Instead of embracing the story in Acts 15 as an example of how to receive guidance from God based on a "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28 NIV), we dismiss it because we want greater certainty than the apostles and early church leaders seemingly required.
We’ll point to Abram’s call—before he became known as Abraham—and declare we want to be guided in the same way he was. We want a clear clarion call that cuts across everything else and makes God's thoughts about the decision we're contemplating beyond doubt.
Go here.
Do this.
The thing is, God doesn’t actually call Abram in a way that supports our yearning for certainty. We've completely misread Abram's story by starting in the wrong place in Scripture and by starting with the wrong premise.
Starting in the wrong place
Distracted by artificial chapter breaks and a modern disdain for genealogy, we typically begin Abram’s story in the first verse of Genesis 12.
We start with God’s call, forgetting that Abram's story actually began towards the end of the previous chapter. When we turn back to Chapter 11, we discover shocking information.
God was not the first to call Abram to Canaan.
Abram’s father, Terah, was.
These two simple statements will blow up your current theology of guidance. It did mine.
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.
— Genesis 11:31 NIV
Terah took his son Abram.
And together they set out.
To go to Canaan.
God's not even mentioned.
Starting with the wrong premise
We're told that Terah and his family—including Abram—set off for Canaan in the penultimate verse of Genesis 11. So when Abram hears that famous call of God to “Go to the land I will show you” in Genesis 12:1, he presumably finds it unexpected. However, it was not out-of-the-blue, and neither was it a command or suggestion to go somewhere previously unimagined by Abram.
Abram had already been heading the way God calls him to go.
...they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
—Genesis 11:31 CSB
In fact, by the time God calls him, Abram is living in Haran. He'd already travelled over three-quarters of the distance from Ur to Canaan.
God doesn't call Abram to a new thing like we've traditionally thought he does.
Leaving Ur
It was Terah's call that saw his family leave Ur.
It was Terah's plan for his family to travel to Canaan.
It's incredible how these two minor details completely change our perspective on Abram's call in Genesis 12. Long before God says anything to Abram about "the land I will show you" (Gen. 12:1), Abram was already travelling with his father, wife, and nephew to that very land!
So, if it wasn't God that got this family's journey started, what did?
The death of a son
The reason Abram's family is heading for Canaan is not explicitly revealed to us. However, the author of Genesis hints at two reasons Terah may have considered leaving Ur within the genealogical record of Genesis 11:12-26.
- Terah was double the age of his ancestors (70 years old) when his first son, Abram, was born. In the seven previous generations, the father’s firstborn son came when he was between 29 and 35 years old.
- Terah’s father, Nahor, had died substantially younger than any of those in the previous generations.
It's not much to go on, but it's enough for us to surmise that life in Ur was getting harder. The information about the death of Terah’s third son strengthens the possibility of this reading.
Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living.
—Genesis 11:27-28 NLT
The phrase "while his father, Terah, was still living" is heart-wrenching. No father should have to bury their own child, let alone their youngest. Yet I don't think the author is aiming for this kind of emotional reaction from us, for the same verse tells us Haran died in "the land of his birth." It's simply setting up the story that Terah is now unlikely to leave Ur.
When religion or culture dictates you must stay
In ancient Mesopotamia, where Terah and his sons lived, the custom was to bury dead family members with their ancestors. This grave would either be located under the family home or close to it so it was easy to maintain.
You can see the importance of this tradition throughout the Old Testament. As Jacob nears death in Egypt, he requests that his sons, "Bury me with my fathers" (Gen. 49:29). This is the same place where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob's dead wife Leah were all buried.
In another example, Barzillai—you've not heard of him before either?—refuses King David's invitation to live out his old age in the comfort of Jerusalem by saying, "Let your servant return, that I may die in my own town near the tomb of my father and mother" (2 Sam. 19:37 NIV).
So strong was this desire to be buried with the previous generations that people in Terah's day rarely left their family homes or the land they were born in. The story’s original audience would have shared this way of thinking. They would have assumed Terah would be even more obligated to stay where he was despite the evidence of increasing mortality rates.
Indeed, that's what happens. Terah and his oldest two sons move on with life while staying in Ur.
Meanwhile, Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah. (Milcah and her sister Iscah were daughters of Nahor's brother Haran.)
— Genesis 11:29 NLT
When disruptions cause us to leave
We're privy to one last piece of information before we're told Terah takes his family away from Ur. Terah's oldest son, Abram, hasn't been able to have any children.
But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children.
— Genesis 11:30 NLT
Disruptions like this play an important role in shaping our lives. They cause us to rethink how we are living. They refocus our attention on what's important.
When family, culture, or religion dictates you must stay, sometimes adversity or suffering is the impetus we finally need to leave the lifelessness of places like Ur in search of something better. Every day we hear in the news about people leaving places of famine or war or oppression, hoping they and their families will find a better life somewhere else.
Dreaming of Canaan
When did Terah begin dreaming about emigrating with his family? I think the idea must have been growing in him for a while before he left, because he has a specific destination in mind: Canaan.
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.
— Genesis 11:31 NIV
Terah leaves with Abram, Sarai, and Lot; however, his middle son Nahor remains behind in Ur. Nahor had married Milkah, the daughter of his dead brother. We're left to assume that this obligated him to remain where his wife's father—and his younger brother—were buried.
Maybe Nahor felt someone in the family should stay.
Maybe Nahor was dreaming about something else?
The phrase Terah "took his son" could mean Abram didn’t have a choice about leaving Ur. But considering how his brother Nahor stayed, staying was apparently an option for Abram too.
But things are different for Abram and Sarai. They're childless. It's easy to imagine that their dreams contain the hope of a son. They probably took little convincing to leave Ur with Terah. They would have wanted to move elsewhere to see if new surroundings would make it possible for Sarai to become pregnant.
Today, we might talk about how a reduction in stress or a change in lifestyle or nutrition might help a couple conceive. Abram and Sarai left Ur for similar reasons, even though they may not have thought about it in that way.
Abram, Sarai, and Terah finally find the resolve to break free of the cultural and religious commitments holding them in Ur and leave in search of a better life.
The Holy Spirit and us
Traditionally, we've seen God making a radical intervention into Abram's life. A dramatic, out-of-the-blue call that completely shifts the direction he was heading in. It's therefore unsurprising that we try to think about our futures as a blank page or a wide open space so we can remain as open as possible to God doing the unexpected. We then focus intently on hearing or seeing signs from God that show which particular direction he wants to lead us in.
The thing is, we delete ourselves from the equation when we imagine such an empty canvas. Rarely do we consider where we’ve come from, what decisions have already shaped us, and how we've got to where we are now. By trying not to entertain any of our own thoughts and ideas about what to do and where to go next, we actually end up requiring greater certainty before leaving.
God doesn't ask us to forget about ourselves or our history when praying for guidance. By ignoring the last verses of Genesis 11, we have missed this important information.
The us part of the Holy Spirit and us, is vital to hearing God's guidance.
Like Abram, we may find that God's call is not to a new thing but a reaffirming of a dream or confirmation that we're already heading in the right general direction.
Which way are we already heading?
This isn't just a question of guidance for us as individuals, but a question for churches and societies, too. Last week, I ended the article It seemed good by naming three of the divisive issues plaguing the worldwide church. We're behind where Western society is heading in all three areas.
As Christians, we need to decide whether equality for women, LGBTQ+ acceptance, and meaningful climate action are somewhere God is calling humankind to. And if so, catch up quickly.