Genesis 12.10-Abraham's Trip to Egypt
Tuesday November 15, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 12:10-Abraham’s Trip to Egypt
Lesson # 61
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 12:1.
This evening we will be continuing our study of Genesis 12.
In our previous classes, we have studied Genesis 12:1, which records the call of Abraham.
Genesis 12:1, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.”
We have also studied Genesis 12:2-3, which records the establishment of the Abrahamic covenant.
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 a blessing.”
Genesis 12:3, “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Last Thursday evening, we studied Genesis 12:4-5, which records the Abram’s trip from Haran to the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12:4, “So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”
Genesis 12:5, “Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.”
Last Sunday, we studied Genesis 12:6-8, which records Abram passing through the land of Canaan, which was promised to him and his descendants by the Lord.
Genesis 12:6, “Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.”
Genesis 12:7, “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.”
Genesis 12:8, “Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.”
Also, on Sunday, we studied Genesis 12:9, where rather ominously we read that Abram continued south, out of the land promised to him by the Lord, to the Negev.
Genesis 12:9, “Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.”
The region of the “Negev” extends roughly from a line drawn from Gaza through the modern political boundary of the southern West Bank, extending south to the mountain ranges of the Sinai and through the Arabah to the Red Sea.
This evening we will study Genesis 12:10-20, which records Abraham’s trip to Egypt, which was not according to the will of the Lord.
Genesis 12:10, “Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.”
In Genesis 12:10, we see that instead of turning to the Lord in prayer to meet his temporal needs and problems associated with the famine in the land of Canaan, Abram attempts to solve his temporal needs and problems on his own.
Philippians 4:6, “At this very moment, all of you stop continuing to be anxious about absolutely anything, but rather, concerning anything at all by means of reverential prayer in the presence of the Father and by means of petition accompanied by the giving of thanks, let your specific detailed requests be repeatedly made known in the presence of the Father.”
In this passage, we see the Lord testing Abram’s faith by bringing in a famine in the land of Canaan, which the Lord promised him and Abram fails the test.
God permits the believer to go through adversity and problems in order to test the believer as to whether or not he will trust Him in the adversity and problems.
Jeremiah 20:12, “Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart.”
1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”
1 Peter 4:13, “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”
James 1:2-3, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
1 Corinthians 10:13, “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, so that you will be able to endure it.”
Genesis 12:10 records Abram heading out of the Promised Land to Egypt, which in Scripture is a type of Satan’s cosmic system.
The land of Canaan is a type of the believer’s separation from the cosmic system of Satan and fellowship with God whereas Egypt is a type of the believer living in the cosmic system of Satan and out of fellowship with God.
The apostle John prohibits his readers from loving the cosmic system of Satan and its temptations.
1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
1 John 2:17, “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
James rebukes his readers for committing spiritual adultery in their relationship with God by living according to the standards of Satan’s cosmic system.
James 4:1, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”
James 4:2, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.”
James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
James 4:4, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Just as Abram solved his problem with the famine by going down to Egypt and not turning to the Lord for help, so believers often solve their problems in life by going to the cosmic system instead of trusting in the Lord and turning to Him.
Abram who is the father of all those who believe (Rm. 4:11) fails to operate in faith meaning he failed to trust the Lord to meet the food supply problem in Canaan.
Abram is motivated by fear at this particular time, he fears that he will not be able to feed his large entourage and large flocks that are traveling with him.
Abram is not operating according to faith and is disobedient to the Lord since the Lord does not give him any revelation to leave Canaan because the Lord wants to test Abram’s faith.
Notice that Abram never consults the Lord in prayer as he had been doing because he has become arrogant.
Abram is acting cowardly since he is not operating in faith.
Faith produces courage whereas unbelief produces cowardice.
Faith honors the Lord whereas unbelief dishonors the Lord because it calls into question His integrity and ability to deliver on His promises.
Faith is obedience to God’s commands and is the positive response to God’s commands and acting upon those directions.
The Bible never separates faith from obedience.
Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Biblical faith is trusting in the promises of God regardless of the circumstances or consequences and resting in them.
True Biblical faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.
Here we see Abram not operating in faith because he is concentrating upon his circumstances rather than upon who and what the Lord is and His promises to him.
The principle of faith operates quite simply: (1) God speaks and we hear His Word. (2) We trust His Word and act on it no matter what the circumstances are or what the consequences may be.
The circumstances may be impossible, and the consequences frightening and unknown but we obey God’s Word just the same and believe Him to do what is right and what is best.
Abram is looking at the famine and thus entering into fear rather than concentrating on the Lord’s promise that He would give Abram the land.
Principle: Unbelief is the failure to take into account and acknowledge the character and nature of God and His Word.
Unbelief operates in the sphere of the old Adamic sin nature and contradicts faith and leaves God out.
Unbelief blinded Abram as to the presence of the Lord in his life, which he saw firsthand, causing him to see only the difficulties in the land of Canaan.
Unbelief not only occupies itself with difficulties but also magnifies and exaggerates them so that spiritual defeat (Rm. 7) rules out experiencing victory (Rm. 8).
Abram has failed the adversity test.
His unbelief had produced cowardice.
Like Abram, we as believers need to trust the Lord not only when all our needs are being supplied but also when it appears that suffering and privation are imminent.
Abram is not equal to the test of his faith so he attempts to take things into his own hands.
The Lord had told Abram to go to Canaan, where He would bless him.
Also, there is a distinct possibility that Abram reached his decision because of the complaining of his wife and nephew, both of whom had never experienced hardship and whose faith was not yet as strong as that of Abram.
Notice that Abram’s failure here in Genesis 12:10 follows a great victory, thus teaching the principle that the believer is most vulnerable to the attacks of Satan right after achieving a great spiritual victory.
Genesis 12:10, “Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.”
The word “sojourned” is the Hebrew verb gur (rWG), which refers to a specific legal status of a person who lives as a resident and is in a dependent legal status and is not a native, but is dwelling upon the land.
In societies, which possess a clan structure, this person is without legal protection since he has no blood ties.
Such a person, like Abraham, would have been dependent upon a native to recognize and protect him.
This is the case in Egypt.
The Mari documents (1800 B.C.) indicate that the relationship between “sitting” farmers and nomadic herders (such as Abraham) was that contracts were drawn up concerning grazing and watering rights.
This relationship is known as “dimorphism” as these two distinct yet interrelated cultures exist side by side.
Abraham is entering into a land, where he no legal rights and protection, which will affect his decision-making and will cause him to enter into a contract that will compromise his wife and integrity and witness before the unbeliever.