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GENESIS

Chapter 12

History:

The previous chapter gives us a glimpse of the great lineage of the founding
families of Israel. Abram was the 10th generation from Noah. He was born through
the line of Noah’s son Shem.

We are going to see that the Jewish nation was not ‘born’, they were a creation.
Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldees--very much a pagan society.

At the time Abram lived in Ur, which we believe to be southern Iraq today, about
220 miles southeast of Baghdad. It covered approximately 150 acres with an
estimated population of 24,000.

Its believed that Ur was established as a city some 500 years before the time of
Abram. It was a wealthy and prosperous city and many valuable treasures have been
discovered there including elaborate jewelry.

There was a very sophisticated system of government and it boasted busy trade
routes.

The people of Ur enjoyed a high standard of living. Writing was in common use.
Schools trained people for religious, commercial, and government work. The
educational system included highly skilled mathematics, language, geography,
botany, and art.

The city had streets, a drainage system, and two story homes with an average of
10-20 rooms. These were far from of the primitive people some would have us
believe. They were an extremely sophisticated society.

Abram’s father, Terah, according to Joshua 24:2 was an idol worshipper. Jewish
tradition refers to Terah as an idol-maker or one who hand crafted idols.

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Genesis 12

Background:

NOTE: To this point Scripture has mainly reported events:

A. Creation
B. The Fall
C. The Flood
D. The Tower of Babel

Now we will begin to focus on individuals who are to be God’s earthly channels,
who would convey God’s desire to bless humankind.
The Abrahamic Covenant will repeat 10 times:

6 times to Abram/Abraham
2 times to Isaac
2 times to Jacob

There are 2 types of Biblical Covenants: Conditional and Unconditional.

A. *A conditional covenant = God makes a promise to man conditioned by “if you

will than I will” where He then promises to bring about the covenantal promises.

i.e. *A marriage covenant is conditional covenant-- Each partaker promises to be

continuously faithful

B. *An unconditional covenant=a sovereign act of God whereby He fulfills the

covenantal promises made with an individual regardless of man’s obedience or
disobedience.
i.e. The covenant with Abraham was unconditional.
{The circumcision wasn’t a “Condition” it was a ‘sign’. Abrahamic Covenant was
not given to physical Israel, but to the spiritually elect of Israel only.
Circumcision was the ‘sign’ that one was a member of the Spiritual family of
Israel.}
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Genesis 12

Verses:

1-3 Abram, later known as Abraham, was called by God at age 65; Think of the
inner turmoil he had to have experienced being called out of his comfort zone at
that age:
A. His country

B. His friends

C. His family

D. His status

God had to remove him totally from the idolatrous influences in his life.

NOTE: We can not commit to God and continue to flirt with the idolatrous
influences in our lives. We must hold loosely to those earthly things we hold
dear--II Cor. 4:18. Once we renounce those influences, we can not continue to
‘entertain’ them or chances are we will fall back into our old, comfortable
patterns.

(2) “go to the land I will show you”…The call of God

demands a response on our part.

NOTE: **God wants Abram (and us) to learn to rely entirely on HIM.

This is not an open-ended promise. A covenant is an agreement whereby BOTH

parties have an obligation. *See page 2)

**Abram’s obligation (and ours) is OBEDIENCE.

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Genesis 12

Verses:

(2) The reward for that obedience:

A. Become a great/famous nation…The Jewish people
B. Name/reputation will be great.

In the natural:
1. Deserting his compatriots by leaving Ur he LOST respect; a blot on his
reputation.

2. Having no children he feared his

family name would disappear forever.

(His obedience allowed him to become the

father of the Jews, Arabs and Christians)

C. Through Abram ALL the families of the earth

would be blessed. Galatians 3:8

1. Through him came the world’s greatest blessing—

Yeshua/Jesus/Our Salvation

*Typology
Relating true stories from the Old Testament using them as
allegories foreshadowing Christ and the New Testament.

*Abram/Abraham is a *typology of Christ--he was one man called to be the channel

of God’s saving grace to the known world.

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Chapter 12

Verses:

(3) D. …”Bless those who bless him…”

1. He never forsakes his own

Hebrews 13:5b--for he hath said, I will never leave

thee, nor *forsake thee.

*Forsake = leave helpless; totally abandoned; leave in distress

NOTE: Further study of the Old Testament indicates that God

cursed those nations who made it difficult for Israel to reach the Promised Land.

Jer. 48:42
 NOTE: This was the first revealing of “The Plan” but the “deal”
will not be “sealed” until Chapter 17.

COVENANT
Agreement where 2 parties, each having equal
responsibility, make a definite commitment each to
the other.
*SEE PAGE 2*

The covenant was not ‘cut’ until Chap. 17 because Abram was not yet ready to
commit totally. God still needed to prepare him. This was an “everlasting”
Covenant which required GREAT faith…God needed to build/”exercise” Abram’s faith
muscle. God is about to give Abram’s character a real overhaul. His character was
about to undergo a fine-tuning. I Tim. 4:8

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Genesis 12

Verses:

4-9 The 2nd call came some 15 years after he left Ur. For that 10 year span God
was SILENT. Why was He silent? Because Abram had compromised by bringing his
family along…for that infraction, he paid the price…
**Luke 14:26

He was to LEAVE his father’s house (AND his father) for that error in judgment
Abram lost 10 years of communication with God.
GOD WAS EERILY SILENT!

**Word “hate” in Luke 14:26

translates as ‘love less’

NOTE: As long as Abram still had the security and the influence of his
pagan father, he found it easy to ignore God’s call, but God waited patiently--God
knew Abram’s heart/inner man…God knew this would take time—unlike US, Abram had no
specific guidelines.
Romans 4:15; Romans 5:13

“Lot went with him..” -Abram would live to regret that decision. Taking people
against God’s specific instruction became a burden…a needless burden.

NOTE: WE often create our own burdens!

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Genesis 12

Verses:

(5) Jewish tradition on how Lot became an orphan: Abram set fire to the
warehouse where his father kept his stock of idols. Haran, Lot’s father & Abram’s
brother, died trying to put that fire out, rescuing the inventory. So from that
day on Abram felt responsible for Lot having to grow up without benefit of a
father. He took on the role of Lot’s father.

(6) Near SheKEM…Abram learned his lesson, he did not “live” there…last time he
was side-tracked by his devotion to his father--which appeared to have been
greater than his devotion to God--but NOT this time. He was learning to keep his
eye on the goal.

(7) The Lord appears to him there. God honors him by reaffirming his promise.

NOTE: Notice in verse 1 & verse 7 the verbs change. Vs 1= “SHOW”

the land Vs7=GIVE the land. A Definite sign of progress!

(8-9) In verses 7 & 8 Abram builds 2 altars demonstrating he has made the
transition away from idolatry TO worshipping the LIVING GOD.

(Turning from and turning toward…

sounds like Repentance to me).

NOTE: This act marks the beginning of his `ministry’ bearing witness to his
pagan neighbors. This amounts to a `public profession’ of faith, now these people
are within their rights to begin to hold Abram accountable.

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Genesis 12

Some Lessons learned in first 9 verses:

A. God is patient with man

1. He fully understands our weaknesses,
our struggles & our problems
a. He was patient during that transition period--He
wanted obedience & knew it was best for Abram--
but at times, like ALL good parents, He lets us
learn the hard way.

b. Knowing God is patient leads us

into a false rationalization.
i.e. I must be OK since I haven’t reaped the
WRATH of God.
Not so! Sodom did not reap God’s wrath for 120
years!!

B. Manipulation will not work with God!

1. We will always pay the price for disobedience, even
partial disobedience.

C. God still speaks to us today….By His Word.

1. We must always evaluate our decisions
in the light of Scripture, the only reliable source of
counsel. An advantage Abram did not have during
those long 10 years of SILENCE.
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Genesis 12

Verses: ABRAM’S FIRST MAJOR TEST

10-16 “And there was a famine in the land” of Canaan. This is the first
famine on record, at the time Canaan was the most fertile land on earth. God made
it desolate for the wickedness of the Canaanites who lived there.

*Severe famine = Judgment (designed to make

life desperate for the wicked living there).
Matt. 5:45

God could have & would have shown Abram how capable He is to
take care of those in His care.

1. It appears Abram had never lived through anything like

that but being a natural born leader he appears to leap
into his ‘take control’ role. He felt responsible for all
the lives in his care.

NOTE: “TESTING”- Greater & more frequent obstacles come into

the life of the believer once the decision is made for Christ.

Crisis of Faith = those tests which occur that either drive

us closer to God OR push us further away. One never remains
in the same place after a crisis of faith. We do move in one
direction or the other.

2. He certainly must have suffered pressure from his party. Leadership

qualities will always rise to the top. When circumstances become difficult,
people are
instinctively drawn to the natural leader in the group.

God had promised to bless/benefit him, but all he could see looming in front of
him was the problem.

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Genesis 12

Verses:

(10 Cont’d) God had promised to bless/benefit him, but at the moment
all he could see looming in front of him was the problem.

NOTE: We tend to take matters into our own hands, especially

when we feel our `needs’ aren’t being met & also when
 we feel the pressure of others. Abram was experiencing this
it also appears that he failed to consult God on his decision.

(11) Sarai (Sar-I) = Princess

Scripture gives the impression she is strong willed,
outspoken woman for her time & culture. This 65 year old
woman was giving up all her security to go who-knows- where…
Abram did not have a lot of details for her.
Coming from a mountainous region her complexion was fresh & fair compared to
her Egyptian counterparts. Egyptian women had sallow complexions, prone to sun-
damage. They would also use a lot of make-up in its most primitive form. Black
eye makeup made of lead or soot, became more popular. Even in ancient times,
tattoos were extremely common. Makeup was an important part of the ancient
Egyptian culture.

NOTE: Hebrew tradition states: Sarai was well past 65 years old at
this time but was still breathtakingly beautiful!

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Genesis 12

Verses:

12-13 Abram was willing to sacrifice Sarai’s honor in order to

save his own life. She was his half-sister -(Gen. 20:12),
However, once the marriage took place it voided the
brother/sister relationship.

A. His fear was REAL--normal

B. Instead of trusting God to work it out he, again, relied on his own
resourcefulness-
Prov. 3:5-6

C. He also encouraged Sarai to sin.

D. He is best known for his faith, yet we see evidence of his weaknesses all
throughout his biography.

14-16 The Pharaoh rewarded Abram handsomely for the strikingly beautiful Sarai.
These were superior animals, known for multiple births - so these gifts would soon
increase Abram’s wealth rapidly!!
Sarai then taken to the Pharaoh’s harem. Before
being allowed into the Pharaoh’s private bed chamber she
underwent a lengthy purification period--up to one year.
God used this time to good advantage, by protecting Sarai &
plaguing Pharaoh into repentance.
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Genesis 12

Verses:

17-20 In spite of Abram’s weakness God brought judgment on

Pharaoh. The Pharaoh immediately put the pieces
together…his punishment from God came as ‘preventative
medicine’--to prevent him from sinning further.

(18) How humiliating!! Having your character critiqued by a

PAGAN!! Has that ever happened to you? An unbeliever
questioning your anti-Christian behavior?? The Pharaoh
returned Sarai to her husband UNDEFILED. This really hurt
Abram’s testimony!

NOTE: It is very important to establish that the Pharaoh had NO

PHYSICAL CONTACT with Sarai. It appears that shortly
thereafter this incident, Isaac was conceived so it is
imperative that his parentage unimpeachable/impossible to
discredit.

(19-20) Amazingly, Abram & his entourage left Egypt unharmed.

He got to keep the entire generous dowry and even secured
a safe escort out of Egypt. That is such a God-thing!! “If God
be for us WHO can be against us”--Rom 8:31

(430 years later, we see a similar scene)

**See Acts 7-Stephen’s capsule version of Hebrew history