Gen 12:1-13:13

Review:
Line of Cain vs Line of Seth (Noah)
70 Nations


Genesis 11:31–32 (ESV) — 31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.


Genesis 12:1–4 (ESV) — 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.


• This passage begins with a "waw" disjunctive, meaning "now" -- it introduces an independent circumstantial clause
• So, how does chapter 11 end?
• Probably, the wording is suggesting something that happened prior to the event or sometime in chapter 11
• Acts 7:2-3 (NIV) To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.' 
• When we put these verses together, what do we learn? God appeared to Abram and told him to leave. His family accompanies him, possible because of Haran's (Terah's brother) death
• It says Terah took, but since the command came to Abram, Terah probably responded to it by going with him
• Heb 11:8 (ESV) By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
• God calls Abram to do what three things?
• Leave his country
• Ur was probably in its golden age when Abram left
• Leave his people
• God did not tell him that his family could not travel with him
• Leave his father
• So the call occurred prior but when did Abram leave?
• Abram born when Terah is 70
• Terah lives another 135 years to 205
• Abram leaves Haran at 75 (still 60 years before Terah would die). He would live 25 years without a son or Father. And then 75 more years with his son Isaac
• And what does God promise? Seven-fold promise:
1. Make into a great nation
2. Blessed
3. Name great
4. Will be a blessing
5. Others blessed (if blessed)
6. Others cursed (if cursed)
7. All peoples on earth blessed through you (Jesus)
• Four of the promises use the word blessing
• Is this a conditional or unconditional promise?
• It is unconditional
• This is the Abrahamic covenant
• APPLICATION:
• Do others see us as a blessing or a pain in the neck?
• How can we be a blessing to those around us?

Gen 12:5-9 (ESV) 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.



• While verse 5 suggests Abram took Lot, verse 4 makes it clear that Lot chose to go with him, hence now the use of the word "took."
• In verse 7, God appears a second time to Abram, why now?
• Because he completed the task
• "He arrived"
• He is in the geographical center of the land
• This is the second promise, the land covenant, what is promised and when?
• How would you respond?
• It is not here and now, so who cares, or, it gives you a posterity
• Why not give the land now?
• Gen 15:16 (ESV) And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
• In mercy, he was giving the Amorites time to repent, but their sin will actually reach a point where God will judge them
• Also, look up Heb 11: 8-10, 13-16.  Abram is okay with being a pilgrim
• Heb 11:8-10, 13-16 (ESV) By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
  
  13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
• How does Abram accept living as a pilgrim?
• This wasn't his retirement home
• This life isn't his reward
• Abram (for all his faults) had an eternal perspective
• 2 Cor 4:16-18 (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
• APPLICATION: How do we view life? From an eternal perspective or a "here and now" physical perspective? Is there any part of how we live that is eternal? (That is what people who please God do)
• What is significant of Abram arriving in the Negev?
• He walked the land from one end to the other
• He symbolically took possession
• Example: I've walked our new property imagining where things will be.  The application is to walk it in worship and pray for how God can use his property for his glory
• APPLICATION: 
• Are we still waiting for God's voice, because maybe we haven't finished the task he has already given us to do?
• What are we living for? How are we using our days as pilgrims? What does it mean to live as a pilgrim or with an eternal perspective?


Genesis 12:10–20 (ESV) —
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.


• Parts of this story are repeated a number of times in the OT. What are some other similar stories?
• The OT and going to Egypt. The Nile provided a degree of protection against famine, although not complete
• The passing off of a wife as a sister, a half-truth
• There is some archaeologic (Hurrian culture) evidence of a sister-wife relationship that was considered more secure than just a wife relationship
• Clearly, Pharaoh is not aware of that, nor does it appear that Abram made Pharaoh aware of the wife part
• God's intervention to protect
• The problem is best summarized how?
• Fear
• Our great man of faith is not yet the person he will be
• There are decision that can change your life, irrevocable decisions. And then there are decisions that chastise us. And finally, decisions that God is his grace gives mercy
• The irrevocable ones are usually associate with direct disobedience
• Fear can go either way (Israelites in the desert fearing the giants and disobeying the command to go and take the land)
• Note: Historically, this story has been used to disprove the bible or point out errors in it. In this case, the domestication of camels which people believed occurred much later in history
• Apparently recent archaelogical evidence has shown that camels were domesticated much earlier than previous thought
• The same thing happen prior to the 50s in regard to the book of Acts, until archaeological evidence proved Luke right on every supposed error
• How does the story end?
• God blesses Abram ultimately
• Although, this is probably where Hagar enters their family as Sarah's servant
• APPLICATION: We can't survive without God's mercy, but we should not assume it either.

Gen 13:1-13 (ESV) So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

2  Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7  and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.  9  Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left." 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.



• Abram and Lot decide to separate, what is interesting about the direction Lot chooses?
• He could have chosen north or south.  (These people were eastern-oriented, not nothern like us, and so right or left would be north or south)
• Places they had been
• Still in the promised land
• He chooses east
• Out of the promised land
• On the surface, it looked very good, like Eden
• There was great evil
• Note:  Adam and Eve go east out of the garden (3:24; 4:16).  The people of Babel, prior to be scattered, also migrated east (11:2).  East is somewhat symbolic of those who turn against God
• When Sodom is destroyed, what is Lot's financial situation
• He has nothing left but his wife and two daughters
• He had so much before that he and Abram could not live in the same area. After living in Sodom, he ends up with nothing
• APPLICATION:
• We need to look at more than just the financial aspects of a decision, we must also include the spiritual
• God may still lead you into a financially better situation, but make sure you have sought him before making that decision
• Example: I filled up 20 sheets of paper and many hours of prayer before I left the AF.  My final decision was essentially a spiritual one, and it also turned out to be better financial
• Example: More recently, I chose a job that pays thousands less, but I chose it for a number of reasons, one of which was to have a witness among others (in an office), as opposed to working out of my house
• Abram and Lot represent two types of believers
• One: He has failures but is single minded and trusts God
• Second: Double minded believer who is also carnal