Again here's the text so you can read it for yourself:
The Call of Abram
12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
So to start off its always important to lay down the context for the chapter, otherwise we could probably twist the passage to justify racism if we tried hard enough.
The author of this passage is commonly held to be Moses who is assumed to be the author of the entire Pentateuch. He's writing this history of the patriarchs for Israel, who he has led out of slavery from Egypt and with whom he's currently wandering aimlessly in the desert with (...yeah, the Israelites thought it was messed up too).
And its not like they sipping drinks by the pool side. In fact, that wouldn't even make sense cos there was barely any water. This was a hard time for Israel. Most of them would not live to see the Promise Land and they would need to know that God has a purpose and a promise even through their punishment. This is the point of Genesis as a whole.
I'm gonna deal with the first half of this chapter first and then come to the wife swap situation later. Basically, God rocks up and is like "Abe, it's time to bail. I'll be in the car". Now this means leaving his fatherland, which was a big deal back then cos it was basically like leaving your identity behind and becoming a no one.
To do this requires FAITH (and a fear of being crushed by the omnipotent being who just tore your roof off and commanded you to do something) and its this type of faith that gets Abe credit in Hebrews 11:8. This reminds me of the fact that without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and also anything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). You would do well to think about this for a bit.
Upon commanding Abe (can I call him Abe? I feel like were close enough) to leave his home, God gives him this stunning blessing:
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Hopefully, you can see this is a clear reference to the future Christ who will come through Abe's seed. Notice how God says "in you" and not "through you". Paul later states that all believers in Christ are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). It would seem as if it works both ways.
IN Abraham is almost synonymous with being IN Christ (his seed) and THIS is where the blessing lies. So for all those who think God broke His promise because not all the families of the world are blessed through Abraham, this blessing is for those in Christ only. And they are CRAZY blessed.
Let's move onto Abe's issue in Egypt. On the surface it just seems like a nice story with the basic moral being: trust God and He'll get you through trials.
And it is.
But I think there's something else here. Notice the contrast between the first part of this chapter and the second part.
In the first part we see Abram displaying great faith, leaving everything he has in Haran to follow the call of God and setting up altars where ever he goes in worship of God.
THEN, we see Abram set up a huge lie to protect himself (while neglecting the sanctity of his wife, mind you) all because he had no FAITH in God. See the contrast?
So what does this passage say as a whole?
Well, it seems quite clear that in regards to man, he is fickle and changes like the weather (and by that I mean Melbourne weather). One minute he might be a man who displays such great faith that he goes down in history for it and the next minute he's telling his wife that he's cool with another dude having his way with her as long as he gets to live. Nice. I guess the moral there is, don't trust Man.
But I think the more important question is what does this passage say about God?
Well, lets look and see...from verse 17:
"But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."
We see that even though Abe was inconsistent, God remained faithful to his promise (Romans 3:3-4). He wasn't about to let some Egyptian mess around with Abram's wife and compromise Abe's seed.
Take note; our God is a faithful God.
As much as the bible, and Genesis specifically, is about the depravity of Man, it is also about the faithfulness of God to His promise that he made from the beginning.
(Genesis 3:15)
Key thoughts:
Are YOU living by faith?
Are you trying to please God with your works or with your faith in Jesus Christ?
Jesus said if you love Him, you will obey Him. You may be genuinely doing what you think to be God's will but you might be totally off and actually in sin.
It's God's will for us to read His word and obey Him by faith, just like Abraham did.
At the same time, recognise that although you're unfaithfulness is practically guaranteed, God will always remain faithful to you if you are His chosen people.
May that knowledge lead us to worship.
Peace
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