A Family Moves to the Land of Canaan 

The first few words of Genesis 12 reveal the reason this family moved,

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.”
(Gen 12.1)

Genesis 12.1–4 flashes back to the time before Genesis 11.31. However, why did the Lord tell Abram to leave Ur?

The next two verses reveal what the Lord had in mind, and note these verses in your mind, because, and I do not exaggerate, they lay the foundation for the rest of the Bible,

“I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
(Gen 12.2, 3)

Once Abram and his family arrived in the Land of Canaan,

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him (Gen 12.7).

Why did the Lord choose that land? That will be revealed later in Genesis 15, but for now I will say that even as the Lord used Babylon to punish Israel in Canaan, so the Lord would use Abram’s descendants to punish the Canaanites.

Related Articles

• The Foundation of the Story of the Bible (Part 1) (theoldtestamentandthenewtestament.com)
• Messianic Prophecy Number 14: Gen 26.4 – Abraham’s Promise Repeated to Isaac (theoldtestamentandthenewtestament.com)