12
1.Now the Lord had said to Abram: Acts 7:2, 3
“Get out of your country
from your family
and from your fathers house,
To a land that I will show you.
In order to understand where Abram was dwelling, during
the time in which God Called him, to go to this land that
the Lord promised, we must look at the reference scriptures
in this verse (Acts 7:2-4). For the purpose of understanding this first verse in chapter 12 I will not elaborate on the events leading up to these specified verses of Acts, and will tackle them when I start my study on the book of Acts. As we can plainly see Abram was still living in the land of Ur when God first appeared to him. It is here that the Lord first appeared to man. If we go back to the time of Adam, and then Enoch, or Noah, The bible only states that the Lord Spoke to these men. Abram was the first man to, in my opinion see the Lord, and it wouldn’t be the last time for Abram to see, with his own eyes, the appearance of the Lord. Now was it God that Appeared to Abram? Or was it Jesus Christ? I’m inclined to believe that it was Jesus Christ who Abram saw. I say this because the verse says that it was the Lord, and not God, who appeared to him. As has already been established in earlier scriptures we know that Jesus was present at the time of creation. Another reason why I think Abraham did not actually see God is because in the Exodus Story, Moses asked to see God face to face. God told Moses that no man can see His face lest he die (Exo 33:17-23). How the Lord appeared to Abram? The scriptures do not say; was in the form of the spirit? Or A burning bush as he appeared to Moses? Or was it as when he walked the earth during the New testament times? One can only imagine, but however he appeared to Abram, I bet it was an awesome event.
2. I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
and make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
◊ 3. I will bless those who bless
you,
And I will curse him who
curses you; Num. 24:9
And in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed.”
I am reminded of the books of Mathew and Mark (Matt 19:29, 10:37- 39, Mark 10:28-30). This is basically what the Lord is telling Abram; “Leave all that you cherish and follow me to the promised land, and I will bless you greatly” The great nation that the Lord is talking about, is the nation we know today as Israel. Not only is God going to make a great nation, but his blessings to Abram go even further. Abram himself will be known throughout the earth, not only in his own time but forever and ever. As we will see in the story of Abram, He never questions God but follows him faithfully, whenever the Lord calls him. To this day Abram (who is now known as Abraham) is respected by the three great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (just as God promised). But wait there’s even more: in Verse three the Lord tells Abram, “that, because if you follow me, I will also bless those who bless you, and will curse those that hate you,” and all the people of the earth will be blessed for your names sake. One more thing i would like to discuss in this verse is the Star that is at the beginning of the verse. if you have read my format you will know that this represents a prophecy of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. All nations have been blessed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, To those who
believe in him. Also all who have the faith of Abraham are blessed and are of the seed of Abraham and share in the promise God made to him (Gal 3:6-29).
4. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him.
And Abram was seventy five years old when he departed
from Haran.
5. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s
son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and
the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they
departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the
land of Canaan. 10:15-19
In the year 2093 AC. Abram left the land of Haran as God
had said to him, when he was seventy five years old. There
was no hesitation on Abrams part (Heb 11:8). So Abram took all that he owned, his wife and his Brother’s son, Lot. All the people who were either servants to Abram, or who also worshiped the God Jehovah, also
went with Abram. He left the rest of his family and went
onto the promised land. The land of Canaan is the place we
call modern day Israel. The people who live in this land are
the descendants of Ham (son of Noah). It is the Canaanites who
were cursed by Noah for the sin of Ham (Gen 9:24, 25). Abram is a descendant of Shem, to whom the Canaanites
will be servants to. This is the first act of faith that Abram
shows toward our Lord, Elohim. Abram believed what God
said to him, and by faith he is saved (Heb 11:8, 9).
6. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem,
As far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites
were then in the land.
◊ 7. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your
descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an
altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 13:4, 18; 22:9; 26:25
So Abram journeyed from Haran south to the land of Shechem, which is basically in the middle of the land of Canaan, west of the river Jordan, and south of Nazareth, and north of Jerusalem. We also know that the Canaanites were located here as well. The star that is before the number seven(as is mentioned in my outlining of my format) is a representation of prophecy. The prophecy that the Lord is giving Abram, is the fact that all the land Abram sees will be giving to his descendants, Jesus Christ being the seed of Abraham, and will return again to the promised land to rule and reign there for evermore. The Altar that Abram builds here is to commemorate the promise, the moment, and to honor God with a sacrifice of some sort.
8. And he moved from there to the mountain east of
Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and
Ai on the east; There he built an altar to the Lord and called
on the name of the Lord. 4:26
9. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
24:62
After this occasion Abram journeyed on to the south some
more. When he came to a place that is situated in between
Bethel and Ai (which is east of Bethel), and still north of
Jerusalem. He decided to make camp and build an altar to
the Lord. In verse eight it says that Abram “called on the
name of the Lord” To me personally I take this as Abram
was praying to the Lord, and that during this prayer he also
offered some kind of sacrifice to God. In my opinion,
Abram was probably asking God for some kind of guidance
as to whether or not this is the place where he could settle.
I say this because in verse nine we are told that Abram
journeyed still further south. Scripture does not give us a
time frame as to how long it took Abram to get to this point
but if we go to Gen 16:3 we can come to a close proximity of this journey.
We told here that Abram was eighty six years old, ten years after he lived in the land of Canaan, and this is counting from the time he left Egypt. So Abram had to be still seventy five (almost seventy six), when he entered into Egypt. This would put Abrams journey here at about six months after leaving the land of Haran, maybe even sooner.
It should also be mentioned here that while Abram built
this altar and called on the Lord that all of the people that
were with him also were being made aware of God, and how
to worship and honor the Lord. Abram is teaching his
people about the Lord. He is probably handing down the
stories that were told to him by his father, and even Noah.
One last note here; in the MKJV, and the KJV version of the
Bible there is a side-note explaining the meaning of Abram
journeying to the south. Here is the strong’s definition of the word south:
South (h5045): נֶגֶב: negeb: neh’-gheb
From an unused root meaning to be parched; the south (from its drought); specifically the negeb or southern district of Judah, occasionally, Egypt (as south to Palestine): – south (country, side, -ward).
This part of Canaan is better known today as the Negev, or also known as the Negev desert, south of Jerusalem.
10. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 41:56-42:3
11. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. v. 14; 26:7
12. “Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, “This is his wife”; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.
13. “Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” 20:2, 11-13; 26:7
The verses 10- 13 is one of two times where we see that Abram, for one reason or another, either forgot God’s promise to him, or more likely he had a loss of faith in that promise. First, because of the drought and famine in the land, Abram, instead of calling on God for his divine
intercession, Abram decides to go to another country that wasn’t promised to him and his descendants. Sometimes in life God will test our faith in order to see how strong our convictions are. I believe this is what God was doing to Abram with the drought and famine. Now in verses 12-13 in my opinion is not a test of faith on God’s part, but rather just a lack of faith on Abrams part. God promised Abram That through his descendants he would give all the land of Canaan to him and his descendants, He also promised him that He,(God)would curse those who would curse Abram. God goes on to tell Abram that a great nation will come from him. At the time that Abram goes to enter Egypt, Abram has yet to have any children (which is a must in order for God to fulfill his promise), Abram is worried that the Egyptians will kill him. If Abram had a strong faith in the Lord, he would not have been worried about his life. I have been trying to figure out why Abram would think that the Egyptians would spare his life if Sarai said the she was his sister and not his wife. So What was Abram
thinking? We need to go to the scriptures that are referenced in Genesis chapter 20 for this answer (Compare Gen 20:10-13). There is still one more lesson to be learned here that God is trying to convey to man: That if you lose your faith in your creator God, that this begins a slippery slope into the sin world, where you begin to not be able to think straight, and when you can’t think straight then you begin to live a deceptive life, where you not only deceive others, but you deceive yourself into the wrong kind of thinking. Abram I think, is at this point in his life, he is starting to rely on his deceptive ways rather than on God for guidance.
14. So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. vv. 11, 12
15. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
We must consider here, that at this time Sarai was well
up in her years, if we remember earlier, Abram was seventy
five years old himself when he left his father’s house to go
to the promised land. Sarai must have been in her 60’s 0r
70’s at this time. Even at this age Sarai was a very beautiful
lady. This was at a time when there was no beauty gels, or
facelifts, or anything of the sort like nowadays. God truly
blessed Sarai with great beauty.
16. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep,
oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female
donkeys, and camels. 13:2
Sarai was so beautiful that the Pharaoh paid Abram greatly so as to have her as his wife. If Abrams fear about what the Pharaoh would have done to him, if he knew they were husband and wife, then, because of Pharaoh’s desire for Sarai, he could easily have taken Sarai without given Abram any kind of recompense. This tells me that the Pharaoh, and the Egyptians had some sort of moral laws of decency, but not much, they did still take Sarai from Abram without asking for his or Sarai’s consent, or even going thru the customs of Abrams people of some kind of courtship first. Abram must have been crushed when he saw that Sarai was taken from him. He knew that the Pharaoh would defile Sarai, and use her for his own lustful means. Put yourself in Abrams shoes; Abram never saw this coming, the guilt must have been tremendous for what he had just done to his wife. It’s almost hard to imagine the thoughts, and visions in his mind of what Sarai was going through. Then we must also consider the great love Sarai had for Abram, to sacrifice herself for her husbands sake. Knowing That she was going to be raped and defiled, The Bible never tells us that Sarai ever thought of telling the Pharaoh that she was indeed Abrams wife, so as to save herself. That’s the kind of love that I believe every man or woman is looking for in life. What a woman! (John 15:12, 13). Abram was truly blessed to have such a woman in Sarai. Abram himself will one day, show this same love towards God when he is asked to sacrifice someone near and dear to his heart. As we will see later on, though its not just
Abram’s love for the Lord that is tested, but also his faith,
and fear in the Lord. I don’t mean the kind of fear that most
people would associate with this word, but it is a sign of
respect towards God.
17. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with
great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you
have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your
wife? 20:9; 10; 26:10
19. “why did you say, “she is my sister”? I might have
Taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”
We read in these three verses that the Lord plagued Egypt
because of Sarai, and that the Pharaoh of Egypt knew this.
What these scriptures don’t tell us is how the Pharaoh knew
that Sarai was Abrams wife and that this was the reason for
the plagues on his people. We have no other references in
the Bible that explains this to us. This being said, I have but
only one explanation. The Lord himself revealed this to the Pharaoh. The reason I find this conclusion more likely comes from the understanding of other biblical teachings we find in chapter 20 of Genesis and also in Daniel and Ezra (Gen 20:3- 7, Dan 2:26- 28, Ezra 1:1, 2). There are times when the Lord God will reveal himself to the kings of the earth in order to fulfill his purpose. I believe that this is one of these times. Line upon line, precept upon precept, this is how we learn Gods word.
20. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had. 20:15
Again lets go to the referenced scripture, and I will put it into context and also include the following (Gen 20:14- 16). I believe that the Pharaoh commanded his men to let Abram keep all his possessions that he brought into the land, as well as all that the Pharaoh gave to Abram when he took Sarai from him.