Genesis 12-13:4 Jesus on the Journey

Introduction

Last week we took a look at Jesus in the garden and we saw the concept of his promise, presence and pattern as it related to Adam and Eve. I thought we would move a little further along in the plan of redemption and look at Jesus with relation to Abram and see the same type of things here. In my studying I saw something interesting I hadn’t thought of before, but Kenneth A. Matthews did and wrote about in his NAC on this passage. That something was that the author of Genesis intended for us to think back to the garden

Also elements in the narrative hearken back to the garden episode of chaps. 2–3. Although there are substantive differences in the two stories, similarities in plot and shared vocabulary suggest that the reader is to compare the two. Both accounts involve the backdrop of food (plenty or famine), depend on the idea of deception, and portray the wife in a critical role. Following the discovery of the deception, there is the interrogation of the parties (by God/Pharaoh), admission of the deed (by Adam/Abram), and expulsion of the parties (from Eden/Egypt). Also the subsequent stories tell of family schism (Cain-Abel/Lot-Abram). Important shared lexical items are lit., “What is this you have done [ʿāśîtā] to me?” (12:18; 3:13); “Why didn’t you not tell [higgadtā] me?” (12:18) and “Who told [higgîd] you?” (3:11); “I know [yādaʿtî]” (12:11) and “God knows” (yôdēaʿ) and “like God knowing” (yōdĕʿê) (3:5); “you will live [yĕḥayyû]” (12:12) and “the mother of all the living [ḥāy]” (3:20); “I will be treated well [good] [yîṭab]” / “he treated Abram well [good] [hêṭîb]” (12:13, 16) and “good [ṭôb] and evil” / “good [ṭôb] for food” (3:5–6); “for your sake” (baʿăbûrēk) / “for her sake (baʿăbûrāh)” (12:13, 16) and “because of you (baʿăbûrekā)” (3:17); the officers “saw” (wayyirʾû) her/she “was taken” (wattuqqaḥ) (12:15) and the woman “saw” (wattēreʾ) and “took” (wattiqqaḥ) (3:6); and lit., “they sent him away” (wayšallĕḥû ʾōtô, 12:20) and lit., “[the LORD God] sent him away [wayšallĕḥēhû]” (3:23).

The significance of reading the two events together is the remarkable difference in the outcomes. Adam and Eve lose the plenty of the garden by complying with the tempter’s deception. This result is reversed in the Abram incident: Abram and Sarai emerge from Egypt wealthy because Pharaoh fell for the deception. The reversal, of course, does not suggest that God condones Abram’s behavior, rather that the Lord will bless Abram and Sarai even though they jeopardized the blessing as did Adam and Eve.

Mathews, K. A. (2005). (Vol. 1B, pp. 123–124). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

What is my point in sharing that? Well the thought occurs to me if what Ken Matthews says is true, then we need to think of this passage in a similar fashion. Jesus right alongside Abram as he was Adam and Eve. Right along side him when he obediently leaves Haran, arrives in the land, builds the altar and proclaims Christ, then when he succumbs to the temptations surrounding the famine rather than trusting the Lord, when he lies to Pharoah, when Jesus protects His seed, restores Sara and and enriches Abram more than he was when he arrived. And then when Abram again worships and proclaims Christ to his servants and Canaanites in the land. What a marvelous picture of the grace of God as He calls with a promise, assures with His presence, restores with his protection. This is the gospel to Abram. I think this is just one of those events to which Jesus refers when he told the Pharisees that Abraham rejoiced when he saw me .

Let us begin to look at this passage and see these three aspects of Jesus on the Journey with Abram and how that impacts us today. By the way we are not going to look at this in detail. It is going to be more like looking at The Rocky Mountains by looking at the various peaks rather than at the forest adorning its sides. So the first peak is this:

I. Jesus calls with a promise, vss. 1-6

In these verses we have the Lord Jesus ( We won’t go through how we know it is Jesus because we did that last week in the sermon on Jesus in the garden, ), who calls Abram to leave Haran, the place of country, birth and family to go to a promised land.

He basically said, in v.1 You go! Then the Lord makes a three-fold promise, v.2 a great nation, I will bless you, make your name great, and then a second command, You bless!

then v.3 those who ‘bless you I will bless those who treat you lightly I will curse’ then ‘all nations will be blessed in you’

So Abram believed God’s word to Him to come out of all that he knew to a land and people he didn’t know. He had to respond by faith. V. 4 said that “Abram went out according to the Word of the Lord to him.’

God gave him a promise the receipt of the promise was dependent upon his response of faith evidenced by his going. Nobody receives the benefits of the promise accept by obedient faith.

Through vs.6 we have the details of His obedience, who he took with him, the location where he arrived, and that there were Canaanites in the land. There would be the lost to proclaim Christ to. Surely the would ask why he was there. His message would be the explanation.

The next peak is

II. Jesus assures with His presence, vss. 7-

Here we have the covenant declared and the promise of ‘seed’ which as we discovered from our earlier study is Jesus,

So the preincarnate Jesus promises seed (the incarnate Jesus) to Abram and the promise is the land he was residing on presently.

Abram’s response is one of worship - He built an altar and offered sacrifice on . The Lord appeared to Him. Which is a way of saying that He accepted the worship.

In vs. 8 in another place between Beth-el and Ai, he did the same things and the text adds,

And He called upon the name of the Lord We will see that again in 13:4. This was a place of worship. He is praising, uplifting the Lord Jesus here. He is proclaiming Him to those around him.

We have this phrase first used in after the birth of Seth, after the death of Abel and the effects of the curse began to set in. We also see in and people began to call on the Lord and God responding to them who do. calls us to call upon the Lord while he may be found. In some of these passages to call on the Lord is to respond to His call and . So then in the NT we have a similar thought from Paul in .

To call on the name of the Lord is to worship the Lord in truth. it is to proclaim His name, to preach Christ. Luther said that Abram preached Christ in this place to the Canaanites .To call on His name is then to call others to faith in Him.

Then we enter a dark time so to speak: verse 9 tells us that he broke camp, v.10 tells us why, there was a great famine in the land. We are not going to go into the details of this famine and the ensuing events and result, but it does afford us the opportunity to look at another peak. So Jesus called Abram with a promise and He calls you and me to faith in Him as well and that puts us on a journey to the promised land. He also assures us with His presence for the tough times on the journey, But we live in a world where we don’t always do as we should and the right things we want to do we don’t always do. That is Abram’s lot as well. A famine comes along and the logical, worldly thing to do is to go where there is food. And he does. and so we see the third peak,

III. Jesus restores with His protection, v.9-13:4

Here Abram, surely should have remained in the Land, God told him was already his. He should have trusted God. But it is the same thing that Adam and Eve did in the garden as has already been pointed out. So they go to Egypt seeking relief from the famine, but it opens the door to more complications. Abram has to deal with Pharoah who will most certainly kill him for Sara his wife. So he plots a plan to protect himself, not thinking of the ‘seed’ that would be compromised. But rest assured the King of Kings hasn’t forgotten that. In fact, Jesus uses this famine to enrich Abram. This is not teaching -health and wealth gospel at all. However, God does turn our sin to His advantage and often enriches us in spite of our sin. Not with wealth, but often with intangible blessings like learning faith and so on. My main point here is that Jesus protects Abram and Sara, and the Seed. And he curses Pharoah who treated Abram lightly. so this is also an example of that promise being fulfilled.

Abram is expelled from Egypt and returns to his former place of Worship between Beth-el and Ai. He basically retraces his steps to the place of former worship and proclamation of the gospel of peace from Jesus to the Canaanites.

This is a further example of Jesus prayer in regarding keeping those who are His as well as Paul’s statement in that ‘he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

worship and proclamation of the gospel of peace from Jesus to the Canaanites.

Conclusion

So then what do we glean from this passage for today. I hope you are making the connections, that Jesus has called you by His promise of forgiveness for sin to repent and believe.

that He assures you of His presence in your life through your entire journey of faith

and if you fail, and you will He also provides restoration so that you can worship Him again. He is right there with you through it all. Rejoice in Him, as Jesus said Abram did when he saw Jesus, .