1. Introduction

There are many people including some Christians who think that Genesis 1-11 is a myth. They swallow the world’s evolutionary view. These events are important to understand how life, sin and death came into the world. We find out about the Serpent (Satan/Devil) and the promise of a man-child to defeat him. (Messianic promise).

God repeated the promise to Abram now that his father was dead and Abram was compelled to a more complete obedience.

2. God Calls Abram (12:1-9)

Abram is to leave his homeland. This is no small request. You may have experience of moving to a different country on a different continent. Even within a large country people can speak differently or have strange customs. Abram is to leave to a place that God will show him. He doesn’t’ say where! He will make of Abram a great nation from his descendants. Abram is renamed as Abraham and his name is well known. God will bless Abraham and bless those who bless him or curse those who curse him. All the families of the world will be blessed through Abraham through the coming of the Messiah. It takes great faith on Abram’s part. See Hebrews 11:8-9. Abram was wandering around and living in tents. This is a walk of faith. Abram comes to the land of the Canaanites.

The Lord appears to Abraham and promises to give him this land. The promise is future rather than right now. It will be Abram’s descendants who will inherit the land through conquest. They are moving through the land to find pasture with the Canaanites having the best of the land. He is walking around with the promise in his heart. God will now test him. This often happens after a blessing.

3. Abram in Egypt

There was a famine within the land. There is a severe famine either because of a lack of rain or locusts. We are not told. There is a scarcity of food. There are no supermarkets to feed everybody.

Abram goes down to Egypt. There is no mention that God instructed Abram to leave the land and go to Egypt. Was God unable to sustain Abram in the land that He called him? Is a famine too great for the Lord? Abram is still new to this walk of faith. When we step out in our own wisdom it can cause a whole lot of problems.

Abram’s is fearful that he will be killed in Egypt to get to his wife Sarah. See 1 Peter 3:3-6. It is clear that Sarah had an inward beauty that men were attracted to. She also may have been outwardly beautiful as Abram says and this is backed up by Jewish tradition. We are told he was beautiful, and that she had a flawless character—her two great qualities juxtaposed. She retained her beauty even in old age.

Once you start making decisions based on fear then you are likely to continue. Abram plans to save his own skin. Sarah is to say she was his sister. She was actually his half-sister. There was a modicum of truth. However, it puts Sarah in a dangerous place. Unfortunately for Abram his plan backfires. The Egyptians notice Sarah’s beauty and it is passed back to Pharaoh.

1. People separate from marriage even though God says to stay together.
2. Marriage is redefined from being one man and one woman.
3. God says there is only male and female but those who rebel say there are many more. You can be whatever you want to be! This is a rebellion against God.

Pharaoh (king of Egypt) has Sarah brought to himself to be his wife. She must have been a very beautiful woman. Pharoah has livestock brought to Abram as a blessing seeing as he was the “brother” of Sarah. The Lord inflicted serious diseases upon Pharaoh and his household, and he realised that Sarah was actually the wife of Abram. God protected Sarah. Abram and his wife are sent away along with all the presents! Abram is humiliated and his lie is found out. He needs to trust the Lord again for provision. This was not the end for Abram. We can think we are smarter than God and come up with our own plan. When fear rises up, we need to trust in God. It is easy to trust God when things are going well. Satan will condemn you for sinning, but God will seek to build faith and accept forgiveness in our failures of faith. He is full of grace.

4. Abram and Lot Separate (13:1-18)

Abram comes back to where he started and this time he renews his commitment to God. He builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord. He now has great wealth.

Lot and Abram are too prosperous to dwell together and there are disputes happening between their herders. Lot picks the cities of the valley near Sodom and pitches his tents just outside. Abram gives Lot the first choice. This is very gracious of Abram to do. He keeps his cool. He is trusting that God will look after him. Even though he knows that Lot will take the best. Abram is let with the land of the Canaanites.

Lot makes his decisions based upon what he physically sees. He did not consider the spiritual implications. Sodom and Gomorrah are wicked cities, and he will later regret going so nearby. There is no indication of him seeking God’s will in prayer or sacrificing on an altar to the Lord. He is carnal. 

God tells Abram that regardless of Lot’s choice, everything will eventually belong to Abram’s descendants. Abram is a prime example of faith that sees through spiritual eyes. See Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

Categories: Genesis

Tags: abraham, bible, faith, Genesis, god