Abraham: The Call That Narrows the Story
The call of 1921 B.C. with its dashed line through every life still running, then one family narrowing to a single line of promise and opening into Jacob’s twelve sons.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 46–47). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
One Household Chosen for Every Family
Shem is still alive. The son of Noah who walked out of the ark is living on the day Abram leaves for Canaan, and Adams wants you to see it. Across the top of pp. 46–47 he writes a heading in bold capitals, 427 years from the Flood to “the Call of Abraham,” 1921 B.C., and under it a thin dashed line drops through a crowd of colored lines. Every line it crosses is a life still going when the call came. One of them carries Adams’ note that Shem “talks with Abraham 150 years, and with Isaac 50 years.” The world before the Flood is not far behind this family.
Find Terah, Abram’s father, on a line that begins in 2126 B.C. and carries the number 205. Three lines leave his. Haran’s is short, and Adams notes that he died in Ur of the Chaldees. Nahor’s stays behind in Mesopotamia. Abram’s goes on. Terah takes the family up the Euphrates to Haran and dies there, and his line stops at the dashed line, because the year he died is the year Abram left. Abram is seventy-five. He goes with Sarai and his nephew Lot into a land he has not seen, on the strength of a promise that in him all families of the earth would be blessed.
Here the chart changes its habit. On the pages before, Adams followed all of Noah’s sons and their nations. From 1921 on, the top of the chart closes in on one household. Abraham’s line puts out branches: Ishmael, Hagar’s son, born in 1910, of whom Adams writes that he begat twelve sons, “princes”; the six children of Keturah; and Isaac, born in 1896. Isaac’s line in turn gives two, and in 1836 Esau, “Father of the Edomites,” and Jacob branch off side by side. Only one of each pair carries the promise forward.
Look under the stream of time and you will see the same narrowing done a second way. A single thin line runs there with one name to each generation, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah. Paul noticed that the promise was made to one seed, “which is Christ,” and on Adams’ chart you can follow that thin line all the way to the cross. Genesis never pretends these were better men than their brothers. The choice was not their reward. It was the way God kept a promise meant for everyone.
Below the stream Adams lets you watch the story happen, each picture with its year. Sodom burns in 1898, and Lot’s wife stands alone, left behind. In 1871 a boy lies bound on an altar of stones under the words “Abraham’s Trial.” A servant meets Rebekah at a well, and Jacob sleeps at the foot of a ladder full of angels. Over Abraham’s own line Adams writes two titles: “The father of the faithful” and “the friend of God.” The second is James’ phrase, and the first sums up what Paul says in Romans 4.
At the right edge Jacob’s line takes a new name, “Jacob changed to Israel. 1751,” and opens into a fan of sons. The one household has become twelve, and the next stretch of the chart carries them down into Egypt.
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”Genesis 12:3 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- Count the lives the dashed line under “1921” crosses. What changes when you see that Shem was still alive in Abram’s day? (Genesis 11:10–26)
- God called Abram out without telling him where he would end up. What did Abram leave behind, and what did he take with him? (Genesis 12:1–5; Hebrews 11:8)
- Terah gets 205 and 130 on the chart, and Genesis 11:26 says 70. How would you explain Adams’ reasoning to a friend? (Genesis 11:32; 12:4; Acts 7:4)
- Follow the single thin line under the stream (pin 8). At each step only one son carries the promise. What does that tell you about how God chooses? (Romans 9:10–13)
- Adams thinks Melchizedek was “probably Shem.” Whoever he was, what matters most about him for a Christian reader? (Genesis 14:18–20; Hebrews 7:1–3)
- Abraham owned only a field and a cave in the promised land. What was he looking for? (Hebrews 11:9–16)
Find the end of Ishmael’s blue line, marked 1773, on p. 47. Which key tells you who was still alive when he died, and what does it say?
Show the answer
Key 6 · Same column, same moment. Isaac’s and Jacob’s lines are still running in that column.
The Line That Narrows So It Can Open
Lay the two halves of Genesis side by side on the chart and the change is hard to miss. On pp. 38–39 Adams followed every son of Noah and every nation that came from them. On pp. 46–47 the top of the page belongs to one household. Nahor’s family stays in Mesopotamia, Lot’s line runs off toward Moab and Ammon, Ishmael and Esau get lines of their own and then fall away. The reader who has just watched the nations scattered at Babel now watches God speak to one man in Haran.
It would be easy to read that as God losing interest in everyone else. The promise itself says the opposite. Abram is called so that in him all families of the earth will be blessed, and Paul reads the gospel back into that sentence: Scripture “preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” The story narrows to one family so that it can open to every family. Follow the thin line under the stream of time, one name to each generation, and you are following the road that promise travels.
Genesis is honest about the men on that road, and it never asks you to admire everything they did. The choice was never a prize for the best brother. James calls Abraham “the Friend of God” because he believed God, and Paul in Romans 4 makes him the father of everyone who believes as he did. That is why Adams can write both titles over the same line.
Hebrews adds the last word. Abraham lived in the land of promise “as in a strange country,” owning nothing in it but a field and a cave bought for a grave, because he was looking for something more. Put your finger on the red road on p. 48 and notice that it never turns back toward Chaldea. Then follow the thin line under the stream as far as you can. Paul tells you whose name stands at the end of it.
Read and reflect
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
When you follow the single thin line under the stream, what is Paul asking you to look for at its end?
“Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”
What made Abraham God’s friend, if it was not his own goodness?
“For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
What would change in your week if you looked for that city as Abraham did?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.