CHAPTER 12

(1921 B.C.)

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram (referring to the Revelation which had been given to the Patriarch a short time before; this Chapter is very important, for it records the first steps of this great Believer in the path of Faith), Get thee out of your country (separation), and from your kindred (separation), and from your fathers house (separation), unto a land that I will show you (refers to the fact that Abraham had no choice in the matter; he was to receive his orders from the Lord, and go where those orders led him):

²And I will make of you a great Nation (the Nation which God made of Abraham has changed the world, and exists even unto this hour; in fact, this Nation Israel still has a great part to play, which will take place in the coming Kingdom Age), and I will bless you, and make your name great (according to Scripture, to bless means to increase; the builders of the Tower of Babel sought to make us a name, whereas God took this man, who forsook all, and made his name great); and you shall be a blessing: (Concerns itself with the greatest blessing of all. It is the glory of Abrahams Faith. God would give this man the meaning of Salvation, which is Justification by Faith, which would come about through the Lord Jesus Christ, and what Christ would do on the Cross. Concerning this, Jesus said of Abraham, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad [Jn. 8:56].)

³And I will bless them who bless you (to bless Israel, or any Believer, for that matter, guarantees the Blessings of God), and curse him who curses you (to curse Israel, or any Believer, guarantees that one will be cursed by God): and in you shall all families of the Earth be blessed. (It speaks of Israel, which sprang from the loins of Abraham and the womb of Sarah, giving the world the Word of God and, more particularly, bringing the Messiah into the world. Through Christ, every family in the world who desires blessing from God can have that Blessing, i.e., Justification by Faith.)

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him (this was his first surrender; there were seven in all: 1. He surrenders here his native land; 2. He surrenders his family; 3. He then surrenders the vale of the Jordan; 4. He then surrenders the riches of Sodom; 5. He surrenders self; 6. He then surrenders Ishmael; and lastly, 7. He surrenders Isaac; each painful surrender was followed by increased spiritual wealth); and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran (the Holy Spirit notes Abrahams age upon his departure, signifying that the revelation may have come several years earlier).

⁵And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brothers 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. (From Haran to Canaan was approximately 350 miles. Abraham had 318 trained men with him [14:14], meaning that they were trained to fight as soldiers. In fact, there may have been as many as a thousand people in this entourage.)

⁶And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. (Abraham finds the hateful, impure, and hostile Canaanite in Gods land. That being an example, the young Believer expects after conversion to find nothing in his nature hostile to Christ, but is distressed and perplexed very soon to painfully learn that, alas, the Canaanite is in the land, and that he is now commencing a lifelong battle with what the New Testament calls the flesh. Williams)

⁷And the LORD appeared unto Abram (though the hostile Canaanite was in the land, the Lord was there as well), and said, Unto your seed will I give this land (the seed through Isaac, and not Ishmael; Satan has contested this Promise from the very beginning, with the struggle continuing even unto this hour, as it regards Israel and the Palestinians): and there built he an Altar unto the LORD, Who appeared unto him. (The Altar and its Sacrifice represented the Lord Jesus Christ, and the price He would pay on the Cross in order to redeem humanity. The Promises of God to Abraham, as are all the Promises of God, are built upon the foundation of the Altar, i.e., the Cross.)

⁸And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east (Beth-el means House of God, while Hai means the heap of ruins): and there he built an Altar unto the LORD, and called upon the Name of the LORD. (The Altar and the tent give us the two great features of Abrahams character. He was a worshipper of God, hence the Cross, and a stranger in the world, hence the tent. Our prayers are based upon our Faith in Christ and what Christ has done for us at the Cross, of which the Altar was a Type.)

⁹And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south (south was toward Egypt, which direction Abraham should not have gone).

ABRAMS SOJOURN IN EGYPT

¹⁰And there was a famine in the land (a famine in Gods land? it was allowed by the Lord as a test of Faith, as everything for the Believer is a test of Faith): and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there (the Lord didnt call Abram to Egypt, but rather to Canaan; better to starve in Canaan, than to live in luxury in Egypt); for the famine was grievous in the land.

¹¹And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt (it is not possible to go into Egypt, spiritually speaking, without partaking of Egypt), that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that you are a fair woman to look upon (now begins the repulsive picture of contemptible and abject cowardice):

¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see you, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save you alive.

¹³Say, I pray you, you are my sister: that it may be well with me for your sake; and my soul shall live because of you. (God had a Plan: that Plan was for Abraham and Sarah to bring a son into the world, through whom ultimately the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world, would come. Satan had a plan: that plan was to foil the Plan of God, and to do so through the weakness of Abraham. Abraham had a plan: but Abrahams plan is not now the Plan of God, but is rather a plan of deception, which God can never honor.)

ABRAM DECEIVES PHARAOH

¹⁴And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.

¹⁵The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaohs house. (Pharaoh was the official title of the kings of Egypt. The particular Monarch who occupied the Egyptian throne at the time of Abrahams arrival is believed to have been Necao; with some thinking he may have been Ramessemenes. Sarah is taken into Pharaohs house in order that she might become the mother of a child by the Egyptian king, thus defeating the Messianic Promise made to Abraham. This was Satans plan.)

¹⁶And he (Pharaoh) entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels (all of these Pharaoh gave to Abraham; the riches he acquired in Egypt were nothing by comparison to the riches he stood to lose).

¹⁷And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife. (In Canaan, Abraham was a blessing; in the land of Egypt, he is a curse. In the path of faith, the Christian is likewise a blessing to the world, but in the path of self-will, a curse.)

¹⁸And Pharaoh called Abram, and said (in what manner Pharaoh came to know that the plagues falling on his house were because of Sarah, we arent told; Sarah was blameless in this, the fault being that of Abraham), What is this that you have done unto me? why did you not tell me that she was your wife? (Abraham had told those who were representing Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister. In fact, this was a half-truth. She was the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother [20:12]. But because he intended to deceive, God looked at this episode as a lie.)

¹⁹Why did you say, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold your wife, take her, and go your way (because of Abrahams deception, this heathen prince hurries this man of God out of his land as he would chase away a pestilence; it was not Abrahams finest hour).

²⁰And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him (Abraham): and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had (the mighty Pharaoh saw the Power of God, even though it was in a negative way; what effect it had on him, other than this which we see in the Scripture, we arent told).