For Sale Signs and Memories of Haran

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran. - Genesis 11:31-32


I put a "For Sale" sign up in our yard this morning. I just stood there and looked at it for awhile. I looked at our house and thought of all the things that had happened there: bringing Cole home from the hospital, bringing Halle home from the hospital, Christmases, Thanksgivings, Birthdays... Places become sentimental for us. We associate feelings and memories to places. I believe it is a God-given trait of humanity. I have always wondered, when I read the passage above, if this happened to Terah in Haran.

Haran was the name of one of Terah's sons who passed away. It is always sad when a son precedes a father in death. As I read the verses the grief of Terah almost drips from the verses. Terah's intention, according to the passage, is to go to Canaan. Yet, he only gets as far as Haran. Because the name of the city is the same as that of his son who has died. In fact, Terah never leaves Haran, as the next verse indicates, he stays there until his death.

Now this may be a bit of a leap and forgive me if I read a little too much into the text, but I think Terah gets stuck in Haran, because he is still stuck on Haran. One of two things happened. Either he named Haran for that city that, perhaps, he loved from his youth or the names were coincidental and he stayed there because it reminded him of Haran. Either way, I believe Terah tied the memory of his son to that particular city.

So what does that have to do with anything? I think it is peculiar that Terah had set out for Canaan before Abram recieved the call to leave his father's household and go to Canaan. It makes me wonder if God had at some point called Terah to go to Canaan. It makes me wonder if Terah failed because he was so stuck on the loss of his son that he couldn't move forward. Perhaps Terah is a failed patriarch.

If Terah is a failed patriarch what caused the failure? The only evidence we have is in these verses. But perhaps Terah failed because he turned his sentiment into an idol. He could never get over the loss of his son, so he never moved forward. He wrapped himself in obsession over the things he could not changed as so much a death shroud, then he died a frustrated old man.

We too can get caught up in sentiment and cling obsessively to the things we can not change. That is a recipe for death. First, it kills our souls and our bodies then follow. People have stayed far too long in places (both literal and figurative) when the Lord has urged them to move along, simply because they have idolized their sentiment. As I a wave of sentiment rolled over me looking at my house, I thought of these verses. I will need to think about them many more times in this process. Whenever I'm grieving moving away from friends, family and familiar places, I need to recall these verses. I need to remember that godly grief is for a season and is never meant to be an obsession. I need to remember that sentiment is wonderful as long as it doesn't harden into a cement that keeps us stuck in one place.

Abraham remembered these things I'm sure. He remembered how his father became stuck and he was able to offer up his only son upon the altar. He had learned to trust God's promise and not to (as the hymn writer puts it) "cling to gilded toys of dust". May we all learn that lesson and be enable to put what we learn into practice by the power of the Holy Spirit.