Now the LORD had said unto Abram,
Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you:
All Commentaries on Genesis 12:1 Go To Genesis 12
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
“Leave your father’s house.” This we ought to accept in a spiritual manner, dearly beloved. The devil was our father before the grace of Christ; of him the Lord spoke in the Gospel when he rebuked the Jews: “The father from whom you are is the devil, and the desires of your father it is your will to do.” He said the devil was the father of humanity, not because of birth from him but because of imitation of his wickedness. Indeed, they could not have been born of him, but they did want to imitate him. This fact that the devil was our first father the psalmist relates in the person of God speaking to the church: “Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear, forget your people and your father’s house.”
