Genesis 12. Abram Journeys to Egypt

Abram Journeys to Egypt

• We get Abram from the Hebrew Avram (אַבְרָם) translated to the Greek Abram (Ἀβράμ) (Greek had no “v” at the time). Abram (אַבְרָם), means “exalted father,” even though his wife Sarai couldn’t have kids (yet).

 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.”

•  God gives Abram a sevenfold promise (7 meaning completeness)

1. I will make you into a great nation.
2. I will bless you.
3. I will make your name great.
   • Contrast this from those at Babel trying to make “a name for ourselves”
4. You will be a blessing.
5. I will bless those who bless you.
6. The one who dishonors (or curses) you I will curse.
7. 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.

• Some say that Abram taking Lot was disobedience, and the punishment was that Lot became a source of difficulty. However 2 Peter 2:7 calls Lot righteous.

When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.

• We will see Shechem again. It is where Jacob builds an altar, the city his sons destroy because of Dinah’s rape, where Joseph is buried, and where Joshua makes a covenant with Israel.
• Some say it is the same town as Sychar in the New Testament- where Jesus met the woman at the well.

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. 

• I wonder how God appeared to Abram

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 is associated with tents and altars. He is a sojourner and a worshiper.
• Bethel בֵּית־אֵל (Bet-El) means “House of God.”

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. 

• Abram was not called to go to Egypt. God could have provided for him if he carried on.

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.” 

• Abram ‘lies’ to Pharaoh that Sarai is his sister…even though technically she is his (half) sister.

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.

• Sarai was rockin’ it at 65 having princes praise her of her beauty to Pharaoh and Abram fearing her safety

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 immediately see God act on his promise to Abram even though Abram was deceptive and didn’t ultimately trust God. It is a bit shameful that Pharaoh had to ‘scold’ him for lying.
• This story is a “mini-Exodus”.

Abraham (Genesis 12)	Israel (Exodus)
Goes to Egypt because of famine.	Goes to Egypt because of famine.
Pharaoh takes Sarah.	Pharaoh enslaves Israel.
God sends plagues on Pharaoh’s household.	God sends the ten plagues on Egypt.
Pharaoh sends Abram away.	Pharaoh sends Israel away.
Abram leaves Egypt with great wealth.	Israel leaves Egypt with silver, gold, and livestock.

• Enjoy my “map” I tried to draw of his journey – notice how he went up and around “the fertile crescent” instead of straight through the desert