“Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 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. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:6-8).
The beginning of Genesis 12 spells out a contrast with that of Genesis 11.
In chapter 11 [building the Tower of Babel] the people seek to make themselves safe, while in chapter 12 the man Abram is made safe by God as a gift of grace. These events mark the beginning in the Bible of the opposition between Babel and Israel, a conflict which continues right through to the Book of Revelation.
Abram is taken out of his own community and placed in a new environment. God’s call not only requires Abram to break all ties with Ur but also to establish himself in a new country. And the latter consequence makes it much more difficult for him to obey God’s call. For the new environment will never be one in which Abram can make himself comfortable. The text makes clear that it is an environment that highlights the antithesis to the extreme.
If God had merely removed Abram from his land and placed him on an island, his obedience to the call would have been relatively easy. The disadvantages would have been only negative – he would have had to abandon something he was fond of. But he would not have been confronted with the struggle. Although his position would have been “not of the world”, neither would it have been “in the world”.
But the call of grace is a very difficult one. God not only requires Abram to turn his back on a familiar environment, but also that he will take his place in a strange environment. He must not merely sacrifice peace and quiet, but consciously accept the enmity. God places him in an environment which he must approach with an anti-thetical (opposing) stand.
For the first thing he finds in Canaan is “the place of Shechem”. The translation makes it sound fairly harmless. A place, well, that’s a city or a village. Anyway, it is a human settlement. There seems to be nothing wrong with Abram finding a settlement in Canaan. But many commentators stress that we must not think of a place where people are living, but of a place where people practice religion. It is therefore a sanctuary, a place where a particular god is worshipped.
The first thing Abram comes across in Canaan, is an idol’s temple.
The only true God has revealed Himself to Abram and demands that Abram shall serve Him; but He requires that Abram will do this in an environment of idolatry. That’s the first thing that makes Abram’s entry into Canaan difficult.
Then, he comes to “the terebinth tree of Moreh”. Again, we would say: there’s nothing wrong with a terebinth tree. Don’t we, too, on a hot day prefer a little shade? Happy are those who on that day live near shady trees.
However, the difficulty for Abram is not just any terebinth tree, but that particular terebinth tree known as Moreh. If we translate it fully it says that he came to the diviners-terebinth, the oracle-tree. In other words, it is a tree people use to predict the future. From its rustling leaves the priest is able to interpret the voice of the gods.
The place is therefore not merely an idol’s temple where people offer their sacrifices; but they claim as well that in that place the gods reveal themselves.
And finally: “the Canaanites were then in the land”. Abram does not find an uninhabited land in which he can settle wherever he chooses. The land already belongs to other people. As soon as he claims ownership, there will be war. The ‘natives’ will not tolerate the foreign intruder.
Now, it is precisely in the place of fortune telling, idolatry and Canaanites that God appears to Abram in Canaan for the first time.
The LORD appears to him at the terebinth tree of Morey, the oracle-terebinth. That means that now there is faithful revelation over against false revelation. Here comes the unavoidable conflict between truth and lie in the deeply religious meaning these words have in the Bible.
The LORD speaks to Abram in the place where the Canaanites claim: “This is our land”; and the LORD says to him, in that same place: “To your descendants I will give this land”. It means conflict between two heirs, between the owner ‘according to the flesh’ and the owner ‘according to the promise’. And there, at the “place” of Shechem, Abram builds an altar to the LORD who had appeared to him. And he journeys through the land, and he continues to find Canaanite places of worship; but he builds his altar to the LORD and “calls on the name of the LORD”.
Thus, in all those places of public idolatry he does not just pray in silence, but worships in public. For that is the meaning of the Bible expression: “call on the name of the LORD”. It is the public worship we have on Sundays in our church services.
God proclaims the antithesis; while Abram accepts it in faith and confesses it publicly.
God begins: It is He who appears in the place where people expect oracles. Thus, it is He who creates the conflict: truth versus lie.
God proceeds: He declares that not the Canaanites but Abram is heir of the land. Hence it is He who establishes enmity, also between the heirs.
But Abram finishes: he believes that the Word of His God is the truth; he believes the promise that he will inherit the land, and that one day: “there shall no longer be a Canaanite there” (Zechariah 14:21).
Abram therefore continues in the faith the antithesis which God began to proclaim: he establishes his altar in opposition to the temple of the Canaanites.
God has said to him: Abram, you, and no one else, will live here.
And Abram answers: LORD, You and no other god will be worshipped here.
This is the history of Abram’s entry into Canaan.
It is a history in which things are done in the spirit of the ’mother-promise’, that is: God sets enmity, and man accepts it.
But there has been progress since the days Adam was given that promise. In Paradise the world was still without idolatry, without fortune-telling, and without Canaanites. When God spoke the mother-promise (Gen. 3:15) the enmity was proclaimed, but it was not yet clearly revealed.
The situation in Abram’s days is different. The lie has matured, but so has the glorious revelation of the truth. As a result, the antithesis has become more intense.
And we today?
God continues the enmity in the spirit of the mother promise of Genesis 3:15. That spirit is there in Abram’s days; and it is still here, with us. But we will not forget that we are living at a much later stage of the struggle, that the opposition in our days is even more intense.
After Pentecost the conflict, which in Abram’s days was still localised in the area around Shechem, has become a world conflict. The power of the lie is nowadays stronger than ever. For the “spirit of the Antichrist is in the world”.
But in response, the Spirit of Jesus Christ performs great signs: the truth, too, is more powerful.
While to Abram God appeared only now and then, in our days God lives permanently in the church. While to Abram the LORD appeared irregularly, He appears to us every Sunday.
And His promises are much richer than Abram could ever have suspected.
The power and the enmity of the world are greater than ever. But God keeps His promise: the godless will be removed from the earth.
God proclaims the antithesis more powerfully than in Abram’s days. Let us, then, as true children of Abram, live in the same faith, and not avoid that antithesis.
Let us take on board, and confess, the antithesis across the full range of our life and wherever we may be in this world, in building the temple of the LORD and sacrificing on His altar.
As the LORD reveals Himself more and more fully, salvation does indeed come nearer.
But we will not inherit that salvation if we do not, in the same measure, call more and more fervently upon the Name of the LORD.
Translated from B Holwerda, in De Wijsheid die behoudt (The Wisdom that saves – [2 Tim. 3:15]), Oosterbaan & Le Cointre, Goes, 1957, pp. 20-24.