les south of Babylon, when he was
called to go into a land that he perhaps had never heard of before,
and to possess that land.

In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the first four verses, we read:

"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I
will shew thee." Now notice the promise: "And I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto
him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy five years old and
when he departed out of Haran."

It was several years before this that God first told him to leave Ur
of the Chaldees. Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way
between the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan.
God had called him into the land of the Canaanite, and

HE CAME HALF-WAY,

and stayed there--we do not know just how long, but probably about
five years.

Now, I believe that there are a great many Christians who are what
might be called _Haran Christians_. They go to Haran, and there they
stay. They only half obey. They are not out-and-out. How was it that
God got him out of Haran? His father died. The first call was to
leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into Canaan, but instead of going
all the way they stopped half-way, and it was affliction that drove
Abram out of Haran. A great many of us bring afflictions on
ourselves, because we are not out-and-out for the Lord. We do not
obey Him fully. God had plans He wanted to work out through Abram,
and He could not work them out as long as he was there at Haran.
Affliction came, and then we find that he left Haran, and started
for the Promised Land.

There is just one word there about Lot--"and Lot went with Abram."
That is the key, you might say, to Lot's life. He was a weaker
character than Abram, and he followed his uncle.

When they got into the land that God had promised to give him, Abram
found it already inhabited by great and warlike nations--not by one
nation, but by a number of nations. What could he do, a solitary
man, in that land? Not only was his faith tested by finding the land
preoccupied by other strong and hostile nations, but he had not been
there a great while before a great famine came upon him.