God calls Avram to leave his land and father’s house for a land He has not yet shown him.
The story
God tells Avram to set out: to leave his land, his birthplace or kin and his father’s house. Go where? To the land God has yet to show him. The command itself does not name the land.
Along with the command come promises: God will make Avram a great nation, bless him and make his name great, and Avram will be a blessing. God will bless those who bless him and curse whoever curses him, and all the families of the earth will be blessed in him.
וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה
Bereshit 12:2
The Torah records no word from Avram in reply. It tells us: Avram went, as God had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Avram was seventy-five years old when he left Charan. He took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son and all their possessions.
וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֵלָיו ה׳
Bereshit 12:4
They set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived. Avram passed through the land as far as Shechem, to Elon Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land. God appeared to Avram and said He would give this land to his offspring, and Avram built an altar there.
לְזַרְעֲךָ אֶתֵּן אֶת־הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת
Bereshit 12:7
From there Avram moved on to the hill east of Beit El and pitched his tent, with Beit El to the west and Ai to the east. There too he built an altar to God and called on the name of God. Then he kept journeying, on and on, towards the Negev.
God said to Avram: Go from your land, from the place or family you were born into, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.
Words from the verse
לֶךְ־לְךָgo, set out
וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָand from your birthplace or kin
אַרְאֶךָּI will show you
What it teaches: Faith
Believing in God and walking in His way even without understanding everything.
God calls Avram to a land He does not name, with promises for the future. The Torah does not describe what Avram thought or felt, but what he did: he went as God had spoken to him, and along the way he built altars. So the Torah teaches that faith shows itself in deeds, even when one holds only a promise.
A question to sit with
What good step am I putting off only because I cannot yet see where it will lead?
Questions about the story
What did God tell Avram about the land he would go to?
That it is the land of Canaan
That He would show it to him later
That it flows with milk and honey
Answer
b. That He would show it to him later
In the command, the land has no name. About the land itself, God says only that He will show it to Avram.
What does the Torah tell us right after God’s words?
That Avram asked God where to go
That Avram set out on his own
That Avram went, as God had spoken
Answer
c. That Avram went, as God had spoken
The Torah records no word from Avram in reply. The verse right after the promises says he went, as God had spoken to him, and Lot with him.
The lesson
Faith does not wait for a map: it sets out on a promise.
For this week
This week, try starting one good thing you have put off, like a conversation, some learning or volunteering, and take just the first step.
From the sources
The sages taught in Bereshit Rabbah: why did God not reveal to Avram which land he was going to? To make the land dear in his eyes, and to reward him “for each and every step.” In this reading, precisely because God kept the land hidden, every step on the way carried its own reward.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
