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Abraham's Journey to Canaan
v. 4. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Abram put his faith in the promise of the Lord and was obedient to His command, forsaking his fatherland, his acquaintances, and even his nearest relatives, to journey with his wife and his nephew to the new country of which the Lord had spoken.
v. 5. And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. Accustomed as they were to a nomadic life, they traveled by easy stages, until they came to Canaan, the entire journey being under God's direction, and therefore successful, Heb_11:8. All their wealth in cattle and servants, which they had acquired in Mesopotamia, they brought along with them.
v. 6. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. So the caravan of which Abram was the head evidently entered the land of Canaan from the north, through what was afterward Galilee, passing down through the country in which his descendants were later to live, until he reached Sichem, or Shechem, approximately in the center of the land. Here he pitched his tent in a grove, under a terebinth, a tree similar to an oak, which belonged to one Moreh. Cf Deu_11:30. And the Canaanite was then in the land. So Abram could not take possession of the land at once, but was only suffered to sojourn there as a stranger, Heb_11:9.
v. 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. Although a member of a race that had forsaken the true God, the call of the Lord had turned the heart of Abram to Him in simple faith. When, therefore, the Lord appeared to him in a vision in Sichem and assured him that the entire land would some time belong to his descendants, Abram believed the Lord and worshiped Him by the erection of an altar.
v. 8. And he removed from thence, broke up his encampment, and went unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. The geographical notation in many cases is that of the later age, in which the author lived, for the sake of a quicker understanding. Abram's new encampment was in the hill country of what was afterwards Ephraim, between Ai on the west and Lus, or Bethel, on the east. Here again he inaugurated the worship of the true God by preaching and prayer, for he felt responsible for his whole household and therefore taught also his slaves and house-servants the way of salvation.
v. 9. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. Once more he struck his tent and removed with all his possessions to the southernmost district of Canaan, where it borders upon the Arabian desert.