Genesis 12:6 - Meaning and Application

One might have expected that after Abram received such an extraordinary call to Canaan, something great would happen when he arrived there. He might have been welcomed with honor and respect, and the kings of Canaan might have quickly bowed to him. But that is not what happened. He came with little notice, because God still wanted him to live by faith and to look on Canaan, even while he lived in it, as a promised land. So notice, first, how little comfort he found in the land itself.

He did not have the land to himself. “The Canaanite was then in the land.” The country was already settled and owned by Canaanites, who were likely to be poor neighbors and worse landlords. From all we can tell, Abram could not even find a place to set up his tent unless they allowed it. So the cursed Canaanites seemed to be in better condition than blessed Abram. The children of this world often have more of this world than God’s children do.

He also did not have a settled home there. He passed through the land (Genesis 12:6), moved to a mountain (Genesis 12:8), and kept traveling onward (Genesis 12:9). Sometimes it is the lot of good people to be unsettled and to move often. David had his wanderings and his shifting places (Psalm 56:8). Our changes in this world often take us through different conditions, just as Abram first lived in a plain (Genesis 12:6) and then in a mountain area (Genesis 12:8). God has placed one condition against another.

All God’s people must see themselves as strangers and travelers in this world. By faith, they should hold loosely to it as though it were a foreign country. Abram did this (Hebrews 11:8-14). While we are in this present life, we must keep moving forward, going from strength to strength, since we have not yet reached our goal.

Now consider how much comfort Abram had in the God he followed. He could find little satisfaction in dealing with the Canaanites around him, but he found rich joy in fellowship with the God who brought him there and did not leave him. Fellowship with God is kept alive through the word and through prayer. In this way, according to the practice of that time, Abram kept communion with God in the land where he lived as a pilgrim.

God appeared to Abram, probably in a vision, and spoke words of comfort: “To your offspring I will give this land.” No place or condition of life can shut us out from God’s gracious visits. Abram was a traveler, unsettled among Canaanites, yet even there he met with the One who sees him and lives with him. Enemies may separate us from our tents and from one another, but they cannot separate us from our God. And when God faithfully leads his people away from their friends, he makes up for that loss by appearing to them in grace.

God’s promises are sure and satisfying to all who carefully obey his commands. Those who leave behind something dear because they obey God’s call can trust that he will give them something far better in its place. Abram had left his native land, and God answered, in effect, “I will give you this land” (Matthew 19:29). God also reveals himself and his kindness to his people little by little. First he had promised to show Abram the land, and now he promised to give it to him. As grace grows, comfort grows too.

It is a great comfort to have land given by God, not only by providence, but by promise. And blessings for children are blessings for parents too. God said, “I will give it, not to you, but to your seed.” It was a grant that would come into full possession later, through Abram’s offspring. Yet Abram seems to have understood this as a promise of a better land still to come, of which this one was only a picture. He was looking for a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16).

Abram also honored God through the worship God had appointed. He built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him, and he called on the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:7, Genesis 12:8). He did this, first, as a special response to God’s appearance. When God came to him, Abram built an altar there, fixing his eyes on the God who had appeared to him. In this way he returned God’s visit and kept up his friendship with heaven, showing that he intended faithfulness on his own side. He also thanked God for the gracious promise and showed that he trusted the word God had spoken. An active believer can sincerely praise God for a promise not yet fulfilled and build an altar to honor the God who appears, even before he appears on our behalf.

He also did this as his regular practice wherever he went. Once Abram came to Canaan, though he was only a stranger there, he established and maintained the worship of God in his household. Wherever he had a tent, God had an altar, and that altar was made holy by prayer. He did not only pay attention to the outward act of sacrifice. He also made it a serious matter to seek God and call on his name, which is the spiritual sacrifice God delights in. He taught about the name of the Lord, meaning he instructed his family and neighbors in the knowledge of the true God and his holy way. The people he had gathered in Haran, now trained as followers, still needed further teaching.

Those who want to show themselves to be true children of faithful Abram, and who want to receive Abram’s blessing, must make it a serious duty to keep up the regular worship of God, especially in their families, following Abram’s example. Family worship is a good old practice. It is not a new invention, but the ancient custom of all the saints. Abram was very rich, had a large household, was unsettled, and lived among enemies, yet wherever he pitched his tent, he built an altar. Wherever we go, let us not fail to take our religion with us.