“Abram Gets Off to a Bad Start”
Genesis 12:6-20
Chapter 12 of Genesis began with God calling Abram and promising him a blessing. Abram’s call is framed in the language found back in Genesis 2:24,
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
This should prepare us for these themes in the rest of his story – blessing, birth, land, family and a great name.
Abram’s obedience to God’s calls and promises create a clear pattern. We will come across this pattern quite often in the biblical story.
Whenever God’s chosen one follows the command from the divine, despite many unknowns, there will be a blessing.
This divine promise of a blessing corresponds to two previous divine blessings given by God. We have what is called a “hyperlink” which is where what we are reading connects directly to a previous story in the Bible. The connection is made by the use of key Hebrew words and phrases.
This hyperlink is Abram is seen as the new Adam and the new Noah.
- Like Adam, God blessed the image He had created, Genesis 1:27-28, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
- Like Noah, Genesis 9:1-2, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Adam and Noah were blessed but things didn’t exactly work out so well. This time God is going to place His blessing with one family, a chosen group. Through this family “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
This means that anyone, whether they are part of the family or not, by connecting to the family of Abraham, they will be blessed.
At the age of 75, Abram sets out from Haran. I have provided you with a map of the area that shows Abram’s journey. He actually started his journey in Ur, by the Persian Gulf, and traveled north to Haran, with his father and brother.
Abram is now supposed to separate from his family and begin the second part of his journey alone. He doesn’t follow God’s command and allows His nephew Lot to tag along. This will cause issues as the story continues. They go south and enter Canaan from the north, making some interesting stops along the way.
We read that he made three stops. We also read, “At that time the Canaanites were in the land.” This is to show us that Abram was not integrating into the Canaanite culture. Instead, we read that he sets up his own alternative residence and creates unique places of worship dedicated to his Elohim, or his God.
Again, we are presented with more hyperlinks. There are distinct parallel lines between Abram and Abel and Seth and contrasting lines between Abram to Cain and Lemek.
PARALLELS –
Adam’s son Abel in Genesis 4:2-4 – was a “shepherd of the flock” and made offerings to Yahweh from his flock
Abram in Genesis 12:15, 16 – (from the line of Shem) leads a migrating shepherd caravan with many flocks
Adam’s son Abel in Genesis 4:26 – Seth, the seed given in the place of Abel, names his first son Enosh = human, and he began calling on the name of Yahweh.
Abram in Genesis 12:6, 8 – builds altars in Canaan and “calls upon the name of Yahweh.”
CONTRASTS
Cain was a farmer, Genesis 4:1-4, who, after his murder of his brother Abel the shepherd, went on to build the first city in the Bible.
The Canaanites (from the line of Ham), in contrast to Abram, lived in cities.
Abram becomes the new humanity, chosen by Yahweh, to be set apart from their urban siblings who were worshipping man made things (gods or cities). Abram establishes the worship of Yahweh, the creator God and he sets up altars along the central hill country as Yahweh’s territory.
The promise of seed and land presented here in verses 6 and 7 is a hyperlink to the divine blessing given to Adam and Eve. When we read it translated into English the hyperlink is not evident.
But in ancient Hebrew the words used to describe
“Abram passing through the land” and
the Canaanite was “in the land” and
“Yahweh appeared to Abram” and
“he built there an altar to Yahweh,”
“who appeared to him,”
are all built from the Hebrew root, ra’ah = “to see.”
This is the author’s way of building an allusion to the trees of Eden, where the humans “saw” and had “their eyes opened,” after their great failure to trust Yahweh’s wisdom.
Abram on the other hand, has his eyes opened, to see Yahweh after his first act of trust in Yahweh’s summons to leave his family and travel to Canaan.
Alas, it doesn’t take long for Abram to become the snake.
No sooner does Abram arrive in the land promised to him by Yahweh, then he takes off to Egypt. Hadn’t God just promised Abram that Canaan would belong to his descendants, and would result in blessing, abundance, and a possession of the land. Not only that, but this blessing would overflow into blessings for the nations. Abram obediently makes it to Canaan, only to fail in his trust of the promise.
His inability to completely trust Yahweh’s promises leads to deceiving nations, and bringing plagues upon them, instead of blessings.
Abram’s actions do have some rationality to them. He gets to Canaan and although he was promised abundance he discovers scarcity in a time of famine. The famine was Abram’s second test of faith.
He had passed the first test and left his home and family, (sort of, don’t forget Lot) but when it came to remaining in a land without any food? Abram decided he had a better plan. Yahweh certainly didn’t want him to starve? By deciding to trust in his own wisdom, Abram fails the second test, royally.
Not only does Abram not stay in Canaan and trust God for provisions, as he travels to Egypt, he ends up losing his wife, the only means of being fruitful and multiplying.
Sure, there would be food in Egypt, but Abram realizes that as wandering shepherds they were at the mercy of Egyptian culture. Abram had a cultural reason for coming up with his scheme to present Sarai as his sister rather than his wife. First, it was sort of a white lie, Sarai was Abram’s half sister from his father’s side. Marrying within one’s family was not uncommon at this point in ancient Near Eastern cultures.
Abram thought he was being wise and hoping to save his and Sarai’s lives. As Abram’s sister, any Egyptian who proposed to Sarai would treat both of them favorably. As husband, Abram would be seen as the object of jealousy which had the potential of Abram being killed. However, Abram did not take into account that the king of all the land would “see” and “take” Sarai.
Which leads us to another hyperlink, directly back to Genesis 3, with the snake’s deception.
Abram relies on his knowledge of what will happen in Egypt instead of trusting God’s promise
Genesis 12:11-12, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.”
Back in Genesis 3:6, Adam and Eve seek their own knowledge of good and bad, instead of trusting God’s commands, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,”
Abram’s deception initially resulted in “good” at the expense of Sarai, Genesis 12:13, Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
Pharaoh takes Sarai and, Genesis 12:16,
“.. treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
Note: the female servants will play a pivotal role later on.
The results were plagues on Pharoah,
Genesis 12:17, “But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.”
Adam and Eve’s actions result in “curse” on the ground,
Genesis 3:17, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”
Abram presents his wife as a “tree of testing” to the Egyptians,
Back in Genesis 3:6, the snake presents the “tree of testing” to the humans,
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took..”
Pharaoh holds Abram accountable for his deception,
Genesis 12:18, “So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?”
God holds Adam and Eve accountable for their action,
Genesis 3:9, But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Genesis 3:13, Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
Pharaoh exiles Abram,
Genesis 12:20, “Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way..”
God exiles Adam and Eve,
Genesis 3:23, “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”
This analogy was created by Tim Mackie for the BibleProject Classroom. Not only does it take us right back to the first humans, it bounces right up to humans today.
Abram’s depiction of the snake, crafty, able to use his circumstances to his own advantage, but at the expense of others hasn’t changed much. In this scene, Abram’s prosperity comes precisely through the suffering of others.
Sarai’s beauty is set in relation to the beauty of the tree of testing in the garden of Eden. A good thing becomes co-opted by deceivers and used for their own advantage.
Pharaoh’s role activates two analogies:
- Like Adam and Eve, Pharaoh was innocent, yet still commits wrong. While his innocent “taking” of a woman worked as an exercise in patriarchal power and privilege, he is portrayed as faultless in terms of his motives. Innocent motives don’t erase the fact that he’s taking another man’s wife.
- Pharaoh is also an analogy to God. After Pharaoh finds out about Abram’s deception, he takes on the divine role and holds Abram accountable.
Abram certainly gets off to a bad start.
And what about God’s promise compared to God’s justice?
God defends the deceiver in this story and
brings judgment on someone who has acted wrongly but without wrong motives.
What do we do with that?
This story begins the everlong tension between God’s covenant promises to the family of Abram and the divine character traits of justice and equity.
God promises Abram “to bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you as cursed.” But in this story protecting Abram, even though he didn’t deserve it, places God in a morally inconvenient situation.
This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. God’s promises often seem to be thwarted by human interventions.
Check in time.
How often do we ask? “Where is God in all of this?”
If we are honest, almost every time we read the paper or watch the daily news.
Does God permit things or does He control them?
John Piper, founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary, offers an explanation, and I quote…
“Permitting or Controlling?
(John Piper is) trying to respond (here) to someone who says, “Well, God doesn’t control everything, but he permits lots of things.” I’m saying that’s right. He certainly does permit lots of things.
How should we understand an all-knowing God with perfect foreknowledge permitting something in his infinite wisdom?
Here’s what Jesus says in Luke 22:31: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Notice he does not say, “If you have turned again,” but “when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
In other words, “Yes, I’m going to give Satan permission to sift you like wheat, and I know it’s going to involve three denials. I know you’re going to turn, and I know that the purpose of bringing you back according to my prayer is that you might strengthen your brothers.”
Even in situations where God is permitting, he is permitting by design. When you permit something and you know what it’s going to do and you know all of its outcomes and you go ahead and permit it, you permit it wisely if you’re God — and then it wisely fits into the overall pattern of what you are planning and doing.
Let me end with a statement and a question.
The statement is that human beings are responsible, accountable, praiseworthy, or blameworthy for what they do. God’s sovereignty does not diminish human accountability. That’s the statement.
The question is, which world would you rather live in?
One where humans or Satan or chance govern what happens to you?
Or
One where an
infinitely good,
infinitely wise,
infinitely powerful God
works everything together for the good
of those who trust him and for his glory?”
Let’s pray.
