Terah Died in Haran • Deshen Daily

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran (Genesis 11:32, KJV)

Terah was the father of Abraham and had two other sons— Nahor and Haran. A tragedy happened to him that left a scar in his life and he apparently did not recover from it:

“And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees” (Genesis 11:28, KJV)

Haran, his last listed son, died before him. It must have been something quite remarkable that the scripture mentions explicitly that Haran died before his father. This left a deep-seated pain in Terah his father. How do we see this? Well, the 31st verse tells us that Terah later took Abraham and Lot, Haran’s son with Abraham’s wife to begin a journey from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan. This is exactly what God later commanded Abraham to do when Terah his father did not complete the journey. In fact, some theologians have said God initially spoke to Terah to go the land of Canaan but this remains speculative.

However, the 32nd verse above tells us that Terah died in Haran, without making it too Canaan. He probably got to a place which he named after his son Haran, started dwelling there and finally died in that place. He could not go past the pain of losing his son. Terah died in Haran.

There are circumstances in life that seem to leave such a scar on our lives that changes us forever. Sadly, we sometimes never recover like Terah. Some people have their Harans in childhood. Some in a previous marriage, job, failure, relationship, etc. The Lord wants to heal us in that place called Haran where there is an invisible cord that keeps us tied to it. The good news is that if we open up to the Lord and allow Him to heal us, even if we were responsible for the Haran in our lives, He will bring us out of that place into a thriving relationship with Him.

MEDITATE

Do you have a place called Haran in your life?

APPLY THE WORD

One of the most difficult things we deal with is to recover from our past failures even when God has forgiven us. Do not live and die in Haran. Move on with the Father.