The Patriarchal period goes all the way back to Abraham, the man who believed God. Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees, a city located in what would today be Southern Iraq. He journeyed with his wife Sarai, father Terah, and nephew Lot to a place called Haran after the Lord had spoken to him giving him promises. He was instructed to leave his kindred and his country, move on to the West to a strange Land that God would show him. There he would be given descendants who would become a great nation. Moreover, the Lord promised to bless him, make his name great, bless others through him, and ultimately cause all the families of the earth to be blessed in him. As incredible as all this must have seemed to Abraham, he obeyed God and went out, not knowing where he was going.

Those promises were never realized in Abraham’s life, but it is possible to now state with confidence that all of them were fulfilled as we look back over 4000 years of history since that time.

Abraham entered the promised Land when he was 75 years old but it was not until he was 100 and his wife Sarai was 90, that they finally had that child of promise named Issac. Issac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah who was the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. This promised line continued with the birth of twin brothers Jacob and Esau when Issac was 60 years old. Although Esau was technically the first born and also the favorite of his father Issac, he lost the birthright and its accompanying blessing partly because of his own disregard for it value and partly because of Jacob’s trickery.

Indeed much of Jacob’s early life seemed to be spent in trying to get the best of a deal and so Jacob (the Hebrew word means "deceiver"), was well named. After Jacob lied to his father to obtain the blessing, Esau was understandably "upset", so much so that he began to plot how he might kill his brother. When Jacob was told of Esau’s planned revenge, he fled from the Land back to the house of Rebekah’s brother, Laban.

During that trip, the Lord showed him an amazing vision portending future events. Those promises originally given to Abraham were reaffirmed to Jacob. He would be given the Land, his descendants would be numbered as the dust of the earth, and once again that cryptic promise was reiterated that,

The vision made such an impression on Jacob that he named the place "Beth-El", meaning the "House of God". Moreover Jacob made a vow, saying,

Jacob had finally made a commitment to recognize and serve the God of Issac and Abraham, for the first time in his life,

Nevertheless, Jacob still faced many years of hardship and frustration. He soon discovered that he had met his match with clever Laban who was able to trick him into a total of 20 years of labor before he was able to leave the place (Genesis 31.41). During the first 14 years, he managed to marry two of Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, and accumulate a family of twelve sons by these two wives plus two other concubines. The last of those sons was Joseph who was born at the end of the first 14 years (Genesis 30.25).

Joseph is that illustrious figure who became the central character in the remainder of the book of Genesis, and whose life was discussed previously in connection with the Egyptian sojourn.

It is possible to construct the following calendar of key events for this Patriarchal Period using the Biblical information just summarized.

REDEMPTIVE PLAN