Genesis 11:31 - Homiletics

The migration of the Terachites.

I. THE DEPARTURE OF THE EMIGRANTS . The attendant circumstances of this migration—the gathering of the clan, the mustering of the flocks, the farewells and benedictions exchanged with relatives and friends, the hopes and fears of the adventurous pilgrims—imagination may depict; the reasons which prompted it may be conjectured to have been—

1. The spirit of emigration, which since the dispersion at Babel had been abroad among the primitive populations of mankind. The arms of a Trans-Euphratean state had already penetrated as far west as the circle of the Jordan, and it has been surmised that this Terachite removal from Chaldaea may have been connected with some larger movement in the same direction.

2. The oppression of the Hamites, who, besides being the most powerful and enterprising of the early tribes, and having seized upon the fattest settlements, such as Egypt, Canaan, and Chaldaea, had wandered farthest from the pure Noachic faith, and abandoned themselves to a degraded polytheism, based for the most part upon a study of the heavenly bodies. That the Cushite conquerors of Southern Babylonia were not only idolaters, but, like Nimrod, their leader, destroyers of the liberties of the subject populations, has at least the sanction of tradition.

3. The awakening of religious life in the breasts of the pilgrims. That Abram had by this time been called we are warranted on the authority of Stephen to hold, and though Terah is expressly said to have been an idolater in Ur, it is by no means improbable that he became a sharer in the pure faith of his distinguished son. At least it lends a special interest to this primitive migration to connect it with the call of Abram.

II. THE JOURNEY OF THE EMIGRANTS . Though upon the incidents and experiences of the way, as upon the circumstances and reasons of the departure, the inspired record is completely silent, yet the pilgrimage of the Chaldaean wanderers was—

1. From an idolatrous land, which could not fail to secure, even had it not already received, the Divine approbation. Not that flight from heathen countries is always the clear path of duty, else how shall the world be converted? But where, as was probably the case with the Terachites, the likelihood of doing good to is less than that of receiving hurt from the inhabitants, it is plainly incumbent to withdraw from polluted and polluting lands.

2. By an unknown way . Almost certainly the road to Canaan was but little understood by the exiles, if even Canaan itself was not entirely a terra incognita . Yet in setting forth upon a path so uncertain they were only doing what mankind in general, and God's people in particular, have always to do in life's journey, viz; travel by a way that they know not; while for comfort they had the sweet assurance that their path was steadily conducting them from idols and oppression, and the certain knowledge that they were journeying beneath the watchful and loving superintendence of the invisible Supreme. Happy they whose path in life, though compassed by clouds and darkness, ever tends away from sin and slavery, and never lacks the guidance of Abram's God!

3. To a better country . In comparison with the rich alluvial soil of Southern Babylonia, the land of Canaan might be only a bleak succession of barren hills; but, in respect of liberty to worship God, anywhere, in the eyes of men whose hearts were throbbing with new-found faith, would seem superior to idolatrous Chaldaea. Without endorsing Luther's fancy, that Shem and his followers had already withdrawn to Palestine, and that Terah and his family were setting forth to place themselves beneath the patriarch's rule, we may reasonably suppose that, like the Pilgrim Fathers of a later -age, they were seeking a new land where they might worship God in peace.

III. THE HALTING OF THE EMIGRANTS . In the absence of definite information as to the motives which induced it, this sudden stoppage of their journey at Haran is usually ascribed to either—

1. The irresolution of Terah, who, having become wearied by the fatigues and perils of the way, and having found a comfortable location for himself and flocks, preferred to bring his wanderings to a close, as many a noble enterprise is wrecked through weak-kneed vacillation, and many a Christian pilgrimage broken short by faint-hearted indecision; or—

2. The unbelief of Terah, who, in the first flush of excitement produced by Abram's call, had started on the outward journey with strong faith and great zeal, but, as enthusiasm subsided and faith declined, was easily persuaded to halt at Haran—an emblem of other pilgrims who begin their heavenward journey well, but pause in mid career through the cooling of their ardor and declining of their piety; or—

3. The infirmity of Terah, who was now an old man, and unable further to prosecute his journey to the promised land, thus making the delay at Haran a beautiful act of filial piety on the part of Abram, and on that of Terah an imperious necessity.

See in this migration of, the Terachites—

1. An emblem of the changefulness of life.

2. An illustration of God's method of distributing mankind.

3. An example of the way in which an overruling Providence disseminates the truth.

4. A picture of many broken journeys on the face of earth.