Catholic 411 Catechism Prayer For Vocations Youth Update Archives Links
The story of God's promise of a land to a chosen people begins with the story of Abraham. Abram, as he was known, was a native of the region of Ur, whichis now present day Iraq. Abram heard a call from God to move his clan of migrating shepherds to a new land. Abram heard the call, believed it, and acted on it. Settling in a place called Canaan, Abram took possession of the land, apparently according to the rights of a squatter. The land was loosely governed by the Egyptians. The Book of Genesis also offers evidence that the Hittite settlers of the region sold land to be used as a burial place to Abraham at the time of the death of Sarah. (Read Genesis 23:10-20). Most important of all is that God had appeared to Abraham and told him that "this land is promised to your descendants." (Read Genesis 12:7)What was appealing about this land? It was fertile land as the words from an ancient Egyptian writing testify. Genesis records that Abraham's descendants remained in Canaan until Jacob and his family were forced to move to an Egyptian settlement because of a famine. (Read Genesis 47:1.) The Hebrews remained in Egypt, spending most of their time in slavery, until Moses led the Exodus out of Egypt over four hundred years later.