The Old Man Must Die

NOW take notice of how God deals with the problem of the flesh in the life of Abram. Abram had trusted God and had gone out of Ur, but in disobedience to God’s clear instructions, he had taken his father and Lot along. “Get out . . . from your family And from your father’s house,” had been the word of the Almighty. Terah, Abram’s father, represents the old man of the flesh. “Terah” means delay. “Haran” means fruitless. Six years Abram lived with Terah in Haran, delayed in a fruitless land; six years of no progress, no growth, no joy or victory. Then we read:

“So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.” – Genesis 11:32.

Terah died in Haran. Thank God, the old man died. I know that sounds cold and heartless! However, Abram must sever the tender ties of the flesh before he can proceed to the place of victory and promise. There is to be a burial in Haran, a blessed funeral. Terah died, and was buried in Haran, the place of fruitlessness. It must have been hard for Abram, but it must be, before he can go on. How much easier it would have been for Abram to have left his father behind in Ur of the Chaldees than to bury him here in a strange land. How much better to obey God willingly and immediately, by separating one’s self from the world and the flesh, rather than to disobey and thus bring God’s judgment into our lives, a punishment more painful and lasting than the momentary soreness caused by separation from the world and the flesh.