LESSON IX.—ABRAHAM CALLED.
1. Did the descendants of Noah follow his godly example? 3. What did they undertake to do when they had become numerous? 4. What seems probable in regard to their design in the building of the tower? 5. How did God humble their pride, and put an end to their work? 6. What did this cause them to do? 7. Whom did God finally choose? 9. Where did Terah dwell? 10. In what country was Ur? 11. What did God tell Abram to do? 12. Why did the Lord choose Abram? 13. How do we know that Abram was instructed in the way of the Lord? 16. What must Abram have understood? 18. Where did Abram stop on his way to Canaan? 19. How long did he remain there? 20. Where did he then go? 22. How old was Abram at this time? 23. What did he immediately do when he entered Canaan? After the death of Noah, his descendants did not follow his godly example, but became proud and wicked. When they had become very numerous, they undertook to build a tower that should reach to Heaven. It is quite probable that they intended to build it so high that it would afford them a safe retreat in case of another flood. Thus they would be enabled to bid defiance to the God of Heaven. But God humbled their pride, and put an end to their work, by confusing their speech so that they could not understand one another. In this way they were scattered abroad in the earth. Finally God chose Abram the son of Terah, who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, in a country called Mesopotamia. God told Abram to leave his home and friends, and go into a land that he would show him. God chose Abram because he knew that he would so control his children that they should keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Gen. 18:19. Abram must have been instructed in the way of the Lord, else he could not have taught it to his children. From Gen. 26:5 we learn that he had the commandments of God, and from Gal. 3:8, that in some way he had the gospel preached to him. So we see that Abram understood the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, and that he obeyed the law of God. Abram left the land of his birth to go to the land of Canaan, as the Lord had commanded, but his idolatrous relatives went with him; so he stopped at a place called Haran, or Charran, and remained there till his father died. He then went to Canaan, accompanied only by his wife, Sarai, and Lot, the son of his deceased brother, Haran. Abram was seventy-five years old at this time. On entering Canaan, he immediately set up an altar, and began the worship of the true God in the way then appointed.