Genesis 12:1-20
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 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.
6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
17 And 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 that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Genesis 12:1. Had said. The God of glory appeared to Abraham, and enjoined him to leave his idolatrous country. Joshua 24:2; Acts 7:3.
Genesis 12:2. I will make of thee a great nation, yea many nations. All these are princely benedictions, conferring sovereignty, and adding a curse on the head of him who dare to rebel. Genesis 27:29.
Genesis 12:6. The Canaanite was then in the land. Abraham did not wander like other patriarchs to a vacant country, but to a land already occupied by the children of Canaan. Africa was their lot, as descendants of Ham; but they had stopped on the road in the best of all lands.
Genesis 12:7. The Lord appeared to Abram; the Messiah, as Angel, realized his personal presence. The religion of the whole primitive world is founded on the appearances of God, or Messiah, the Angel to man. In the tenth conference of the Danish missionaries with a brahmin, when they pressed him with the different figures of his idols, he replied; “Our God has appeared eleven times, and in one place he is made as he appeared at one time, and in another place as he appeared at another time.” The Egyptians have the same traditions of their Osiris. The Greeks in the Iliad of Homer, and in the Theogony of Hesiod, and in their poets, abound with the same traditions. Our Gothic fathers, in the poem Voluspa, amused their long evenings with runes or mysteries of religion. These runes formed the Edda, or code of instruction to posterity. All antiquity is coincident with the assertion of St. Paul, that “God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the fathers.” Hebrews 1:1. Thy seed. St. Paul, who read the scriptures with an eagle's eye, says, that God spake in the singular number, not of many but of One; that is, of Christ. This was the first promise, and highest favour of God to man; to Abraham, to Judah, and to David. Chap. 2 Samuel 7 2 Samuel 7. The Messiah was from the beginning the hope, the rock and protection of his saints, in all the weary years of their pilgrimage. They kept him ever before their eyes as the dawn of future day.
Genesis 12:8. And there (in Sichem) he built an altar to the Lord, and by faith took possession of the land, and near the place where the Hebrews crossed the Jordan.
Genesis 12:10. Egypt. The famine compelled Abraham to seek shelter there. Josephus quotes an ancient author to say, that he taught the Egyptians Astrology and Arithmetic. These sciences passed from Chaldea into Egypt, and from Egypt into Greece.
Genesis 12:13. My sister. She was his uncle Nahor's daughter; but that circumstance is scarce a mitigation of Abraham's fault. The fear of man bringeth a snare, and often leadeth into sin. He doubted of God's promised protection; but it was at a time when sorely pressed with famine.
CHAPTER 12
The Jews are uniform in asserting, that Abraham suffered persecution for disputing with the Chaldeans concerning the being and perfections of God, and against idolatry. He being, in fact, almost the only man who fully adhered to the covenant made with Adam, and renewed with Noah, God was pleased to call him to be the father of the promised Seed, and very much to leave the gentiles to their own way, and to their corrupt devotion.
REFLECTIONS.
The call of Abraham forms one of the most important events in the annals of the church. God who had saved the family of Noah from the wickedness of the old world, now separated the Hebrew family from those who served other gods beyond the Euphrates: else it is likely that they also would have been borne away with the prevailing torrent of carnal charms, ever attendant on idol-worship. The Almighty had higher designations in the call of this patriarch. These were to show the world the superior happiness of a nation which remain in the covenant, and in the pure worship of God; to open a way for the conversion of proselytes; to call a people to preserve his oracles, the glory of the ritual law, and to prepare the way for the coming and kingdom of the Messiah, the diffusion of the gospel law, and the conversion of the gentile world.
Every sinner, in a moral view, is called like Abraham to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house. When our friends and relatives fear not God, he says, come out from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
Like this patriarch we are all called to seek a heavenly Canaan, not yet seen indeed, but promised. God will show it unto us on our approach: and this high and holy calling is rational, for the fashion of this world passeth away. God supported his weak faith by a suitable series of promises, that he should be the father of the promised Seed, of a great nation, and in fact, the father of the faithful in all ages of the church. Just so does God support the christian pilgrim. He will establish with him and his children the exceeding great and precious promises of the New Covenant; he will bless all his friends and benefactors, and curse and confound all his impenitent foes.
The world would no doubt exclaim against Abraham's folly, and augur his ruin; and they are apt to do the same concerning men who enter on a religious course, and seek the happiness of heaven. But let the faithfulness of God to Abraham encourage us to persevere.
He received these promises in uncircumcision, but he believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Venture then sinner on this promised Saviour, and you shall now be accepted as righteous by faith only, for faith is the first condition of the covenant. On embracing Christ you are justified by his blood, and accepted in his person. You are then accounted righteous through Christ, and have a full title to eternal life.
Abraham's faith was afterwards made perfect by works. View him leaving his country, venturing among strangers, and resting on the promises alone. He neither built a city, nor returned in the time of famine and persecution; but fixed his heart, his stedfast heart on a better country. Brethren, let us follow his example, and let us not fail to bring our families with us as he did; for the promises are made to us and our children.