Genesis Deeper ㊷ He Built an Altar There · Why Did Abram Build an Altar Instead of Saying a Word? (Genesis 12:4~9)
This series takes one Bible passage at a time and looks at it a little more closely. The images are free to use in worship, in class, and on social media.
So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name. Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.
Genesis 12:4~9 (World English Bible)
1. A Man Who Went as He Was Told, and Did Not Say a Word
Last time, God spoke to Abram while he was staying in Haran. God told him to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house, and go to the land God would show him. Then God promised him a great nation, blessing, and a great name, and said that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (12:1~3).
Today’s passage is what happens next. Abram leaves Haran at the age of seventy-five. He takes his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, the possessions they had gathered in Haran, and the people who lived with them, and he enters the land of Canaan. He comes to a large tree, the oak of Moreh, at a place called Shechem. At that time, the Canaanites were already living in the land. There God appears to Abram and speaks to him: “I will give this land to your offspring.”
Abram builds an altar there. An altar is a raised platform made by piling up stones or earth, a place for offering something to God. Abram goes a little farther and pitches his tent on a mountain between two towns, Bethel and Ai. There too he builds an altar and calls on Yahweh’s name. Yahweh is the name the Bible uses for God. To call on Yahweh’s name means to call out to God, pray to him, and honor him. Then Abram keeps moving on toward the south.
If we read this passage again from the start, together with the words just before it (12:1~3), something stands out. God speaks twice, but not one line of what Abram said is written down. There is no answer, no thanks, no question. The text says Abram called on Yahweh’s name, but it does not say what words he used. All the text records is what Abram did. He went, he took his household and set out, he passed through, he built an altar, he pitched his tent, he built another altar, and he moved on.
And so a question comes up. Abram had just heard a great promise. Why did he build an altar instead of saying something? And what was that altar, built in a land that still belonged to other people?
2. Just an Old Religious Custom?
When we receive a big promise, we usually answer with words. If someone says, ‘I’ll be there for you,’ we say, ‘Thank you, I won’t forget that.’ If a company tells us, ‘Starting next month, you’ll be a full-time employee,’ we say, ‘Thank you, I’ll do my best.’ Answering a promise with words feels natural.
Read today’s passage that way, and Abram’s silence looks a little strange. And when we are looking for an answer in words, it is easy to skip right past the phrase ‘he built an altar’ tucked in among all the things Abram did. We treat it as just one more religious custom that people did in the old days. Read that way, today’s passage becomes a travel log of Abram moving from place to place.
But the text does not put the altar just anywhere. When we look at when and where the altar was built, we can see that it was Abram’s answer.
3. Going Deeper · An Answer Built Right Where God Spoke
Here is the answer up front. Abram did not answer the promise with words. He set out just as God had told him, and he built an altar in the very place where God appeared and spoke to him. The Canaanites were still living in that land, and Abram had no child. Building an altar to God in a place where not one part of the promise had come true yet: that was Abram’s answer.
We can see this when we set God’s words and Abram’s actions side by side.
First, in Haran God told Abram, “…Leave your country…” (12:1). Verse 4, which comes right after God’s words, begins like this: “So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him…” (12:4). The Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. The word God used in verse 1, which the World English Bible translates ‘leave,’ is the Hebrew word for ‘go.’ The ‘went’ of verse 4 is that same word. What God said became Abram’s steps.
Second, at Shechem God appears and speaks to Abram. In that same verse, Abram builds an altar: “Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to your offspring.’ He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him” (12:7). Nothing comes between God’s words and the altar. The text also tells us whom the altar was for. It was built ‘to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.’ In the place where God appeared, Abram set up an altar to that very God.
Third, the same thing happens once more. In chapter 13, God again tells Abram that he will give him this land (13:14~17). Then Abram moves his tent to Hebron and “…built an altar there to Yahweh” (13:18). Each time God spoke, Abram answered not with words but with his steps and an altar. The first time, he set out on the road. The next two times, he built an altar.
The first time Abram speaks to God is much later, in chapter 15: “…Lord Yahweh, what will you give me…” (15:2). Before chapter 15, God speaks to Abram three times (12:1~3, 12:7, 13:14~17). Through all three, not one line of what Abram said to God is written down. Only after God speaks a fourth time, in 15:1, does Abram open his mouth for the first time.
The text is also careful to tell us what kind of land the altar stood in: “…At that time, Canaanites were in the land” (12:6). God’s words, ‘I will give this land to your offspring,’ come in the very next verse. Other people were already living in that land. On top of that, the chapter before had said, “Sarai was barren. She had no child” (11:30). The land still belonged to others, and there was not yet any child to inherit it.
So Abram’s altar was not a thank-you offered after the promise had come true. It was a way of honoring the One who made the promise, in a place where none of it could be seen yet.
Seen this way, our first question has an answer. The text tells us in one short phrase whom Abram’s altar was for: ‘to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.’ In the very place where God appeared and spoke, Abram built an altar to that God instead of answering with words. Abram did not answer in words, but that does not mean he gave no answer.
4. Word Study · Appeared · Altar · Tent · Traveled
Let us look at four Hebrew words from today’s passage.
① Appeared · vayyera (וַיֵּרָא). This is the word ‘appeared’ in ‘Yahweh appeared to Abram.’ It comes from ra’ah, which means ‘to see.’ But here it does not mean ‘to see.’ It means ‘to be seen.’ God let himself be seen by Abram; in other words, God appeared to him. In the early chapters of Genesis, God speaks many times. But this is the first place in the whole Bible where the text uses this word to say that God ‘appeared’ to someone. The same word comes up once more in the same verse. Abram built his altar ‘to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.’ The place where God first appeared and the place where Abram built the altar are one and the same.
② Altar · mizbeach (מִזְבֵּחַ). This word comes from a verb meaning ‘to slaughter an animal as an offering.’ It means a place for making offerings to God. The first time the Bible says someone built an altar is Noah, after the flood (8:20). The next is Abram, in today’s passage (12:7). But today’s passage does not say what Abram offered on the altar. It records two things: that he built the altar, and that he called on Yahweh’s name there (12:8). What the text pays attention to is not the offering. It is where the altar stood and the One the altar was for.
③ Tent · oholo (אׇהֳלֹה). This is the word ‘his tent’ in ‘pitched his tent.’ In Hebrew, ‘his’ is joined onto the end of ‘tent,’ so the two English words are one Hebrew word. A tent like this was made of woven cloth or animal hair. You drive in pegs to set it up, and when you leave, you pull the pegs out and take it down. In 12:8 Abram sets up two things in one place: a tent to live in, and an altar for God. A tent is something you fold up and carry with you. An altar is something you pile up and leave in its place. For himself, Abram pitched a tent he could take down at any time. For God, he built an altar right there on the spot.
④ Traveled · nasoa (נָסוֹעַ). This is the word behind ‘traveled’ in ‘Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.’ ‘The South’ here is the Negev, the dry land in the south of Canaan. Many explain this word as coming from the idea of pulling up tent pegs and setting out. In Hebrew, verse 9 uses this word twice: once for ‘traveled,’ and once more, paired with the word ‘going,’ in ‘still going on.’ Together they say that Abram kept going and moving on toward the south. This word also appears in the Babel story in the chapter before. The ‘traveled’ in ‘As they traveled from the east’ (11:2) is the same Hebrew word, and the World English Bible even uses the same English word, ‘traveled,’ in both places. In today’s passage, this word shows that even after Abram entered the promised land, he did not settle down in one place. He kept taking down his tent and moving on.
5. One More Thing · Babel Built a City, Abram Built an Altar
If we set today’s passage beside the Babel story in the chapter before, we can see the same words being used in opposite directions.
The people of Babel also traveled: “As they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there” (11:2). When they found a wide plain, they settled down there. Then they said, “…Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves…” (11:4).
Abram traveled too, and he also built something. The word ‘build’ that the people of Babel used and the word ‘built’ that the text uses for Abram’s altar are the same Hebrew word. Here too, the World English Bible uses the same English word. But what they built was different. The people of Babel built a city and a tower. Abram built an altar.
Whom they built for was different too. The people of Babel said, ‘let’s build ourselves a city,’ a city for themselves. Abram built his altar ‘to Yahweh.’ Whose name they lifted up was also different. The people of Babel wanted to ‘make a name for ourselves,’ while Abram ‘called on Yahweh’s name’ (12:8). And what they did after building was different. The people of Babel stayed on the plain so that they would not be scattered. Abram, even after building his altar, took down his tent and moved on again (12:9).
This contrast backs up the answer we found earlier. The people of Babel built in order to make a name for themselves. Abram had God’s own promise, ‘I will … make your name great’ (12:2), yet he did not build a city to make that name. The first thing he built in the promised land was an altar to the God who had appeared and spoken to him. And at the altar he built near Bethel, he called on God’s name (12:8).
6. For Us Today
This passage leaves us with one thing. In a land where not one part of the promise had come true yet, Abram built an altar to the God who had made the promise.
If we look at the passage again, that land was not yet Abram’s. The Canaanites were already living there, and he had no child to pass the land on to. The text does not say that Abram bought the land or built a house. What he pitched was a tent he could take down at any time, and what he built was an altar to God.
We, too, sometimes live in places that do not feel like ours yet. There are the first few months after a job brings us to a city where we do not know anyone. There is the year we spend in a rental with a fixed lease, never quite unpacking every box. There are days at a new workplace when it still does not feel like our place, and a new year that begins with none of our hopes yet fulfilled. At times like these, a thought comes to mind: ‘Is this really where I belong?’
Abram’s place was like that too. At seventy-five he left his homeland and came into a land where other people were living, and he pitched his tent among them. But Abram did not wait until the land became his before honoring God. In that place, still someone else’s land, right where God appeared and spoke to him, he built an altar. God appeared to Abram in a land that was not yet Abram’s. The text shows us that even a place that does not feel like ours yet can become a place where we stand before God.
We can draw one more comfort from the story that follows. Abram’s road was not smooth after this either. In the very next verse, a famine comes to the land, and Abram goes down to Egypt (12:10). But in chapter 13, when Abram comes back up, the place he goes to is between Bethel and Ai, “…to the place where his tent had been at the beginning…” (13:3). The Bible calls it “the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first…” and says that Abram called on Yahweh’s name there once more (13:4). The place where he had once built an altar became a place to return to after his road had been shaken. If there is a place where we once called on God, we can think back to it on days when our road is shaken. Of course, there are days when we do not even have the strength to think of such a place. On days like that, it is enough to remember that before Abram ever built an altar in Canaan, it was God who first appeared and spoke to him. It did not begin with Abram’s strength. It began with God.
As you go through today, if you find yourself standing somewhere that does not feel like yours yet, it might be good to pause there for a moment. It could be a corner of a room you just moved into, the way to a new job that still feels awkward, or a desk you are sitting at for the first time. Abram, too, called on Yahweh’s name right where he built his altar (12:8). The text does not say what words he used. It only says where he was and whose name he called. So there is no need to search for many words. Right where you stand, you can call on God’s name and offer just one line: ‘Even in this unfamiliar place, I honor you, Lord.’ A place where you once stopped like that, however unfamiliar it still is, becomes a place where you have stood before God.
“God, you appeared to Abram in a land that still belonged to others. When we stand in places that feel unfamiliar and not yet our own, help us honor you right there. Help us not to wait until everything is in place, but to call on your name where we stand now. On days when our road is shaken, lead us back to the place where we once called on you. Amen.”
🕊 How to Use This in Ministry
Opening Question
Ask, “If someone promised you, ‘Someday I’ll give you this whole playground,’ what do you think you would say?” Listen to the children’s answers (for example, they might say thank you, ask ‘Really?’, or shout with excitement). Then say, “In the Bible today, God promises to give Abram a land. Let’s find out together how Abram answered that promise,” and move into the passage.
Activity
Read 12:4~9 slowly, and have the children raise a hand every time they hear something Abram did. This is not a counting game, so whenever a hand goes up, just say, “That’s right, Abram did that.” When you finish, ask, “So how many lines of what Abram said did we hear?” and check together that there were none. If a child says, ‘But he called on God’s name!’, answer, “Yes, he did. But the Bible doesn’t write down what words he used.” Next, show the picture ‘He built an altar there’ from today’s images. Build a small altar with blocks or paper cups, and set up a folded paper tent beside it. Pick up the tent and move it, but leave the altar where it is, and say, “Abram carried his own tent with him, but the altar he built for God, he left standing in its place when he moved on.”
Application
Hand each child a small card. Have them write down one place that is new or still unfamiliar to them these days (for example, a new class, a new after-school program, a neighborhood they just moved to). Below it, write together, “I will remember God there too.” Sum up by saying, “Abram built an altar to God even in a land that was not his yet. A new place can be a place where we remember God, too.” Then set the cards in front of the altar you built.
🖼️ Today’s Four Images · Press and hold or right-click to save
When he departed from Haran |
To the oak of Moreh |
He built an altar there |
Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east |
📄 Image license CC0 (public domain) · Free to use, modify, and redistribute without attribution.
🤖 These images were created with AI (Grok).
📖 Genesis Deeper ㊳ A Name for Ourselves · the Babel story, where people settled on a plain and built a city and a tower for themselves
Origin Bible · Mission Zedero
Contact joypej@gmail.com
✍️ This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by a person.
The text is CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to use it for noncommercial purposes with attribution.
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