Gênesis 12

Gênesis 12

Meyer - Genesis 12:1 Get thee Out. Never did a corn of wheat more utterly fall into the ground to die. It seemed as though he were urgently needed in his country and among his kindred; but man’s thoughts and ways are not God’s. The blessing of Abraham’s life could only come in the land of promise, and after he had died to the whole life of nature. To every one who is to be richly blessed and made a blessing there is the inevitable command, “Get thee out. Be willing to die.” Get thee out of the land of idols. — Beyond the flood of the Euphrates, Terah and the rest served other gods. Had Abram remained there, he might have touched the unclean thing; hence God’s desire to get him beyond the reach of infection, that he and his race might remain monotheistic. Hast thou had communion with darkness, with Belial, with idols? Get thee out and be separate; touch not the unclean thing. Be clean, thou who art to bear the vessels of the Lord. Reckon thyself to have died. Get thee out in loneliness. — “I called him alone, and increased him.” If thou art unwilling to abide alone, thou must fall alone into the ground and die. God must reduce us to a minimum before He can work through us to the maximum. But there is no loneliness to the soul who is one with God. Alone against the world, it is still in a majority. Get thee out in faith. — “He went out, not knowing whither.” It was what man calls a venture; but as he stepped out on what seemed a void, he found it rock beneath his feet. Day by day a track appeared across the desert, and all his needs were met till he reached the place of blessing. Death was the gate of life. Having died to Haran, he began to bring forth much fruit in every soil of the world. Genesis 12:2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be (qal imperative) a blessing; Ge 13:16 15:5 17:5,6 18:18 22:17,18 24:35 26:4 27:29 28:3,14 Ge 35:11 46:3 Ex 1:7 32:10 Nu 14:12 24:9,10 De 26:5 2Sa 7:9 1Ki 3:8,9 Mic 7:20 Ro 4:11 Ga 3:7 thou shalt (KJV): Ge 14:14-16 18:18 19:29 28:4 1Ki 1:47 Ga 3:14 Genesis 12 Resources - Multiple commentaries, sermons, devotionals Genesis 12:1-3 Great Privilege, Great Responsibility - Steven Cole Genesis 12:2 Abraham's Double Blessing - C H Spurgeon Genesis 12:1-9 The Evidence of Saving Faith - Allen Ross NET Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING While many writers refer to Genesis 12 as the "Abrahamic Covenant" it is probably more accurate to refer to it as God's promises to Abram. The Abrahamic Covenant was ratified in Genesis 15:18 when Jehovah cut a covenant with Abram. In either case, God is not a man that He should lie and when He gives Abram 6 promises they are certain to be fulfilled for as Joshua testified on in some of his last words "Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed." (Joshua 23:14). And I will make you a great nation: Recall that at this time Abram is age 75 (Ge 12:4) and Sarai is 65 and barren and yet God promised He would make Abram a father of many nations. Unfortunately as we discover in later chapters, Abram "ran ahead" of this promise and chose to trust in the "arm of flesh" rather than the promise of God (we can all identify with this fleshly misstep can we not?) And so at about age 86 Abram went into Sarai's handmaiden Hagar who conceived a son, Ishmael, the product of the flesh not of the promise--and the flesh can never please God (cp Heb 11:6, Jn 15:5, Jn 6:63)! But praise God for His lovingkindness, for in Genesis 15 He appears to Abram and repeats the promise to Abram who believes the promise.... After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6+) Obedience to the first command to Go forth is followed by three divine promises ("I will" statements). "I will"... Make you a great nation - fulfilled in the nation of Israel which has endured even to our day! Included in ths blessing was the land (Ge 12:7). Bless you - Abram experienced temporal blessing (even when he did not deserve it - Ge 12:16) and spiritual well-being ("The friend of God" -Jas 2:23+). Make your name great - Jews, Christians, and Moslems all look to Abraham as the father of their faith. These three promises are followed by a purpose clause. The NAS reads "and so" which is more difficult to recognize as a purpose clause and for that reason the ESV (see also the NET version above) is preferrable reading "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." "SO THAT" is a terms of purpose or result. In other words, God promsed to do the 3 things above for a purpose and the purpose was that Abram would be a blessing. The phrase "shall be a blessing" is difficult to recognize as a command but in fact it is a second command in this section. Abram is commanded to be a blessing. The verb "be" or "become" in Hebrew is qal imperative. This pattern of divine blessing followed by a command is similar to the first blessing issued to Adam and Eve before their fall into sin God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply (effectively also a command) on the earth.” (Genesis 1:22, 28, 5:2) After the fall God did not bless again until the world had been purged by the flood and He had rescued Noah. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. (Ge 9:1) And now in Genesis 12:1-3 God once again bestows a blessing on the man Abram but this blessing would be associated with a different command, not to be fruitful, but to be a blessing. Abram and his line would be the vehicle through which God would bless the world with the Seed of the Messiah (cp Gal 3:16+) through Whom would come the ultimate blessing of salvation and eternal life for all who would believe in the Gospel (cp Gal 3:8+).