[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 12
1-3 Out of all the people on the earth, the Lord said to Abram. It is important to recognize that God’s calling of Abram did not come out of a vacuum. See notes on 11:31-32 to see how Abram’s father Terah turned back toward the Lord. That is, Abram’s calling represented the continuation of Terah’s journey back toward the Lord.
Notice the progression of Abram’s call. Abram must obey God’s mandate to leave the land he knew for the land he would be shown. That is, Abram had to step out on faith. Then God would make [him] into a great nation, bless him, and make [his] name great. It is tempting to focus on the first and last elements in this list. We all want God to expand and establish us, and we all long to be people of great impact and influence. This is the nature of these promises. Yet, both of these hinged upon the middle element: I will bless you. We often equate blessing with expansion, influence, wealth, happiness, etc., but in the Beatitudes, Jesus reveals that those who are poor in spirit, grieving things that are lost, persecuted, etc., are blessed. This suggests that the nature of blessing is less about prosperity than God’s presence in our lives. That is, Abram will be made into a great nation and have a great name insofar as he abides in the presence of the Lord, and the same remains true for us. God will expand and establish us, grant us influence and impact only insofar as we abide in the presence of the Lord. But even this blessing was not the end of Abram’s calling. God was going to bless Abram so he and his descendents could be a blessing to the people around them. God would bless those who bless you. That is, if people wanted to align themselves with God’s people and their way of life, then God would bless them through Abraham’s descendants. So also, if they aligned themselves against God’s people and their way of life, then God would curse them. For God’s people, receiving the blessing of the Lord is never the end in and of itself. We are always blessed in order to be a blessing. That is, God is with us so we can represent him to others. So how will you bless someone today?
4 Abram went, as the Lord had told him. That is, he obeyed God’s call, uprooted his family, and went west to Canaan. In this way, he fulfilled the first part – i.e., the mandate – of God’s calling. Faithful obedience is always the first step!
7 The first altar Abram built was not to commemorate the complete fulfillment of God’s promise but to celebrate that God appeared to him. Abram did not wait to worship until after he was a great nation with obvious blessing and impact. No, he worshiped when God realized the very first step of the promise. Abram obeyed on faith, not knowing where he was going, because God had promised to show Abram where he was going, and now, he had. We also should celebrate every bit of God’s revelation that we receive, even before his promise is completely fulfilled.
8-9 God may have revealed the land he was going to give to Abram’s descendants, but Abram himself was still a nomad. That is, he kept moving from place to place. It is interesting, though, that he built a second altar and called on the name of the Lord. It suggests that, even though he did not yet have the great nation and name promised in vs 2, and even though he did not settle in one place, Abram still sensed the blessing-presence of the Lord wherever he went. More importantly, though, God had called on him, and he now called on God. That is, this God-human relationship now became reciprocal. So also, we must call upon the God who calls us. We must reciprocate in order to have a real relationship with him.
10 Just because we are blessed does not mean we are immune to hardship. Abram was blessed, but there was [still] a famine in the land. Do not expect life to hand you nothing but unicorns and lollipops just because you are faithful. And do not interpret hardship as a sign that God has abandoned you.
11-13 This scene seems bizarre at first glance, but the key is found in verse 13, where Abram instructed his wife to say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account. The chapter began with Abram believing God would bless him if he was obedient. It continued with signs that God was indeed doing exactly as he promised to do. And yet, Abram doubted that God could protect him from the Egyptians. Even the faithful are not immune to doubt. Abram’s doubt was rooted in the notion, common among ancient cultures, that gods were restricted to particular geographical areas, and Egypt was outside God’s radius, so to speak. It represented an incomplete understanding of God and his purposes. It might seem ironic that this is precisely the reason Abram needed faith in the first place, but that is exactly the point. Faith cannot exist where there is no room for doubt. Therefore, we should not be surprised when doubt creeps in, even when we are being as faithful as we know how.
14 Sarai was 9 years younger than Abram (17:17). Therefore, if Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran (4), she was at least 66 years old when this scene occurred. Yet, the woman was very beautiful. Do not equate old age with a loss of beauty. Beauty is not based solely upon outward appearances. It is based on whether a person is worthy to be praised.
15-20 The effects of Abram’s doubt are revealed here. First, the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. That is, Abram was deprived of his wife. He did get flocks, herds, donkeys, slaves, and camels because of her, but he lost his ability to receive the full blessing of the Lord because he could not have children to become a great nation without a wife. Doubt tempts us to trade what is best for what is merely good and long-term blessing for short-term security. At the moment, Abram no doubt thought the trade was a good deal, even if it was rather bitter, but how long was it before he realized all he had forfeited and began to regret the decision? Second, the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife. That is, just as Abram’s faith did not spring from a vacuum (see note on vss 1-3), neither did his doubt occur in a vacuum. If Abram had continued in faith, he would have been a blessing to the nations, but when he succumbed to his doubt, he became a curse to the nations. Third, Pharaoh sent him away. That is, the relationship between Egypt and Abraham’s descendants ended before it even really began. What could have been if Egypt had aligned itself with Abraham and his descendants, we shall never know.
Notice also Pharaoh’s response when he realized Sarai was Abram’s wife. He did not retaliate. He did not even demand the flocks, herds, etc., be returned as restitution. He simply returned Sarai to her rightful husband and sent [Abram] away with his wife and all he had. Instead, Abram was allowed to leave unmolested. He almost forfeited his wife, his blessing, and his ministry to the nations because of a moment of doubt, and that doubt was, in the end, far more unfounded than his initial faith. There is an essential lesson to be learned here: doubt is generally just as unreasonable as faith, and often more so.
15 It is important to know that women were added to Pharaoh’s household for a number of reasons. Of course, the king might add a woman to his harem for the purpose of sex, but more often, it had to do with political alliances. The fact that Pharaoh took note of Sarai and wanted to add her to his household suggests that Abram was already beginning to see the realization of God’s promise in vs 2, that God would make [him] into a great nation and make [his] name great. The Pharaoh, king of the greatest nation on the earth at the time, sought an alliance with Abram.