Genesis 12: 1 – 20
My land is your land
12 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 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; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with 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. 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. 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. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. 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. 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. 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.” 14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 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? 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.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
I guess my venture into Paul’s boat trip to Rome by way of the musical theme to Gilligan’s Island was a hit so I am giving it another shot. Today I am putting Abraham’s journey to the Promised Land to a song. Hope you enjoy it.
This land will be your land"
[sung to the tune of this land is your land]
This land will be your land, this land is My land
From Dan to Be’er Sheva
From the Nile to the Euphrates
This land was made by Me for you
I roamed and rambled, and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was singing
This land was made by Me for you
This land will be your land, this land is My land,
From Dan to Be’er Sheva,
From the Nile to the Euphrates
This land was made by Me for you
As I went walking that dusty highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me those golden valleys
This land was made by Me for you
This land will be your land, this land is My land
From Dan to Be’er Sheva
From the Nile to the Euphrates
This land was made by Me for you
As the sun was shining, and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting, a voice was saying
"This land was made by Me for you"
This land will be your land, this land is My land,
From Dan to Be’er Sheva
From the Nile to the Euphrates
This land was made by Me for you
12 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 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; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This is the first appearance that Adoni Yahwhe made to Abram. Later appearances will draw attention to the awesome nature of these personal meetings with our Holy Master that Abraham has with God.
It is easy through familiarity to fail to recognize the stupendous nature of these experiences of Abram. Here was a man, in a family where other gods were prominent, who had established himself semi-independently, and was now experiencing an awe-inspiring theophany which would determine his whole future.
We must not have the wrong idea about Abram. He was already a prince of his own family tribe, well-to-do and with many servants. So here we will see a good faith of Abraham to leave all the comforts and venture off to unknown places. He would not be going alone, for his family tribe would go with him. Sometimes much is required of one to whom much will be given.
He is called to venture into the unknown. The way ahead will be revealed to him as he takes the path of obedience. His part is to trust and obey. What a crucial moment this is in his life. It will determine his whole destiny.
God does not hold back on what is being demanded. It is spelled out clearly. He must leave his land, to which by now he has become tied by a sense of belonging. He must leave his kinsfolk, those whom he knows so well and has relied on so often. He must leave his position in the family hierarchy, his father’s house, thoughts are progressive. But in return he is promised what every man dreams of. He is to enjoy a new land. He will become ‘a great nation’. He will experience God’s special protection. He is to become ‘a blessing’. Indeed the whole earth will be blessed through what he does, or rather what God does through him. The ideas are in parallel. He must leave a land to receive a land. He must leave kinsfolk in order to become part of a great nation. He must leave his close family so that the entire world might become his family. This is God’s covenant. Obey, he is told, and you will receive abundantly and flowing over. And Abram believes and obeys.
It was against all natural common sense. Surely his opportunity to become a great nation lay in inheriting his father’s position over the combined family sub-tribes? But God knows that unless he breaks free he will not be truly free, for always he will be held back by tradition, connections with his father’s gods and responsibility to others. Only when he has fully broken free to become master of his own destiny will he be able to receive and to offer the fullness of blessing. When God chooses a man He strips him of all that could prevent his usefulness. But sometimes we are not willing to let go. Abram was willing to let go.
Please take special notice of the statement ‘Make your name great.’ There is a deliberate contrast here with those who went to Babel. They went out from their family background to make themselves a name, but it ended in miserable failure, for they built what was only temporary, and they brought division to the world which would only result in further misery. Abram will build what is permanent, which will result in blessing. He builds no city but what he builds, a household of faith, will be a blessing to the world. The choice the world always faces is spelled out clearly here. What will you choose -God or mammon? The ‘pleasures of civilization’ or joy in God? It is where the heart is that really matters.
Our Holy God informs Abram that he will ‘Be a blessing’. The covenant is full of blessing; Blessing for Abram; Blessing for his friends; Blessing for the world. Abram is to be the earthly source of that blessing. He is not given the narrow view of seeking to achieve blessing for him. He is to seek to be a blessing. And as he does so he will be blessed himself. What a contrast this is with those who sought to build ‘civilization’ only for their own ends.
And here we see one of the most often referred verses in our bibles - ‘I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.’ There is a deliberate contrast between the plural and the singular. His friends will be many, his enemies few. But enemies he will have for he seeks to serve God and this will always result in those who react to such an attitude. But Abram is assured that God will be watching over his relationships and acting accordingly.
4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Abram obeyed the voice of God. Lot, his nephew also went with him. It is very probable that Lot’s dad died so he looked to Abram as his fatherly guide.
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.
It is clear that Abram has built up a family sub-tribe since arriving in Haran. He was a man of substance and he has increased his wealth and obtained servants of his own. He has had this moment in mind, and the time had now come to act. Lot too is a man of substance, with his father’s wealth handed down to him.
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.
The arrival at Shechem (a very ancient city) is mentioned because it is here that Abram will have his first meeting with God in the land. Shechem was under the control of the Hivites (33.18-34.2). This is drawn to our attention by the phrase that ‘the Canaanite was then in the land’. Hivites were seen as ‘Canaanites’, and had associations with Lebanon
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.
This is the first theophany (awesome experience of God) received by Abram in the land. It confirms that he has now arrived at the place to which God has sent him. This land is the land promised to him, the land that God would show him. In appreciation for what God had done for Noah and his family Noah had built an altar and worshiped God. Now Abram also rejoicing in that God had led him to the Promised Land, he also built an altar
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.
Abram is surveying the land and finding places for his herds and flocks to feed. But wherever he goes he does not forget the public worship of God. Abram is announcing to his family tribe that Yahweh Is now the God of the land. Moses’ mention of the two great walled Canaanite cities is deliberate in order to emphasize Abram’s claim even in the face of these walled cities. It is an act of faith. He does not doubt that God can deal with the walled cities.
To Abram there is only one God. He is YHWH, the Creator of all things and Judge of all the earth. He is confident that YHWH can work His will wherever He wishes, even in mighty Egypt. He rarely needs to deal with the question of the gods of others. When he meets Melchizedech king of Jerusalem he is ready to accept that El Elyon, ‘the Most High God’, maker of heaven and earth, is the same as YHWH, for that is what he knows YHWH to be. The same is true of El Shaddai, ‘God the Almighty’ (17.1) and El ‘Olam ‘the Everlasting God’ (21.33). For to him YHWH is all.
9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
Abram now moves to the Southern highland, sloping southward between Hebron and Beer-sheba which are in the southernmost part of Canaan, and very suitable for grazing. As a result Abram has now passed through the whole land, surveying it in YHWH’s name, and seeking pasture. It is his new home.
Without knowing it our Holy God Is going to show Abram things that He has promised. For one thing God said that He would protect Abram. As we read these passages watch for this happening. In addition remember the question put forth to Abram which was the choice God or Mammon? Abram replied that he wants God. You surrender to God all what the worldly riches are and then in His Gracious Love He gives to you this also.
This new journey reveals God’s watch over Abram in all circumstances, and stresses that YHWH’s power reaches even into Egypt. Pharaoh was believed to be the earthly manifestation of a god, but he is shown as having no protection against YHWH. The account helps to explain how Abram and Lot became so rich in herds that they had to separate.
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.
A severe famine occurs there. Canaan was always vulnerable to famine because it was so totally dependent on rain, so Abram makes for Egypt as would many others with herds to protect. Egypt exercised general control over the area over this period. There is no suggestion of blame here about his going to Egypt. On the contrary Moses justifies Abram on the grounds of the severity of the famine.
Because of the Nile, which overflowed its banks seasonally and kept the ground well watered, Egypt was usually protected from the worst aspects of famine, although, rarely, they did happen even there, and we know from external records that people often sought refuge in Egypt at such times and were accepted in. Abram’s intention was only to stay as long as was necessary.
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. 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.”
The Egyptians undoubtedly despised foreigners and saw themselves as ‘men’, and foreigners as mere ‘humans’, until they learned to speak Egyptian. Abram had nothing to judge the Egyptians by except hearsay for he knew nothing about Egypt except for what he had been told, but he knew that they were a powerful nation and famine would have left him and his retainers somewhat weak and frail. They were after all coming to beg for help. They would be at Egypt’s mercy.
Sarai’s beauty must have been exceptionally outstanding for Abram to have this fear, I am sure he has clearly heard rumors about the way Egyptians sometimes treated ‘foreigners’ and her beauty fills him with apprehension.
Furthermore we learn later that this habit of describing Sarai as his sister was a policy he had settled on long before when he first ‘left his father’s house’ (20.13). The statement was true in terms of those days. She was in fact his half-sister (20.12). In fairness to Abram it must be recognized that while this was undoubtedly because he was concerned for his own life he also has in mind Sarai’s safety. He no doubt thought that if men killed him for his wife, his wife would become their plaything. But if they saw the opportunity of wooing Sarai respectably they may well treat Abram well with a view to a respectable marriage, giving them the opportunity to move on in safety.
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
The description fits well with what would be expected to happen in a case like this. First the Egyptians in general begin to praise her beauty, and the word gets around. Then the princes of Pharaoh, always eager to win his favor would hear about her and have her appraised. Then she is ‘taken into Pharaoh’s house’.
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
The gifts show that Abram was respected and the certainty the princes had of Pharaoh’s satisfaction. Camels were a comparative luxury at this stage but there is no question but that the privileged had them.
17 But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
Pharaoh household was plagued with great sicknesses. Enquiries would then be made as to new arrivals to explain the problem, and diviners would be consulted. God may have spoken to them as he later spoke to the soothsayer Balaam. Certainly in some way they learned the truth about Sarai.
It is even possible that Abram or one of his servants might have arranged for the news to reach the ear of someone influential. He must have been devastated at what had happened and not have known what to do about it. But when news of the illness in the palace reached him he may have seen it as a God given opportunity, and acted. Alternately Sarai may have communicated the message to someone influential in the harem and spoken of what Abram’s God would do in the light of the circumstances.
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? 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.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
It is clear that whatever the illness was it was sufficient to awe Pharaoh enough to prevent him taking revenge on Abram. Rather than punish him he wants this man with his powerful God to be well out of his way. Pharaoh the god is afraid of The only real God YHWH.
So Abram is escorted to the frontier and the Egyptian soldiers make sure he left Egypt. But he is allowed to take his gifts with him. In Moses’ eyes the superiority of YHWH is recognized by Pharaoh so that he acts accordingly.
