“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.”
My Notes
What Does Genesis 12:6 Mean?
"Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land." Abram arrives in the promised land and immediately encounters a problem: the Canaanites are already there. The land God promised is occupied. The gift has current residents. The promise and the obstacle coexist in the same sentence.
Shechem and the oak of Moreh are significant locations: Shechem will become a central city in Israel's history, and the oak of Moreh is a sacred site. Abram's first stop in the promised land is at a place that will matter for centuries. He's standing on future-significant ground without knowing it.
The parenthetical — "the Canaanite was then in the land" — is the narrator's honest acknowledgment of the gap between promise and possession. God said "I will give you this land." The Canaanites live on it. Both statements are simultaneously true. The promise is real. The occupation is also real.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What 'promised land' have you arrived at only to find occupied by obstacles?
- 2.How do you worship on ground you can't yet possess?
- 3.What does the coexistence of promise and obstacle teach about God's timing?
- 4.What 'altar' can you build on occupied ground as an act of faith?
Devotional
God promised the land. The Canaanites are living on it. Abram arrives at the gift and finds it occupied. Welcome to the promised land — someone else is already here.
The narrator's aside — 'and the Canaanite was then in the land' — is one of the most honest sentences in Genesis. God promised. The promise is real. And the obstacle is equally real. The land that belongs to Abram by divine promise belongs to the Canaanites by current occupation. The promise and the problem share the same dirt.
This is the experience of every promise: you arrive and find it occupied. The job God called you to has existing power structures. The relationship God promised has current complications. The future God showed you has present obstacles standing on it. The Canaanite is in the land. And the land is still promised.
Abram doesn't fight the Canaanites. He doesn't claim the land by force. He builds an altar (verse 7). His first act in the occupied promised land is worship. He can't possess the land yet. He can worship on it. The altar says: this land belongs to God, even though the Canaanites are here. The worship precedes the possession by centuries.
What promised land have you arrived at only to find it occupied? What Canaanites are standing on your promise? Abram's response: worship now, possess later. The altar comes before the conquest.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And Abram passed through the land,.... Entering the northern part of it, as appears by his going southward, Gen 12:9 he…
- The Call of Abram 6. שׁכם shekem Shekem, “the upper part of the back.” Here it is the name of a person, the owner of…
The plain of Moreh - אלון elon should be translated oak, not plain; the Septuagint translate την δρυν την ὑψηλην, the…
One would have expected that Abram having had such an extraordinary call to Canaan some great event should have followed…
the place of Shechem The word "place" is here probably used in the special sense of "sacred place" or "shrine," as also…
Cross References
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