The Journey of Abraham
From Ur of the Chaldees to the mountain in Moriah — the walk of the father of all them that believe, station by station.
Ur of the Chaldees
God speaks to Abram in Mesopotamia; Terah’s family journeys as far as Haran, where Terah dies. Abram is 75 when he departs in obedience.
Shechem
In Canaan at last: the LORD appears — “Unto thy seed will I give this land” — and Abram builds his first altar there.
Bethel
Between Bethel and Hai he builds another altar and calls on the name of the LORD — the pattern of his life: a tent, and an altar.
Egypt
Famine drives him down into Egypt, where fear makes him call Sarai his sister; God plagues Pharaoh’s house and brings Abram out enriched — a lesson learned the hard way.
Bethel again
Back to the altar he had made at the first. Lot chooses the plain of Jordan toward Sodom; God gives Abram all the land he can see, and seed as the dust of the earth.
The Valley of Shaveh
Abram rescues Lot from the kings, refuses Sodom’s riches, and is met by Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the most high God, with bread and wine.
The covenant ceremony
“He believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” God cuts the covenant by passing alone between the divided pieces.
Hagar and Ishmael
Sarai’s plan: a son by Hagar. Ishmael is born when Abram is 86; thirteen years of silence follow.
The covenant renewed
God renames Abram and Sarai, gives the covenant of circumcision, and promises a son by Sarah within the year. Abraham laughs — and believes.
The Plains of Mamre
Three visitors announce Isaac; Abraham pleads for Sodom down to ten righteous. The cities fall, but Lot is delivered for Abraham’s sake.
Gerar
Again Sarah is called his sister before Abimelech; God warns the king in a dream and Abraham prays for his house.
Beersheba
“At the set time of which God had spoken” — Abraham is 100, Sarah 90. Hagar and Ishmael are sent out, and God hears the lad in the wilderness.
Moriah
The supreme test: Isaac on the altar, the knife raised — and the ram in the thicket. “Jehovah-jireh”: on this mountain range, God will provide His Lamb.
Hebron
Sarah dies at 127; Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah — his only purchased ground in the promised land — and buries her there, a down payment on the promise.
Death at 175
After sending for Isaac’s bride from his kindred, Abraham dies “in a good old age, an old man, and full of years,” and Isaac and Ishmael bury him beside Sarah.