Genesis 12:1-12

On the other bank of the river, the one that we’re climbing onto now, the landscape’s very different and there’s a huge change from chapter 12 onwards throughout the Bible.

The emphasis turns from those huge events to personalities, to individuals. Not all of them were great but all of them were important.

In Genesis, there are four of these individuals, and others follow in later books of the Bible.

Genesis chapter 12 is where we begin to get an understanding, a grasp, of God’s intricate plan for man’s salvation. The rest of the Bible is an unfolding of all the great and mighty planning of God for man’s eternal future.

 

Now we’ll be introduced to four individuals. God no longer deals with events, but with a man, and from that man, He’ll make a nation and from that nation will come a redeemer, a saviour of the world.

In the first section, we’ll see Abraham the man of faith in Genesis 12–23. Then there’ll be Isaac the beloved son in Genesis 24–26. Next, there’ll be Jacob the chosen and chastened son in Genesis 27–36, and then there will be Joseph’s suffering and glory in Genesis 37–50.

These four patriarchs are vitally important to the understanding of the Word of God. We’ll be taking up their stories in the rest of the Book of Genesis.

You see, God has shown that He can no longer deal with the race as a whole. After the fall of man, we see the great sin of Cain. And what was his great sin? Murder you may say, because he murdered his brother Able. But, as with every murder, that was only the outworking of the real sin, Pride!

He was angry because deep down in his heart he was proud of the offering he’d brought to God yet his offering was rejected while his brother’s offering was accepted.

It caused him to hate his brother and that hatred led him to murder his brother. The root of all of it was pride. Let’s remind ourselves here that pride was also Satan’s sin. Pride is the sin of the mind.

Then at the time of the Flood, the sin was the lust of the flesh. We saw that every imagination of man and the actions that came as a result of those imaginations were to satisfy the flesh.

God had to bring the Flood to judge man in his rebellion and rejection. Man wanted nothing to do with God and lived in direct violation of everything to do with Him.

At that time, there was only one believer left—Noah.

If God had waited for even one more generation, He would have lost the entire human race.

God had certainly been patient with the world. He’d waited 969 years, the entire life span of Methuselah, for man to turn back to Him. Surely 969 years is long enough to allow anybody to change his mind. However, instead of turning to God, the people were in open rebellion, asserting a will that was against God.

Following the Flood, the Tower of Babel reveals that “none seeks after God.”

After the Tower of Babel, God turns from the race of mankind to one individual.

From that individual, He’s going to bring a nation, and to that nation, He’ll give His revelation, and out of that nation He’ll bring the Redeemer.

This is the only way God could do it. If there were other ways, this was the best way. We can trust God every time to do the thing which is the best.

When God chose Abraham, He chose a man of faith.

Abraham is one of the greatest men who ever lived on this earth.

How can we say that? Well, to begin with, a great man must be famous, and Abraham certainly was and is famous. Even in this day of instant media, more people have heard of Abraham than of any other person.

The three great religions of the world go back to Abraham: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. There’re millions of people in Asia and Africa today who have heard of Abraham but have never heard of the individuals who make the headlines in our country. One of the marks of a great man is fame and Abraham was a great man on this count.

Another mark of a great man is that he must be noble of character, and a generous man.

As we’ll soon see when we look closer at him that there’s none more generous than Abraham. There’s not a man alive who’d do what he did.

When he and his nephew, Lot, came back into the land of Palestine, he told Lot to choose any portion that he wanted, and Abraham said he would take what was left. How many men would do that in a business deal today? They don’t even do that in church, much less in the business world. But Abraham was a generous man. We’ll soon see how generous he was with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. He told them he wouldn’t take their booty, not even so much as a shoestring, because God was the One to whom he was looking.

Next, a great man must live in a momentous time. He must be a man of destiny. The man and the time must meet at the crossroads of the human story and that’s certainly true of Abraham.

A great man must also be a man of faith. All great men, even non-Christians, have something in which they strongly believe.

God said that Abraham was a man of faith. In the Bible record the greatest thing that’s said about Abraham is that he believed God: “… Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”. That’s Romans 4:3.

As we go through these chapters in Genesis, we’ll find that God appeared to this man seven times, each time to develop faith in his life. This doesn’t mean that he was perfect. Not at all. He failed many times. God gave him four tests, and he fell flat on his face on all four of them. But, like Simon Peter, he got up, brushed himself off and started again.

When God touches your’s and my heart and life, we may also fall, but we get up and start over again. We’ll see this happen in Abraham’s life as we go through this chapter.

The first three verses of chapter 12 give us the threefold promise of God to Abraham or, as he was called then, Abram. By the way, we’ll call him Abraham unless the scripture specifically names Abram.

Really, this is the hub of the Bible. The rest of Scripture is an unfolding of this threefold promise.

Now we read Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3, “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. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

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.”

The first part of the threefold promise is the land. God says, “I am going to show you a land, and I am going to give it to you.” The second part of the promise is the nation, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great.”

He also promises him, “And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The third part of the promise is that God would make him a blessing, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is God’s threefold promise.

Now we can ask, “Has God made good on this threefold promise to Abraham?” Well, God has certainly brought from him a great nation. No one can quite match them.

How about the second part of the promise? Has Abraham been a blessing to all mankind? Yes, he has been. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, he has been a blessing to the whole world. Also, the entire Word of God has come to us through Abraham. In addition, can we name a nation in all history that has been a curse to the Jews and has survived unaffected?

God has fulfilled all His promises to Abraham, except the first one.

God had said, “Abraham, I’m going to give you that land.”

Now, look at what’s happening over there today.

They’re holding on to the land by their fingernails, but they don’t have it.

Two–thirds of the promise has been made good right to the very letter. But God said that He would not let them be in the land if they were disobedient and if they were away from Him, and they’re certainly away from Him today. As a result, they’re having a lot of trouble over there. We can’t ever say that God’s not making good on His promise. God’s doing exactly what He said He would do.

The day will come when God will put the people of Israel back in the land, and when He does it, they won’t have just a fingernail hold on it.

They’ll have the land all the way east to the Euphrates River and all the way north as far as the Hittite nation was and all the way south to the river of Egypt, or the Brook of Egypt, or the wadi of Egypt which is a little river in the Arabian desert and, by the way, not the Nile.

They’ve never really occupied all the land that God gave to them.

At the zenith of their power, they occupied 30,000 square miles, but that’s not all that God gave them. Actually, He gave them 300,000 square miles.

They’ve got a long way to go, but they will get it. However, they’ll have to get it on God’s terms and in God’s appointed time. The United Nations can’t do anything about it. Nor can the USA, Russia or any other nation settle their problems.

It’s very comfortable when we come to the understanding that God’s running things. It’s nice to not be frightened by the news headlines and not be disturbed by what’s going on in the world.

God’s in control, and He’s going to work things out His way. When we forget that and look at the world and its troubles we lose our peace and our contentment and exchange them for anxiety, fear and frustration.

That anxiety, fear and frustration will stay with us right up to the moment that we turn from what we see in the world to what God says.

Now in the light of God’s three promises to Abraham, what did he do?

Well, first, let’s look closer at verse 1 of this chapter. “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.’”

Pay attention to this, “Now the Lord HAD said.” When did the Lord say this to Abram? Well, God has included a commentary in the bible that tells us more about this. This commentary is more reliable than any other pastor’s or teacher’s commentary today.

In Acts chapter 7 verses 2 to 4 Stephen’s speech to the Jewish leadership is recorded, and we read, “And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘GET OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY AND FROM YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO A LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.”

This passage of scripture reveals that God gave the command to Abraham to “Get out of your country” in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in the land of Haran and before verses 1 to 3 in Genesis 12.

If we backpedal a bit back to chapter 11 and verse 31 we see Terah (Abram’s father) taking Abram and Lot (Abram’s nephew) and Sarai (Abram’s wife) out of Ur of the Chaldees and making off to the land of Canaan. They got only as far as Haran, upriver a bit from Ur and they dwelt there.

So what do we know?

We know God spoke to Abram while he was still in Ur.

Abraham obeyed God by leaving his home, his business, and the high civilization of Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going or what he would encounter.

BUT, it was not complete obedience. First, he didn’t go straight to the land. He delayed at Haran.

In chapter 12 verse 4 we read, “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.”

Let’s see that again, “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him”, oh, oh!

It’s not full obedience, is it? He’s taking his nephew Lot with him and he’s dallied in the land of Haran. For how long he delayed his journey by staying in Haran we don’t know. But from the terminology in verse 1 we see that quote, “God HAD said to Abram”..

He took with him his father, Terah, and his nephew Lot and other family and God had told Abraham not to take them.

Why did God want to get him out of the land and away from his relatives?

We learn the answer in the Book of Joshua in chapter 24 verse 2 and I’m reading, “ And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. ”

They served other gods! Abraham was an idolator. The world was pretty far gone at that time. God had to move like this if He was going to save humanity. The other alternative for Him was to blot them all out and start over again. All sinners would have been blotted out and you and I would never have come into being and we’d never have had the opportunity to live with God in eternity. Thank God, He’s a God of mercy and grace, and He saves sinners.

We’ll follow the Scripture text now and call Abraham Abram until chapter 17 where God changes his name to Abraham.

Genesis 12 verse 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.”

Let’s see that again, “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him.” Now he’ll follow God’s leading to the land of Canaan.

Then what? “And Lot went with him”,oh, oh! I

It’s still not full obedience, is it? He’s taking his nephew Lot with him.

We read verse 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 .”

Abram took Sarai, his wife, nothing wrong with that, of course.

“and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran.”

The time Abram had spent in Haran was a period of just marking time and delaying the blessing of God.

Interestingly, God never appeared to him again until he’d moved into the land of Palestine, and had separated from at least his closest relatives and brought only Lot with him.

“So they came to the land of Canaan”.

Now Genesis 12:6 :

“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.”

Here’s the record of the fact that the Canaanites were the descendants of Ham’s son Canaan.

It’s important to note here that Abram didn’t leave a terrible place in Ur of the Chaldees as many people think, and came to a land of corn and wine, milk and honey, where everything was beautiful.

Abram didn’t better his lot in a natural sense by coming to this land. The Bible doesn’t say this.

Through archaeology, we know that Ur of the Chaldees had a very high civilization during this time.

Ur was a great and prosperous city. Abram left all of that and came into the land of Canaan, and as we’ve read, “and the Canaanite was then in the land.” The Canaanite was not civilized; he was a barbarian and a heathen if there ever was one.

Abram’s purpose in coming to Canaan was certainly not to better his lot. He came in obedience to God’s command. As is the case almost all the time God’s plan takes in the whole future right into eternity, not just today.

Now he has obeyed, and notice what happens in verse 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.”

Abram builds an altar unto the Lord when He appears to him this second time. While he was in Haran, the place of delay, God had not appeared to him.

You and I are no different to Abram in this respect. We often miss God’s best because we fail to act on what God’s already given to us. If we would obey God, more, then more of His blessings would come.

We see in Abram’s experience that God didn‘t appear to him again until after he’d moved out and begun to obey God on the light that he already had.

Now God appears to him again and Abram builds yet another altar. He’s a real altar–builder.

 

In Shechem, Abram goes to a tree called the oak of Moreh. The Hebrew term Moreh means “teacher.” It’s possible this tree was in an oak grove used by the Canaanites in their religious cults. It was a common practice of these cults to use nature, including trees, to seek messages from their gods. Interestingly the King James Version doesn’t mention this tree only the “plain” of Moreh.

Shechem was right in the middle of Canaan and is a busy place in the bible.

• This is where Jacob came safely when he returned with his wives and children from his sojourn with Laban in Genesis 33:18.
• It’s where Jacob bought a piece of land from a Canaanite named Hamor, for 100 pieces of silver in Genesis 33:19.
• It’s where Jacob built an altar to the Lord and called it El Elohe Israel in Genesis 33:20. This established the connection between Jacob and what became known as Jacob’s well.
• Shechem was the place where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped – and the sons of Jacob massacred the men of the city in retaliation in Genesis 34.
• This was the plot of ground that Jacob gave his son Joseph, a land Jacob had conquered from the Amorites with his sword and bow in an unrecorded battle. see Genesis 48:22.
• Here’s where the bones of Joseph were eventually buried when they were carried up from Egypt in Joshua 24:32.
• It’s where Joshua made a covenant with Israel, renewing their commitment to the God of Israel and proclaiming: as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That’s Joshua 24.
• Shechem’s New Testament name is Sychar – where Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:5-6.

The Canaanites were then in the land: Abram came to the land God promised, yet the Canaanites were still there. They had no intention of giving the land to Abram, and would not give it up until they were forced out some 400 years later.

 

Now to Genesis 12 verse 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 does two things when he gets into the land. He pitches his tent. That’s where he chooses to establish his home. Then “he built an altar.” That was his testimony to God. Everywhere Abram went, he left a testimony to God.

His testimony was that he quietly worshipped God, and the Canaanites soon learned that he was a man who worshipped the Lord God.

Verse 9, “So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. “

South is the right direction to go for warmer weather; so this man is moving south. He’s got itchy feet, he’s a nomad. I can certainly relate!

Now we come to the blot in his life, actually the second one.

Genesis 12:10, “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.”

Now, Abram was in the land, the place of blessing. God never told him to leave. But a famine struck the land, and just like you and I are apt to do, Abram looks about him and turns his attention to the circumstances rather than what God said.

The famine’s real, it’s hitting him right between the eyes and I’d be fairly sure that right about here Abram starts to doubt the Lord and looks instead to the state of the world around him.

We can almost see Abram looking out from his tent onto this stark landscape and as he watches his livestock suffering, the pantry emptying and his neighbours packing up to go down to Egypt to escape the famine he starts to doubt God. Was this a sign from God that he should join the pack and head off to Egypt? The signs that he looked at around would seem to confirm to him that God wanted him to move on.

We can easily imagine the inner fight as tries to reason it out. “It looks like God’s pushing me to move to Egypt but the only voice I’ve heard from God is Him telling me I’m in the land He promised.”

After a few days had gone by and Abram had maybe talked to some of these travellers on their way to Egypt and they told him, “Things are getting worse, we need to go to Egypt in order to survive.”

So after much too-ing and froing Abram and Sarai start down to Egypt.

Notice again that God hadn’t told him to do that.

When God had appeared to him the last time, He’d said, “This is it, Abram, this is the land I am going to give you. You will be a blessing, and I am going to bless you here.”

But, you see, Abram didn’t believe God. He believed the circumstances around him and went down into the land of Egypt.

Now, In the Bible, Egypt is a picture of the world. You’ll find that all the way through the Word. It’s still a picture of the world.

Egypt was to Abraham, and to the Jewish people, what the world, with all its interests, and pursuits, and enjoyments, is to us today.

Is it hard for us today to see Abraham set aside God’s Words and look to Egypt with its advanced civilization, magnificent art, the pinnacle of learning and royal power and vast armies?

It’s amazing how the world draws Christians today. So many of us rationalize or argue in our minds the pros and cons of following the Lord.

We’ll say, “You know, we’re just too busy to study the Bible.” “We’ve read a few social media memes this week and we’re standing on those.”

Yet when there’s a footy match on TV or a hundred new social media posts to read or a new movie on the network, well, almost all of us have time for that. It’s amazing how the world draws Christians today and how we can rationalize.

So, Abram went down to Egypt.

I think that if you or I had met Abram going down to Egypt and we’d said to him, “Wait a minute, Abram, you’re going the wrong direction—you should be staying in the land,” Abram could have given you a very good reason.

He might have said, “Look, my sheep are getting pretty thin and there’s not any pasture for them. Since there’s plenty of grazing land for them down in Egypt, we’re going down there.” And that’s where they went.

However, immediately there’s a problem, and it concerns Sarai because she is a beautiful woman.

And we read in verses 11 to 12, “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.

Gen 12:12  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.”

As you probably know, along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, ancient scrolls were found in the caves of Qumran there. They’re known as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Qumran Caves Scrolls.

At first, the unbelieving scholars thought that they’d found something that would disprove the Bible. But notice how silent those higher critics have become over the years. They just don’t seem to have found anything that contradicts the Bible.

Among the scrolls was a set that couldn’t be unrolled because they were so fragile.

They’d been wrapped so long that they would just shatter and come to pieces if attempts were made to unroll them.

However, one name could be seen, the name Lamech, so they were called part of the book of Lamech and said to be one of the apocryphal books of the Bible. How totally incorrect that was!

The nation Israel bought them, and in the museum, experts began to moisten and soften them until they were unrolled. The scholars found that they contained Genesis 12, 13, 14, and 15, not in the Bible text but rather an interpretation or a commentary of it.

In the part that deals with chapter 12, it tells about the beauty of Sarai, actually describing her features and telling how beautiful she was. It agrees with what we read of her in the Word of God.

The same scroll describes Abram’s exploration of the land and we’ll see that next time.