Gênesis 12
Matthew Henry · Citado em PreceptAustin
Gênesis 12
Henry - If those that profess religion do that which is unfair and disingenuous, especially if they say that which borders upon a lie, they must expect to hear of it, and have reason to thank those that will tell them of it. Pastor Ray Pritchard writes that "God disciplines his disobedient children by humiliating them in front of unbelievers." (Read full sermon) NET Note - The demonstrative pronoun translated “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to me?”
Gênesis 12
Henry - Pharaoh "sent him away in peace, and was so far from any design to kill him, as he apprehended, that he took particular care of him. Note, We often perplex and ensnare ourselves with fears which soon appear to have been altogether groundless. We often fear where no fear is. We fear the fury of the oppressor, as though he were ready to destroy, when really there is no danger, Isa. 51:13. It would have been more for Abram’s credit and comfort to have told the truth at first; for, after all, honesty is the best policy." Pastor Ray Pritchard notes that "Though it may seem painful at the time, chastening is meant to save us from our own stupidity and bring us to the place where our trust will be in God alone." I don’t imagine that Abraham often told the story of his days in Egypt. Most of us have a way of forgetting our painful failures and emphasizing our victories. But we always learn far more from defeat than we do from victory. That, I think, explains why this story is in the Bible. It teaches us important lessons about the spiritual life. We always learn far more from defeat than we do from victory. First, we see the danger of compromise. What seemed so innocent almost cost Abraham everything. Compromise generally starts with a small step in the wrong direction, followed by another and another. Pretty soon we’re so far off the trail that it’s easier to just continue in the same direction. If you don’t want to want to end up in the Valley of Destruction, don’t take that first step down Compromise Alley.Second, we see the deceitfulness of sin. No one ever “gets away” with sin. Though the wheels of God’s justice grind slowly, they grind with perfect precision. Nothing is missed. All Satan’s apples have worms. Every sin seems fun or reasonable or justified in the beginning. But in the end, we are the ones who pay the price.Third, we see what Oswald Chambers called the Dance of Circumstance. Who sent the famine? God did. Who sent the plague to Pharaoh? God did. Who stepped in to protect Sarah’s purity at just the right moment? Who caused Abraham to be humiliated so that he would return to the Promised Land? God did. Think about that. As far as we know, God never speaks directly to Abraham, yet he is the Unseen Hand moving behind the events. Whatever else you can say about your life, don’t ever forget that God is in charge of even the tiniest details. Nothing escapes his notice and even the most unlikely events are part of his plan for you. Don't ever forget that God is in charge of even the tiniest details. Finally, this passage teaches us something about the grace of God. That may seem strange because this story ends with Abraham’s humiliation. But where does that humiliation lead? Back to the Promised Land where he should have been all along. The Psalmist cried out, “It was good that I was afflicted, that I might learn your decrees” (Psalm 119:71). How many of God’s saints can testify that through God’s judgment on sin they learned how great is his grace in forgiveness and restoration.This week I ate lunch with a man who shared how he came to Christ just a few years ago. He said that after his conversion, someone asked him to explain what it really means to be a Christian. What difference does Jesus make once he becomes both Lord and Savior? His answer was profound: “I’ve learned that I can sin but I can’t enjoy it like I used to.” You can still sin, and you can enjoy it for awhile, but not forever. God will not let his children enjoy the pleasures of sin indefinitely. Sooner or later, he steps in and brings his wandering sons and daughters back home to him. (Read full sermon) Genesis 12:20 Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him. Ex 18:27 1Sa 29:6-11 Ps 105:14,15 Pr 21:1 Genesis 12 Resources - Multiple commentaries, sermons, devotionals Genesis 12:10-13:4 Faithless Man, Faithful God - Steven Cole Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away - Pharaoh could have easily inflicted harm on Abram for bringing judgment on him and his house. But he did not do so. Why? The text does not state why not but other texts teach us that God protects His promises (which in this case must be fulfilled in Abram and Sarai). Solomon wrote "The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Pr 21:1) The psalmist wrote "He (God) permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes: "Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.” (Ps 105:14-15) As Matthew Henry reminds us "God’s care of his people is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." Adrian Rogers - Did you know that the only place you can read about Abraham's failure is in the Old Testament. You can't read about it in the New Testament. Did you know that? In the New Testament, when God speaks of Abram, God does not remember his failures, God remembers his faith, isn't that wonderful? Is that not wonderful? And friend, I tell you, if you have failed God today, you can put that failure in the grave of God's forgetfulness and the God that gave Abram a new start and changed his name to Abraham is the God who'll give you a new start. God will give you a new name, a name written down in glory, if you'll trust Jesus. Where should you put your faith today? You put your faith where God has put your sins, on Jesus. The Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16:31) Father, I pray that many today will pray and say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart and forgive my sin and save me." After his dangerous and humiliating side trip to Egypt out of which God rescued him, Abram would have surely agreed with the third stanza of John Newton's Amazing Grace... Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come‘ Tis Grace hath brought we safe thus far And grace will lead me home. The 4,000-Year Connection Don Richardson Eternity in their Hearts (Borrow Book - Recommended reading) Dr. Ralph Winter, director of the United States Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California, sometimes likes to startle audiences by saying things they think can’t possibly be true—but are! For example: “Most Christians think,” Dr. Winter once exclaimed, “that the Bible doesn’t really emphasize missions. They see it as a sort of afterthought Christ had at the very end of His ministry—as if He snapped His fingers at the last minute before His ascension into heaven and said, ‘Oh, by the way, men, there’s just one more thing … ’ “And then, cold turkey, He rocked them back on their heels with this unprecedented, virtually unforeshadowed command about taking the gospel out into all the world. “But as a matter of fact,” Dr. Winter continued, “the Bible actually begins with missions, maintains missions as its central theme throughout, and then climaxes in the Apocalypse with spontaneous outbursts of joy because the missionary mandate has been fulfilled!” Dr. Winter paused to rearrange his notes, while in the audience before him one eyebrow after another furrowed with a question. Then someone raised a hand and voiced the question which was on everyone’s mind: “Dr. Winter, the Bible begins with a statement that God created the heavens and the earth. How can you find missions in that?” Just what the scholarly doctor was waiting for! “The main theme of the Bible,” he responded, his eyes twinkling over the rims of his glasses, “is God blessing all peoples on Earth with a blessing first given to Abraham. And where does God promise to bless all peoples on Earth through Abraham?” “In Genesis chapter 12,” someone replied. “Genesis chapter 12, then, is the real beginning of the Bible,” Dr. Winter continued. “Everything prior to Genesis 12 is the introduction. Equally inspired, yes! But the introduction nonetheless. The main theme doesn’t get underway until Genesis 12. Let’s look at it.” Curiously, I leafed through Genesis to the twelfth chapter and read the first three verses. I had read them many times before. Now I realized that I had underestimated their significance. Those three verses contain Yahweh’s initial articulation of something Jews and Christians together call the Abrahamic Covenant. Authors of other parts of the Bible sometimes call that covenant “the promises” because several such are included in it. Other times they call it “the promise,” in the singular, because the various promises included in the covenant together constitute one coherent purpose of God. I saw that the various promises contained in the covenant can be arranged under two main headings. I call them the top line and the bottom line. Let’s look at the top line first: “I will make you into a great nation,” Yahweh began, “and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse!” So-called higher critics have snidely suggested that the Abrahamic Covenant was really just another example of a petty tribal god whetting the selfishness of an exclusive little clique of followers with promises of exclusive blessing. That is because they are so high above the text in their intellectual pride that they cannot see what it is really saying. Note that in the very midst of this flurry of promises regarding the political, personal and social enrichment of Abraham, a qualifying phrase occurs: “ … and you will be a blessing.” And that phrase presages the bottom line: “ … AND ALL PEOPLES ON EARTH WILL BE BLESSED THROUGH YOU.” These words bring a hush upon thoughtful readers. We sense immediately that the God who would speak such words is no petty tribal god. He is a God whose plans are both benign and universal, spanning all ages and cultures. If He retaliates against enemies of Abraham, it is not just to protect Abraham, but also to keep the enemies from extinguishing a fire kindled to warm the whole world! Clearly the Abrahamic Covenant did not mark the first time God revealed Himself to men. Adam, Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Job and no doubt many others right on through to Abraham’s contemporary, Melchizedek, had received direct communication from God. God even revealed Himself through a dream to Abimelech, a Philistine king (see Gen. 20:6). All of these prior revelations center around (1) the fact of God’s existence; (2) creation; (3) the rebellion and fall of man; (4) the need for a sacrifice to appease God and the crafty attempts of devils to make men sacrifice to them; (5) the great Flood; (6) the sudden appearance of many languages and the resulting dispersion of mankind into many peoples; and finally (7) an acknowledgment of man’s need of some further revelation that will seal man back into a blessed relationship with God. These seven major facts which were known before Abraham’s time are still included—in a declining order of statistical occurrence—among the main components of folk religions worldwide. The degree to which any folk religion has maintained its hold on truth can be measured by how many of these seven components it still retains and with what clarity. On this basis, the Karen folk religion discovered by Boardman, Wade, Mason and others in Burma was perhaps the “purest” folk religion left on Earth in modern times. These surviving elements found throughout the world comprise what is sometimes called general revelation. Since Melchizedek was the main representative of that kind of revelation in Abraham’s day, I have identified that kind of revelation as the Melchizedek Factor in history. The Abrahamic Covenant, however, rises like an island in the midst of the sea of general revelation. That island is called special revelation. It is the Abraham Factor in history. We have already learned something about the Melchizedek factor in earlier chapters. Now we must study the Abraham factor. How does the Abraham factor of special revelation differ from the preceding general revelation? First, special revelation is always associated with an inspired canonical record. Moses apparently compiled earlier records to write Genesis—the beginning of that canon. Then he added Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Apart from special revelation’s unique emphasis upon preserving a written record, mankind would have been left without any authoritative account of the wellspring from which general revelation later spread across the earth. The writer of the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews calls specific attention to the fact that general revelation, by Melchizedek’s time, was already detached from a traceable historical tieiin with special revelation. He points out the unusual fact that Moses, although carefully recording the lineage of every other major person in the patriarchal age, does not record the names of Melchizedek’s parents, nor the historical context of his birth, nor his age at death (see Heb. 7:3). He does not say, “Melchizedek, son of … ” He emphasizes also that Melchizedek’s priesthood—unlike the later Levitical priesthood which came through Abraham—was not based upon physical membership in a priestly lineage. A priest of this Melchizedekian type was always “just there,” so to speak. You could never predict where you might find (or not find) one of them! This has always been a characteristic of general revelation—it’s justthereness! The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes also that the Messiah who came among men in fulfillment of every spiritual reality foreshadowed by the Levitical priestly system was also at the same time “a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4; see also Heb. 5:4-10; 6:20; 7:15-22). Christ, in other words, is Lord of both general and special revelation. The unity of both general and special revelation under Christ is indicated also by the apostle John, who wrote: “The true light [Christ] that gives light to every man [through general revelation]” was coming into the world (i.e., to shine upon men in a new and special way. John states also: “The light shines in the darkness [the Sodom factor], but the darkness has not overpowered it” (John 1:5, alternate rendering; see footnote in NIV). Scientists have discovered recently that even physical light occurs in two forms—ambient and coherent. Ambient light, such as daylight, lamplight, firelight and so on, occurs naturally whenever certain factors prevail. Coherent light, however, occurs only in a laser, and therefore requires special, deliberate preparation and design. In ambient light, individual photons are scattered indiscriminately, like strollers meandering through a park. In coherent light, individual photons are organized into a “solid” beam, as if the “strollers” suddenly become organized and march lockstep through the park like an army! And coherent light can accomplish wonders beyond the scope of ambient light. It can, for example, eat through metal, or even excise cataracts from the eyes of the blind! Thus general revelation could perhaps be called ambient revelation, and special revelation, in this parallelism, becomes coherent revelation, for it is systematized to bring, not merely illumination, but “blessing”! Tracing the emergence of special revelation through the Abrahamic Covenant, the promised “blessing” turns out to be redemption through the Messiah. And the target of that blessing is “all peoples on earth.” Not every person on Earth—otherwise the Abrahamic Covenant would be a basis for a doctrine of universal salvation! The phrase “all peoples” constitutes a divine recognition of ethnic distinctions within our race. The same God who caused the proliferation of human cultures by His sovereign intervention at Babel now targets His special blessing through Abraham toward every “people” thus formed. In fact, Moses mentions 36 pagan peoples by name in the course of describing Yahweh’s dealings with Abraham. Furthermore, God is so determined to fulfill His promise to bless Abraham and make him a blessing to all peoples that He actually binds Himself by an oath to emphasize His determination (see Gen. 22:15-18). And the oath covers both the top and bottom lines of the covenant (see specifically Gen. 22:18). This oath taking—a very serious matter from the viewpoint of Semitic peoples—triggers extensive commentary again from the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He states that God thus staked His infinite reputation upon the fulfillment of the covenant so that all may know that it represents “the unchanging nature of his purpose” (Heb. 6:17, emphasis added). What, then, is that purpose? To guarantee that both the top and bottom lines of the Abrahamic Covenant come true! To bless Abraham and his seed (which, as we shall soon see, includes more than just the Jewish race), and then to make Abraham’s seed a blessing to all peoples. Now—let’s ask the inevitable question: Do the Scriptures from Genesis 12 onward show Yahweh pursuing the fulfillment of His oathbound promises to Abraham—including the bottom line? Or does Scripture indicate that Yahweh, having bound Himself by that solemn oath, sort of drifted off course and got sidetracked into pursuing other goals? First of all—have you ever noticed that so much of the Old Testament is dedicated to narratives of various sons and daughters of Abraham being a blessing to non-Jewish peoples? Just in case you haven’t noticed this special significance of your favorite Old Testament dramas, let me point out that, for example: Abraham himself bore witness to Canaanites, Philistines, Hittites and, rather negatively, to Egyptians. Joseph was a son of Abraham who made up for his forefather’s lack of a clear witness to the Egyptian nation! Joseph blessed Egyptians in truly amazing ways. The spies who entered Jericho before it was destroyed became a blessing to Rahab, a Canaanite harlot, and her family. Naomi, a daughter of Abraham, was a blessing to two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Moses became a blessing to Jethro, his Midianite father-in-law. King David caused even his enemies, the Philistines, to acknowledge God’s greatness. The prophet Elijah was a blessing to a Sidonian widow in Zarephath. The prophet Elisha, likewise, was a blessing to Naaman, a Syrian. Jonah, however reluctantly, became a blessing to the Gentile population of Nineveh. King Solomon was a blessing to the Sabaean “Queen of the South.” Daniel and his three colleagues, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were a blessing to Babylonians. Esther and her uncle Mordecai were a blessing to the entire Persian Empire. Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah and other prophets declared the Word of the Lord to various Gentile nations. Clearly, the Holy Spirit has employed a principle of selectivity in deciding which biographical narratives should or should not find inclusion in the Old Testament canon. Out of tens of thousands of other worthy narratives that doubtless could have been included, He has favored narratives which illustrate both the top and bottom lines of the Abrahamic Covenant at work in the lives of sons and daughters of Abraham. Not only so, but there are also more than 300 declarative passages in the Old Testament which amplify God’s oath-sealed promise to bless all nations on Earth (see, for example, Ps. 67:1-7 and Isa. 49:6). Moving forward now to the New Testament, do we find God still adhering to His ancient commitment to both the top and bottom lines, or drifting from it? The apostle Paul, for one, leaves us in no doubt whatever that the New Testament is really a continuation of God’s original purpose revealed in the Abrahamic Covenant. For example, five times in just one chapter of one Epistle—Galatians—Paul emphasizes the unbreakable connection between the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Testament gospel: “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’ ”(Gal.3:8).Paul saw the New Testament gospel as already having a 2,000-year connection with the Abrahamic Covenant. But there is more. “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham [i.e. the “top line” blessing] might come to the Gentiles [fulfilling the “bottom line” promise] through Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:14). Paul continued: “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” (Gal. 3:16). In a special singular sense, then, Jesus Christ was the seed of Abraham, Paul states this specific identification of Christ as the Seed of Abraham again. Gal 3:19: “[The law] was added … until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” But there is a more general sense in which all who stand identified with Jesus Christ by their faith in Him are also the “seed” of Abraham: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). We Christians have generally failed to appreciate the fact that Paul and the other apostles saw the Abrahamic Covenant as basic to everything Christ came to accomplish. That covenant was therefore basic to their own labors and to their writings as well. By means of the Abrahamic Covenant (and especially its “bottom line”), they saw their own lives fitting into God’s long-term historical perspective. And they used the bottom line as their main means of explaining to their fellow Jews why it was necessary for them to reach out to Gentile peoples! Notice, for example, Peter’s clear reference to the “bottom line” in Acts 3:25, spoken in the aftermath of Christ’s clear command to the apostles to “be witnesses unto him” from Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth.” “And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’” Peter then explained the point of the “bottom line” by saying: “When God raised up his servant [i.e., when He called Jesus to His ministry as Messiah, as in Acts 3:22], he sent him first to you to bless you [i.e., in fulfillment of ‘the top line’]” (Acts 3:26). Peter has simply referred to the top and bottom lines in reverse order. Peter’s words, “first to you to bless you” imply that God had also a contiguous second purpose to bless Gentiles according to the promise just quoted. Paul’s perception that the “bottom line” foreshadowed the New Testament gospel’s “breakout” into the Gentile world was not merely a casual insight. Paul actually calls it a “mystery made known to me by revelation” (Eph. 3:3). He also calls it an “insight … not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit of God’s holy apostles and prophets” (Eph. 3:4-5). He then defines his profound insight: “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles [i.e., the ‘all peoples’ of the bottom line] are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise [the Abrahamic Covenant] in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:6, emphasis added). Paul says essentially the same thing again in Romans 16:25-26 and in Colossians 1:25-27. Also, in Romans 15:8-9 he writes: “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy” (emphasis added). Paul then expresses his desire to “make plain to everyone [his] administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God” (Eph. 3:9). This mystery—and Paul’s administration of it—is in accord with “[God’s] eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11; see also Rom. 15; 16:25-26). Paul’s words remind us of the statement in the Epistle to the Hebrews concerning “the unchanging nature of his purpose,” as indicated by the oath God took over the Abrahamic Covenant. Why, then, have tens of thousands of Bible teachers and Bible commentators throughout Christendom failed to reflect the centrality of the Abrahamic Covenant with its top and bottom lines in their teaching and lecturing? Followers of Christ around the world and down through the centuries could have had 100 times more missionary vigor if seminary professors, pastors and church school teachers had understood and communicated this central theme as the Bible communicates it. The Abrahamic Covenant, in all the manifold out-workings of both its top and its bottom lines, is the very backbone of the Bible—the spinal column of special revelation! Teaching which does not acknowledge that spinal column will inevitably have a certain spinelessness about it. It will—quite literally—lack backbone! And it will tend to leave Christians less motivated than they would otherwise be to pass on the blessings they have received, not merely to their own kind of people, but to all peoples on Earth. We can hardly expect the Church to manifest a Pauline zeal for all remaining unblessed peoples if we ourselves have failed to infuse the Church with the very historical perspectives which accelerated Paul himself to that high level of zeal. To use a parallel, physicists concerned with high energy physics tell us that no atomic particle can be accelerated to high energies unless: (1) it is a charged particle to begin with; (2) it is caught in the grip of a powerful magnetic field; and (3) that particle is moved by the magnetic field in relation to a very long tunnel, the “accelerator.” By analogy, we first have to become “charged particles” through our individual conversion to Jesus Christ. Then we must be caught in the grip of a surrounding magnetic field—the Holy Spirit’s power permeating the Body of Christ. That magnetic field must then move us in alignment with a very long tunnel—God’s 4,000-year-old purpose in history—a purpose defined by just one thing: the Abrahamic Covenant. That covenant’s importance, therefore, cannot be overstated. To perceive oneself in relation to that 4,000-year-old purpose of God is to become a profoundly “charged” person. It is impossible to imagine a stronger stimulation to high motivation in seeking the fulfillment of God’s plan for the world. To imply that God is no longer concerned about fulfilling His two ancient promises to Abraham would be to imply that God’s mind has wandered—that it has somehow slipped His mind that He bound Himself by an oath to fulfill those two ancient promises. Remember the response of the Epistle to the Hebrews: “It is impossible for God to lie [or forget]” (Heb 6:18). This, then, is what I mean by “the 4,000-year connection.” To see oneself as an instrument in God’s now 4,000-year-old purpose to impart blessing to all peoples is to jettison at once all feelings of insignificance, indecision and purposelessness. That very long historical perspective, by the spiritual magnetic field which permeates it, begins at once to accelerate us toward the greatest destiny any finite being can possibly find. Just be sure you are a charged particle to begin with—a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. Otherwise that magnetic field and the accelerator will have no effect upon you whatever. They will simply leave you standing where you are. Hundreds of millions of Christians have listened to hundreds of thousands of preachers deliver hundreds of thousands of sermons based on the great anthems of the Apocalypse, anthems sung by heavenly beings to celebrate the great gathering of the redeemed in heaven. You will find these recorded in the apostle John’s Revelation, the final book of the Bible. But precious few of those preachers or their listeners seem to have understood what John was really telling us when he quoted the 24 elders, for example, singing in one of those anthems: “You [Lamb of God] are worthy … because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth” (Rev. 5:9-10, emphasis added). And when John described his own breathtaking vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9), what was he really communicating to us? Likewise, when he was told by an angel that he “must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings” (Rev. 10:11), what significance do you discern? And what comes to mind when he in Revelation 11:9 states that “men from every people, tribe, language and nation” will behold the miracle of the two witnesses? And when he states that the beast (Antichrist) will for a season exercise authority over every tribe, people, language and nation (see Rev. 13:7)? What comes through in his description of another angel who proclaims “the eternal gospel … to every nation, tribe, language and people” (Rev. 14:6)? Surely John is describing not just the consummation of history, but the consummation of God’s special purpose in history to bless all peoples on Earth through Abraham’s Seed—Jesus Christ! John could as easily have described the scenes mentioned with a single Greek noun for the word “mankind.” Instead he explores the entire vocabulary of the Greek language, mustering every noun available to denote the kind of ethnic subdivisions of mankind which were the original God-ordained targets of the Abrahamic “blessing.” In other words, John is telling us through such prophecies that God will pursue His ancient purpose to the very end—when He will be free from the obligation He took upon Himself by that ancient oath. For it is the “unchanging nature of His purpose”! Now for a very suspenseful question. The apostles reveal full awareness of the centrality of the Abrahamic Covenant in their writings—but what about Jesus Christ Himself? Do the four Gospels reveal that He manifested awareness of the covenant as foundational to His ministry? If, after all I have said on this subject, it turns out that our Lord Himself seemed blissfully unaware of any obligation relating to “the bottom line,” and therefore did not manifest an all-peoples perspective, the entire point of this book would be undermined. (Borrow this fascinating book Eternity in Their Hearts) Genesis 11 Genesis 13
Gênesis 12
Henry - The deliverance of Sarai from this danger. For if God did not deliver us, many a time, by prerogative, out of those straits and distresses which we bring ourselves into by our own sin and folly, and which therefore we could not expect any deliverance from by promise, we should soon be ruined, nay, we should have been ruined long before this. He deals not with us according to our deserts....Observe, Not Pharaoh only, but his house, was plagued, probably those princes especially that had commended Sarai to Pharaoh. Note, Partners in sin are justly made partners in the punishment. Those that serve others’ lusts must expect to share in their plagues. We are not told particularly what these plagues were; but doubtless there was something in the plagues themselves, or some explication added to them, sufficient to convince them that it was for Sarai’s sake that they were thus plagued. Allen Ross rightly observes that "Divine intervention alone could deliver Sarai from Pharaoh’s harem unharmed....In spite of the trouble Abram caused for himself, God was faithful to His word and did not let the foolishness of this man throw His plan into jeopardy. Abram probably felt that the easiest way out of danger was to manipulate deceptively. But such scheming put him in danger and jeopardized the promise. God’s servants should trust Him completely and not resort to self-directed schemes." (Ibid) Sadly it seems that either Abram did not learn his lesson or simply forgot (we never do that do we beloved!), because years later in Genesis 20 (probably more than 20 years later = he was 75 in Ge 12:4 and 99 in Ge 17:1, 17) he repeated his lie before Abimelech... Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. 2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. (Ge 20:1-2) Fortunately in this second episode, God intervened in a dream and prevented Abimelech from sinning against Him. (Ge 20:3-7). Wiersbe gives us all a general principle - "If you want to be a blessing to others, then stay in the will of God. Jonah ran from God’s will and caused a storm that almost sank the ship (Jonah 1:2-15). Like Jonah, Abraham lost his testimony before unbelievers and had to face embarrassment and rebuke....The seventeenth-century English preacher Jeremy Taylor said, “God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.” He was referring, of course, to being happy with God’s will for our lives." (Bible Exposition Commentary - Old Testament ) In his comments on the book of Jonah, Warren