April 7, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Genesis? Here’s today’s reading:
Genesis 12 (NIV)
The Call of Abram
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing……Continue Reading
Abram receives an awesome promise from God at the beginning of this chapter that God has got him! He will bless him, protect him, and great things would happen through him!
And then fear steps in! We see people do such stupid things as a result of fear. Instead of trusting God through this awesome promise, Abram lies and makes his wife, Sarai, lie as well. Now while God ultimately still protects Abram and Sarai we see a terrible example of marriage both for Abram leading his wife to sin through this lie. While Sarai submitted to her husband, she did so but in the process she did not honor God by following her husband’s direction. Even with the best of intentions, justifications, or reasoning our actions should always be God honoring and we need to trust that even when we are in difficult situations and fear sets God will be with us!
Genesis 12
God had already promised Abram a great nation that would be blessed by him. Not sure why he had to lie about his wife. Would not have God kept Abram safe regardless of Pharaoh’s wanting his wife as he had said? I guess probably because he gained great wealth by living this lie as Abram and wife left together with all he had gained thru Pharaoh’s orders.
Abraham trusted his sight and surroundings rather than trusting God…which is often where lies come from. So yes, it would have been right for Abram to trust God especially because what He had promised what he and Sarah would become….
Kelly, Linda, I see the same thing. Abram lacked faith, there was no way he could have been killed, based on the Abrahamic covenant.
Kinda think he’s a lot like me in my Christian walk, great faith at the beginning, but as time goes by, not so much that God will take care of me, my problems.
We would all do well, actually better, if we believe God will keep us in all situations, no matter how severe. Peace, -gy
”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.”“
Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV
I think the Jewish people forgot the “all families of the earth shall be blessed” part of this promise. When Christ comes we see in Luke and in Paul’s teachings, the inclusion of Gentiles was God’s plan all along.
I’m not sure if Sarah sinned in telling Pharoah she was Abrahams sister. I think she was the braver of the two. She trusted the Lord by obeying her husband and God came through for her.
”For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.“
I Peter 3:5-6 NKJV
“Not afraid with any terror” – sometimes submitting to a husband is frightening, but Sarah trusted in God.
(I am not in any way suggesting that wives should sin under a husband’s direction or subject themselves to abuse. There are Biblical and legal provisions to address those situations as well.)
The thing that always stands out to me in this chapter is that, even though Pharoah was ignorant of the fact that Sarai was Abram’s wife, God still plagued his household.
We are held accountable for sin, whether it’s intentional or not. It’s important to ask the Lord to reveal sin in our lives that we might not be aware of so we can repent of it.
Other thoughts follow. Why did God plague Pharaoh? What was his problem? Abram deceived and lied (Sarai was his step sister, the daughter of Terah, his father, but not of Abram’s mother, not named).
The princes of Egypt saw her, found her exceedingly beautiful, commended her to Pharoah, and she was taken into his house. It is as though Sarai was seen only for her beauty, a thing to possess, to collect. Pharaoh didn’t mistreat her.
Perhaps, Pharaoh needed God’s corrective hand, in the form of plagues, to demonstrate that beauty is not to be collected, grasped, pursued, for that sake alone. Pharaoh somehow connected the dots, somehow learned that Sarai was married, and returned her.
Meanwhile, Abram gets blessed in Egypt, gains assets. Why does he get blessed? Pharoah gets punished? Why isn’t there some statement that Abram did wrong?
God’s blessing in 12:1-3 was not conditional, there was no contract. God said he would be blessed, regardless of Abram’s conduct. Here, he behaves poorly, we see no admission of guilt, no consequence for his lie, saving he was confronted by Pharoah.
This is not unlike us. We have eternal life, saved by grace, Christ in us. Yet, and yet, we sin, we go astray this side of the cross, and, for all we see, there are no repercussions for it. Perhaps, so it may be seen, for now. But God remains faithful to Abram and us, we lose nothing of eternal life, kept in God’s hand. God remained faithful to His promise to Abram, it was reckoned by God’s grace to Abram, not by anything he merited. So we too walk in Christ’s unmerited favor and blessing, it won’t be ever taken away, though we transgress under that blessing.
Abram had to deal with Pharoah’s admonition, that was it. When we stray, there may not be an immediate understanding of error, but be sure there will be a conviction somehow, some way. We cannot live this way in Christ. If there is no conviction by the Holy Spirit, that in and of itself should speak volumes to us. -Gordy (Reb)
Amy, thank you for a greater understanding.
I am so focused on two men as main actors, and omit Sarai’s plight. For Abram’s fear, she was given to another man’s care by her very husband, with Abram’s knowing what Pharaoh could do to her, and do so lawfully.
Abram is a very poor example of a husband, and Sarai had the greater faith. How terrified she must have been. Amy, thank you for teaching me the deeper truth! -reb (I need all the help I can get from the saints.) : – )
Genesis 12
Genesis 12
As with every other person in the Bible, apart from Jesus…we see fallenness and sinfulness displayed here…why? Self-preservation and fear.
But perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18
Look to Christ’s perfect love. Follow His example. In this way we have been blessed with far more than the heroes of the faith in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Oh, Chapter 12…”Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to JESUS, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Genesis 12
This is the first of many times that we see Abram not considering God’s promise when he is fearful of something. Let us remember what Jesus said so we don’t fall into that trap when we are anxious and afraid. “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” So, “cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalms 55:22
Abraham trusts God by leaving the place where he and his father had established themselves and follow God to the place He will show him. He also gives a promise to him, assuring him of a future for himself and the nation will come from him, and committing to bless Abraham and protect him. And has he arrives in the promised land, he builds altars to show regard for God and thank Him for what He has done for him. And yet after all this faith and faithfulness, Abram fails to trust God to protect him and Sarai while things unfold just the way he thought it would. But God is always faithful to fulfill His purposes, and while Abraham isn’t listening to Him, God gets Pharaoh’s attention and brings things to the conclusion that He desired. May we all live in a faith that looks at circumstances, and regardless of what they point to that would foster fear, believe God for what He has promised and how He will provide and work things out.