GLENN PEASE BIBLE STUDY

THE MOST HONORED MAN IN HISTORY
A COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 12 THROUGH 25
Written and edited By Pastor Glenn Pease

PREFACE
This commentary is designed to save time in getting basic understanding of the text on the life of Abraham. I have read many authors and have taken what I deem to be the best in explaining the text and quoted them under the appropriate verse. I have given credit where possible, but in many cases I do not have the name of the author. If you recognize the author please e-mail me at glenn_p86@yahoo.com and I will be glad to add the author's name to the quote. I have taken as many ideas as I could find and numbered them under each verse. If you have a great idea that is not listed, send it to me, and I will consider adding it with your name. This is a work in progress, and I welcome any comments that will make it a more useful tool in explaining and applying the Word of God.


INTRODUCTION
God does not choose the way we choose. Almost all that God does in his plan of salvation would be rejected by any planning committee of humans, for it is not logical according to the human mind. God tends to choose unlikely people to accomplish his purpose in history, and Abraham is a prime example. His resume would have been hurled into the circular file immediately by any human hiring agent. First of all his background made him an unlikely candidate for serving the one true God. He lived among a pagan people who worshipped other gods. We are told this plainly in Joshua 24:2 "Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods." Abraham grew up in a home that practiced idolatry. That should have been three strikes against him from the start. But we need to remember that a converted enemy can become your best friend. Paul was an enemy of the Church and persecuted those who named the name of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus chose him to be the Apostle of the Gentiles to found the church of Christ among the pagans of the world. He was an enemy who became the best friend of the church and of the Lord Jesus.
God has a delight in using the most unlikely people to accomplish his will, for by doing so he magnifies his own wisdom and love. Paul writes to the Corinthians in I Cor. 1:26-31, " Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” Applying this to Abraham means that when we praise and honor this choice of God, the focus is to be on the wisdom and love of God and not just on the man he chose. He was just a man and as we study his life we see he made many mistakes. He was far from perfect, but God chose him and used him for his own glory, and we are all blest because of what God did through this one man. God's plan from the start is not based on human merit, but on divine mercy and grace. Someone told this story that fits Abraham and many others whom God has chosen. "A young black boy down south years ago, wanted to join a church. So the deacons were examining him. They asked, "How did you get saved?" His answer was, "God did His part, and I did my part." They thought there was something wrong with his doctrine, so they questioned further, "What was God's part, and what was your part?" His explanation was a good one. He said, "God's part was the saving, and my part was the sinning. I done run from Him as fast as my sinful heart and rebellious legs could take me. He done took out after me till He run me down." This boy understood grace." Paul was literally run down by Jesus and knocked to the ground and made a slave of Christ. He was arresting Christians, but Jesus arrested him, and he became the most famous church planter and missionary in the Church.
What Paul is to the New Testament Abraham is to the Old Testament. There is more about his life than any other person in the Old Testament, and in the great faith chapter of Heb. 11 there is more on him than any other. He is the main character of the Old Testament, for out of him came all the rest of the main characters of the Old Testament. He is also the main character because he is the only man in history to be called the friend of God, and not just once but three times in the Bible. II Chron. 20:7, "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?" Isa. 41:8, "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,.." James 2:23, "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend."
From the point of view of a Jewish Rabbi, Abraham is to the Old Testament what Jesus is to the New Testament. He said this in a message to his congregation where he used a popular note about Jesus to refer to Abraham: “Guess what, folks? It's that time of year again! It is the time of year when we celebrate the birth and life of one of the most important men in the history of the world. He is a man whose entire life was devoted to helping the rest of mankind. A man who preached love and kindness wherever he went. And a man who, even now, thousands of years after his death, continues to inspire devoted followers across the globe to have faith in the Lord, and to live a G-dly existence. I was driving to a doctor recently, when I saw the perfect billboard — a billboard that describes this great man perfectly: HE WAS BORN IN A STABLE. HE NEVER WENT TO COLLEGE. HE NEVER HELD POLITICAL OFFICE. YET NOBODY INFLUENCED THE HISTORY OF MANKIND MORE THAN THIS ONE SINGLE MAN.
Yes, the one man who has given more to our civilization than anyone else was Abraham. The first Jew on earth to recognize the one G-d and to publicize His name, spreading monotheism and absolute values and morals across the entire world. Without Abraham’s courageous and daring undertaking, seeking out the Truth of the one G-d in a world full of paganism and hedonism, none of the other monotheistic religions would be here today. (Okay, so maybe he wasn’t born in a stable.)” Dr. Amos Miller, also a Rabbi, in his book Abraham Friend of God begins with Isa. 51:1-2 and then writes, “In truth, throughout the ages, Jews, and indeed all decent human beings influenced by the Jewish Bible, have looked to the life of the patriarch Abraham for guidance and inspiration.” He goes on to say that not only is he the father of the Jewish people, “but also the spiritual father of all who accept the concept of ethical monotheism, of a God who not only created the world but demands ethical and moral living from his human creatures.”

The book of Genesis starts with God making order out of chaos. Then man falls and disorder again takes over as sin multiplies. God has to work again to restore order and Abraham is a key hero in this labor to restore it. All of history is about people who add to the disorder of life or to the order of life. God does not stop trying for order. If some fail he moves on with others, for he never gives up trying. Satan is ever working for confusion and disorder, but God’s plan is always for order. The Bible reveals heaven to be a place of perfect order, and the more we have of it in time the closer we are to heaven. There is no disorder in God. God chose just one man to begin a new world with new people and a new order. One is always enough for God to do a marvelous thing. He chose one to be a blessing for all. It is the focus that often leads to the most widespread blessing. Those who focus on some specific subject become a blessing to all the world. You cannot focus on everything. You need to eliminate many things and focus on the one thing to reach a goal. Pink comments, "The passage for our present consideration introduces us to the third great section of Genesis. As its name intimates, Genesis is the book of Beginnings. Its literary structure is true to its title for the whole of its contents center around three beginnings. First there is the beginning of the human race in Adam; Second, there is the new beginning on the post-diluvian earth in Noah and his sons; Third, there is the beginning of the Chosen Nation in Abram. Thus in Genesis we have three great "beginnings," and therefore as three is the number of the Godhead, we see how in this first book of the Divine Library, the very autograph of Deity is stamped on the opening pages of Holy Writ."

Abraham was born somewhere around 2000 B. C. and apparently was raised in Ur, which was the big city in lower Mesopotamia. In fact, many say it was the greatest commercial capital of the world at that time. It was far advanced in civilization. F. B. Meyer gives us this account of it: "The sons of Ham pushed southwards, over the fertile plains of Chaldea, where, under the lead of the mighty Nimrod, they built towns of baked clay; reared temples, of which the ruins remain to this day; and cultivated the arts of civilized life to an extent unknown elsewhere. They are said to have been proficient in mathematics and astronomy; in weaving, metalworking, and gem engraving; and to have preserved their thoughts by writing on clay tablets. Now, it so happened, that into the midst of this Hamite colonization there had come a family of the sons of Shem. This clan, under the lead of Terah, had settled down on the rich pasture lands outside Ur. The walled cities, and civilized arts, and merchant traffic, had little attraction for them; as they were rather a race of shepherds, living in tents, or in villages of slightly constructed huts." Ray Stedman wrote, "I have read several books, which attempt to depict Abram as an ignorant, unlettered nomad of the desert who lived in a very primitive mud-walled village. We could hardly expect to find in such a man much more than the primitive searching of a barbaric man struggling to discover God. But the spade of the archaeologist has since turned up the ruins of Ur, and we have learned that this was a city of great wealth and considerable culture, containing a library and a university. The city was devoted to the worship of the Moon Goddess, and it is almost certain, that Abram was an idolater, a worshipper of the moon."

David Legge writes, "As you read his life story, we find out that he was born and raised in Ur, a city of the Chaldees. It was a seaport in Persia, the Persian Gulf, about 12 miles away from the traditional spot that scholars think the Garden of Eden was in. That city, the Ur of the Chaldees, the most conspicuous site and building within it was a large building that seemed to be modeled on the Tower of Babel. The city had two main temples, one was dedicated to the god Nannar the moon god, and the other to his wife Ningal. Abraham, as a young child, was brought up in that pagan atmosphere - and glory be to God, he was converted out of it, and he became eventually the father of faith." Ralph Wison adds these details, "Abraham's ancestors were idolaters and polytheists (worshippers of many gods). Joshua reminds the people, "Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods" (Joshua 24:2). Jacob's wife Rachel, who probably grew up with Terah's religion, stole her father's "household gods" (31:32-35; 35:2-4). Archaeology shows that both Ur in Lower Mesopotamia and Haran in Upper Mesopotamia were centers of moon worship. Even the names Terah, Laban, Sarah, and Milcah contain elements that reveal allegiance to the moon-god.  Much later than Abraham, the Israelites are warned against worship of the moon, sun, and stars (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:2-5), though this kind of worship continued under idolatrous kings (2 Kings 23:5-12).
All of these details help us to better understand the new beginning that God launches into with this one man from Ur. His story influences more people on this planet than any other person to have ever lived. It should be with great anticipation that we study this man named Abram and later changed to Abraham. I will do so by looking at every verse in Genesis 12 through 25. I will give the views of others and share my own commentary as well. Before we begin chapter 12 we need to look at the closing verses of Genesis 11 where we get some background information.

GENESIS 11:26-32
26
After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
1. It is no wonder that we come to conclusions that are not valid when we read Scripture, for I read this and assumed that Abram was the first son of Terah and that he was born when Terah was 70 years old. That seems logical, but I discover that this is not the case at all. Look at the comments of Adam Clarke, "Haran was certainly the eldest son of Terah, and he appears to have been born when Terah was about seventy years of age, and his birth was followed in successive periods with those of Nahor his second, and Abram his youngest son. Many have been greatly puzzled with the account here, supposing because Abram is mentioned first, that therefore he was the eldest son of Terah: but he is only put first by way of dignity. An in stance of this we have already seen, Genesis 5:32, where Noah is represented as having Shem, Ham, and Japheth in this order of succession; whereas it is evident from other scriptures that Shem was the youngest son, who for dignity is named first, as Abram is here; and Japheth the eldest, named last, as Haran is here. Terah died two hundred and five years old, Genesis 11:32; then Abram departed from Haran when seventy-five years old, Genesis 12:4; therefore Abram was born, not when his father Terah was seventy, but when he was one hundred and thirty. When any case of dignity or pre-eminence is to be marked, then even the youngest son is set before all the rest, though contrary to the usage of the Scriptures in other cases. Hence we find Shem, the youngest son of Noah, always mentioned first; Moses is mentioned before his elder brother Aaron; and Abram before his two elder brethren Haran and Nahor. These observations are sufficient to remove all difficulty from this place.
2. Gill in his commentary writes, "Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Haran; nay, it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the one hundred and thirtieth year of his father's life, for Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, (Genesis 11:32) and Abram was but seventy five years of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, (Genesis 12:4) and that was as soon as his father died there; and so that if seventy five are taken out two hundred and five, there will remain one hundred and thirty, in which year and not before Abram must be born: the wife of Terah, of whom Abram was born, according to the Jewish writers F24, her name was Chamtelaah, the daughter of Carnebo, or as others F25 call her, Amthalai; but by the Arabic writers."
3. Guzik writes, "Genesis 11:26 is the first mention of Abram. Abram (later changed to "Abraham") is mentioned 312 times in 272 verses in the Bible. He is arguably the most famous man of the Old Testament, and certainly one of the most influential men of history. The book of Genesis covers more than 2,000 years and more than 20 generations; yet, it spends almost a third of its text on the life of one man, Abram."
4. Steve Zeisler writes, "This is a rather prosaic beginning to the story. Genesis 11:26 is the end of a lengthy genealogy which follows the usual pattern ­So-and-so was the son of So-and-so, on and on ­until we come to Terah and his sons. You might not notice that you had just turned a corner and were beginning the account that is the most magnificent of all stories. Yet, even in these verses, we are hearing faintly the theme music that will become the most wonderful hymn imaginable. We have just been introduced to Abram, and in that introduction begins the story of salvation."


27
This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
1. Terah would actually be the father of God's people, but there is no history to follow up his fatherhood of these three sons. The rest of history follows his youngest son Abram. It is all about this son from here on, and though Nahor still plays a role in the history of Abram, the story of Terah ends here.
28
While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
1.There is no guarantee that children will out live their parents, and it has happened all through history that children die first. My grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 98, and one of her greatest burdens was outliving several of her 9 children.

29
Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
1. So here in these few verses we see that Abram has two brothers, a wife, and a nephew named Lot and two nieces named Milcah and Iscah, who are the daughters of his older brother who died. His other brother married one of the nieces named Milcah, and Abram took Lot under his wing, and so that leaves Iscah with nobody caring for her after her father Haran died. We do not know what happened to her, and maybe she was already married and needed no one. Some authorities are convinced she was Sarai, but Abram himself says of her that she was the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother, Genesis 20:12. She was ten years younger than Abram. Lot and Milcah were brother and sister and they were split up into the families of the two brothers who survived. Lot has quite a role in the history of Abraham just because he was taken by this brother, and not the other. Sarai was also a child of Terah who fathered Abram, and so Abram married his half sister and his brother Nahor married his niece. What we are seeing here is the way marriages stayed within the family in these ancient times. Later, marriages with close relatives was forbidden. There were only three sons on the ark with Noah, and so all of their children had to marry cousins at that time, for there were no other choices.
2.Abraham is a grown and married man when we first see him. Scholars put this in about 2000 B. C.  It was a time when his culture was at a peak of its splendor.
3. Some unknown author gives us this interesting information about Nahor: "Abrams brother Nahor and his niece Milcah had 8 sons as we see in Gen. 22:20-24. He had a large family plus others by a concubine, and so it is no wonder that Abraham sent his servant back there to find a mate for Isaac.  He found Rebekah who was his brother’s granddaughter and so Isaac also married a relative- 24:15. Then the next generation of Jacob we see he also marries his relative from the Nahor clan. Laban was the grandson of Nahor and father of Rachel-29:5. All of the Patriarchs married relatives. This means that Nahor contributed as much to the family of God as did Abraham.  He too must have been a man of God for why else would Abraham want his family to intermarry with his brothers? Nahor seemed the more likely choice, but God chose Abram and Sarai who was barren rather that fertile wife of Nahor.  God often goes with the least likely to give hope to all who feel like underdogs.

It is rare in the Bible to see two brothers like Abraham and Nahor who were so compatible. Most brothers are pictured as negative toward each other as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Prodigal and Elder brother. It is an obscure fact that Nahor was also a hero to God and a part of the plan of God. In Gen. 31:53 we read, “May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” He was pushed into obscurity by the greater brother."
30
Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
1. The first thing we learn about Sarah is that she was barren and could not get pregnant.  God does not always choose those most likely to succeed.  He often chooses the least likely as we see in I Cor. 1:2, 26, 27-31. Man’s lack is God’s opportunity to magnify His grace in them. In Gen. 25:21 and 29:31 we see that Rebakah and Rachel were also barren.

31
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
1. He settled short of the goal, but he provided the people of God with their wives from Haran, for Rebekah, Rachel and Leah all were raised here. Terah is often criticized for not going all the way, but the Bible does not condemn him, for a good work started is still a good work and he got the family out of Ur and provided a home base for the family of God.
2. Adam Clarke wrote, "It probably had its name Ur which signifies fire, from the worship practiced there. The learned are almost unanimously of opinion that the ancient inhabitants of this region were ignicolists or worshippers of fire, and in that place this sort of worship probably originated; and in honor of this element, the symbol of the Supreme Being, the whole country, or a particular city in it, might have had the name Ur."
3. Ur was a great place to be raised for it was a large city and the capital of a great empire, and with great opportunities for learning. They had developed a writing and numeral system and had principles of law with a government that allowed its people defined rights. Abram was likely an educated man of his day. H. G. Tomkins writes, "From the port where the Euphrates discharged its ample waters into the beautiful and sheltered sea, the "ships of Ur" set sail, like the ships of Egypt, with their precious lading of corn and dates, and other fruits ; for the warm land, irrigated like a garden (the only natural home of the wheat-plant, where it was twice mown in the year, and then fed down), was (as classic writers tell) the richest in all Asia. The wheat would commonly produce two hundredfold, and at the highest even three hundredfold. The other chief boast of Chaldaea is the stately date-palm, whose endless uses for man and beast have been celebrated in all ages. The shady palm-groves embowered the whole country, laden with their delicious golden clusters, and mingled with tamarisk, and acacias, and pomegranates. " This region," says Professor Rawlinson, "was amongst the most productive on the face of the earth ; spontaneously producing some of the best gifts of God to man ; and capable under careful management of being made one continuous garden."

32
Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
1. Terah lived longer than his children, but it was fewer years of life from past generations and from here it kept going down to fewer years of life until it reaches the 70 to 80 year range.

GENESIS 12
1   The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

1. Just out of the blue we hear that God had called Abram to leave his people and go to a new land that God would reveal to him. This is a whole new beginning in God's dealings with mankind. There was a beginning of creation that we read of in Genesis chapter one, and there was a new beginning of mankind after the flood, but this new beginning was the beginning of the plan of redemption. We read of the second great beginning of events in Gen. 9:1, "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." This was the same command given to Adam and Eve. Now in this third beginning God promises to make the family of Abraham multiply. This time it is not just about quantity of people, but about quality of people who can be channels of God’s grace and blessing to the world. God chose one man through whom he would develop a line to the Messiah who would become the Savior of the world. This one man became the father of God's people Israel, the father of the Arab nations, and the father of all who become believers in the one true God. Here is a one of a kind man, for no one else plays the role in history that this man, Abram, later changed to Abraham, plays in the history of mankind. If everyone on the planet voted for the person in ancient history who was most important in God's plan, the victory would go to Abraham for sure, for he is the Mt. Everest of great men among the ancients.

He was born in Ur of the Chaldees in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. It was here where he received his calling and from where he left to move to Haran about 600 miles to the northwest. We know this because we are told by Dr. Luke in Acts 7:2-3, "And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." So the calling began in Ur, and this was the first recorded appearing of God to man since he was banished from Eden. God appeared to Abraham in a variety of ways: (1) in the form of a man in 12:7, 17:1, and 18:1. (2) in a vision in 15:1 (3) by an angel in 22:15 This variety is now reduced to just one way, and that is through his son.  In Heb. 1:1-2 we read, " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" Jesus is the final word of God to man, and that is why there is no more appearing of God as we see so often in the Old Testament.

There is debate over the calling of Abram, and the issue is, were there two callings or just the one from Ur? Adam Clarke in his commentary quotes a scholar who argues quite convincingly for the two. He writes, "Dr. Hales, in his Chronology, contends for two calls: "The first," says he, "is omitted in the Old Testament, but is particularly recorded in the New, Acts 7:2-4: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was (at Ur of the Chaldees) in Mesopotamia, BEFORE HE DWELT IN CHARRAN; and said unto him, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land (γην, a land) which I will show thee. Hence it is evident that God had called Abram before he came to Haran or Charran." The SECOND CALL is recorded only in this chapter: "The Lord said (not HAD said) unto Abram, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto THE LAND, HA-arets, (Septuagint, GHN γην,) which I will show thee." "The difference of the two calls," says Dr. Hales, "more carefully translated from the originals, is obvious: in the former the land is indefinite, which was designed only for a temporary residence; in the latter it is definite, intimating his abode. A third condition is also annexed to the latter, that Abram shall now separate himself from his father's house, or leave his brother Nahor's family behind at Charran. This call Abram obeyed, still not knowing whither he was going, but trusting implicitly to the Divine guidance."

2. One of the amazing things about this new beginning is that God did not start it with a baby, or a teenager, or a young man, but with a man who was old. God has quite a sense of humor, for nobody but God would choose an elderly couple without kids, and barren to boot, to begin a whole new population explosion that would change the world. It is a good thing God does not depend on human wisdom, for any committee of people on earth would have advised him to start with a couple in their twenties with a high level of fertility. His plan would have been laughed to scorn and pronounced insane and impossible to succeed. Thus, we see the difference between the wisdom of man and the so called foolishness of God. From the human perspective God's plan screams of folly and failure, but, of course, history shows that it worked perfectly and the Savior of the world arrived just in the time God appointed. God always gets the last laugh. You have to admit that it is not logical, however, to begin a new people with a 75 year old man. Abram was not exactly in the prime of life. He was probably thinking of retirement and a rocking chair for himself and not one for helping a baby to sleep. He was more in the market for something like depends rather than diapers. The good news is that God does not discriminate against the old, and so it is never too late to be used of God.

3. The call of God is not always an easy message to be happy about, for it demands changes that can be hard to endure. Abram was called to leave just about everything that mattered in his life. He had to leave his country, his people and his family, and this would include such things as his job, his home, his friends, and many personal treasures he had collected in his long lifetime. He basically was called to forsake all he had acquired, and all he had come to enjoy in his life. Of course, this would have been a snap if God had told him that a greater house awaited him, and a better job, and a life of joy and pleasure without end. Something along that line is what we all are looking for when we get a call to move on to a new location. Nobody wants to leave a good place, except for a better place. But this was not part of the message. It was pretty much top heavy with the negative of leaving, with no specifics about that for which he was heading. In fact, we read in Heb. 11:8-9 "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise." So what we have here is a man who is called to get moving to God knows where, for Abram certainly did not know where he was going, and to leave his home in the thriving city of Ur and go camping for the rest of his life and live in a tent. It is no wonder that Abraham is the greatest man of faith ever, for he is given so little to go on, but just goes anyway in blind faith that obeying God is always for the best. It is a tough call, but Abram listens and obeys.
Santayana wrote a poem that is so fitting to this verse in Heb. 11:8 that I want to read again, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Santayana wrote,
O world, thou chooseth not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the souls invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bit, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought divine.

4. What we are dealing with here is the call to change. That is what life is all about for those who obey God. You cannot stay the same and be obedient to God. We don't like change usually, and we resist it, but there is no progress without change. You have to leave the old behind if you are going to experience the new. The past cannot continue to be all you live for if you want God's best. You have to look to the future and all of the new potential that God offers to those willing to be pioneers like Abram. Because he was willing to change and forsake the old and reach out for the new, he became the most exalted man in ancient history. Billions of people would say amen to the high praise of the great preacher George Whitefield when he said about Abraham in Heb. 11, "Amidst this catalog of saints, methinks the patriarch Abraham shines the brightest, and differs from the others, as one star differeth from another star in glory; for he shone with such distinguished luster, that he was called the "friend of God," the "father of the faithful;" and those who believe on Christ, are said to be "sons and daughters of, and to be blessed with, faithful Abraham."

5. Here is the first exodus as he left his land to go to the Promised Land. A new vocation calls for a new location often. The future often calls for a separation from the past. In marriage you are to leave mother and father and cleave to your wife. You cut ties and leave old loyalties to start new ones. You cannot keep everything as it is and develop what is new. Your time is limited and if you are going to add something to your life you have to give up something that is already there. You have to separate from what fills your life to add what God wants in your life. If God does not get a major chunk of your time, you will not be a major player in his kingdom. People who are too busy in their culture will often not be busy in the kingdom of God, for we are all limited in what we can do in our 24 hours a day. The idea of coming out of the world is not that we forsake it, for it has to be won to Christ, but we have to disengage in much of the life of the world in order to give ourselves to kingdom growth. But we are to get into the world with our commitment to God’s will and seek to win the world to the kingdom. God’s goal is to touch the whole world through Abraham. Separation from the world is complex, for we have to be a part of it as was Jesus. But he could be in it, love it, change it, and yet not be a part of it. The charge against many modern Christians is that they cannot be distinguished from the world. Is this true in your experience?
6. Abraham was to be a pioneer, and so he had to come away from what was established to start what was new. One man and one woman is the way God started the human race, and one man and woman is how he started his race of people to bring his son into the world. One is enough with God. We read in Isa. 51:1-2, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.” These two people were the origin of the people of God. Maclaren the great preacher said, "We stand here at the well-head of a great river-a narrow channel, across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of Abram is the most important event in the O.T.”


2."I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
1. Here are multiple promises in one sentence. God promises to make Abram into a great nation; promises to bless him personally; promises to make his name great, and promises to make him a blessing to others. I do not think there is anymore that God could promise, for in these 4 are all that any man could ever dream of. We all long for purpose and happiness and success, and all of this is promised to Abram. To be great and famous and blest with all that makes life worthwhile is the perfect life, and this is what God promised to this 75 year old man. Had God not chosen him he would have been an obscure man who lived and died and was never known to anyone but his family and a few friends. But God did choose him and now he is the most known and exalted man in all of history. God kept his promise, and Abram went from total obscurity to the most loved man in history. He is loved and honored even more than Jesus Christ because Jews, Arabs and Christians all call him the father of their faith. God knows that he needs to motivate man to get man's cooperation in his plan of salvation. Abram needed to know that there was a reward for obedience to God, and God gave him the promise of life's greatest rewards. God did not expect Abram to forsake all that he loved without a motivating promise, and none of us are called to follow Jesus as Lord without the promise of eternal life and all the blessings that go with it. Offering rewards for obedience is valid, for it was God's method from the start.
2. It may have been a hard choice to leave all he knew to go where he knew nothing of what awaited him, but it was made a whole lot easier by this promise from God to make his a great nation with a great name for himself, and on top of that bless a multitude of others to boot. How could anybody say no that? No other human being ever to step foot on this earth has received a greater promise from God than this unknown Gentile who became the father of Judaism, and the father of all who believe. God said he would make his name great, and that is just what happened, for there is no other name that is honored more than the name of Abraham. It is true that Jesus has a name that is exalted above all names because he is the Savior of the world, but Jesus is not honored in Judaism and Islam like he is in Christianity. Abraham, however, is exalted to the highest level in all three of the great monotheism religions of the world. Most everyone recognizes the joy of having our names honored by being up in lights, or by being in the newspaper, or any other publication. We even like to carve our names in trees or write them in places where others can spot them. Our sense of worth is tied up with our name, and when it is recognized we feel a sense of self esteem. As a 75 year old man with a barren wife, and thus no hope of posterity, Abraham no doubt had a low sense of self esteem. He was a nobody going nowhere until God called and made him a somebody going to the Promised Land, and a future unmatched by anybody ever known. Talk about an esteem booster! With promises like this it was a whole lot easier to forsake his past and launch out into the future bright with these promises of God.
3. What a strange promise to make to a couple who could not have children, and who were so old they would not want to be starting a family. It looks like God has come to a dead end by choosing such an unlikely couple, but of course, he knew he would be doing to do a miracle to keep the seed of Abram alive. God loves to bring things to a dead end that looks hopeless so he can magnify his grace. He brought his only begotten Son to the cross and the grave, and it looked like the final chapter in that life, but then came the morning and up from the grave he arose and the greatest chapter ever began with Jesus. Don't let dead ends worry you, for that is just where God begins to shine. This is especially good to remember when we face death or lose a loved one in death, or any other hopeless situation for man.
4. People say we are to claim all the promises of the Bible, but this is not so. This promise is not for us, and none of us can claim that we will be made a great nation. We can be a part of this one, but we can’t be the father of it, for that spot is already taken. Many promises of the Bible are personal and not universal. Abraham has been nothing but an obscure idolater. He never built an empire or even a house, for he lived in tents. He never wrote anything, or created any works of art or music. He never did anything spectacular. All he did was obey God. His positive relation to God was all he had going for him, and it made him the hero of the ages. God loved the whole world through Abraham, for God’s primary means of blessing the world is through people. We too can be blest and be a blessing, but no one can be the father of us all, but Abraham. We should also note that becoming a great nation did not happen in his lifetime. In fact, it took about six centuries before his people were a great nation. God's promises are sometimes very long range and we never live long enough to see them, and that is why we live by faith and not by sight as Abraham did.
5. Notice that God promises to bless him before he makes him a blessing, and this is always the way God works, for you have to be blest to be a blessing. Spurgeon said, “You must fill your own pitcher before another can drink out of it, you must have bread in your own hands before you can break it for the multitudes.” It is a blessing to be a blessing. Those who are blest who do not become a blessing to others will lose their status of being blest. Blessings are like electricity and they will not flow in where they do not flow out. God blesses not as an end in itself, but so as to use the one blest to be a blessing to others. We are to be channels of blessing. It is our vocation to be a blessing. When you are looking for the purpose of life you will find it right here, for the purpose of life from God's perspective is to be a blessing. That is the goal of life for Abram, and that is to be the goal of life for all who love God. Our daily prayer should be, "Lord, make me a blessing today." The beauty of this goal is that you do not need to be gifted to fulfill this purpose in life. Anybody can be a blessing to others just by being loving and friendly, and by being willing to offer help and encouragement to others. On the lower level a smile can be a blessing, and on the highest level sharing the Gospel of the love of Christ can be an eternal blessing. In between the opportunities to be a blessing are endless.
6. What we see here is the paradox of the blessing of selfishness when the goal is to be unselfish. In other words, we need to be blest to be a blessing, and so it is valid to crave blessing for one's self in order to be able to be a blessing to others. You need to be blest with some degree of wealth to be able to share that with those who are not so blest. It is the blest who bless the un-blest. It is those who have who can share with the have nots. As Spurgeon said, “We do not encourage selfishness in anything, but we do say you must fill your own pitcher before another man can drink out of it." This means it is valid to have selfish motives to be blest in areas of life where we want success in order to be able to be a blessing to others. This kind of self-centeredness is not really selfishness when you want the rivers of blessings to flow through you to water the lives of those around you. This is fulfilling the great command to love your neighbors as yourself. You love yourself and want the best for yourself, but not just as an end in itself, but, as a means to be a blessing to others. Selfish goals are selfless goals when the end is to be a blessing to others beside your self. If the river of blessings stops with yourself, you are a dead sea, but if they keep flowing out to others, you are a river of life, and you are a true child of Abraham.
7. Abraham was chosen by God to be one of the greatest heroes of history. When I was a small boy in Sioux Falls, S.D., I remember the excitement of being told that the bullet holes in the bricks of the big bank downtown were from a robbery  and shootout with John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. There was a sort of awe about those holes that I touched many times because they were a connection with a famous person. He was a crook, but he was famous, and in our culture to be famous is to be a hero. I had no idea how fanatical people could become in their worship of heroes until I read this by D. R. Sharpe, “I was in Chicago when Dillinger was shot. Little children dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood on the pavement. A man offered one hundred dollars for each brick on which there was a drop of blood. Another offered on thousand dollars for the shirt Dillinger word. Another offered one thousand dollars for the shoes he had on. And when the coroner gave the outlaw’s old father the $7.70 that had been in Dillinger’s pocket he said, “Don’t spend any of this-morbid-minded America will pay you a fortune for it,”and I understand it did.”

Why do you suppose every culture has their heroes? We have superman and batman, and other great fighters of evil forces, and so do other cultures.  It is because the battle of good and evil is universal. Why do people need heroes? 1. They challenge us to do and be more than we would be on our own. 2. They inspire us to do our best and do more noble things. 3. They give us hope that good will always win over evil even if evil seem to have the upper hand at the moment. Heroes give hope. 4. They give us examples and encourage us to stay on the right path even when life gets hard. Abraham is one of the great heroes of faith in Heb. 11, and all through the New Testament he is the key hero referred to over and over.

8. Jesus and Paul studied the life of Abraham and used him often as an illustration.  W. B. Riley, “The man who is called a friend of God is entitled to a large place in history. Fourteen chapters are none too many for his record; and hours spent in analyzing his character and searching for the secrets of his success are hours so employed as to meet the Divine approval.”

Hastings The Greater Men and Women of the Bible writes, “..his life is so constantly referred to in the O.T. and in the New, that it would seem as if the right understanding of it is necessary to give us the clue to many a difficult passage, and many a sacred doctrine, in the succeeding pages of the Bible.”

Prof. Max Muller of Germany says of Abraham, “We see in him the life-spring of that faith which was to unite all the nations of the earth........he stands before us as a figure second only to one in the whole history of the world.” None can compare with Jesus, but none are compared with Abraham on the human level either. He is in a category by himself.  Lockyer wrote, “He uttered no prophecy, wrote no book, sang no song, gave no laws. Yet in the long list of Bible saints he alone is spoken of as the father of the faithful and as the friend of God.” Three times he is called the friend of God. In II Chron. 20:7, Isa. 41:8 and James 2:23. God called no one else his friend. Abraham is mentioned in 16 books of the O.T. and 11 in the N.T.  74 times he is mentioned in the N.T.

Wharton in Famous Men of the O.T. says of Abraham, “He rises on our vision when backward we turn our gaze, as the fountain-head of the gulf-stream of nations, as the highest peak n the mountain range of humanity.”

Clarence Macartney, “Like a majestic mountain Abraham towers sublime over all other mountains and all other lives.”

Till then farewell thou kingly friend of God,
No nobler spirit o’er this earth has trod;
In thee our father and our friend we see,
One touch of faith links all mankind to thee!

9. John Schultz has this comment on the blessings:
"The blessing can be divided in three parts: 1. The physical aspect; 2. the political aspect and 3. the spiritual aspect.
1. The physical aspect. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” At whatever time this promise came, there was a moment that Abraham realized that it was not coming through. The key to becoming a great nation was to have at least one child. And so far he had none. As the years went by it became obvious that Sarah could not or would had have any children. Living in time and space as we all do, Abraham could not see the end from the beginning and the reality with which he had to live, was that this promise was not going to be true. He was going to go down in history as the man who died without leaving behind children. That meant he was not going to go down in history at all. Nobody would remember him. It was the equivalent of being lost for eternity. We do not need much imagination to see how the devil will have used this in Abraham’s life. He had left Ur of the Chaldeans to follow the call of the only true God and it turned out that he had betted on the wrong horse.
2. The political aspect. “I will make your name great and you will be a blessing” He came into a land where nobody knew him. We read in vs. 6 - “At that time the Canaanites were in the land.” The Canaanites must have been the offspring of Ham, according to Ch. 10:6, 15-19. For Abraham that was the wrong branch of Noah’s children. However was he going to take a prominent position among those people and become a source of blessing to them?
3. The spiritual aspect. “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Abraham may have drawn the conclusion from this part of the blessing that he was in the line with the offspring that God had promised to Eve. The hope of eternal life
must still have been very much alive in his days. If we find it still alive among the tribes of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, forty centuries later, it must surely not have been forgotten at Abraham’s time. So Abraham must have believed this to mean that his son would be the Messiah. We can imagine how this promise must have
added to the agony when no child was forthcoming."


3   I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
1. Imagine being so blest of God that he says any friend of yours is a friend of mine, and your enemies are my enemies. This is really a vital piece of information, for the blessing or cursing of all peoples in history revolve around how they relate to the chosen people of God founded through Abraham. Adam brought a curse into the world on mankind, but God is now going to reverse that and bring a blessing to all mankind through this one man. There is a paradox here too, for some are cursed by cursing him, and yet all peoples on earth will be blessed through him. How can all be blessed if some are cursed? This is easily explained by the example of Hitler who was cursed by God for his cursing of the Jews. On the other hand, the German people have not been cursed, but have been greatly blest because of their love for Abraham and his people. The cursing of some does eliminate the blessing of others in the same group. Many of the nations that were enemies of Israel still had individuals who became a part of Israel and good friends of Israel.
2. Blessing and cursing are conditional and are based on obedience or disobedience to God's revelation. In Deut. 11:26-28 we read, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." Even God's own people are cursed when they choose to disobey the revealed will of the God of Abraham. The Jews suffered the curse of God many times because they did not honor God as Abraham did, and walk in obedience to his commands. Nevertheless, God used them to be a blessing to the whole world and all the peoples on earth. The reason that the failure of the Jews did not hinder God's plan to bless the whole world through Abraham's seed is because God's plan was narrow and very specific, and did not depend on the masses. Paul makes this clear in Gal. 3:16 "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ." In other words, all God had to do was get one seed of Abraham into this world who was perfect in obedience to God, and he would be able to bless the whole world, and that one seed was his Son the Lord Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world and made eternal life possible for the people of all nations.
3. No amount of failure could prevent the success of God's plan, and he accomplished all he intended through the seed of Abraham. God is telling us that he has a plan, and it is a good one for all mankind, and he will guarantee its success. Here we get a picture of what election is all about. God elects to choose someone to carry out his program that is to be a blessing to all those who were not chosen. He has a specific goal in mind and that is to bring his son into the world to be the savior of the world. This has to be a blood line that is very limited and cannot be scattered all over the place. It has to follow a line and so there cannot be two or three lines to the Messiah, but just one. That means that when two sons are born only one can be that line, or if twelve are born only one can be that line. It is a paradox, but it has to be exclusive all the way to one in order to eventually be all inclusive. You have to bless one if you expect to bless all. God’s method of blessing many through one teaches us the importance of concentration. Focus on one to bless many. Train one person, one family, one nation, and they can bless the whole world. Have you ever tried to shoot more than one duck? Or hit more than one tennis ball? If you do not focus and concentrate you miss all. Less is more and the best way to reach all is to narrow your focus. Try to do all and you do nothing, but do well with one and you can do great things. Do not try to save the world, but try to save that one person that is winnable or trainable and you will do your part in reaching the world. In Isa. 51:1-2 we read, "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD : Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; 2 look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many." If this method is good enough for God, it should be good enough for us.
4. Christians are spiritual Jews and through them the world receives the only absolute and universal blessing through Christ and his salvation. God’s plan from the start is inclusive and not exclusive. All peoples of the earth are to be a part of his plan of salvation and blessing. God had to start somewhere, and he started with Abraham and his seed the people of Israel. Gal. 3:14 shows how the Gentiles were included through Christ in the blessing of Abraham. Jesus is the final fulfillment of this promise and goal. All of life is blessing or cursing, however, and not just in salvation. The work of the church is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel so that all may get in on the greatest blessing. Abraham was given a glimpse of the fulfillment of this promise we see in John 8:56 where Jesus says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." God gave Abraham a vision of the fulfilled promise in the Messiah. It was that vision that kept him going when he did not see the promised fulfilled in his lifetime. Every believer is to be a child of Abraham in the fulfilling of this vision of a Savior who will be a blessing to all peoples. One little guy used long prayers to stall bedtime. He prayed for God to bless everybody he could think of and then started with the countries he could think of. It was a stall tactic, but he was right in that God’s goal is to bless the whole world. This promise eliminates any basis for prejudice and racism of any kind. God is the God of the whole world and of all people, and His love is universal. All people need to be blest, not because they are worthy, but because they are loved. We should not need to earn blessing. It should be given freely in love and by grace. God’s call is always that the one called become a blessing to others. All of us are so called, and we need to strive to be that blessing to which we are called. Every gift and blessing we possess is to overflow into the lives of others as a blessing.
5. Why do we go to church, and read the Bible and pray, and give etc.? It is all done for blessing. We live for blessing, and every good and perfect gift comes from God who wants us to live the blessed life. To be blest and be a blessing to others is the goal of life. Everything is a blessing or a curse depending on whether or not it fulfills its purpose for being. A ballpoint pen is a blessing if it works and a curse if it does not, or if it leaks. A VCR is a blessing if it works and a curse if it does not. It is true of all things and all people. We are all a blessing or a curse. We fail, and we do become a pain at times, but the overall impact of our lives is to be a blessing. Government is a blessing or curse to its people. It is true of all institution including the church. The final end of all things is to be in heaven the final blessing or in hell the final curse. When Israel forget its purpose and became self-centered it had to take on the curse and judgment of God as other nations. It was privileged, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the other nations, and when it failed its purpose it was cast out as all things that do not work and fulfill their purpose. If others are not better off because you are better off then you will not be better off. His goal is that all have a chance to be children of Abraham and so his children. God concentrated on the one to reach the many. If you bite off too much and fail to concentrate you can fail to achieve your goal. Sometimes less is more. Do not try to save the world, but try to save one. Let your life and your words communicate the message "God bless you." Wilbur Nesbit wrote,
“God bless you!” Words are empty things; We speak, and think not of our saying-
But in this phrase forever rings The higher tenderness of praying.
It means so much-it means that I Would have no fears or frets distress you,
Nor have your heart times to a sigh, God Bless you!
Its more that wishing joy and wealth, That kindly fortune may caress you,
That you may have success and health—God Bless You!
God bless you! Why, it means so much I almost whisper as I say it;
I dream that unseen fingers touch My hands in answer as I pray it.
May all it means to all mankind In all its wondrousness possess you.
Through sun and cloud and calm and wind, GOD BLESS YOU!
6. History shows that the nations, which have persecuted the Jews have suffered judgment, and those who have respected the Jews have been blessed. God’s call is always that the called one be a blessing to those not called. It is never just for the sake of the one called, which could lead to pride of status. One Jewish author writes, “The knights of the Middle Ages has a significant watchword, noblesse oblige, “Nobility obligates.” It meant that they must conform to a loftier standard of conduct and morality than the average man. Things which the ordinary man might permit himself to do, were forbidden to them. Anything, which was the least questionable, or had the slightest taint of immorality or impropriety, was beneath them. Whoever violated any of these principles, forfeited his knighthood, at least in theory, because he had, but his act already forfeited his claim to nobility.” Jews are to live by this standard. Morganstern wrote, “..he who will not live as a Jew should live, and thereby do his part in the great work of being a blessing for which God has called all Israel, has truly forfeited his right to the name and privilege of being a Jew.” Cecil Roth in The Jewish Contribution to Civilization says in the Preface, “The outcome of my inquiry has been more than a little surprising even to myself. There is no branch of human culture or civilization, which Jews have not touched and enriched. Whether we consider lit. or medicine, or science or exploration or humanitarianism, or art, the Jew has been prominent.”
 Unfortunately the Jews do not acknowledge that their greatest contribution to mankind is the bringing of God's Son into the world to be a blessing to the whole world. But the fact is, they have been a blessing in many other ways as well, and it has been a mystery to many just why. More than one hundred years ago author Mark Twain posed a fascinating question concerning the Jews: "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of smoke lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning, are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all ages: and has done it with his hands tied behind him. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" The secret is here in the promise of God to Abraham. "Rabbi Ken Spiro writes, "God is saying here to Abraham that he and his descendants -- the Jews -- will be under God's protection. The empires, nations and peoples that are good to the Jews will do well. Empires, nations and peoples that are bad to the Jews will do poorly. And the whole world is going to be changed by the Jewish people. That is one of the great patterns of history. You can literally chart the rise and fall of virtually all the civilizations in the western world and the Middle East Spain, Germany, Poland, America or Turkey etc, by how they treated the Jews. (Ironically, most nations have treated the Jews both benevolently and malevolently. It is an oft repeated pattern that the Jews are first invited into a country and then later persecuted and expelled from the same country) We will see this pattern time and time again as we go through the history of the Jews in Diaspora."
7. It is of interest to note that God supports the practice of repetition as a principle of good teaching. He did not say this once and never repeat his promise to Abraham. He knows how we need reassurance as we follow him in obedience, for we can easily forget what the point of it all is when we get weary. So God repeats over and over the blessing he intends to bring on Abraham and his seed and through them to the whole world. There is a universalism in the blessing God intends to bring through the seed of Abraham. Here is a list of them:

Genesis 18 "18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"
Genesis 22 "18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Genesis 26 "4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
Genesis 28 "14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

Abraham needed to hear these promises again, just as his son and grandson did, for there is always the temptation to forget them when there is a slowness in fulfillment. We do not know, but there is a good chance that Abraham has a temptation to go back to the big city and forget this country living in tents. He may have said this patient waiting for God to come through is driving me crazy and I wonder about the idols of my youth. Should I be praying to the old gods of my family for encouragement? We do not know the mental battles he fought, but we know he needed to be reminded of the great promises of God that would make all he sacrificed worthwhile. We can endure a lot of negatives in life if we are assured that the positives will be a reality. God knows that and so he repeats his promises over and over. Paul says this promise of universal blessing was the Gospel. “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith that are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” (Galatians 3:7 9)

8. Living in obedience to these promises made Abraham the most unique righteous man of the Old Testament. Enoch walked with God, but God took him and he did not impact the world. Noah walked with God, but God took the world away in judgment and so he did not impact the world. Abraham walked with God and he changed the world that he walked in. The whole world has been blessed by him, and the three great monotheistic religions of the world claim him as their father. The rest of the Bible is about God’s keeping these promises. This is the key to understanding the whole story of God revealed in the Scriptures. Israel is not a great nation in terms of numbers, but in terms of their impact on history through the Bible they are the greatest. It was fulfilled mainly as the Gentiles came into the church and became spiritual Israel and the church became a universal people in all nations. God is promising to love the whole world through his people. Back in 1924 a young girl entered an amateur talent show on radio and won. She was given a chance to sing in a theater for a week and two years later she was on Broadway making 3000 a week during the depression. Her name was Kate Smith who became famous for singing God Bless America. She made it almost a 2nd national anthem." It is legitimate to pray for God to bless America, and any other country, for that is the purpose of God's promise to Abraham, that we, and all people be blest through his seed. It is a paradox that Abraham who is the father of the Jews and the Arabs has been the greatest blessing to the Gentiles who are neither Jews nor Arabs, but are the ones who have accepted the Savior that God brought into the world through the seed of Abraham. It has gone full circle, and Abraham who was a Gentile has become the father of the greatest body of Gentiles in the world, which is the Christian church, but which is also the new Israel.

9. F. B. Meyer has a brilliant insight into these promises of God as he writes, "God's commands are not always accompanied by reasons, but always by promises, expressed or understood. To give reasons would excite discussion; but to give a promise shows that the reason, though hidden, is all sufficient. We can understand the promise, though the reason might baffle and confuse us. The reason is intellectual, metaphysical, spiritual; but a promise is practical, positive, literal. As a shell encloses a kernel, so do the Divine commands hide promises in their heart. If this is the command: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ"; this is the promise: "And thou shalt be saved." If this is the command: "Sell that though hast and give to the poor"; this is the promise: "Thou shalt have treasure in heaven." If this is the command: "Leave father and mother, houses and lands"; this is the promise: "Thou shalt have a hundred fold here, and everlasting life beyond." If this is the command: "Be ye separate"; this is the promise: "I will receive you and be a Father to you." So in this case: Though thou art childless, I will make of thee a great nation: though thou art the youngest son, I will bless thee, and make thy name great: though thou art to be torn from thine own family, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And each of those promises has been literally fulfilled."

10. Abram believed God and the promises he made, and this belief motivated the rest of his life. He did not just believe in God, he believed God, and there is a big difference. Patricia de Jong writes about the difference between believing in God and just believing God. She says, “A friend of mine, also a minister, likes to talk about two distinct postures when it comes to belief and how it relates to God. There are those is this world who say they believe in God and those who believe God in. Now believing in God can be an intellectual position. Believing in God is like believing that the sky is blue. But believing God is something different altogether. Believing God is less taking a position, and more about a journey. Believing God is less a realization than it is a relationship. Believing in God, we can still be somewhat objective; but believing God is about claiming an experience, giving ourselves over to an encounter with the Divine which can come dramatically, like Abraham's decision to go forward into the Unknown...
The poet Robert Frost speaks of it in this manner:
The Founding Fathers didn't believe in the future, they believed it in. You are always believing ahead of the evidence. Where was the evidence I could write a poem? I just believed it in. The most creative thing in us is to believe a thing in. You believe yourself into existence. You believe your marriage into existence. You believe each other, you believe it is worthwhile going on or you would commit suicide. And the ultimate one is the belief in the future of the world. We believe the future in. It's coming because we believe it in. Abraham is our model for believing God and believing the future in. It's a bold and wonderful thing to believe the future in. You will notice that God doesn't promise Abraham an easy or painless journey. God did not promise that the Canaanites would receive Abraham and his household with open arms . . . they didn't! Abraham was not promised there would be no droughts or plagues or sandstorms or discouragements or defeats; but he was promised that if he stayed true to his faith, he would be a blessing to his people and to the world.”
11. “The Jews see a play on words here. Blessing is berachah, and pool of water is beraychah. “Just as a pool of water purifies those who are impure so you, Abraham, shall bring near to God those who are afar off and shall purify them to their father in heaven.” We could add that so as a pool of water is a blessing to all who thirst so Abraham will be an oasis in the desert of history for a source of the water of life. It is a blessing to be a blessing. None are so blessed as those whom God uses to be a blessing to others. God’s goal was not just to bless Abraham but to bless the world through him. God is a God of history and he works through people as his means to bless the world. The business of all God’s people is to be a blessing.”
12. “Abraham was the first righteous man of his stature. Enoch walked with God, but God took him and he did not impact the world. Noah walked with God, but God took the world away in judgment and so he did not impact the world. Abraham walked with God and he changed the world that he walked in. The whole world has been blessed by him, and the three great monotheistic religions of the world claim him as their father. Abraham never did anything great but obey God. He did not build a great empire, or write great music, or make great art, or write a best seller. He became the hero of the ages simply by being a friend of God.”
13. The final promise in this verse is the promise to have a universal impact in the world in that all peoples of the world will be blest through Abraham and his seed. This is the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. The rest of the Bible is about God’s keeping this promise. This is the key to understanding the whole story of God revealed in the Scriptures. Israel is not a great nation in terms of numbers, but in terms of their impact on history through the Bible they are the greatest. It was fulfilled mainly as the Gentiles came into the church and became spiritual Israel and the church became a universal people in all nations. God is promising to love the whole world through his people. It is possible to love all people because God loves the whole world of people both Jews and Gentiles. This is the good news of the New Testament which confirms the good news preached to Abraham. “That is how much the Lord God loves you and me. "For God so loved the world" (the families of the earth), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16–18). If you have never put your trust in Jesus Christ, please do so right now. The moment that you believe on Christ you fulfill the great promise God gave to our father Abraham centuries ago!”
14. God gave so many wonderful promises of blessings to the seed of Abraham, but he also gave them many warnings of curses that would come on them if they did not walk in obedience to him as Abraham did. In other word, the promises were only going to come about if they lived a life worthy of being so blessed. Here below are just a few of the texts that deal with the promises and the curses. I share this list because it makes it so clear that God's promises are contingent upon obedience. It is an education in God's dealings with Israel just to read this incomplete list.
Exodus 15:26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
Ex. 19:5 “5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you [a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
Ex.23:20-26 “ 20 "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”
Leviticus 26:3-5 “ 3 " 'If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.”
Lev. 26:14-17 “ 14 " 'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
Deuteronomy 4:40 “40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.”
Deut. 7:12 “ 12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers.
Deut. 11:26-28 “ 26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Deut. 12:28 “28 Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.”
Deut. 15:4-6 “4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
Deut. 28:1-3 “1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:
 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
Deut. 28:13-14 “13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Deut. 30:9-10 “9 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10 if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deut. 30:15-20 “15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I Kings 2:1-4 “1 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 "I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said. "So be strong, show yourself a man, 3 and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go, 4 and that the LORD may keep his promise to me: 'If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'
I Kings 9:1-9 “ 1 When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, 2 the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The LORD said to him: "I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4 "As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.' 6 "But if you [a] or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you [b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 8 And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' 9 People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.' "
1 Chronicles 22:11-13 “ 11 "Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the LORD your God, as he said you would. 12 May the LORD give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the LORD your God. 13 Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
II Chron. 7:17-22  “17 "As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.' 19 "But if you [c] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you [d] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' 22 People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.' "
Jer. 11:1-5 “ 1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3 Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant- 4 the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.' I said, 'Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5 Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey'-the land you possess today."
      I answered, "Amen, LORD."
All of these texts make it clear that we walk a narrow path where we can be blest if we stay on it, but can easily step off that path and be cursed. The blessed life is a matter of constantly and persistently choosing to stay on the path that God has laid out for the believer, and not stray from that path that history makes clear is so easy to do, even for the people of God. Then we have the paradox that a blessing and a curse can be the same thing depending on the timing of it. It is important that a blessing be timed right and be of a proper volume. We read in Prov. 27:14, “If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.” We need to make sure our blessing of others is consistent with their schedule and not just our own.
15. God's promise to bless those who bless Abraham leads to a surprising implication, for it leads to the conclusion that is not one that makes Jews and Christians very happy. The conclusion is that Islam honors Abraham in many more ways than either Judaism or Christianity. They have much in their religious life that revolves around Abraham, and that means, according to this text, that they are blest of God. In Islam one is not a true believer who rejects Abraham as a prophet and the friend of God. Every Muslim of puberty age must pray 5 times a day, and one of these prayers is to ask God's blessing upon Abraham as they face the Kabe in Mecca, which they say Abraham built with his son Ishmael. That represents hundreds of millions of prayers a day on behalf of Abraham. As far as I know Christians do not pray for the blessing of Abraham ever, let alone daily. Masses of Christians never think of Abraham, let alone once a day.  The point is, Muslims are more aware of Abraham in their faith and rituals than Jews and Christians. One of the five pillars of Islam is the pilgrimage every Muslim must make at least once in his or her lifetime. It is called Hajj and involves going around the Kaba, which Abraham built, in counterclockwise fashion 7 times. An animal is sacrificed at this time in commemoration of the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. There are so many things about Islam that are disturbing to us as Christians, but how can we avoid the fact that they honor and bless Abraham as their founder and father more than anyone? Plus, there is the fact that all peoples of the world are to be blest by the seed of Abraham, and the Arabs, though not the promised seed through whom the Messiah came, are, nevertheless, descendants of Abraham, and among the families of the world to be blest. The universal nature of this promise includes all peoples, and that means every prejudice toward any people is contrary to the will and plan of God, for all peoples will be a part of God's eternal kingdom. This universal promises is repeated in the following verses:

Genesis 18 "18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"
Genesis 22 "18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Genesis 26 "4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
Genesis 28 "14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
16. All of the blessings of Abraham are based on his being an incredible man of faith, and it is faith that is the foundation for all others to enter into these promises. This was Paul's stress in Galatians. Bob Yandian has an excellent paragraph that captures how Paul makes this universal promise apply to the Gentile world. He writes, "In Verse 6 of Galatians 3 it says, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Verses 7 and 8 continue, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed". The Greek word for "children" is "huios", which translated is "sons". The word "heathen " is also the word for "Gentiles". I want you to see that the Abrahamic covenant was never designed to bless only one nation; it was designed to bless all nations. This verse says again, "...preached before the gospel unto Abraham..." What does "before" mean? God preached the gospel to Abraham BEFORE he was a Jew. Abraham was not born a Jew; he was born a Gentile. How did he become a Jew? Some would say that Abraham became a Jew through circumcision, but Abraham became a Jew by faith. My friends, the Jewish race is the only race that began supernaturally; it began by faith. Faith is what changed Abram to Abraham, and faith is what caused him to leave a place called Ur of the Chaldees. It was faith that made Abraham a Jew, and it was 25 years after first exercising his faith, that Abraham was circumcised as an outward sign of what had already happened in his heart. Circumcision was performed on the part of his body, which represented reproduction, showing him that he was to teach his children about faith. My friend, children are born into the kingdom of God, not through natural birth, but by the hearing of the Gospel and the exercising of faith.”
17. Let me repeat an even longer list dealing with the universal promise to Abraham, for this adds meaning to the great commission of Jesus to go into all the world to preach the Gospel. The church is the seed of Abraham, and all believers in Jesus Christ are children of Abraham, and we have an obligation to help fulfill this final promise to be a blessing to all the world. We have a universal calling because in Jesus Christ, the full and completed seed of Abraham we have the message that brings the blessing to all peoples. Look at this series again, with a few added.
Go into all the world
Now in the second half of verse 3, God tells Abram:
Gen. 12:3 "...And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
This promise is reiterated to him in ch 22:
Gen. 22:18 "And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed..."
And repeated to his grandson Jacob in chapter 28:
Gen. 28:14 "...And in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
This blessing mentioned 3 times in Genesis is specifically a prophecy of Christ reaching the entire world with the gospel of salvation. Simon Peter told us that it pertained to Christ in Acts 3:
Acts 3:25-26 "It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.' For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."
And Paul told us that it spoke of the Gentiles being included, saying:
Gal. 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying , "All the nations shall be blessed in you."
18. I want to conclude this long list of comments on this verse by sharing the interesting slant on it from Ray Stedman who writes, "It is what every parent thinks of his child: "I will bless those who bless him, and those who curse him I will curse." We are wrapped up in our children. They are the apple of our eye, and whatever touches them touches us. So John writes, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God" (1 Jn 3:1 {RSV}). God says, I will identify myself with you. What concerns you, concerns me. But listen to this again, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse." That is, we will be identified with God in the eyes of the world. We will be, like him, a creator of crises. Everywhere you go, you will be either a blessing or a curse, but no one will ignore you. God will make your life to be so vitally in touch with himself that you will have the effect he has when he touches human life. It was so with Jesus of Nazareth. No one ever came into contact with him and remained neutral. This is what God says to each pilgrim in the life of faith: "If you will leave your country, your kindred, and your father's house, I will make you into this kind of person, so that you will affect every life you touch for better or for worse. They will bless you, or they will curse you." Surely this is what Paul means in Second Corinthians 2:15-16: For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? {2 Cor 2:15-16 RSV}"

4   So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

1. God had hardly finished speaking and Abram was already backing out of the tent and packing up to go. Here is instant obedience to God's command.  Spurgeon said, “Promptness is one of the brightest excellencies in faith’s actions. Delay spoils all.” He did not dispute with God, or question God's plan. He just headed for a place he knew nothing about. God said leave, and so he left. That is why he is one of the greatest men of faith in Heb. 11. Faith is more than just believing the word of God, it is taking action based on that word, and that is what we see in Abram. He did not say he had to think on it, or sleep on it, or check with others to see if it seems like a good idea. He just took a step of faith and left. His leaving was proof of his believing. If we look at other great men God called and used, we see a contrast between them and Abram. For example, look at how Gideon responded in Judges 6:12-13, "12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. 13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." He had all kinds of questions and doubts.  Then we look at Moses who responds to God's call in Ex. 4:1, " And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee." Again it is a response of doubt.  Then we have Jeremiah in Jer. 1:5-6, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." In other words, God you are calling the wrong person, for I just can't do it.  Jonah, or course, just took off in the opposite direction God called him to go.

 In contrast Abram in faith took off in confidence that God would make possible what was impossible for him in his old age and for Sarai in he barrenness. Phillips Brooks said, "You never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it on your own." This is what we see Abram doing. Walter P. Chrysler said, "The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers." Abram heard the knock of God and he responded with instant obedience with no excuses offered for delay. F. B. Meyer writes, ""Ah, glorious faith! this is thy work, these are thy possibilities! -- contentment to sail with sealed orders, because of unwavering confidence in the love and wisdom of the Lord High Admiral: willingness to arise up, leave all, and follow Christ, because of the glad assurance that earth's best cannot bear comparison with heaven's least. Ours not to make reply, Ours not to reason why, Ours but to do and die." Someone else wrote, "This story teaches us that faith journeys are the only way into God’s future, that moving beyond the security of where we are is the path to newness and growth. In fact, Jesus made the statement that unless a person hates father and mother, they cannot be his disciple (Luke 14:26). Hate here is not the human emotion, but is a figurative way to talk about an attitude that says, "I’m willing to risk everything and leave those things that provide comfort and security for something greater. I’m willing to leave home and put everything at risk for the sake of a new future even though I don’t have a clue what it is about." That attitude is modeled by Abraham here.  Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, has said, ''All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.'' M. Scott Peck said, "It is simply human to be afraid of going into the unknown. Indeed, it is wise, but it is also only from adventures that we learn. If you know exactly where you are going, exactly how you’re going to get there, and exactly what you’ll see along the way, it’s hardly an adventure. It is also not very likely that you’ll learn anything from the experience."
2. I cannot recall the author who wrote these excellent comments, but I need to quote them, for they convey in a brilliant way the essence of Abram's response in this verse. "Homer Rodeheaver was the great music leader for Billy Sunday and his evangelistic campaigns. On one occasion he had the opportunity to play golf at Palm Beach, Florida, with John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Just, as they were about to tee off, Mr. Rockefeller asked Rodeheaver to sing his favorite song before they played. Rockefeller's favorite song was, "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go, Dear Lord." There surrounded by perfectly kept greens, rainbows of flowers, stately palm trees, singing birds, and a beautiful sun-filled Florida sky, Rodeheaver sang the song for him, a man, who at that time, had amassed the greatest personal fortune in the history of this country. Rodeheaver later describing the scene said, "It was an experience. I'll never forget it. Here was a man who realized that there was something more important than wealth or power or in even playing a game of golf. As I stood there after finishing the song, he said, 'Homer, we have only one life - how soon it is passed. Only that done for Christ will last!' And with that he said, 'Now lets play golf."
If ever a man that lived ever truly said, "I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord," and fully understood that he had only one life and that which he did with that life for Christ, was all that would last eternally, it was Abraham. The first 11 chapters of Genesis cover the first 2,000 years of human history and the next 14 are given to the life of Abraham and his descendants. Over one-fourth of Genesis is given to life of this one man. Three times in the Bible, Abraham is called the "Friend of God." He was the founder of the Jewish nation and the father of all that believe. Apart from the Lord Jesus, Abraham is probably the most important person in the Bible. To me, the epitaph that would be fitting and descriptive of his life would be, "I'll Go Where You Want Me To, Dear Lord." To go not knowing where your journey will take you is what faith is all about. Frederick Buechner wrote, "Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession. It is an on-again-off-again rather than once-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you're going but going anyway. It is a journey without maps." Faith does not say I know all that God has planned, but I believe that the future is in his hand, and the final goal will be glorious and grand. The life of Abraham fits the acrostic of FAITH that says it means Forsaking All I Trust Him.
3. We see in this verse 1. His Action- he left; 2. His Associate-Lot; 3. His Age-75
He did not hesitate to respond to God with immediate action, and he did not draw back from taking he Nephew Lot along with him, even though he would become a burden to Abram later. He was an older man who would ordinarily not want to be taking adventures into unknown territory. God told him where to leave from and who to leave from, but he failed to mention where he was going to. He gave him a broad idea of the land of Canaan, but lets face it, that is too general to be helpful. Imagine someone telling you to go to Canada, but not telling you just where in Canada. It would make you want to ask for more specifics. Abram did not bother with such details, but just took off not knowing where he was going according to Heb. 11:8  which says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. He headed for strange and unfamiliar territory with no map, and that is what we call blind faith.  Someone wrote, " Can you imagine the picture? One day he walks in and he says to his wife Sarai, "Honey, I want you to start packing." "Why?" "We are moving." "Why?" "God has called me and told me to leave." "Where we going?" "I don't have any idea." In their discussion he would share that they were going to begin a new nation, and she would point out what a hair brain idea that was, since they were unable to even start a family. It had to be a hard sell to get Sarai on board with his plan to leave Ur. Faith can sometime seem like folly to those who have not heard the call, but for Abram it was clear that God wanted him to leave, and that is all he needed to motivate him to get going.
4. A good illustration of the kind of blind faith Abram had is the following report: "A television documentary showed blind skiers being trained for snow skiing. That sounds impossible, doesn't it? Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them, shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course, and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe." The partner that Abram had giving him guidance was God himself, and he had faith that God would protect him in a land filled with evil. Thomas Curtis Clark wrote,

From homeland went he forth, with faith his guide,
Unto an unknown land, assured that He
Who brought him out in sweet security
Would grant him rest beyond far Jordan’s tide.
O father of us all, give to each soul
A faith that does leave all that men count dear
To travel unknown ways without a fear,
Assured thy hand shall guide to worthy goal..

5. Dr. Harold L. White shares this biographical account that illustrates the faith and action of Abram.
"In 1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington decided he wanted to go to school. For a boy, born a slave to a plantation cook in Virginia, who had no idea who his white father was, this was a huge step.

He decided that he would enter the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. With nothing more than a small satchel of clothing, he started walking from Malden, West Virginia, 500 miles away.

Eventually he made it to Richmond, about eighty miles from his destination. He worked there for a few days unloading pig iron off a ship, spending his nights on the ground under an elevated board sidewalk. He continued his journey and finally reached Hampton Institute. He asked the "head teacher" for admission.

Washington later recalled, "Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not make a very favorable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student."

The teacher delayed a decision about Booker while she admitted other students, and he waited anxiously. Finally, she said to him, "The adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it."

"It occurred to me at once that here was my chance," he wrote. "Never did I receive an order with more delight...I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and I dusted it four times." He cleaned the walls and closets.

"I had the feeling," he continued, "that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to her. She was a `Yankee' woman who knew just where to look for dirt.

She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets: then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, `I guess you will do to enter this institution.'

"I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed."

Booker T. Washington not only passed that examination, but he kept a job as a janitor to help pay his expenses. In June 1875, he graduated, on the honor roll and as one of the commencement speakers.

Booker T. Washington was a dreamer who backed up his dreams with action. Abraham must have been a man like that as well.

6. And unknown Jewish Rabbi has this excellent analogy and commentary that gives us a profound insight into the character of Abraham. He writes, "A dear friend of mine recently shared an analogy that life is like a baseball practice. The goal is to improve your baseball-playing skills, to work at becoming the best you can be. Let’s say that you are given a choice between attending training camp with the best players in the game or with a group of children in little league. By joining the professionals, you know that you will fare poorly: You will rarely hit the ball, you will have trouble keeping pace, you will feel tremendous frustration, you will be beaten every time. By joining the kids, you are certain to be the star: You will hit the home runs, you will be the MVP, you will be admired.
However, by taking the easy route, you will not be accomplishing your mission. It may feel good to succeed, but you will not improve your game, and you will not become a better player from the experience. By choosing the challenge of competing with the experts, you will have a chance to achieve your goals, to become the best you can be. Though not as satisfying at the moment, clearly this is the wiser choice.
No one knew this better than our forefather Abraham. This week’s Torah portion begins with Hashem instructing him to leave his birthplace and venture into uncharted territory. This must have been a frightening proposition for him. He would have to give up the surroundings that were so familiar to him. He was a wealthy man and it must have seemed tempting to choose to stay and live a life of comfort, of success, of home run after home run. The Talmud explains, in fact, that Abraham went through 10 heart-wrenching trials during his lifetime. With each one, he was faced with having to decide whether to take the easy route or the difficult path. With each one, he needed to decide whether to put himself in a vulnerable position, in which he would have to struggle, face pain, and risk failure. He passed them all, choosing to sacrifice his comforts and his prestige in order to grow as a person and develop a closer relationship to his Creator.
Why was Abraham put through so many tests? The commentators explain that Abraham would not have reached his stature without these trials. Looking back on his life, how would Abraham have viewed his hardships? Would he rather have hung out in Charan with his family eating berries and enjoying his wealth? He was grateful for being put through these trials, since it enabled him to achieve a higher level of closeness with Hashem. He understood that this was the primary purpose of life, not to maximize one’s comfort and happiness.
7. It is seldom considered, but those who stayed behind and did not follow Abram, also played a major role in God's plan for the future of his people. Abram's brother Nahor stayed and built his own city named after him, as we see in Gen. 24:10. Not everyone is called to be a pioneer. Some need to settle down and maintain a home port with the anchor cast out for stability and security. Every missionary who leaves all to go to a foreign country needs a home base for support. These family members who stayed behind were very important to Abram, for later when his son Isaac needed a wife he sent his servant back to this home port to find her, and he came back with Rebekah. Later when Isaac and Rebekah had sons, and Esau married a Canaanite they were very disappointed. They did not want Jacob to do the same and so he was sent back again to this home port of the family where he met Rachel and it was here that the 12 sons of Jacob were born who became the 12 tribes of Israel. This home base played a truly major role in God's plan for his people, and so all the glory does not go just to Abraham who left all to go in obedience to God's call, but much goes to those who stayed put and provided a foundation for the future. Abram spent his life on the move going from one place to another, but his brother stayed in one place and established a home from which the godly wives of Isaac and Jacob came, and the mothers of the 12 tribes. It was his grand-daughter Rebekah, and his great grand-daughters Rachel and Leah who play star roles in God's plan, and he established the home in which they were raised. Nahor does not get much recognition for his part in the plan because all eyes are focused on Abram, but the fact is, he too was one of God's heroes. Many a preacher complains about Abram stopping for so many years in Haran before moving on to Canaan, but the fact is, this stop and the establishment of a home base was vital to the who plan of God with Abram. There is not a hint of a negative remark in the Bible about this stop and yet many build whole messages about Abram's sinful disobedience in doing this. They read into the text what is not there and make Abram guilty of sins that exist only in their own minds. If you just stick to what the Bible says you will see it was a great part of God's plan. Many chapters of Genesis revolve around this home base that was so essential for God's purpose.

5   He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
1. We see that Abram did not take off alone on this journey of faith. He had his wife and nephew and who knows how many servants they had accumulated? It was a sizable number because we read later that he had several hundred to go with him into battle. He had a good crowd traveling with him, and a lot of possessions, and so we are looking at what was more like a caravan than just a single family making its way through the wilderness. Abraham had all he needed to just settle down and live out the rest of his days in peace, but by faith he accepts the challenge to become a pioneer for God. He had clearly been successful in Haran and was fairly wealthy, and this could have discouraged him from marching on, but he did not let his wealth hold him back. The people he had acquired is by some considered converts he made there to the true God. This would indicate Abram was a missionary and had good success in Haran. Clarke has this interesting note on these people and writes, "This may apply either to the persons who were employed in the service of Abram, or to the persons he had been the instrument of converting to the knowledge of the true God; and in this latter sense the Chaldee paraphrasts understood the passage, translating it, The souls of those whom they proselyted in Haran."
2. It is a much debated issue as to weather Abraham had disobeyed God's call by stopping in Haran until his father died instead of marching strait on from Ur to Canaan. Some say it was sinful disobedience and they compare him to the one who said to Jesus, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father," and Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:59-60). Some say he only partially obeyed the call and only partly got to the promised land. He is accused of hesitating, vacillating and procrastinating, but there is not a single word from God that indicates God's anger or disappointment with Abraham on this matter. It is wise then to let the Word of God be our interpreter, and not read sin into Abraham's life and actions where God does not do so. He made enough obvious mistakes without adding others that are just speculation.
3. This is truly a reader digest report of their journey, for they set out for Canaan and arrive there in the same sentence. Nothing is said of what a pain it might have been with such a crowd of people and animals. There was nothing that happened that was worth reporting, and so it seems to be a perfect journey with no problems.

6   Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
1. It appears that Abram came to inspect this land that was promised to be the land of his family, and in three stages he covered it from North to South. Cassuto the Jewish commentator says he was like a man who had just acquired a piece of property and paces it out step by step, end to end to inspect it as the new owner. Abraham is marking his territory by his physical presence from one end to the other. His first stop is at Shechem where there was a special tree of great size. Trees were not common in the land and so a large tree was special, and they became sacred objects. It appears from Deut. 11:30 that there was something of a grove of these large trees, with this one standing out as the largest. It says, "As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road, [ Or Jordan, westward ] toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal."
2. This became a sacred spot for Israel because it was the first place that God revealed himself to Abram in the Promised Land. Later on Abram's grandson Jacob bought this piece of land and set up his home. Later after that the Israelites assembled here after they had taken possession of the land under Joshua to commemorate God's faithfulness in giving them the land promised to Abraham.
3. The Canaanites were a very wicked people and Abraham tried to make sure that his family would not intermarry with them, for he knew they would lead them into idolatry. Unfortunately, not all were as wise as Abraham, and so many of the Israelites did intermarry with Canaanites. In Gen. 38:1-5 we read of Judah, the one through whom the Messiah came into the world, married and had children with a Canaanite. It says, " At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him." The second oldest son of Jacob also had a child by a Canaanite women in Gen. 46:10, " The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman." Strange as it may seem, a  large clan to come from this father of one of the 12 tribes of Israel came from this Canaanite mother. We see it spelled out in I Chron. 4:24-27, "The descendants of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah and Shaul; 25 Shallum was Shaul's son, Mibsam his son and Mishma his son. 26 The descendants of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son and Shimei his son. 27 Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many children; so their entire clan did not become as numerous as the people of Judah." In Judges 3:5-6 we see the Israelites marrying the Canaanites in mass, and it was the very disaster that led Abraham to avoid such a thing. It says, "The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods." Canaanite blood flowed through the veins of many of the Israelites making it clear that there is no such thing as a pure Jew.
4. These Canaanites were a paradox in relation to Israel, for they were the greatest of enemies and also the greatest of friends. They began as people of God, for they were descendants of Canaan the grandson of Noah-Gen. 10:6, 15-19. Canaan’s firstborn son was Sidon, who became the father of the Sidonians. They founded the city of Sidon on the Mediterranean Sea just 20 miles north of Tyre. This was the home of the famous Phoenicians. It was one of the few places Jesus visited outside of Israel. There he encountered the Canaanite woman who was blest by this Seed of Abraham in Matt. 15:21-28. They will be better off in judgment than the descendants of Abraham he said in Matt. 11:20-24. Luke 6:17-18 and Mark 3:7-8. Jesus love these people as he did all people. Luke 4:24-30 In Acts 27:3 we see a church there. The Sidonians were partners with Israel in building the temple in I Kings 5:1-7
5. The second son of Canaan was Heth father of the Hittites. Abraham had a good relationship with them and bought the only piece of ground from them for his burial place in Gen. 23:1-20 This became the most famous tomb in all the world. Gen. 26:34-5. We read that David had Hittites in his army, for one was a leader with him in I Sam. 26:6, and one of his best men was Uriah the Hittite in II Sam. 11:3, whom he killed to hide his affair with his wife Bathsheba. We do not know if she was a Hittite or not, but she became David's wife and mother of Solomon. There was Hittite blood in the blood line to Jesus through the women in the genealogy of Jesus. I Kings 11:1 says that Solomon loved the Hittite women. In Ezek. 16:1-3 God even says that the mother of Israel was a Hittite, "The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite." Verse 45 repeats it again, "Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite." If this is to be taken literally then Sarah was a Hittite.
6. The third son of Canaan was called Jebus in Judges 19:10-11and II Sam. 5:6-7. He was father of the Jebusites who held Jerusalem until David conquered it. They were tough people to get out of town, however, and Josh. 15:63 says, "As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day." If you can't beat them, join them was the motto of Israel in relation to the Jebusites. Another tribe tried to get them out also, but Judges 1:21 reports the same conclusion, and says, "And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day." Finally David got a crack at it, and we read in II Sam. 5:6 "[ David Conquers Jerusalem ] The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, "You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off." They thought, "David cannot get in here." They mocked David, but this time it was a different story, for verse 7 says, "Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David."
7. So there were some good relationships with the Canaanites, but over all they were a morally depraved people, and so evil in the sight of God that they had to be driven out of the land in order for it to become the home of God's people. God promises this land to the seed of Abraham, and that is why he built an altar there to claim it as holy ground that will one day belong to his descendants. It is of interest that Jacob also erects an altar at Shechem, and much later Joshua invades the land and again builds an altar next to Shechem. They had faith in God's promise, and this was not easy, for as F. B. Meyer wrote, "There was no natural probability of that promise being fulfilled. "The Canaanite was then in the land." Powerful chieftains like Mamre and Eschcol; flourishing towns like Sodom, Salem, and Hebron; the elements of civilization -- all were there. The Canaanites were not wandering tribes. They had settled and taken root. They built towns, and tilled the land. They knew the use of money and writing; and administered justice in the gate. Every day built up their power, and made it more unlikely that they could ever be dispossessed by the descendants of a childless shepherd."

7   The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring [1] I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
1. God promised Abraham that his offspring would receive the land he was called to, and so he marked his territory with an altar to the one true God. This altar is the first of four that he built (See 12:28, 13:18, and 22:9), and they represented his commitment to be a worshipper of the God who made this promise. Someone wrote, "In the cultural context of that time, an altar was basically an organized pile of stones that marked sacred sites or places of encounter with God. Later in Genesis and throughout the journey of Israel to Canaan individuals and the people were constantly building altars and leaving piles of stones. When something significant happened they left a pile of stones or an altar (e.g., Gen 13:18, 26:25, 31:45-46, Ex 17:15, Josh 4:3-9, 8:30, 7:26, 8:29). While the pile of stones as a memorial and as an altar are two different things, the significant aspect here is that these altars or memorials marked times of encounter with God. They were markers of the faith journey." In my mind I see Abram building an altar everywhere he went in order to commune with God and find out the next step he wanted him to take. He only knew where to go next because God led him step by step as he continued to explore this land God was going to give to his seed. He was like the captain of a ship who has sealed orders to go to such and such a place and when there he will open the seal and learn what his next move will be.
This land was to be the land of God's people where he alone would be worshipped in contrast to the rest of the world where many gods were worshipped. The land seems to be no big deal. It is only 180 miles long and 75 miles across. But the greatest events in human history happened in that small land. This land was to be exclusive to the true people of God who worshipped him only and no other idols. Neh. 9:7-8 says, "You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous." This text is saying that God kept this promise to give this land to his people, the offspring of Abraham. The question then arises, has the promise of God to Abraham already been fulfilled, or is there more to come?
2. Those who say the promise has been completely fulfilled point to Joshua 21:43-45 where we read, "So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LORD'S good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." That would seem to settle the matter, and to add to this evidence is I Kings 4:20-21 which says, "The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy. 21 And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon's subjects all his life."
3. The issue then becomes the permanence of the promise, for it seems that God promised that the land would be the everlasting possession of the seed of Abraham. But other text make it clear that their possession of this land of promise was conditional upon their loyalty to God. If they went after other gods and became unfaithful they would forfeit this promise, and this is just what happened. Deut. 30:15-20 makes it clear that the promise of the land is conditional upon their obedience to his law. It says, "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." The everlasting seems to fade from this passage and it is totally dependant upon their choice to have blessings or curses. It is no longer a matter of God's sovereign choice, but of the choice of human free will. Lev. 20:22-23 says, "Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them." The land is holy to God and when the people in it are unholy it becomes sick of them and vomits them out, and this happened to the people who were supposed to have it forever.
In II Kings 17:18-23 we read of an example of God taking his people away from the land. "18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19 and even Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20 Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence. 21 When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. 22 The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23 until the LORD removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there." They became what is called the lost tribes of Israel.
4. It is often asked why God took this land from the people who lived there and gave it to Israel. The reason is clear that the people were so evil that they were judged by being driven out of this land. But God was longsuffering and did not punish them until they were hopeless. That is why the people of Israel had to stay in Egypt for 400 to 430 years. It took that long for the people of the land to become worthy of being judged. Gen. 15:12-16 tells us, "As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." In that time the people of Israel grew to nearly 2 million so they could be strong enough to take the land and be God’s tool of judgment. It was not a rash decision of God without plenty of time for them to repent and change the future. It was a just plan to achieve what was best for man. God gives the wicked more time to change than any human would ever give an enemy, but we need to remember God even loves his enemies and longs for them to repent so he can save them, and that is why he is so patient with the wicked. When his wrath falls it is because he is dealing with a hopeless case.
5. Someone put it this way: "God is the landlord who knows he has to evict the present occupants of his house, but he waits until the young couple he wants to live there can afford to pay the rent before he evicts them. So God waits until Israel is ready to occupy the land before he evicts the Canaanites. The land is often called one flowing with milk and honey, and in Deut. 8:7-9 and 11:8-12 and in Ezek. 20:6,15 it is described as a paradise and the most beautiful of all lands. God loves this land. But in so many films of it that I have seen it looks rocky and barren, and not like my idea of paradise. We know little of what it is really like."
6. This promise of the land is very specific and refers to Canaan, a fairly small country in comparison to nations around it. But it would appear from what Paul says in Rom. 4:13 just a representation or home base from which Abraham would possess the whole world. Paul wrote, " For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." God said he would be a blessing to the whole world and all families of the world, and new Paul adds he would be heir of the world. In other words, the seed of Abraham, or all believers in the Seed who is Christ, will one day possess the entire world. It will be a Christian world someday. 
7. Stedman puts a spiritual spin on the promise of land so as to give it application to all believers. He writes, "What is the land then? It is simply life in Christ. It is what the New Testament calls the fullness of the Spirit. It is life controlled by the Spirit of God, reflecting the glory of Christ. We enter it by conversion, but we do not experience the fullness of its blessing until we learn, like Abram, to adjust ourselves to its peculiar demands. But it is the land of promise, the land of fulfillment, the land of God's blessing and power, The whole of the Bible is written for no other purpose than to bring the people of God into the land of God. This is where he called Abram to go."

8   From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and 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.
1. Here we see Abraham taking the initiative and building an altar because he chose to do so and call on the name of the Lord. Before he built the altar because God appeared to him, and he felt obligated to do so. Here, however, he is freely choosing to built an altar because he wants to develop his relationship to God through prayer. It is a two way street he is on, and he chooses to not just wait for God to come to him, but chooses to go to God, and this is the beginning of a mature relationship with God. If you only go to God when he confronts you, it is a really hit and miss faith you have. A mature faith will go to God often by choice and seek for his wisdom and guidance in daily life.
2. Abraham was a man on the move, for he kept pulling up stakes and pitching his tent in new territory. He was apparently scouting out this land that God brought him into and which he promised to give to his offspring. Someone put together this list of the places that he stayed in:
Haran
The site of Haran, a strategic city in ancient times, lies along the Jullab River, near the source of the Balikh River, 24 miles southeast of the Turkish city Urfa, and 60 miles north of the confluence of the Euphrates and Balikh Rivers. It is located on the main road that ran from Nineveh to Carchemish and was regarded of considerable importance by the Assyrian kings. Its chief cult was that of the Mesopotamian moon-god Sin. It was probably founded as a merchant outpost by the Sumerian city of Ur in the late third millennium BC. The name Haran means "highway, road, or caravan" in Akkadian.
Shechem
Upon coming to Canaan, Abraham first settled in Shechem (12:6). Years later Jacob's family lived near the city (33:18).
The ancient walled city of Shechem guarded the pass between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, on the main road from Jerusalem to the north. In Abraham's day it was a city-state that had been founded about 1900 BC, in the Amorite period of the Middle Bronze IIA era. It is referred to in Egyptian inscriptions both of conquered cities and among Asiatic enemies of Egypt. Abraham probably didn't live within the city, but camped outside, in the area of the Tree of Moreh.[20]
Hebron
Hebron (meaning "league" or "confederacy"), about 19 miles SSW of Jerusalem, close to the Tree of Mamre, where Abraham lived during several periods in his life (13:18; 14:13; 18:1), built an altar, and witnessed an appearance of the Lord. At Sarah's death, he purchased a burial cave at nearby Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite (23:1-20) . Numbers 32:22 says that Hebron was built seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan (Tanis), probably a Hyksos building project, dating it at approximately 1700 BC, thought it had probably been inhabited since the Early Bronze period onward. The traditional site of the cave of Machpelah is now marked by a mosque, formerly a Crusader church. Little archaeological excavation has been done here.[21]
Bethel
Bethel, on the main north-south watershed route about 12 miles north of Jerusalem, was probably founded about 2000 BC. In the early Hyksos period, about 1750 BC, a city wall on the north side was reinforced with a wide clay revetment.[22]
Ai
Ai was founded about 3000 BC, protected by an elaborate defense system of three walls. It was destroyed a thousand years later by Amorite invaders.[23]
Beer-sheba
Beersheba was a settlement in the northern Negev desert, since it was a location where water could be found in the desert. The name means "well of seven." Tell es-Seba', the site of the ancient town, is located at the juncture of the Wadi Seba' and the Wadi Khelil. It contains rich alluvial soil where crops could be grown -- and Abraham's herds could be grazed. There doesn't seem to be a city there in Abraham's time; the region was controlled by Gerar, the nearest commercial center.[24]
Gerar
Gerar was a town in the western Negev desert, near Gaza, apparently controlled by Philistine or sea tribes during the patriarchal period (26:1, 8). Abraham spent some time in Gerar (20:1-18) during his desert wanderings. Though we're not sure of the exact location, it has been tentatively identified with Tell Abu Hureirah.[25]
Abraham lived in a tent all the time and never had a permanent residence in the promised land. When he died all he owned was a burial plot.

9   Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
1. Abram built plenty of altars, but you never see him building a house, for he never settled anywhere for very long. He lived in a tent because he was a pioneer and not a settler. He was always on the move to explore new areas of this land that would one day belong to his descendants. Every place he came to was not home, but just a stopping place to mark it with an altar and then move on. He was on a journey that would take him from one end of the land to the other.

10   Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
1. If you look for sin you can find it just about everywhere, and this is true in the life of Abraham. People are so determined to show that he was just like us, and so they find sins in his life for which there is no evidence. It is true that Abram was called to go to Canaan and not Egypt, but many commentators conclude from this that Abram sinned by going down to Egypt and not staying in Canaan in spite of the famine. They say he lost his faith in God's ability to take care of him and provide for his needs, and so he forsook his life of obedience to God and put his faith in the pagan Egyptians instead. His faith failed in the face of famine. A thousand preachers say it, but God never does say it, and not one hint of such a sin is in the Biblical text. Abraham is slandered by so many who ought to be supporting his endeavor to live as God wants him to live.  The text is clear that the famine was severe, and he was just going to Egypt for a short time until the emergency was over. It would be over 400 years before his descendants would take over the land, and so it does not seem to be a crisis that he took a few months to go where he could survive in relative comfort. I don't recall God saying, "When you get there, do not leave the land for any reason whatever." Had there been such a text, then the critics could have a field day with this hero gone astray, but lacking any such text, why not praise him for having the good sense to temporarilly relocate for the good of his whole family and livestock? Abram has a barren wife and now lives in a barren land. He has no baby and has less bread. He cannot do anything about the baby, but he can do something about the bread. Egypt hardly ever ran out of bread because of the Nile, and so he made a wise and logical choice. Jacob did it too in Gen. 46:3, and Joseph ended up a leader of the nation, although not by choice, but in the providence of God. Mary and Joseph fled there with the Christ child for safety. That is just what Abram was doing. God told Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt for he knew it was an excellent place to escape to, and so it was acceptable to God for his people to use Egypt as a sanctuary.  It is true that Abram blew it when he got there and lied about his wife, but that is a clear violation of God's will that all can see. Why add another sin to his life when there is nothing obvious about it? It is assumed by his critics that Abram did not ask the Lord for guidance, but this is the argument from silence, and it is foolish, for it assumes that every prayer of Abram is recorded, when the fact is, few are recorded of a man who set up an altar for prayer everywhere he went. Many say it was not God's will for him to go to Egypt, but God never says so, and the Word of God is to be our guide, and not the words of men.

2. I prefer the way Dr. Charles Revis writes about this text. He says, “Last week we left off with Abraham in Canaan. God led Abraham into the Promised Land as God said He would do. Abraham praised God for the land, building altars and ascribing praise to God. Then a natural disaster strikes the land in the form of a famine. Abraham chooses to vamoose. He knows the Promised Land isn't going anywhere, so he probably reasoned to himself, "There's no need to stick around and possibly starve to death. It's time to go in search of food." He's a responsible man, a practical man. In that day anyone who had any sense knew where to go for food in the event of a famine: EGYPT." He does admit that the majority, who feel he stumbled in faith have a point here, for he made some major mistakes while in Egypt, and he could have stayed in the land and avoided these mistakes. He did a common sense logical thing, but not a faith thing. Dr. Revis is open to both views, but the fact is, there is no condemnation from God, and I prefer the silence of God to the murmuring of men.  It was sometimes the very will of God for his people to go down to Egypt as we read in
Gen. 46:3-4, "I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt." This was spoken to Abram's great grandson Jacob. It was also a time of famine for Jacob, and so God sees the wisdom of finding refuge and supplies in Egypt.

3. It is of great interest that Jewish scholars debate this issue and have two different views. One says it was a lack of faith to go to Egypt, and the other says it was a demonstration of faith to go there. A Jewish author gives us this description of the debate that goes back to the Middle Ages:

Our tradition teaches us that Abraham faced ten tests from G-d from the opening command of this week’s Torah portion to the climactic and ultimate faith-testing binding of Isaac in next week’s Torah portion. An interesting difference of opinion exists regarding one of the less regarded challenges.
The Torah states: "There was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down to Egypt to live there, for the famine was severe in the land" (Genesis 12:10). The Ramban, one of the leading Torah scholars of the Middle Ages, faults Abraham for taking his wife down to Egypt and exposing her to danger from the Egyptians. Instead Abraham should have demonstrated more faith in G-d in His protecting Abraham and his family.
Consequently, according to the Ramban, the Jewish people were punished with an extensive painful sojourn in Egypt. Ideally, Abraham should have remained in the land of Canaan, relying on G-d’s grace to protect and sustain him and his family.
In stark and explicit contradiction, the Netziv, a 19th century Lithuanian Torah giant, lauds Abraham’s decision to move to Egypt. As the Torah states, "for the famine was severe in the land" — the repetition of the severity of the famine informs us that so long as Abraham could sell his belongings, he relied on G-d until the famine directly impacted him. Then he determined on his own to leave Canaan.
In fact, this was Abraham’s test. He was not obstinate. Abraham understood this was G-d’s message and intention and not, as the Ramban wrote, that Abraham sinned in going to Egypt revealing deficient faith in G-d. Certainly, Abraham acted out of faith to the extent possible, but his going down to Egypt was G-d’s plan.
The two perspectives diverge in one way, but find common ground in another. The Ramban criticizes Abraham’s departure from the land that G-d had previously commanded him to travel to. Although Abraham felt compelled to leave, the Ramban argues that he should have been more steadfast and risky, feeling secure in G-d’s protection. In contrast, the Netziv commends Abraham for his flexibility and taking responsibility for his decisions.
Along the spectrum of faith in G-d and personal perseverance (not relying on a miracle), this story relates to the ambitious position. While the Ramban expected Abraham to hold tight to the extreme of perfect faith in G-d by remaining in the famine-struck land risking his family, the Netziv found that Abraham struck the complex and subtle balance between demonstrating faith in G-d and personal effort.
After trying to neutralize the dangers of the famine by selling his property, Abraham realized the magnitude of the danger and, responsibly, with perfect faith, led his family out of G-d’s land. Both positions reveal their high expectations of Abraham. The Ramban walked away disappointed, but the Netziv was proud of Abraham’s decision.

4. Several authors point out that this is the first reference to Egypt and that people tend to forget the Egyptians when they try to exalt the Jews. They say the Jews are the only ancient people to survive into modern times, but this is not so, for the Egyptians were much older than the Jews, and they are still with us today, and they will eventually become a part of the people of God as we read in Isa. 19:19-25, "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. 21 So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them. 22 The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."
5. It is just like life often is, Abram gets into the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, and all of a sudden the flow is shut off and people are facing starvation. You can just imagine Sarah in the kitchen trying to figure out how to cook with so little supplies left and complaining to Abram about his dreamland drying up into a nightmare. Obedience to God does not guarantee there will be no trials and difficulties to be overcome. You often have to make other plans than what you expected when following a path you are sure is the will of God. There are bumps in the road and curves that take you in other directions than expected, but the faithful will just keep making the best decisions they can to keep surviving and pressing on, and that is what we see Abram doing. Someone has said that a smooth sea never made a good sailor. An unknown author writes, "How often do professing Christians adopt a hurt and injured tone in speaking of God's dealings with them! They look back upon a sunny past, and complain that it was better with them before they entered the wicket gate and commenced to tread the narrow way. Since that moment they have met with nothing but disaster. They had no famines in Ur or Charran; but now, in the Land of Promise, they are put to sore straits and are driven to their wits' end. The trader has met with bad debts, which sorely embarrass him; the capitalist has been disappointed in several of his most promising investments; the farmer has been disheartened by a succession of bad seasons. And they complain that the service of God has brought them misfortune rather than a blessing.
But is not this the point to be borne in mind on the other side? These misfortunes would probably have come in any case; and how much less tolerable would they have been had there not been the new sweet consciousness that God had now become the refuge of the soul! Besides this, God our Father does not undertake to repay His children in the base coin of this lower world. Spiritual grace will ever be its own reward. Purity, truth, gentleness, devotion, have no equivalent in the ore drawn from the mines of Peru, nor in the pearls of the sea; but in the happy consciousness of the heart at peace with God, and rejoicing in His smile. Had God pledged Himself to give His servants an unbroken run of prosperity, how many more counterfeit Christians would there be! Well is it that He has made no such promise; though it is certainly true that "godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Do not be surprised if a famine meets you. It is no proof of your Father's anger, but is permitted to come to test you -- or to root you deeper, as the whirlwind makes the tree grapple its roots deeper into the soil."

11   As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are.
1. These are the first spoken words of Abram and they are words of a loving compliment to his wife. He acknowledges her beauty even at her age of 65. Some older women remain beautiful while others see it fade from what they had in their younger days. She has lived a fairly tough life of being a pioneer and yet she maintained her charm. Abram knows that female beauty is always a dangerous asset when you enter the territory of strangers. Female beauty stimulates lust and lust is capable of motivating men to murder to obtain it.
2. Calvin has an interesting theory as to why God gave Sarai such long lasting beauty. He wrote, "I do not however doubt, that the perfection of her form was the special gift of God; but why he would not suffer the beauty of the holy woman to be so soon worn down by age, we know not; unless it were, that the loveliness of that form was intended to be the cause of great and severe anxiety to her husband." In other words, her beauty was one of the many trials Abram had to endure. There was a price to pay for having such a beautiful wife. 

12   When the Egyptians see you, they will say, `This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live.
1. Abram was just being honest about how beauty produces lust to possess it. He knew that men consider the beauty of women the highest kind of beauty. Ever since God gave Eve to Adam this has been the case. He had Eden and all the beauty of creation, but he was not satisfied until he had the beauty of Eve. Men will kill for this kind of beauty, and Abram had no desire to be killed just because his wife was a stunning and gorgeous beauty. He had escaped from the danger of starvation, for they were now in the breadbasket of the ancient world, but now he faces a deadly risk that is even swifter than starvation, and that is a slit throat by some thug who wants his wife. Abram apparently had read the scandal sheets from Egypt and knew what they were capable of. The British Museum has a papyrus dating from the time of Abram that tells of how the Egyptian Pharaoh sent his armed men to take a man's wife and then kill her husband. They had absolute power and would use it to obtain a beautiful woman.
2. Calvin has an interesting note here, for he sees both the good and the bad in this scheme of Abram to save his own life. He wrote, "Undoubtedly he would have chosen to die a hundred times, rather than thus to ruin the character of his wife, and to be deprived of the society of her whom alone he loved. But while he reflected that the hope of salvation was centered in himself , that he was the fountain of the Church of Gods that unless he lived, the benediction promised to him, and to his seed, was vain; he did not estimate his own life according to the private affection of the flesh; but inasmuch as he did not wish the effect of the divine vocation to perish through his death, he was so affected with concern for the preservation of his own life, that he overlooked every thing besides. So far, then, he deserves praise, that, having in view a lawful end of living, he was prepared to purchase life at any price. But in devising this indirect method, by which he subjected his wife to the peril of adultery, he seems to be by no means excusable. If he was solicitous about his own life, which he might justly be, yet he ought to have cast his care upon God. The providence of God, I grant, does not indeed preclude the faithful from caring for themselves; but let them do it in such a way, that they may not overstep their prescribed bounds. Hence it follows, that Abram’s end was right, but he erred in the way itself; for so it often happens to us, that even while we are tending towards God, yet, by our thoughtlessness in catching at unlawful means, we swerve from his word. And this, especially, is wont to take place in affairs of difficulty; because, while no way of escape appears, we are easily led astray into various circuitous paths. Therefore, although they are rash judges, who entirely condemn this deed of Abram, yet the special fault is not to be denied, namely, that he, trembling at the approach of death, did not commit the issue of the danger to God, instead of sinfully betraying the modesty of his wife. Wherefore, by this example, we are admonished, that, in involved and doubtful matters, we must seek the spirit of counsel and of prudence from the Lord; and must also cultivate sobriety, that we may not attempt anything rashly without the authority of his word."

13   Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."
1. Abram says say you are my sister and not my wife, for such a white lie could save my life. Tell them that you are not married and I might escape being killed and buried. Abram is trying to save his own hide by giving the impression she is not his bride. Lets practice a little deceiving so that I can continue my breathing.  He knows that men seeing her beautiful sight could lead to his getting his throat cut in the night, so he urges her to tell just this one little white lie so he can survive until they can bid Egypt goodbye. This, of course, brings us to the issue of situation ethics that asks the question, is it ever right to lie? This is an issue hotly debated all through history, and we will enter the debate to some degree as we try to determine just how wrong it was for Abram and Sarai to agree to lie about her just being a sister and not a wife. That it was a lie there is no debate, for the purpose was to deceive and give the impression that she was not married to Abram, and this clearly was a lie.
2. Sarai was the half sister of Abram. Gen. 20:12 says, "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." This became an incestuous marriage later on under the law, but it was not against any law at this time, and you cannot break a law that does not exist. Lev. 18:9-11, "The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. 11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness." Sarai and Abram would have been violating the law of God in later history, but it was a valid marriage at their time in history. This shows that something can be right at one time and wrong in another time. It can be right to go 75 miles an hour on the interstate now, but it was wrong and punishable by a fine years ago when 55 was the limit. Laws change depending on circumstances. Incestuous relations were valid in the ancient world for there was a need for more children for the human race to advance, and in the original families that was the only kind of relationship that existed. Lot having sons by his own daughters sounds terrible to us, but it was a valid way to produce sons in that pre-law period.   Deut. 27:22 says, "Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen." But Abram was not so cursed, for he lived centuries before it was the law to be cursed. Lev. 18:18 says, "18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time." So Jacob is also free to marry two sisters as he did Rachel and Leah, for it was centuries before this law was in force.  
3. There are many strong words of condemnation for Abram's plan that involves lying and deceit. Dykes writes, “No defense can be offered for a man who, merely through dread of danger to himself, tells a lie, risks his wife’s chastity, puts temptation in the way of his neighbors, and betrays the charge to which the Divine favor has summoned him.” Leupold, “Abram never sank lower, as far as we know, that when he made this request.” Another author is amazed that such a man of faith could so soon become such a coward. He writes,  "...I say it is not obvious that such a man of faith would so soon be found playing the part of a coward, forgetting all about God, trusting him not at all to protect his life or to fulfill his promise. It is not obvious that a man who had already traveled so far and had faced down so many obstacles by faith would collapse before the mere suspicion that his life might be in danger. God had said, "I will make of you a great nation" and Abram had believed it! And, now, Abram is saying to himself "The Egyptians will kill me." I completely understand why this is made to be a great stumbling point in the life of a great man, for we need to know that the best of men are men at best, and that we do not lose our relationship to God by our stumbling and doing foolish and sinful things. There is much of this in the Bible to give us hope and comfort in our weakness, and that is why preachers make much of this failure of Abram in this context. The problem is, it is reading in to the text something that God does not read in at all, and it is always safer and wiser to stick with God's perspective.
4. Almost every sermon you read on this text condemns Abram for his lack of faith, but few ever see the possibility that what he is doing is an exhibition of faith. Cassuto the Jewish scholar gives Abram the benefit of the doubt and says it was a wise plan. By having Sarai pose as his sister, it would lead to men of the land coming to him to get her hand in marriage. This would give him time to stall by insisting that they have a long engagement. By this time the famine would be over and they could leave the land and head home. It was an ingenious plan, and demonstrated his faith that God would use his scheme to preserve him and his wife. It got complicated because of the Pharaoh being the one to take her, and he acted immediately because he had the power to do so, and he had to get her started in the long preparation to become his bride, and ready to enter his bed. But the complication did not bother Abram, for he had faith to believe that God would somehow protect his wife who was to be the mother of the seed that would bless the whole world. Why is everyone so down on Abram at this stage of his life when it can just as easily be interpreted as a time of his greatest faith rather than failure. Nowhere does God utter a word of condemnation to support the critics of Abram. If God does not condemn him, who are we to do so, and read in a loss of faith when it can just as well be seen as an act of faith? Abram does not seem to be surprised that he came out of this messy situation smelling like a rose. He is made rich; he gets his wife back, and he is set free to go back to where he wants to be. It all worked out like a dream, and that is what Abram seemed to expect, for he trusted God to overcome all circumstance to preserve him and Sarai, even the circumstance of his lie backfiring on him and compicating what should have been simple.
5. Now we need to deal with the issue of lying. It has been a controversial issue all through history because lies fall into different categories and it can be a challenge to figure out which category a particular lie falls into. The paradox of the lie is that some lies are actually virtuous, and this is confusing when we know that Satan is the father of lies and almost always lying is a sin. Thomas Aquinas put lies into these three categories: 1. The malicious lie, which is told to harm someone; 2. The Jocose lie, which is told in jest as a form of play and humor; and 3. The Officious lie, which is told to save from death or injury, and so is a virtue. It is a paradox that something so vicious can also be virtuous, but it is the reality in the world of lying. There are those who will not accept this reality, however, but insist that all lying is evil, wrong and sinful, and there can be no exceptions. We will look at their perspective first.
NO LIE IS EVER JUSTIFIED
The most extreme of those with this view is the ancient spokesman who said, "I would not tell a lie to save the souls of the whole world." This, of course, makes the sin of lying far worse than the unforgivable sin even, for it is so horrible that there is none that can be considered worse. Few would make this kind of radical statement, but many are convinced that there can never be an adequate excuse to tell a lie. Those who oppose all that situation ethics stands for say that taking the way of lying to escape any situation is a lack of faith in God. One author writes, " Situation ethics always supposes some kind of hypothetical circumstance in which there is no solution that is morally right. But God’s Word clearly tells us that God never puts us in a situation where we must sin: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it (I Corinthians 10:13). The problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that all forms of lying is sin, when in reality the virtuous lie could be the very means God provides for the way of escape. That is why we want to examine the other side of the issue to see if there are actually lies that fit the category of a virtue, which makes them justified.
SOME LIES ARE JUSTIFIED
Some of the most successful virtuous liars in the Bible are women, and the most successful of all are the midwives of Egypt. We read in Ex. 1:15-21, "The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?" 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive." 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own." God greatly blest these liars, because God considers any lie that saves the lives of the innocent as a virtuous lie pleasing in his sight. 
In Josh. 2:4-7 we read this account of a lie: "But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut." What we have here is the virtuous lie of a prostitute to save the men she hid to save them from those who would kill them. This is the perfect illustration of the lies of many godly people like Corrie Ten Boom and her family who hid Jews from the German Gestapo. They would lie rather than let those thugs find their hidden Jews and carry them away to the gas chanber as they did to millions. This establishes the justified lie. It is a lie that saves lives from evil men determined to kill them. If you can ever save a life by lying it is a virue to do so, and this women Rahab was greatly honored by God for doing so, and she became one of the women in the blood line to Jesus. 
In Judges 4:17-21 we read this account of another women who became greatly honored by lying and deceitful behavior toward an enemy of God's people. It says, "Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him. 19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up. 20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' 21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died." She lured him with a lie that he had no need to fear, and by this deception lure him to his death. A weak woman facing a strong and powerful man who is evil is justified to use a lie and deceptive behavior to get the advantage over him, and when necessary to kill him. Jael was greatly honored for her actions. 
In I Sam. 20:5-7 we read this account of David hatching up a plan of deception against king Saul with his friend Jonathan. It says, "So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon festival, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, 'David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.' 7 If he says, 'Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me." If you read on in this chapter you see that Jonathan did tell the lie to his father Saul and he got so mad he almost killed his own son. Here we have a situation where you are dealing with a dangerous man who is determined to do evil and kill an innocent man out of raging jealousy. Is is right to lie to such a man? The Bible says yes, for we have no obligation to be honest with anyone who is determined to do evil. If we cooperate with such a man to help him succeed in evil, then we are a part of the evil.  Any lie that can prevent an evil person from succeeding is a virtuous lie. If you feel obligated to be truthful to an evil person then you will be an accessory to their evil deed that may mean the death of innocent people. That is why it is valid to lie to an enemy who would use the truth to kill innocent people. You become a traitor to your country if you tell its enemies its secrets, and so it is a virtue is you can lie and lead them in the wrong direction and thereby save your people.

These Bible examples make it clear that there is such a thing as a justifiable lie, and so we want to consider other examples that fit this category. Centuries before Christ Plato defended the noble lie, and that is what this list is doing.
SITUATIONS WHERE LYING IS JUSTIFIED
A. Farmer Joe decided his injures from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe.
"Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine'?" said the lawyer.
Farmer Joe responded, "Well I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the...."
"I didn't ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine'?!"
Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road...."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me.
He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?"
B. The most famous king of justified lie is that which comes in time or war. For example, in World War II when the Gestapo knocked on your door and asked are there any Jew hiding here? And if you are hiding Jews is it wrong to say No and lie to men who will come in and drag them to their death if you say yes? In other words, is it justified to lie to save a life, your own, or that of others? Most agree that this is justified, for why should those doing evil have any right to your cooperation. It is part of life to try and deceive those intent on harming you. It may be in war where all kinds of deception is used to prevent the enemy from being successful in defeating you. Lying becomes a virtue in situations where it outwits evil and magnifies the good. This, of course, leads to the end justifies the means that is used to justify all kinds of evil, and so people do not want to allow any example, for it opens the door to justify just about anything. This is folly, for there can be cases where the end does justify the means without it becoming a universal law that all means are justified by a good end. If Abram was, in fact, in danger of being killed, it would justify his lie, for most any man would lie to escape being killed. If an intruder held your family at gunpoint and demanded all your credit cards, could you lie and say you only have one, when you really have three?  And could you then give him only the one that was already maxed out so he could not gain anything from having it, and be justified in such a deception? The point I am making is there are endless situations where you are confronted with evil intentions, and it is lawful to lie to prevent the success of those evil intentions.
C. When people ask personal questions that they have no right to know, it is justified to lie. If someone asks you how many times you had sex before you got married, it is none of their business and if you lie and say none to spare yourself embarrassment it is a valid response. It would be better to say it is none of your business, but if that seems rude a lie can be justified. We have no obligation to share personal facts about ourselves with people who probe where they don't belong.
D. In order to avoid unnecessary hurt it is valid to lie and say you like or enjoy something that you really do not. If you are a guest in a home and the hostess puts her special dish before you that she thinks is the best on the planet and you taste it and find it boring or tasteless, you do not have to say so, or say I've had worse, but you can say that is okay, or not bad, or it is impressive. She is delighted and you are considered a guest she would welcome back. Everybody is happy because you were not honest. You could tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and ruin the whole evening for everyone, but who wins in that situation.? So what we have is lies of politeness where we say the dress looks nice, you hair is lovely, you are looking good, you don't look fat in that dress, and endless such compliments that may not be how we really feel. They are thoughtful lies that maintain peace in relationships, where the truth would only do damage, and for no good purpose. In many countries-Japan and Western Samoa, for example-social harmony is valued far more than truthfulness as such. To tell another person what he or she wants to hear, rather than what one might actually feel or believe, is not only permitted but expected.
E. When national security is at stake it is considered a valid lie for the government to give false information to its citizens. This can be easily abused and be just plain lying to protect selfish interest, but there can be situations when the truth will damage the nation and so a lie will be necessary to prevent that damage, or keep information from an enemy who could use it against us. All this defense of the virtuous or noble lie should not in any way make us feel that lying is not wrong, for it is the cause of more evil than we can imagine, and it is a dangerous and horrible sin in spite of its nobler side. I share all of this to make it possible that Abram was not being a terrible sinner when he came up with this lie to deceive the people of Egypt. God did not condemn him, and instead did a miracle to help him escape with great riches. It could very well be his lie fell into the category of a virtuous lie.
Lying is serious business, but there is a lighter side to it also. Here is a story where you can fill in the blanks to get a laugh from your friends, but make sure you know it will be someone who can take a joke.
So and so died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"
St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move."
"Oh," said ­­­______, "Who's clock is that?" "That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved indicating that she never told a lie."
 "Whose clock is that?" "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have only moved twice telling us that Abe only told 2 lies in his entire life."
"Where's ________ clock?" he asked."________ clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

14   When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman.
1. The focus on her beauty makes us curious, for she was an old woman from our perspective, and we wonder how she could maintain her beauty as they traveled through so much barren territory and lived in tents. You do not tent to think of pioneer women as being beautiful, for they live rough lives with hard tasks that make them tired and weary and not attractive. Sarai means a princess, however, and so maybe she had servants do all the hard work while she took care of her hair and skin so the hot sun would not darken her and make her age faster. Maybe she had special products to keep her looking fresh and young. She had no children and so her shape would not be affected by childbirth as most women, and so circumstances and wealth enabled her to maintain a high level of beauty in spite of her primitive lifestyle. All to this the natural beauty God had given to her as the one who would be the mother of his people.

15   And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.
1. So Sarai goes along with this wild scheme of Abram to lie about her being a single sister, and the result is she ends up in Pharaoh's palace. She was fully obedient and submissive to Abram at the risk of becoming an adulterous wife to him.  Richard Strauss points out, " "Sarah is commended twice by New Testament writers, once for her faith (Heb. 11:11) and once for her submission to her husband (1 Pet. 3:5, 6). The Apostle Peter went so far as to say she “obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” Why did Sarah go along with his sinful scheme? Is not this a case where obedience to God would supersede obedience to one’s husband? I think it is. A wife has no obligation to obey her husband when obedience compromises the clearly revealed will of God (cf. Acts 5:29). Sarah could have justly refused. But it does show how deep her faith and submission really were. Sarah believed God’s promise that Abraham would become the father of a great nation. Since there were no children as yet, she was expendable, but Abraham had to live and have children even if it should be by another woman. She may also have believed that God would intervene and deliver her before immorality became necessary. That would be quite probable in view of Pharaoh’s large harem. She may likewise have believed that God would reunite her with her husband and rescue both of them from Pharaoh’s power. And because she believed, she submitted. God could have protected them apart from Abraham’s selfish scheme, but Sarah’s faith in God and submission to her husband are still beautifully illustrated in this Old Testament narrative. The true test of a wife’s submission may come when she knows her husband is making a mistake."
2. Richard Strauss gives us his negative view of Abram and positive view of Sarai in this situation. He writes, "It is hard to imagine a man sinking much lower than Abraham did on this occasion. Even the pagan king rebuked him for what he did (Gen. 12:18-20). He failed Sarah sadly, but God was faithful to her. He honored her faith and delivered her. He never forsakes those who trust him. You would think the lesson of God’s sovereign care would have been so indelibly inscribed on Abraham’s soul after this experience that he would never compromise his wife again to protect himself. But he did. About twenty years later he did exactly the same thing with Abimelech, king of Gerar (Gen. 20:1-8). This shows how weak and faithless the faithful can be. There are probably some sins we think we will never commit again, but we must ever be watchful, for that is exactly where Satan will attack us. The amazing thing is that Sarah submitted again on that later occasion, and that God delivered her again, another evidence of her faith and God’s faithfulness."

16   He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.
1. Pharaoh was feeling generous toward Abram for allowing him to take his sister as a wife. He showered him with livestock and servants and made Abram a rich man. Abram just takes it all in and apparently feels no guilt for pimping out his wife for a pagan king to satisfy his lust. This whole scene is hard to believe. Not only is Abram escaping being killed, he is being enriched greatly by his scheme to lie about his wife being his sister. He is getting rich by deception. This was the ancient way of playing who wants to be a millionaire. You just make the Pharaoh think you are providing him with a love toy and he will make you rich. We wonder about what Abram is feeling at this moment. Was he rejoicing so much in his new found riches that he forgot he had lost his wife? Was he more concerned about counting his livestock, or trying to figure out how to rescue his wife from the harem of Pharaoh? The lie led to Pharaoh assuming that she was available to become his wife being that she was single, and so he took her away to his castle. One author writes,  "Can you imagine the dirty look she shot at Abram as the Pharaoh's courtiers hauled her away to get dolled up for the Pharaoh's pleasure? Things like this would never have happened if they had stayed home in Ur! First they finish their long, dusty trip in a land with no food, now to save himself, Abram lets Sarai be treated like a whore. Meanwhile Abram, the lovely woman's ostensible brother, gets treated like royalty."
2. An unknown author wrote, "The narrator includes a detailed description of the gifts to emphasize how wealthy Abram had just become: a great herd of cattle and sheep, oxen and donkeys, servants to manage the wealth; and female donkeys and camels (which were rare, having just been domesticated) to transport everything, representing the best that Pharaoh could give. Abram was hoping that things might go well on account of Sarai. Not only did things go really well, he got filthy rich in the process. But what price did he pay for his security? He now must live with the painful irony of being a rich man who had just lost his true wealth, his wife, and probably his future as well."
3. Pastor Ray Stedman tells of his experience of practicing deceit and the guilt he felt when he was found out. He wrote, "Years ago, when I was a young Christian living in Denver, Colorado, I took on the job of soliciting advertisements for a small church paper. The pastor felt that some of the businesses with which the church dealt would be willing to put an ad in our little paper. I was to call them on the telephone and solicit the business. Among others, I called the woman manager of a prominent restaurant nearby and opened the conversation by telling her I was calling for Mr. Hewitt, the pastor of the church, as he had given me permission to do. Evidently she misunderstood and thought that I was Mr. Hewitt. Throughout the conversation she addressed me as Mr. Hewitt. It took me off guard at first, and I did not correct her at the time. She placed an ad, and the next month, I called her again to renew it. It had worked so well to be mistaken for Mr. Hewitt that I thought I would tell her it was he calling again. So I got another ad. The third month, I tried it again, but this time her voice grew cold and distant, she said, "I don't know who you are, but you are not Mr. Hewitt, for as I sit here in my office I can see Mr. Hewitt and his wife eating lunch. I don't know what kind of church you run, but if this is the means you have of getting business then don't bother with me anymore." And she hung up the phone. I can still feel the shame and humiliation of that moment as though it were yesterday." What is different with the story of Abram is that we do not see one word of guilt or shame over what he did.

17   But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.
1. Here is sickness and disease directly related to sinful behavior. Pharaoh did not know he was being sinful, for he thought he was taking Sarai as a single woman available for marriage to him. He had no idea he was about to commit adultery with another man's wife. God was punishing him in order to get his attention, for he was concerned about poor Sarai in this situation. She was innocent of any wrongdoing and was now in danger of being sexually abused. This was an intolerable situation, for she was to be the mother of God's people, and the very thought of her being used by a pagan as a sex toy was terrible. God had to do something to prevent that, for the whole future of his people depended on her being set free. No amount of arguing from Abram would have any value, and so God had to step in and do something supernatural to get everyone’s attention. God will do a miracle to make sure his plan of redemption stays on track. One commentator wrote, "The mother of Israel is in Pharaoh's den, but God intervenes to save the royal family: "the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house." The verb can be also translated "touch," as it is in Genesis 20:6, when God prevented Abimelech from "touching" Sarah. So God touches Pharaoh's house with great plagues lest he touch Sarai and violate her. Instead of bringing blessing, Abram's lack of faith brings a curse. Living under these plagues (we can only imagine what they were) gets Pharaoh's immediate attention. Something is dreadfully wrong, so he investigates to get to the bottom of the matter. The plagues struck just at the time when he acquired Sarai. The only explanation must be that she is Abram's wife."
2. You have to feel some compassion for Pharaoh here for he was deceived and got burned. Scott Hoezee wrote, "Why did Pharaoh get nailed for Abram's deception? If a con man swindles a trusting widow out of her life savings, you don't expect in the end for the little old lady to be the one sent to jail while the con man gets sent off scot free with the widow's money still in his pockets. Yet something like that happens here, and we're not given a single clue as to why. One thing is for sure, however: both Pharaoh and Abram are shown that something quite important is going on with Abram and Sarai. But it has to be God who does the directing and the acting. In those sweeping promises that God gave to Abram in verses 2-3, Abram is assured that not only will he himself be blessed, but this blessing will be contagious. Abram will become a blessing-bearer--God's goodness will rub off. But that apparently is going to be true only if Abram stays faithful. Because look what happened to Pharaoh in Egypt: he rubs shoulders with Abram but receives a curse!
3. The purpose of the diseases was to prevent Pharaoh from having sexual relations with Sarai. Fortunately it was not the custom for a king to take a new wife to bed until they went through a process of cleansing and preparation, and so there was time for Sarai to be free of the need to go to bed with the Pharaoh. Someone wrote, "There is no evidence of a physical relationship between Pharaoh and Sarai. While the preparation period would normally have been at the home of Abram, in this case it would be at the palace. Sarai would likely undergo a relatively long period of preparation for her presentation to Pharaoh. Such was the custom in those days: "Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women—the young lady would go in to the king in his way: anything that she desired was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name (Esther 2:12-14)."

18   So Pharaoh summoned Abram. "What have you done to me?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?
1. This verse and the next deal with angry questions flung out at Abram for his deception with lie about Sarai being his sister. Pharaoh is mad as a hornet and needs to get it off his chest with these angry questions, but we notice that he does not give Abraham a chance to respond. He orders his guards to take them away and cares not to listen to any more lies from this man before him. He assumes that any response from Abram would only be more clever lies to justify himself, and so he sends them away without hearing the answers he might give to these questions. This closing scene in Pharaoh's court is just to give him a chance to rant and rave and get some of his anger expressed. Abram was to be a blessing to the whole world, but he fell short of that goal by more than a mile in this situation. His name was to be greatly honored, but here it is blasted and blamed for wrongdoing. He was supposed to bring blessing, but instead he brought only a curse.

19   Why did you say, `She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!"
1. Here we have the pagan rebuking the man of God. He did no evil because he was deceived into thinking what he did in taking Sarai was perfectly legitimate, but he ended up being punished for his actions. Abram on the other hand was richly rewarded because of his deception of Pharaoh, and he is angry about it, and rightly so, for he had to suffer for the sin of Abram. There is no rebuke by God, however, and it seems that God is being over gracious to Abram. This stands out even more in the New Testament where none of the sins of Abram are mentioned at all. He is washed clean of all the obvious shortcomings that are recorded in the Old Testament, and this too represents the grace of God. He did not deserve a clean slate, but he got it because of God's mercy and grace.
2. Notice the parallel with Israel coming out of Egypt in the Exodus. God sent plagues so that the Pharaoh and all the Egyptians were glad to see the Jews getting out of Egypt. Take your stuff and get out of our country is the message in both settings. These Jews are far more trouble than they are worth, and so we want them gone. Get out and stay out is the message to Abram, and later to the nation Israel.

20   Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
1. God knows how to bring good out of evil, and so the end result of Abraham's folly was that he ended up richly rewarded for getting out of town. The Pharaoh was afraid to have him around, but he was also afraid to be abusive to this man who caused God to bring a plague on his family. He treated Abraham very kindly, but with an urgency to get him out of his sight. So he blest him with many gifts so he would not have any hostility toward him and sent him on his way. Abraham blew it, but God blest it, and he goes out of Egypt a rich man. It is of interest that centuries later when the Jews left Egypt in the Exodus they went out with the riches that the Egyptians were willing to give them. The Jews always profited when they left Egypt. It is of interest also that it was famine that brought Israel to Egypt just as it was famine that brought Abraham there. God often rescues and enriches his people when they have done nothing to deserve it, and that is what grace is all about. Abraham deserved to be a loser for his lying, but God still made him a winner, and that is grace in operation.