In fact, the biblical history begins with the call of Abram. It is where God calls him out of the land of his ancestors and his own people.
If we put aside other things, we can reduce the beginning of their history to one thing. An invitation to come out of the land that defines a people, from their collective group-consciousness, from their culture, from oneself.
Later, we will see the same motif repeated several times. When the priest in the temple (or in the synagogue) accepted the first fruits to be offered, the person offering began a prayer in which remembering Jacob, he had to confess: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor." He went to Egypt with a few people seeking refuge and so on. They would do this throughout the temple-era of the history of the Hebrews. It was a confession that they were poor and seeking help. The declaration that God was the one who brought them to this point, if they are anything. This instruction can be found in Deuteronomy 26:5.
The vision gets expanding in the exit, and in the wandering. The sky begins to narrow down as we begin to settle down, and to close off, and get steeped into our own culture.
