The Story of Terah

The story of Abraham’s father Terah is a sad one.  He lived in Ur of the Chaldees and had three sons, Abraham, Haram, and Nahor.  He clearly had the Priesthood as mentioned in Abraham 1:18.  But he “turned from [his] righteousness… unto the worshipping of the gods of the heathen, utterly refusing to hearken to [Abraham’s] voice” (Abraham 1:5).  He became so far gone from the worship of Jehovah that he “endeavored to take away [Abraham’s] life by the hand of the priest of Elkenah” as a sacrifice to “dumb idols” (Abraham 1:7).  Abraham was miraculously saved by the angel, and then “a famine prevailed throughout all the land of Chaldea.”  Terah was “sorely tormented because of the famine, and he repented of the evil which he had determined against [Abraham]” (Abraham 1:30).  Abraham was then led by the Lord to leave the land of Ur, and Abraham wrote, “My father followed after me, unto the land which we denominated Haran” (Abraham 2:4).  So it seems that he had repented and was willing to follow the Lord and his son Abraham.  But it was short lived and it appears that his repentance was only due to suffering in the famine, for in the very next verse Abraham tells us, “And the famine abated… and my father turned again unto his idolatry, therefore he continued in Haran.”  Abraham was commanded to leave, and I wonder if he was worried that his father would again try to sacrifice him.  It’s likely that once he left he never saw his father again.  We learn in Genesis that “Terah died in Haran” (Genesis 11:32).  So what a sad story of Terah: he was righteous and received the Priesthood, turned to idol worship and tried to sacrifice Abraham, repented and followed Abraham to the land of Haran, and then he turned back to idol worship and died there.  I think his story does show the great power of forgiveness that Abraham possessed.  For Abraham to let his father come with him when he left the land of Chaldees after his father had tried to kill him was incredible indeed, even if Terah did repent.  I think the day that Abraham had to leave his father in Haran for good must have been like the day that Nephi left Laman and Lemuel in 2 Nephi 5: they both knew at that point that there would be no more repentance for their family members they loved so much.  But they had the assurance that the Lord was with them, and that made all the difference.