Abram was to leave his birthplace and his father's house - but why? "Why" is a two-sided question and it is not always worth asking, especially not in the sense of "why only is this happening to me?". On the one hand, we probably won't find a reasonable answer, at least not in that difficult moment, and on the other hand, the pondering will sap the huge amount of energy we need so that we can withstand or move away from the present situation. Therefore it is better to ask "HOW should I react, WHAT exactly can I do now?".

However, if we ask the question "why" because we want to understand God more ("why does God want this or that, why did God act in that situation and not differently?"), it is a completely legitimate question. However, we must reckon with the fact the answer will not always be obvious and we will understand it according to the level at which we currently stand in relationship with God.

The father's house represented a wide family, including servants, that is, people who lived and farmed together. The elders had a bigger say than the younger, and the father, the head of the tribe, enjoyed special respect. The house shared a common deity. It was decided by the father, but mostly in the sense that it was inherited from his ancestors.

Abram, whose father was still alive, could not simply begin to worship another god in the middle of his family and stop worshiping the old. In order to be able to follow the Lord in fullness and freedom, God asked him to abandon the old bonds of family relationships that would not allow it, and to become the head of a new community himself.

At that moment, we observe his first, but far from his last hesitation. He obeyed God, but only in part. He was to have left his "land, birthplace, and father's house" (12: 1). He did the first and the second, but not quite the third, the "father's house". On the contrary, he took a nice portion of it with him. In addition to the father Terach also Lot, his nephew.

He then (like everyone else) had to learn through difficult life situations what it will lead to, and WHY (here a good question!) it would have been much easier in the end if he had obeyed God right away.