Genesis 12 (The Call of Abraham)

Genesis 12 as the Foundational Chapter of Israel’s Story

Let's open up to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12, this is, I believe, one of the most important chapters in the Bible because the whole story of the children of Israel, which is obviously the theme of the Old Testament, it all can be traced back to this chapter.

This is where God calls Abram out of the world, out of paganism, and then he makes promises concerning Israel, but also a promise concerning Christ, because in the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul refers to this chapter as God first preaching the gospel to Abraham.

So how is the gospel being preached to Abraham? Well, we'll look at that, but let's follow along as we read through Genesis chapter 12.

Now the Lord had said to Abram,.

Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. 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.

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.

So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram.

To your descendants, I will give this land.

And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai, his wife,.

Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me. But they will let you live.

Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.

So it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.

He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

And Pharaoh called Abram and said,.

What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now, therefore, here is your wife. Take her and go your way.

So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

The Call of Abram and the Promise of a Great Nation

So here in the New King James Version, if you have that, the chapters broken up into two sections, verses one through nine is titled Promises to Abraham, and then verses 10 through 20 is titled Abraham in Egypt.

So we're gonna spend more time on the first 10 chapters or nine verses, sorry. But who knows where the gospel fits in here, right? This is God preaching the gospel to Abraham. How so? Where is that? Does anyone wanna take a guess?

Verses one, two, and three.

One, two, and three, yes, it is in one, two, or three. Obviously, it's somewhat cryptic because remember in chapter three, after the fall of man, remember God gave what was called the Proto-Evangelium, which people called the first gospel.

Well, it was the first promise of the Messiah back in chapter three. And what was the statement? That the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head? Right, now, how you get to that, from there to Jesus dying on the cross, obviously, God reveals more and more over time.

But Paul traced the gospel back to chapter 12. So let's go through this. Chapter one begins, or 12, begins with verse one. Now, the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

And then God tells Abram that he will make of him or make him into a great nation. And what nation is that?

Israel.

Okay, yeah, the nation of Israel. So he said last week, Abram means father, right? And then later God changes his name to Abraham, father of many nations. So the nation he's speaking of is Israel, but Abraham is also going to be the father of other nations.

For example, the Ishmaelites, the Moabites, and there's several nations that come from him. But the main nation, the vessel that God is using, that's what's happening. God is calling Abraham out of the world to use him as the father of this nation, Israel, which will be the vehicle in which God brings the Messiah into the world.

So here's a guy. What's special about Abram?

He has faith.

He has faith. Other than that, not a lot special. Here's a guy from a pagan family, living in a pagan land, and yet God chooses him and calls him out of the world. Let's go to Acts chapter seven. So God says, leave and go to a land that I will show you.

I think most of us know that this is the land of Canaan. Before it was called Israel, it was called Canaan. Some people call it Palestine. Here at this church, we're not big on Palestine.

Amen?

Amen.

Where do we trace that back to? The Philistines? Is that the same root word that it comes from? So yeah, we're gonna call it either Canaan, that's what it was originally from the Canaanites, but we call it Israel.

So there's a little question of the timeline. In chapter 11, Abraham leaves his homeland, and now he's being called in chapter 12, and it's somewhat questionable, the timeline there. So Acts 7 is gonna clear it up.

This is a Holy Ghost-inspired history, or summary of Israel's history from Stephen. So Acts 7, one says, "'Then the high priest said, are these things so?'. And verse two, "'And he,' and who is this speaking?

Stephen. Stephen said, brethren and fathers, listen. The glory of God appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. And he said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you.

Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him to this land in which you now dwell.'". That's Israel. "'And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on.

But even when Abraham had no child, he promised,' that is God promised, "'to give it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him.'". So I think it's helpful to look at this section here in Acts chapter 7, because like I said, the timeline in Acts 11 and 12, it's hard to tell exactly what's happening and when, but here we have a New Testament, Holy Ghost-inspired record of the timeline of Abraham's calling.

So he leaves Ur of the Chaldeans. We know he dwells in Haran for a time. His father dies, and then he goes from Haran to Canaan. So I know not everyone is gonna be able to see this, but if you look at this map of the Middle East, so Canaan is here, Egypt is here, Ur of the Chaldeans is there.

So it's like this far on the map, but that's a long ways to go by foot. So I tried to look how far that was. One website said it was like 4 ,900 miles. I'm pretty sure that's wrong. I think it's six to 700 miles, but does anyone know?

Does anyone have a note? I was having a hard time finding exactly how far that journey was. So I'm gonna guess six, but take that with a grain of salt. So Abraham comes out of this land, Babel, really, he's living in Babylon before it was Babylon.

So he goes to the land of Canaan. All right, go back to chapter 12. Just wanted to establish that timeline. The last week we looked at Genesis 11. So that's the origins of Babylon, right? Babel, Babylon, and then it became known as the corrupt world system.

So you sort of get a contrast. The world in chapter 11 with Babylon, and now Abram being called out of the world. God's people are gonna be separate from Babylon, the corrupt world system. All right, now as for the promise, look at verse two.

God says to Abram, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. Has that happened? Has Abraham's name been made great?

Yes.

Here we are 4 ,000 years later, and people all around the world still talk about him, still look to him. I mean, he's considered the father of the Jewish people, obviously. We view him as like the father of the faithful, and we still view him in that sense.

We're not physical descendants, but he's like a father figure to us spiritually. And then, of course, Islam, which I would say is a whole separate thing, but they would trace their lineage back to Abraham.

The point is Abraham is probably one of the greatest men in all of history.

Yeah.

He's also the father of the three main monotheistic religions.

Right.

Of course, we know that there is only one God, so other religions have, you know, false gods or many gods.

Right.

Yep.

So the three, as you said, the three great monotheistic religions, they're also called the Abrahamic religions. So Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, that's monotheism, three, the big three. Yeah, he's the father, the Abrahamic religion.

He's the father, considered the father of all three. So, but what's the promise? What's this chapter about? If you had to summarize this in one word or like two words, Genesis 12 is about the Abrahamic covenant, right?

That's what's being established here. So we call this the Abrahamic covenant or the covenant of promise because God is making promises to Abraham. So, yes.

And it's also unique because this is an unconditional covenant as opposed to conditional. This one's unconditional.

The Abrahamic Covenant and the Other Major Covenants

Let's talk about the covenants for a moment. So I say there's more than five covenants in the Bible, but there's five main covenants. We've already seen one before Genesis 12. So we've looked at what?

Adamic.

Well, I mean, the Adamic covenant, some church traditions view it as a covenant. We, I don't know. It's not explicitly taught. In the Bible, as far as explicit covenants, we've seen the Noahic covenant, okay?

Here, the Abrahamic covenant. At Mount Sinai, there's gonna be the Mosaic covenant or what we call the old covenant. Then the Davidic covenant. And then finally, what we're under now, the new covenant.

Most of the, I would say four of these covenants are unconditional. Correct me if I'm wrong. One is definitely conditional. The old covenant is definitely conditional because, hey, Israel, you obey, I'll bless you.

You disobey, I'll curse you. And that covenant was broken and it did come to an end. So the old covenant is definitely conditional. But this, we consider the Abrahamic covenant to be unconditional. Not because Abraham didn't have to do anything.

He did. What did he have to do? He had to believe. Well, he had to believe, but he actually had to do something. He had to get up and go, right? So when we say unconditional covenant, that doesn't mean the person that God is making the covenant with didn't have to do anything.

That's not really the point. It's that God is going to uphold his end no matter what that person does. I mean, God knows what he's gonna do, but this is a covenant that is going to endure. I would say the Abrahamic covenant is still in existence right now.

God has made promises to him and to his seed. And those promises still exist. They still apply and they're gonna be fulfilled even to a greater degree. Any questions on that, on the Abrahamic covenant?

So what has God promised him so far? Gonna make you a great nation. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna make your name great. And you'll be a blessing. What else does he say? Yeah, and he continues. So, and those things have happened.

Israel did become a nation. His name has been great. God did bless Abraham, the man without question, but there's more to it. So verse three, I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So today, just from what I've heard, this is often used as a proof text to support the modern day state of Israel. You've heard this, maybe you've said it.

I think I've probably said this. Anyone who blesses Israel, the modern day state of Israel will be blessed by God. Anyone who opposes them or curses them will be cursed by God. If I've heard that once, I've heard it a thousand times.

Like I said, I've probably said that. And I have, listen, I believe that's true in the sense that God still has a future for Israel and he is not going to allow them to be annihilated, even though a lot of people have tried.

So I think there is truth to that. However, let's take the Bible in context to the extent that the original context is not for the modern day state of Israel. The original context is applied to who? First, it's applied to Abraham, the individual.

So you have to start with that. So I will bless you, Abraham, and I will curse him who curses you. We're gonna see that with Pharaoh, okay? Pharaoh wasn't necessarily looking to persecute Abraham, but he did offend Abraham in a sense, and God plagued Pharaoh's house.

So God was fighting for Abraham. He was not going to allow him to be taken advantage of, et cetera. So the original context is for Abraham as an individual. What's maybe the secondary context? Abraham's descendants, right?

So that would be Isaac, Jacob, Jacob's children, the children of Israel. Now, did God bless them?

Absolutely.

Did God curse those who cursed Israel? In the Old Testament, I mean, you see God fighting for them, absolutely. So that definitely came to pass, but it's this statement made in verse three. This is where God first preached the gospel to Abraham.

It refers to this statement, verse three, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Okay, that specifically ties in with the gospel, but I'm just gonna set that aside and we'll come back to it at the end, because that's the most important point.

Abraham’s Faith, Wealth, and the Prosperity Message

I wanna, I don't wanna just brush over it, but let's just continue verse four. So Abram, after he received the promise, the first stage of the covenant, Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

Remember, Lot is who? In relation to Abraham, he is his nephew, but Lot's father died, so Abraham is almost like a father to Lot. So it says that Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Who knows how old Abraham lived to be?

Trivia question. Well, I should know the answer if I'm gonna ask, but wasn't it like 175? I don't know, I should have looked at that. It just popped into my mind. You know, we think of 75 as, yeah, but no, things are just getting started for him.

They obviously lived, this is still close enough to the flood where they lived a long, long time, not 900 years, but past 120. So it says in verse five, Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered.

Somebody look at chapter 25 and see how old he was.

We wanna figure that out.

Charlene, you wanna get that?

Okay.

So if he's in Haran and he's acquiring all these, you know, livestock possessions, people, he must've been in Haran for quite a while. And Abraham, we would say he's getting rich, okay? God is blessing him financially.

He really is like one of these ancient patriarchs. He had a lot of money and a lot of wealth.

Got an answer?

You're right, 175.

Oh, good, that was a good guess.

All right, 175, Abraham lived, 175, that's a good long life. So Abraham is acquiring great wealth and with that wealth, influence, okay? So, and we're gonna see that, because when he gets to Egypt, he gets an audience with Pharaoh.

And that's not gonna happen with the average shepherd. So that tells you Abraham is a man of great stature. I just wanna make a few comments about Abraham's great wealth, because there are a few figures in the Old Testament that are known for being kind of rich, powerful people.

I mean, forget about the kings for a moment. Obviously they were rich and powerful, but name two or three non-kings that were rich and powerful.

Job.

Okay, Job. So Abraham, Job, and some of the judges also had great, they weren't kings, but they're sort of like that. But you have these men in the Old Testament that were rich and powerful. So here's why I bring that up.

Nine times out of 10, when you hear a preacher today in the 21st century preaching some sort of prosperity message, nine times out of 10, they always use Old Testament verses. They don't use the New Testament for that doctrine.

They have to go back to the Old Testament and look at, hey, look at God. When God blessed Abraham, he got rich. So that's what they have to do, because in the New Testament, do you see any of the saints being rich and powerful?

No, it's usually the opposite. Part of that is because Christians were persecuted, so it would have been hard to be rich and powerful. But really it has to do with the covenants. In the Old Testament, the focus was more on earthly things.

And the Old Covenant, if you obey, I will bless you. So God did want to prosper them. In the New Testament, the promises and the blessings are more spiritual, okay? Old Testament blessings are more material.

New Testament blessings are more spiritual. Have you noticed that or heard that before? So

That's good because spiritual things last forever and material things are very temporary.

Right, right. Here's a verse that's somewhat tied into this. 1 Timothy 6, 5 talks about men of corrupt mind who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Is there anything wrong with Abraham being rich?

Not at all.

Is there anything wrong with money?

It's like too much fun.

Yeah.

In 1 Timothy, Paul made that statement. It's the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. And people usually shorten that down to say, money is the root of all evil. Well, that's not what it says.

So God is blessing Abraham with great wealth and there's nothing wrong with that. So has God blessed people with great wealth? Yes, nothing wrong with it. It's the love of money that's wrong. Okay, just wanted to get that out there because Abraham is sometimes used as a, him and Job are sort of used for this prosperity message.

Any questions on that before we move on?

All right.

And by the way, Paul said godliness with contentment. That's great gain. So you can be perfectly happy without a lot, but if God blesses you with a lot, that's fine too. All right, so you're in chapter 12, right?

They come to the land of Canaan, verse six. Abraham passed through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the Terebinth tree of Morah and the Canaanites were in the land. We learned a couple of weeks ago, the Canaanites were descendants of what son of Noah?

Ham, right? Ham and then Canaan. And remember, there's a curse on that line and there's a blessing on the line of Shechem. So Abraham's descendants are gonna be blessed. The Canaanites have this curse on them.

Sometimes, this is something I hear a lot online. Maybe you never hear about it and that's probably good if you don't. I hear a lot of people today talking about generational curses. Who's heard of this?

So someone is having a lot of bad luck. Things aren't going right. Some Christians today wonder, oh, there's these generational curses in the Bible. Is there a curse on our family? Listen, that is in the Old Testament.

That is not a New Testament concept. And I would argue that Christ's death on the cross eliminates all that. But if you hear someone talking about generational curses today, I don't think that that's a thing.

But there was a curse on the Canaanites. Verse seven, then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants, I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

So this is Abram's way of worshiping God. He didn't go to church and sing hymns. He built an altar, offered a sacrifice. But you see that God says God appeared to him. So we would say that Abram is receiving divine revelation.

Okay, he is receiving special revelation from God. Typically, we view Abram as a patriarch, but he really could be considered a prophet since God is speaking directly to him. Verse eight says, then he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel.

And he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed going on still toward the south. Does anyone have a different word than south?

Someone has to have the word Negev.

Does anyone?

Yeah, okay.

Okay, so most modern trans, I checked this out. Most modern translations, this isn't really a big deal, but I don't know, I find this interesting. So just spend a second on it. Most modern translations will say he headed toward the Negev, which is a transliteration.

Who knows the difference between a translation and a transliteration? So a transliteration is when you take the word from Hebrew and Greek and just rip it from the Hebrew and bring it directly into English.

A translation is when you use a completely different word, but it's more clear, right? So Negev, here's the problem. Does the Hebrew say Negev? Yeah, that's what it says. The problem is talk to the guy on the street.

Hey, what's the Negev? Who knows what that is? Like, unless you're looking at a study Bible, nobody has any earthly idea what the Negev is. So the King James, New King James translates it. This is a translation and it just says south.

So to me, that's more helpful because we actually know what south means. So all that to say this, Abram is headed towards south Canaan. So that would be, and the Bible later, it was known as southern Judah.

So that's the direction he's going. And verse 10 says, now there was a famine in the land. So he's headed towards where? Where did God call Abraham to go? Where did God call Abraham to go? Canaan, the land.

He's headed in that direction, right? South Judah. Well, now he takes a detour. Now there's a reason why he takes a detour, but he still takes it. Where does he go?

Egypt.

It's pretty well established that in the Bible, Egypt is symbolic. For what?

Bad.

Bad, yes. Yes, that's true.

Egypt is symbolic for the world. So he didn't go back to Babel or Babylon or Mesopotamia. So at least we can say that. Should he have gone, here's the question. Should Abraham have taken this detour into Egypt?

No.

Probably not. Bad things happen. God made him a promise. There's no way God was going to allow Abram to die, right? No way. God promised him, I'm gonna make you a great nation. But now he's worried about his life.

Oh, there's a famine. I might die. I need to go to Egypt. So I think he's now out of the will of God. Okay, verse 10 says, now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there for the famine was severe in the land.

And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai, his wife, and Sarai means princess, my lady or my princess. Sarai means just princess. So she's very beautiful, right? And now what's he worried about?

He says to her, indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore, the Egyptians are gonna see you and how beautiful you, and they're gonna wanna kill me. So honey, let's do this.

When we get to Egypt, we'll tell everyone that you're my sister. We won't tell them that you're my wife. We'll say, you're my sister. So what happens? Well, nothing good. Basically, Pharaoh takes Sarai.

He sees that she's beautiful and he presumably takes her to go into his harem, right? Now, here's the thing. Every message I've heard on this, people always say the same thing. Abraham did what here? He lied.

Okay.

Now, was he deceiving Pharaoh to a certain degree?

Yes.

So if you call it a lie, okay, I get it. But why wasn't it totally a lie?

Because Sarah was a relative.

She was his half-sister, okay? Obviously, things were different back then, but yes, she actually is his sister. People get on Abraham because he lied. I don't think that's the major sin here. The problem, I'm not gonna call it a sin, but the problem with Abraham, he's not trusting in God.

Same thing. He shouldn't have gone to Egypt because he would have been okay going to Canaan, but he's worried about his life. Now he's worried about his life, they're gonna kill me. He's not trusting in God's protection.

So God made a promise. We say he believed, he had great faith, and that's true, but was Abraham flawed? Did he lack faith or he wasn't fully trusting in God?

Well, his faith grew, too. Right, yeah. Perhaps he learned from these mistakes and learned to trust more.

Right, so we see that Abraham is a great man, but he's flawed, okay? I think that's the message that comes across. So long story short, Pharaoh gets upset. He takes her into his house, and then God starts to plague Pharaoh, and somehow Pharaoh figures it out, right?

What have you done to me? Why have you done this? And then he sends Abraham away. So what's the point of the story, Abraham's trip to Egypt? It can be seen as a testing of Abraham's faith. So while he was a great man of faith, he still has flaws, and that's still true today.

There are men you know, maybe you are a person of great faith, but we all have our flaws. And when someone makes a mistake, here's maybe a more important application. Let's say there's someone you know that they are a strong Christian, but then you see that they really mess up.

They make a really bad decision. Don't write them off, okay? We shouldn't do that because even Abraham made some pretty bad decisions. So we see he's flawed. Also, the point of this story, it can be seen as a precursor to the much larger, more significant Egyptian experience that his descendants are gonna have, right?

With the Exodus. So Abraham goes to Egypt. He comes out 400 years later or so, same thing's gonna happen with his descendants.

They go to Egypt.

So Genesis 12 highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of Abraham as a foundational figure and it sets the stage for future events in the biblical narrative. Okay, let's go back to, actually let's turn to Galatians 3 and we'll close here.

But as you're turning to Galatians 3, let me just read Genesis 12, 3. Because again, this is the verse that was God preaching the gospel to Abraham. Genesis 12, 3, God tells Abram, I will bless those who bless you, curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So how is the world blessed from Abraham?

The prophets and the Messiah came to his feet.

I would say Christianity has been a blessing upon this world, right? Those nations that have accepted Christianity where there's been a high number of Christians in that nation, great blessings in the Western world, no question about it.

Well, Abraham's the start of all of this. So in that way, the world has been blessed because Christ came through him, through his line. But really when Jesus comes back and Jesus takes the throne and he rules and reigns on earth, that's when the earth will truly be blessed.

But it deals with Christ. Look at Galatians 3, 8. This is what Paul says. He says, and the scripture foreseeing God, that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, he preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying, in you, all the nations shall be blessed.

So what's Paul quoting in Galatians?

Genesis 12, three.

Yeah, Genesis 12, three. And Paul here is teaching, maybe the bigger point, Paul is teaching in Galatians, the doctrine of justification by faith. How does this tie in? How does this tie into the gospel and salvation by faith?

One simple reason. Remember the unconditional covenant? Abraham really didn't have, it's not that he was such a great man or that he did anything wonderful up until this point. No, God chose him. It was an act of grace.

Can we agree with that? God chose him, act of grace. What did Abraham have to do? Really, he just had to trust in God. All he had to do is believe the promises of God. And that's all a person does. That's all a person has to do today, to receive God's blessing, salvation, and eternal life.

You really are saved by grace alone through faith. All you have to do is believe the promise that God has sent Christ into the world. He made an atonement. He's dealt with sin. Do you have to join a church and go through the sacraments and do good works and give so much now?

Now, yes, it's good to do that. We should do that, but we're saved simply by believing. And that's really the covenant of promise. That's how it ties in with the gospel. So in conclusion, if anyone watching this is never trusted in the gospel by faith, it really is that simple.

Sometimes in life we do, like Abraham, we take that unfortunate detour. Who in your life has taken that detour into Egypt? Sometimes you do that even after you accept Christ. But if we simply trust in the Lord, he will lead us into the promised land.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for that message, that message of grace, that you will continue to lead us and guide us in this promise that you've made. It can never be broken. Even when we sin, your grace is greater than our sin.

We thank you for that. We thank you for saving us. And again, if there's someone who watches later on, who's never trusted in the gospel, the gospel of grace, we pray that they would do that even now, and we ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.