It is now believed that the land of Ur that Abraham left was located deep in Mespotamia near the Persian gulf. Excavations were conducted at that site between 1922 and 1934. The excavations showed that Abraham left a highly developed city to venture to a distant frontier. We seem to always view it as him leaving one deserted area of the country to another deserted area. If this were true, then what would be the big deal in doing that? How much faith does it take to do that? Actually Ur was a thriving little city. It was dominated by a ziggurat reaching some 70 feet high. On it were shrines to Nannar, the city’s god. The city was enclosed by oval walls around 30 feet high for protection. The streets were carefully laid out. The homes had walls that faced the streets, and featured an inner courtyard onto which their rooms faced. Among the many finds in the ruins of this city were beautiful worked gold jewelry, gold inlaid musical instruments, and mosaics illustrating civil and military life.

Also found were a number of clay tablets including a Sumerian dictionary and a mathematical text recording cube roots. There were also business records which showed they were actively involved in trade. So actually it was quite the splendid city that Abraham left behind. It was reduced to ruins about 1740 b.c. In the South we have a term for going a long ways away known as a “fur piece”. Of course it’s our own pronunciation for the word “far”, but it works for us. It seems to me that Abraham had to have a lot of faith in YHVH to leave such a productive little city to go to a wilderness that was such a “fur” piece away.