In Genesis 12:7 the Bible records that God appeared to Abraham. Previously, God spoke to him. What’s the difference?
Genesis 12:6 teaches that Abraham came to the Land of Canaan to the area of Shechem and Elon Moreh.
Genesis 12:7 then tells us:
7. And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, To your seed will I give this land; and there he built an altar to the Lord, Who appeared to him.
What is the importance of God’s message to Abraham in this verse? Also, why did Abraham build an altar?
Speaking versus Appearing
Genesis 12 begins with God commanding Abraham to travel to an undisclosed location:
1. And the Lord said to Abram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.
In Genesis 12:1 God speaks to Abraham. But Genesis 12:7 states that God first appears to him and then speaks. What’s the difference?
What Happened
Daat Mikra points out that Abraham was not the first person God spoke to. For example, He had previously spoken to:
- Adam – Genesis 3:9
- Eve – Genesis 3:13
- Cain – Genesis 4:9
- Noah – Genesis 6:13
However, in none of those encounters does it say that God appeared to the person. Abraham was the first person that God appeared to, that is, God revealed Himself to him.
Ibn Ezra clarifies that the word “appeared” (Hebrew: va-yeira) means that God granted Abraham an experience of prophecy.
Malbim writes that “appeared” is a higher level of prophecy than God speaking to Abraham. “Appeared” indicates that Abraham experienced a level of complete prophecy.
Purpose
Why did God appear to Abraham?
Radak states that in Genesis 12:1 God told Abraham that he should go to the land that God would show him. In this verse God appears to him to inform him that this is the land mentioned before.
Netziv (HaEmek Davar) has a very different approach.
God spoke to Abraham (Genesis 12:1) while Abraham was still outside the Land of Israel. God only spoke to Abraham because the place was not suitable for the revelation of God’s Presence or for bringing offerings.
Genesis 12:6 tells us that Abraham had reached the Land of Israel. In this place God appeared to him. Because God appeared to him, Abraham understood that the place was suitable for building an altar.
Two Promises
In our verse, God tells Abraham two important things:
- he will have offspring
- his offspring will be given the land, even though at this time it’s occupied by the Canaanites (see Genesis 12:6). They were so entrenched that it’s even called the Land of Canaan!
Daat Mikra points out that there is a progression in God’s message to Abraham. In verse 12:2 God told Abraham that he would become a great nation. Now God promises him offspring. The previous promise could have been fulfilled by attracting many disciples.
According to Radak, God informs Abraham that He did not promise him that the land He was leading him to would be given to him.
Abraham is only an individual. Even when his offspring (over 600,000 strong) come into the land it would be a gradual process for them to conquer and settle the land (see Exodus 23:30).
Malbim explains that God is telling Abraham not to be worried that the Canaanites are conquering the land. The land was supposed to belong to descendants of Shem. Abraham is also a descendant of Shem. It would not be proper for Abraham’s offspring to take the land from other families of Shem.
However, if Canaan, who is from Ham, holds the land, then it’s permitted for Abraham’s offspring to take it from them.
Why an Altar?
Why did Abraham build an altar after God appeared to him? He could have built an altar the first time God spoke to him. Or, he could have built one as soon as he entered the Land of Canaan.
Rashi writes that he built the altar to celebrate the news of his offspring who would inherit the Land of Israel.
Ramban and Abarbanel disagree with Rashi. They state that the altar was because God appeared to him, not due to the promises.
Malbim accepts that the altar was to celebrate both that God had appeared to him and given him good news.
Two Reasons for Altars
We find in the Bible two main reasons for building an altar. Most altars were built to bring offerings, usually animals. A few altars were built to serve a memorials or testimonies.
A question I have wondered about for many years is this: did Abraham bring an animal offering on the altar he built? Or, did he build the altar as a testimony?
An Altar for Offerings
Daat Mikra writes that Noah was the first person to build an altar. Noah was the father of the new world after the flood.
20. And Noah built an altar to the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Noah used the altar he built for animal offerings.
In Genesis 12:7 Abraham becomes the second person to build an altar.
Ramban, Abarbanel, and Malbim all agree that Abraham brought an animal offering on the altar he built.
An Altar for a Testimony
Malbim adds that this altar was not for the purpose of proclaiming the Name of God. Abraham would only use an altar for this purpose after he had a permanent dwelling place in the land.
Daat Mikra writes that, in contrast to Noah, Abraham was the first father of the Jewish people and a teacher for the entire world.
Rabbi Steinsaltz writes that although Abraham “moved from place to place according to the needs of his flock, he understood that the real purpose of his wanderings was to teach about God and publicize His name.”
As the teacher of the world, Abraham proclaimed the Name of God to those around him. Here are a few verses about that idea:
Genesis 12:8. And he moved from there to a mountain in the east of Beit-El, and pitched his tent … and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Genesis 13:4. To the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 21:33. And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
This last verse is about proclaiming God’s name but without mentioning an altar.
These verses do not make it clear if Abraham brought any offerings on these altars. It’s possible that he intended these altars as a testimony such as we find in Joshua 22:21-29.
Rabbi Moshe David Cassuto writes this comment about Genesis 12:7 (my translation):
It is not an actual “altar”, in the etymological interpretation of the word, as a place to offer sacrifices, since we are not talking here about an offering in any sense. The intention was to build a landmark for a memorial, not for sacrifice, like the altar in Joshua 22. Abraham places for himself this landmark as a memorial of God’s appearing to him in that place, and the designation serves as a sign for the consecration of the land to the service of the God of Abraham and for the symbolic conquest of the land by Abraham for his sons after him: a combined religious and national symbol.
So far as I know, the only time the Bible says that Abraham brought an animal offering was after the Akeidah (Genesis 22:13).
Therefore, it seems mostly likely to me, that Abraham did not bring any animal offerings on this altar.