Thursday, August 20, 2015

Question 6 – What was Abraham’s age, is it 75 or at least 130 years?

Genesis 11:26, 32 NKJV - "Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. ... So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran."
Genesis 12:4 NKJV – “And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran."
Acts 7:4 NKJV - ""Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell."
 [After living 135 years Abraham was only 75 years old.]
Inference in the question: When father died, i.e., when Abraham departed from Haran, at least his age was 205-70=135 years
Answer:
                Genesis 11:26-32, Terah begot Abram, Nahor and Haran when he was 70 year old. Then Haran begot Lot but Haran died at his young age. Because of this reason Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. But Nahor stayed back in land of Chaldeans and their family worshiped other Gods as per Joshua 24:2-3.
Gen 12:1-3, God asked Abram to leave his country and follow Him. Gen 12:5 NKJV Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Before this they were in other side of Canan where Terah used to worship other Gods as per Joshua 24:2-3. Based on Gen 12:1, God asked Abram to leave his father Terah who is dead spiritually as he worshipped other Gods. When Abram left his spiritually dead father he was 75 years old. Terah continued to live as a spiritually dead person in Haran even when his son Abram left him until he was 205 years old. Abram was not with his father when his father died physically. For sure we can say this by using following analogy: Abram lived 175 years. Terah was about 70 years old when Abram was born. And Terah lived 205 years. So Abram must be with his father for about 135 years. Sarah is younger than Abram and she lived only 127 years, Gen 23:1. That implies both Sarah and Terah died around same time. But there is only mention of Sarah’s burial in bible Gen 23:1-20 but no mention of Terah’s burial. So we can conclude that Terah did not live with Abram until his physical death.
Jesus told about spiritually dead to one of his disciple who wanted to bury his dead father, Luke 9:60 NKJV - "…Let the dead bury their own dead…”. Now let’s learn about Stephen who said the words mentioned in Acts 7:4. Stephen is giving speech with inspiration of Holy Spirit and his face was like an angel. Acts 6:15 NKJV - "And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel". In this spiritual state Stephen is saying that Abram left his spiritually dead father when he was 75 years old as per Acts 7:4.

In summary, Terah spiritually died by worshipping other God’s. Abram when he was 75 years old left his spiritually dead father and followed God. Terah continued to live as a spiritually dead person at Haran until he was 205 years old and he was not with his son Abram when he died.

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