We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of, from Stephen's speech, A... [ Continue Reading ]
Here is added an encouraging promise, nay a complication of promises, I will make of thee a great nation — When God took him from his own people, he promised to make him the head of another people. This promise was. A great relief to Abram's burden, for he had now no child. A great trial to Abram's... [ Continue Reading ]
So Abram departed — He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. His obedience was speedy and without delay, submissive and without dispute.... [ Continue Reading ]
They took with them the souls that they had gotten — That is, the proselytes they had made, and persuaded to worship the true God, and to go with them to Canaan; the souls which (as one of the Rabbins expresseth it) they had gathered under the wings of the divine Majesty.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Canaanite was then in the land — He found the country possessed by Canaanites, who were likely to be but bad neighbours; and for ought appears he could not have ground to pitch his tent on but by their permission.... [ Continue Reading ]
And the Lord appeared to Abram — Probably in a vision, and spoke to him comfortable words; Unto thy seed will I give this land — No place or condition can shut us out from God's gracious visits. Abram is a sojourner, unsettled, among Canaanites, and yet here also he meets with him that lives, and se... [ Continue Reading ]
And there he built an altar unto the Lord who appeared to him, and called on the name of the Lord — Now consider this, As done upon a special occasion when God appeared to him, then and there he built an altar, with an eye to the God that appeared to him: thus he acknowledged with thankfulness God's... [ Continue Reading ]
And there was a famine in the land — Not only to punish the iniquity of the Canaanites, but to exercise the faith of Abram. Now he was tried whether he could trust the God that brought him to Canaan, to maintain him there, and rejoice in him as the God of his salvation, when the fig — tree did not b... [ Continue Reading ]
Say thou art my sister — The grace Abram was most eminent for was faith, and yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the divine Providence, even after God had appeared to him twice. Alas, What will become of the willows, when the cedars are thus shaken... [ Continue Reading ]
And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house — Probably, those princes especially that had commended Sarai to Pharaoh. We are not told, particularly, what these plagues were; but, doubtless, there was something in the plagues themselves, or some explication added to them, sufficient to convince them t... [ Continue Reading ]
What is this that thou hast done? — What an ill thing; how unbecoming a wife and good man! Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? — Intimating, that if he had known that, he would not have taken her. It is a fault, too common among good people, to entertain suspicions of others beyond wha... [ Continue Reading ]
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him — That is, he charged them not to injure him in any thing. And he appointed them, when Abram was disposed to return home, after the famine, to conduct him safe out of the country, as his convoy.... [ Continue Reading ]