Genesis 12:4-5

"So Abram went as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."

"And Lot went with him ..." Was this another error on the part of Abram? It surely could have been, because it was only a matter of time until Abraham was involved with a war to rescue Lot; and, besides, in time, Lot settled down in Sodom, and from him there descended the two nations of the Ammonites and the Moabites, who were ever afterward the bitter and implacable enemies of God's Israel. Yet, as was so often the case, God overruled even the sins of His people for their good. And it was Lot's selfish choice of the well-watered plain toward Sodom that turned Abraham to the hill country and away from Sodom.

"And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran ..." See under Genesis 11:32 for discussion of the alleged problem connected with this.

"And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came ..." What a glorious statement this is. No wonder the distinguished Chamberlain family of England emblazoned it upon the field of the family coat of arms. The shout of triumph and of victory is in this text. It is as thrilling and exciting as an army with banners. God here accomplished exactly what he had planned. Sure, there would be further sins and mistakes on Abram's part, but the operation was underway. And the redemption of myriads of earth's populations began to be achieved in this removal to Canaan. It was a long journey to Canaan from Haran, being some "four hundred miles to the southwest,"[10] but Abram with his entire entourage and all of his possessions undertook the journey and made it! The dimensions of this migration were probably greater than might be supposed. Josephus described Abram's company as "an army from the land of the Chaldeans,"[11] but he connected this with an extended delay at Damascus on the way to Canaan, during which period Abram was said to rule part of the country in the vicinity of Damascus, citing as proof of his allegation that there was still (in his time) a village called "The Habitation of Abraham." The Bible has nothing of this, and it can hardly be designated as trustworthy. If anything like that happened, it was not important.