Patriarch Overview (Genesis 12-50)

Back to Genesis Tomorrow!  We are going to cover 360 years in just 2 weeks!!  Buckle up, kids!!

• The History of Abraham (12-25)
• The History of Isaac (26-27)
• The History of Jacob (28-39)
• The History of Joseph (37-50)

Timeline: it is about 400 years after the flood.  We will begin with an Unconditional Covenant.  Covenant, by the way,  means an agreement, a  promise, a contact, an oath, that God will not break.  At the beginning of this section, we will read about the Covenant with Abraham.  The Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional (one-sided…not an “If…then” promise).   God makes a covenant with Abraham, then repeats the Covenant with Abraham’s son Isaac, then repeats it a third time with Abraham’s grandson Jacob. This is why we will see throughout the Bible: “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers”.

We have been in Job for 2 weeks so let’s read the scripture we left off in Chapter 11 in Genesis: This will help as you read.  I do not print every visual, but this is one I printed and wrote on for notes.   Click here if you would like to print.

“Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.  While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.  Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.  Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

  Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.”

Abram (his name will be changed to Abraham)

Understanding where Abram lived will give you a better picture of what was being asked of him.  The land: Ur of the Chaldeans was the wealthiest city. The history in this region exceeds that of the land of Egypt and its pyramids

The great Ziggurat of ancient Ur was built by King Ur-Nammu who ruled the area of ancient Ur around 2100 BC. This would’ve been approximately 250 years after the flood.

Archaeologists estimate that there were approximately 24,000 people living in the city of Ur during the time of Abraham. The people of ancient Mesopotamia worshiped many gods, and the people of Ur worshiped their chief god named Nanna, the moon-god.

So God is going to choose Abraham to leave here 😳

Joshua 24. When Joshua renews the Covenant in the Promised Land he talks about the history of Abraham and says to all the people: ²“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.” 

Extra Credit: if you want more read Act 7 😁

See you tomorrow.  I am so excited!