Genesis 12 - 14

Let’s look into the life of the person who is mentioned many times throughout Scripture, second only to Jesus. His name is Abraham. He even makes a cameo appearance in the Gospels. Do you remember? Read Luke 16, the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus dies and is taken to where Abraham was. The rich man died and was in torment. He looks up and sees Abraham far away (how did he know it was Abraham? Was he wearing a name tag?) and cries out to him. Abraham responded, in verse 28 “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.” Dave Glock, my mentor at Emmaus Bible College (you can watch his lectures on YOUTUBE), pointed out something I had never seen before and he only recently discovered himself. How did Abraham know anything about Moses and the prophets? Abraham lived many years before them. He suggests that in heaven we will continue to learn. I hope we have very good teachers and very easy examinations . . . and no book reports or papers.

Abraham is called “the father of the faithful” (Romans 4:12) and “the friend of God.” Isn’t that a great title? Abraham, originally named Abram, was born (c 2000 BCE) and lived in the city of Ur, (doesn’t that sound like what pirate grunt?) in what is now modern-day Iraq. Back then it was called Mesopotamia meaning, “land between rivers.” Abraham was the son of Terah, (not to be confused with Tara, the name of the plantation in Gone with the Wind). Terah was an idolater who worshiped the moon god named Sin. How appropriate. Just as we sometimes name our kids after people of the Bible, or at least the nice ones, not Judas or Pontius, names of family members were influenced by the pagan gods. According to one source, Sarai comes from the word Sharrate, which means queen, the title of the wife of the moon god. It all gets quite complicated as words are translated from one language to another.

So, how did Abraham break away from the religious system that he grew up in? This is where legends are told to fill in the blanks of history. The story is told that Abraham knew that these gods were powerless and not worthy of worship. His father, Terah, was a manufacturer and seller of pagan idols. One day Abraham was asked to “watch the store” while his dad went off to do some errands. While Terah is at Wal-Mart (I just made that up) Abraham looked around the shop and was disgusted by these man-made idols and the people’s devotion to them so he started to smash some of them on the floor. When his Dad returns and asks him, “What happened?” Abraham blamed the destruction on the big idol standing against the wall with a sledgehammer in his hand. His dad says, “He couldn’t have done this, he is just an idol.” “Then,” replied Abraham, “why do you worship them?” With that, Abraham walked out of the store. As you can imagine, there are many variations of this legend. The point is, apparently God saw something in this young man and chose him to become the Father of the Faithful, the ancestor to the Messiah, Jesus.

So, let’s turn to Genesis 12 and read about the call of Abraham. Genesis 12:1, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation 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; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

There is a lot here to unpack. Imagine being told to leave everything that you are familiar with and many of your loved ones? To go where? He didn’t know where he was going. Heb 11:8 says, “Abram did not know he was heading for Canaan.” Can you imagine the conversation when he broke the news to his family. “Hey kids, guess what? We’re going on a trip, a very long trip, now go upstairs and pack your things.” While the kids are packing Sarai asks, “What are you talking about? Where are we going? I don’t know, yet. Where did you get the idea to just up and leave everyone and everything we love? God! “Have you been drinking again?”

So, God tells Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household.” Where are we going?” I can’t tell you, yet. TRUST ME!

What was the journey like when they joined the convoy south? Did people ask Abram, “Where are you guys headed to?” Don’t know. “Why did you leave?” God told me to go. Mothers on the convoy would tell their children, “Don’t go near that man over there. He’s crazy and he might be dangerous.”

Did God communicate with Abram along the way, other than to give him directions like a GPS system? “Turn left at the next intersection.” Did God visit with him in the evening by the campfire. “We made good time today, Abram, in spite of the rain.” Did he have any doubts, any at all? He wouldn’t have left it he hadn’t believed, but were there times when he had just a bit of doubt about what was going on? Did he have a “I believe, but help my unbelief” moment?

God promised Abram that he would make of him, he who had no children, a nation. Well, if God was going to do that, He had better get moving on it, Abram was getting old. In Genesis 10 there are seventy nations listed. Soon there would be seventy-one. And nobody is more surprised than Abram.

God also promised to make his name GREAT! Did He do it? Three of the world’s religions honor him to this day, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Can you think of any other person who is so honored? The builders of the Tower of Babel wanted to make a great name for themselves and failed. Now Abram is getting it without even asking.

Not only was he to be blessed BY God, he will become a blessing to others. Who was the first person to be blessed by Abram? It was Melchizedek, who received a tenth of the spoils of war from Abram. Another promise is to bless those who bless Abram and curse those who curse Abram. This blessing/curse promise is repeated in Num 24:9 to extend to all of Israel. And in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This part of the promise goes beyond Abram, beyond Israel and extends to the whole world. This promise refers to what is accomplished by one of his descendants, the Messiah! Do you think that Abram understood what these promises meant?

Gen. 12:4 “So Abram left . . . and Lot went with him.” V 7 “the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.” That must have been reassuring to Abram. Their journey first took them Ur to Haran, which is about 600 miles. That’s the distance between Jasper and Washington, D.C. And no, they didn’t drive on an interstate highway with air conditioning and a radio. Then, they moved onto Canaan, another 400 miles, about the distance between Jasper and  Cleveland, Ohio. And when he started this journey, he was seventy-five years old and could have come up with a long list of reasons why he shouldn’t uproot his family at this stage of his life, but off he went.

Abraham and his family arrive and settle in Negev. Perhaps it wasn’t all that the travel brochures promised, it was described as a “dry wasteland.” The Jewish Virtual Library describes it as “oppressively hot . . . filled with dirt, rocks and canyons. I can imagine the sign on the side of the road, “Welcome to the Promised Land.” He lives along the border or near the inhabited area in Canaan, but he does not move in or live among them. Could things get any worse? Of course, this is the Bible. A famine hits the land. Earlier, God promised, “Unto your seed I will give this land.” “Thanks for nothing, God. Is this the best you could do?” The former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir once said, “Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!” I wonder if Abram has similar feelings at this point.

Paul, when commenting at length on the life of Abraham (Romans 4), says, “Abraham believed God and that faith was credited to him as righteousness.” He as told to something and he did it. We know what happened next, but he didn’t. In Gen. 12:10 we are going to see the very human side of Abraham. Yes, he was faithful, the Father of the faithful, but he was like the rest of us, flawed. We see this as he headed off to Egypt to sit out the famine.

Have you heard what has been going on in east Africa recently? Kenya and other nearby countries are enduring the second wave of locust. Perhaps this famine was caused by locust, or maybe it was a drought. Perhaps a few doubts entered his mind, again. Can you be faithful but still have some doubts? You might recall the comment made by the father of a boy with an evil spirit in Mark 9:24, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”? We have our beliefs, but sometimes a bit of doubt enters our minds.

So, as they enter Egypt, he says to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister.’” Ladies? How would you feel about that if you were Sarai? Now Sarai was sixty-five years old and the Egyptians had a reputation for wife abduction. They abducted her and meanwhile, Abram got rich (v 16) and acquired sheep, cattle, menservants and maidservants. Among the maidservants was Hagar. This sets the stage for conflict between the two women, Sarai and Hagar in Chapter 16 which continues to this day.

Then disaster struck in the form of diseases in the Pharaohs’ household. This could be the first outworking of the cursing aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, “I will curse those who curse you.” What type of disease hit Pharaoh and his household (v 17)? Jewish tradition, it was some sort of skin disease that made sexual intercourse impossible, protecting Sarai from sexual intercourse. Pharaoh got the message and confronted Abraham about his deception and sent him away. Abraham left with more wealth than when he arrived. Let’s see, going to Egypt in a famine, leaving with great wealth. Abram was blessed despite his wrong actions. This shows us that the covenant was unconditional.

What was the conversation like between Abraham and Sarai on the way out of Egypt? Might Abram have said, “So, what did you think of Egypt? Wasn’t it great? Look at all the stuff we got. Should we buy a time share there?” Can you imagine the cold, frosty look on Sarai’s face? I guess they scratched Egypt off their list of possible retirement communities.

Abraham and his entire extended family and all their animals headed back home and settled in the area of Bethel.  Ah, the good life. The grass is green, cattle is putting on weight (probably Abram, too). The herds and flocks of Abraham and Lot both grew to the point that it was getting a bit crowded and some harsh words were said between their herdsmen. To avoid conflict, Abraham suggested that they spread out and in a very generous gesture he gave Lot first choice as to where he was to move. Lot headed eastward near the cities of Sodom because it was “well- watered and as beautiful as the Garden of the Lord (Gen. 13;10). At least that’s what the Chamber of Commerce brochure said. I wonder if there were a few other motives that led him to choose this spot, so close to Sodom. Do you remember the television show, Green Acres? It was about a couple from New York city who moved to the country. The husband loved the simple country life, the wife hated it. I wonder if Lots’ wife was a city girl and that’s one reason Lot chose to head east. Perhaps her love of the city is why she looked back as Sodom was being destroyed. So, he pitched his tent near Sodom. Sodom was a wicked city, but there isn’t any indication in the text that Lot was aware of this. God then reiterates his promise to Abram that the land was to be his and his descendants FOREVER. He even invited him to take a tour of the land, the land that God is giving to him. This is obviously speaking of real land and can’t be spiritualized as some have done to refer to heaven.

In Chapter fourteen we find a war breaking out and as Sodom and Gomorrah was overtaken, among those taken prisoner was Abraham’s nephew, Lot. In Gen. 14:12 it says, “The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they carried off Lot’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. So, it appears that he relocated from one of the suburbs, outside of Sodom to the city itself. One of the prisoners escaped and reported to Abraham was had happened. In verse thirteen of chapter 14 Abraham is referred to as “the Hebrew”. This is the first time this term is used in Scripture. Abraham gathered 318 trained men to rescue Lot. This sounds to me like Abraham had a group of young men who were trained as soldiers, much like the Army Reserves. Performing their regular duties but ready for active military duty at a moments’ notice. 

In verse 16 it says that the military action recovered all the goods as well as the women and other people. Now here is something I never noticed before. These “other people” experienced the grace of God and knowledge of God through Abram and Melchizedek, yet all of them returned to these wicked cities and died in Gen 19 when they were destroyed.

After their successful rescue mission, Melchizedek, king of Salem came to visit Abraham (Gen. 14:18). We probably should pause to explain who this Melchizedek is. He is identified as a king and priest of God. So, Abraham wasn’t the only person who believed and served the one true God. In fact, he says in Gen. 14:19-20, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” What did it mean to be a king in that day, in that culture? When I was teaching at the Minsk Bible College in Belarus, I had a student who was from an African country. His name was Prince Henry. If he was a Prince, what was his father? Yes, a king. Not like the King of England or some other European monarchy. To be a king meant a tribal chief. The African king may have been more like the head of a neighborhood watch group than the leader of a modern nation. Being a king must not have required a lot of his Melchizedeks’ time because he was also the local priest. Do you think he had two sets of uniforms? He must have had at least two different hats, switching hats during the day depending on what his scheduled required. If you watch the pilot episode of the Andy Griffith Show on YouTube, with Danny Thomas as a guest, you will see Sheriff Andy, who arrested Danny Thomas for speeding, take him to the courthouse to stand before the justice of the peace. Guess who the justice of the peace is? Right. You guys are smart. Sheriff Taylor removes the name board on his desk reading “Sheriff” and replaces it with the one reading “Justice of the Peace.” Andy Taylor wore two hats. He may have even been the editor of the local newspaper and who knows what else. While you are self-isolating because of the pandemic, wouldn’t this be a good time to watch that episode? Consider that part of your homework.

Back to Melchizedek. In Heb. 5:5, the author compares the ministry of Jesus with that of Melchizedek. In Hebrews the author is showing that what is in the New Covenant is superior to the old and the Jews should not go back to the old covenant. Jesus, like Melchizedek, is both King of King and our High Priest. In this sense, his priesthood was better than the Aaronic priesthood, since those priests were only priest, not kings. And, their priesthood was limited to the years of service, whereas the ministry of Jesus is forever.

In Genesis 14:20 is says that Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. This passage has been used by the Worldwide Church of God (Herbert Armstrong’s group) to justify tithing. But tithing wasn’t instituted until the time of Moses and was only imposed on the Israelites. He gave a tenth, Melchizedek didn’t take a tenth. Why did Abram give him ten percent of the spoils of war, not his income. Verse 21 says that the King of Sodom showed up and said, “Give me the people and keep the good for yourself.” This king wanted those who Abram had rescued released. Now, legally, these people belonged to Abram by right of conquest. Imagine if those who were rescued by allied armies from the Nazi concentration camps in Germany, we wouldn’t want to hold them prisoners, we would want to free them so they could return home. This is all the King of Sodom wanted. But the king did say that Abram could keep all the property. Again, by right of conquest he had the right to keep this stuff. He refused to do so. His goal was to simply liberate the people, not get richer than he already was.

Some commentaries suggest that Melchizedek might have been a theophany. But he wasn’t. He was a man with two jobs. Maybe his priestly duty was a volunteer position. A theophany is a manifestation of God in the Bible that is tangible to the human senses, usually in human form. In Heb 5:1, a passage oftentimes used to claim that he was a theophany, said that Melchizedek was like the Son of God, not that he WAS the Son of God. He was a type of the Messiah. It mentions that he had no mother or father, or no record of genealogy, which would be required to be a Levitical priest. Like Jesus, Melchizedek was a priest by divine appointment, not genealogy. And, his priesthood was like that of Jesus that it had no beginning or end, no minimum or maximum age as the Levitical priests did. Melchizedek was not a theophany. In the next chapter, we will see a theophany.