Abraham, Terah, and the Moon God

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Abraham (Abram) is our father in faith. His example is a testimony to what God can do in the life of an ordinary human being. But what kind of father did he have? We would expect to find similar characteristics that Abraham had. We would expect that he, too, would have been a great man of faith. But, oddly, this is not what the Bible records.

Genesis 11:24 (KJV)
²⁴ And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

Genesis 11:26-28 (KJV)
²⁶ And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
²⁷ Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
²⁸ And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

Genesis 11:31-32 (KJV)
³¹ And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
³² And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

From Genesis 11 we find that Nahor was 29 years old when he became the father of Terah. Then when Terah was 70 years old he became a father. He had sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran died  in Ur of the Chaldees, but it doesn't mentioned when. Then it says that Terah took Abram, Lot (Haran's son), and Sarai (Abram's wife) towards the land of Canaan and stopped in Haran. It was in Haran that Terah died at 250 years of age. Genesis 11 gives the impression that it was Terah who was responsible for part of the family moving to Haran, but the next passage says that it was Abram.

Acts 7:2-4 (KJV)
² And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
³ And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
⁴ Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

We don't really know why there seems to be a discrepancy between these two passages. Perhaps, Abram received the call, but didn't act on it until Terah got an urge to move. In any case, God's call was on Abram to leave Haran, once his father had died, and to go on to a land that God would show him. That land was Canaan.

The only other significant mention of Terah comes from Joshua.

Joshua 24:2 (KJV)
² And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

In this verse Joshua told the people that their fathers, after the time of the flood, worshiped and served other gods. This even included Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor. This is really very shocking and revealing. How could this happen?

When Noah left the ark after the flood with his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives, there were no others left of the human race. After observing God's provision for them, the family had to have had a strong faith in God. Yet, within a relatively short amount of time and not many generations, the family no longer followed the One True God.

It is known through archaeology that the city of Haran was a center of moon worship (See: http://www.jesuswalk.com/abraham/0_intro.htm). Even the names Terah, Laban, Sarah, and Milchah apparently show influence of this moon god worship. We also know from Genesis that worship of other gods continued after Abraham.

Genesis 31:19 (KJV)
¹⁹ And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.

These were the household gods that belonged to Laban. The word used in the Hebrew is "teraphim". Notice how similar this term is to Terah's name. Obviously, the family that remained in the Haran area continued to worship false gods.

So, how did Abram become a believer? Is is possible that there were other true believers out there?

Genesis 14:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

After a battle Abraham gave a tithe to this Melchizedek, the king of Jerusalem. He does seem to be a believer of God separate from Abraham's family line. So he could have received some information from outside of his family. It is also possible that Noah and his son Shem might still have been alive when Abram was born.

Genesis 9:28 (KJV)
²⁸ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

Genesis 11:10-11 (KJV)
¹⁰ These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
¹¹ And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

According to these verses Noah lived 350 years after the flood. Shem lived 400 years after he fathered Arphaxad, two years after the flood.  For those who believe that the Genesis genealogies should be taken literally, there are 292 years between the flood and the birth of Terah's oldest son. Easily Abram could have had some influence from his Godly ancestors, assuming that Noah and Shem were still believers.

But, if Abram had not come to faith because of the influence of his family, nor through the influence of someone else like Melchizedek, he had to have come to faith in another way. Some how God either spoke to him directly, or He spoke to Abram indirectly, that He was God, the only God.

Genesis 18:1 (KJV)
¹ And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

Much later in Abraham's life, God actually appeared to him. It is also possible that God had appeared to Abram earlier before he left Ur or Haran. We don't really know, of course.

But, this should be an encouragement for us. We often worry about our unsaved family and friends. Yet, from Abraham's story we see that God will accomplish His will. He is capable of bringing His people to faith, even under impossible situations. He will always be found by those who would have a heart for Him. Yet, our responsibility remains. We just might be the instrument God has chosen to bring faith to someone else.  We must raise our children to love and honor God, and we must share the Gospel whenever we can, knowing that God can and will complete the work of faith in another's life.

Although Terah was not much of a man for us to emulate, his son became a shining example of a man who, although not perfect, had faith in God. He is worthy of our emulation.