Abraham obeys God’s call
12
📚Now the LORD had said to Abram, “Go out of your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you,12:1 The call of Abraham was a great new beginning in the Bible. It took place about 1900 years before Christ. From now until the book of Acts in the New Testament for the most part we have the story of Abraham and his descendants. He was the father of the Jewish people, and because of his great faith in God he is called the father of all who trust in God (Rom 4:11). He is called also the servant of God (Gen 26:24), a prophet (Gen 20:7), and the father of the nation Israel (Isa 51:2; Rom 4:1). But probably his greatest name is “the friend of God” (Isa 41:8; Jam 2:23). It all began by simple faith and obedience to God’s call (Heb 11:8-10).⚜
2 📚and I will make of you a great nation 📖, and I will bless 📖 you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 📚And I will bless 📖 those who bless you, and curse 📖 him who curses you. And in you all families of the earth 📖 will be blessed”.
4 📚So Abram left, just as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out of Haran. 5 📚And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons whom they had gotten in Haran, and they went away to go to the land of Canaan. And into the land of Canaan they came.
12:5 Canaan, or at least part of what was called Canaan, is present-day Israel.⚜
6 📚And Abram passed through the land as far as the place called Shechem, to the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanites 📖 were then in the land.
7 📚And the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land 📖”. And he built an altar 📖 there to the LORD, who appeared 📖 to him.
8 📚And he moved from there to a mountain to the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel 📖 on the west, and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD 📖. 9 📚And Abram traveled on, still going toward the south 📖.
Abraham in Egypt
10 📚And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time, for the famine was severe in the land.
12:10 It is not written that God told Abraham to leave Canaan. Perhaps the famine was meant as a test to strengthen his faith and build his character (Ps 66:10-12; Jam 1:2-4, 12; 1 Pet 1:6-7). By going down to Egypt to escape the trial he got into difficulties and brought difficulties to others.⚜
11 📚And it came about when he was approaching Egypt he said to Sarai his wife, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman to see. 12 📚Therefore it will happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’, and they will kill me, but will keep you alive. 13 📚So please 📖 say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me on your account, and my soul will live because of you”.
12:13 Abraham’s statement was a half-truth. Sarai was his half-sister (Gen 20:12). This marriage took place in Ur of Chaldea before God called Abraham. God later forbade marriage between such close relatives. Abraham meant to deceive the King of Egypt and this was sin. The Bible does not try to hide the sins and failures of God’s people. All have a sinful nature and all have sinned (Rom 3:23; 1 John 1:8, 10). God could have protected Abraham without Abraham’s resorting to deception. See notes at Gen 27:18-26; Josh 2:5; 1 Sam 27:10; 2 Sam 15:34.⚜
14 📚And it came about that when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 📚The princes of Pharaoh also saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh, and so the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s 📖 house. 16 📚And he treated Abram well on her account, and he got sheep, and oxen, and donkeys, and male and female servants, and female donkeys, and camels.
17 📚And the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with great plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
12:17 Though the fault was Abraham’s, God did this to preserve the integrity of Abraham’s marriage and to fulfill later His purposes in Abraham and Sarai. Observe that God Himself may send diseases in judgment. See also Ex 15:26; 2 Kings 5:27; 15:5. This does not mean that all diseases are sent by God. Compare Job 2:7.⚜
18 📚And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she is your wife?
12:18 See how one man’s sin can affect others.⚜
19 Why did you say ‘She is my sister?’ I was going to take her as a wife for myself. Now then, see your wife. Take her and go”. 20 📚And Pharaoh gave a command to his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.