may or may not have known Terah was moving the family to Canaan. So, when God called him in Genesis 12: 1, he may have known the “state” he was going to since he was going in the same general direction, just not the “city.”

God’s call to us can be like that. Sometimes we have no idea where He is calling us to go or what He is calling us to do. We just know He is calling.

Sometimes we know the where and the what, we just can’t see the how. There may be a learning curve or a location change. Many times, we can’t see how we are going to get to where God wants us to be because of the obstacles we see in the way.

Bottom line – faith and obedience. They kind of go hand in hand.

  • Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
  • Obedience means to hear, conform to, and carry out the instructions that God gives us.

There is no need to be obedient if you don’t have the faith that God’s got this. The obedience alone won’t get you anywhere because works won’t get you to heaven. “He saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy — through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3: 5 HCSB).

WhoDidGodCallTerahOrAbram

We have to remember being a good person alone does not get us into Heaven. It has nothing to do about what we don’t do and there is only one thing we can do — accept God’s gift of salvation.

Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

  • Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
  • Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
  • Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

Glossary

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Making the Connections

We get really stressed when we don’t know chapter and verse about what God is calling us to do. I don’t know if it is better or worse if we are doubting ourselves.

We hear people say, “Don’t do anything until you are absolutely sure.” How do we get anything done that way?

If we are absolutely sure, we are not stepping out in faith. We are relying on ourselves to figure it out.

We aren’t relying on God.

God calls us to put our trust in Him — in the big things and the little things. Even when we have the blinding terror, we can trust in His plan.

No, it usually doesn’t turn out exactly how we have planned. It turns out exactly as He has planned.

How Do We Apply This?

God is going to call us into the unknown. Ooo, baby is that scary when our tummy turns to jelly and we go weak in the knees.

When we are absolutely certain God wants us to head toward Canaan, we need to get our feet moving. Even when the absolute terror strikes, we need to keep our noses in the direction of Canaan.

At times, this may just be saying, “God, I may or may not exactly know where You are calling me to be and what You are calling me to do. I put every step of how I get there in Your hands.”

We have to commit to getting there.

We have to have faith to know God has everything planned out and is in control. We have to have the obedience to follow His call and let Him work. His Will will be done.

O Sovereign Lord. In Your mercy, You have chosen to bless us with Your Presence. Through Your grace, You have made us Your own. You even have planned out our lives for us according to Your Will. Help us to be obedient to Your Will. Give us faith to remain steadfast, especially when all we see are obstacles. Lord, forgive us when we doubt Your call. Strengthen us to follow Your leading. Lead us to our home in heaven. Amen.

What do you think?

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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Like!! I blog quite often and I genuinely thank you for your information. The article has truly peaked my interest.

    1. admin

      Thank you!

  2. Francis Tham

    Some use Joshua 24:2,3 ” Terah worshipped other gods “ as the reason God did not allow him to proceed to Canaan, the land of promise. After Terah died, Abram was chosen to continue with God’s plan.

    1. admin

      Hmmm. It is a little confusing some would use that verse indicating Terah worshiped other gods but Abraham didn’t. The verse indicates both did. “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” (Josh. 24: 2 KJV).

  3. Samuel Arey

    Hello Elaine,

    Thanks for this amazing article in-line with the Word of God.

    I only see left right and centre preaching online as well as live sermons saying Abraham left Ur of Chaldeans to go to Canaan, which is not true. I was only understanding in the same lines you have mentioned in this article which I am very blessed to see. Thank you very much for posting this .

    Lord Bless.

    1. admin

      Thank you for your words of encouragement! I needed them today. Elaine

  4. Natarajan

    Faith without Obedience is dead. Obedience without Faith will work and make us leads to heaven. (James 2:14-26)

    1. admin

      Obedience without faith/belief will not lead us to heaven. “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (Jn 14:21). One of commands is to repent and believe.

      Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 ESV). That says nothing about obedience.

      “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16: 16 ESV). Obedience without belief will not be accepted by God.

  5. Samuel Adaviriku

    Hi, please I need clarification on this. According to Genesis 12 called Abraham and he left with only Sarai and Lot. But in Acts 7:1-4, it seems seems Terah his father left with him along side Sarai and Lot! Clarification please

    1. admin

      Genesis 11: 31 says, “One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there” (NLT).

      Genesis 12: 1 says, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (NLT).

      Acts 7: 2-4 says, “This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.”

      The passage in Acts does say that God spoke to Abram when he was in Ur in Mesopotamia. I would take this as Genesis 12: 1. To me, Genesis 11: 31 seems to say that Terah instigated the move from Ur. He was headed to the land of Canaan but stopped before getting there.

      Elaine

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