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Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 11: 27 & 30 (ESV)
27Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
28Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. (Note: Iscah may be Sarai.)
30Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 12: 1 – 5 (ESV)
1Now the LORD saida to Abram, “Go from your countryb and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2And 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. 3I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”c 4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 12: 5 – 9 (ESV)
5 cont… When they came to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oakd of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved to the hill country 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. 9And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 12: 10 – 15 (ESV)
10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
14When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 12: 16 – 20 (ESV)
16And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Message Map: Genesis 12: 10 – 12:20
God Supports Those Who Like Sarah Submit To His Plan
- God founds The first family of faith who by humanly can’t Fulfill what’s promised
- Abraham’s Slander Sends Sarah Astray
- God alerts Pharaoh to make Abram accountable
- God Protects His Promised Plan & Supports Sarah In Her Submission To Abram
The genealogies in Genesis 5 give us perspective on Adam’s Life…
- Adam and Enoch were contemporaries. Enoch was Methuselah’s dad, and was raptured while walking with God.
- Adam died 57 years before Enoch was raptured.
- Adam was 874 years old when Lamech (Noah’s dad) was born.
- Adam & Lamech were contemporaries for 56 years.
- Adam died only about 126 years before Noah was born.
- Noah and Terah, Abraham’s, dad were alive at the same time:
- Oral Tradition is first-hand transfer of information
Multiple generations alive at the same time make for efficient and effective transfer of knowledge learning & wisdom
God’s 5 “I Will’s” promised to Abraham
Genesis 12: 1-3 1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. God says His plan for Abraham is
I will …
- make of you a great nation
- bless you and make your name great, (Judaism, Christianity & Islam claim Abraham as the Father of their faiths)
- bless those who bless you, and
- curse those who dishonor you, and
- you will be a blessing and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Nations rise and fall in direct correlation to how they either cooperate or quarrel over God’s plan to honor His promise to Abraham and His Hebrew descendants.
[bctt tweet=”“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” username=”LibertyCF3″]
God founds the first family of faith who by human standards can’t fulfill what’s promised
Sarah is a splendid Beauty, humble & Submissive Though Stymied In Barrenness
- While others comment on her beauty, there is no record of Sarah doing so. This either indicates humility or perhaps like many of us, we are insecure about things that we need not be, because people readily accept them about us.
The challenge for those who want to walk by faith is the challenge Sarah faces:
The distinguishing characteristic for which Sarai is noted for throughout her household and community is that she is barren and will not be having any children – humanly speaking. The only way for Sarai to have a child is by supernatural method.
In Gen 12:7 God says to Abram, “7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring/seed/descendants I will give this land.”
This means …
- God’s promise applied to Abraham but not Sarai.
- Abraham needed to find a new fertile wife – like Hagar.
- Though Sarai was barren, God promises she’ll have a child.
- Both Abram & Sarai need to trust God to fulfill in and through them what He’s promised.
Can famine make us fail our faith?
Genesis 11: 4 The famine is the first challenge that confronts the First Family of Faith as Abraham leads them to set out to follow God. The famine indicates …
- Since God was surprised by it, Abraham is left to figure out on his own how to handle and adjust to it.
- If Abraham had more faith, he would have discernment to avoid the famine by going far away from where it would occur.
- If Abraham had more faith no matter where he was there would be no famine.
- Hardship is no verification of God’s call.
- Hardship is a test to see if we obey when things get challenging.
Habakkuk 3:17- 19
17Though the fig tree should not blossom, / nor fruit be on the vines, / the produce of the olive fail / and the fields yield no food, / the flock be cut off from the fold / and there be no herd in the stalls, / 18yet I will rejoice in the LORD; / I will take joy in the God of my salvation. / 19GOD, the Lord, is my strength; / he makes my feet like the deer’s; / he makes me tread on my high places.
Hebrews 12:7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.
JFB says Abram went down into Egypt—He did not go back to the place of his nativity, which would have been an indication that he regretted his pilgrimage and despising the promised land (Heb 11:15), but withdrew for a while into a neighboring country.
The term despised is used in Genesis 25:34 to explain how Esau despised his birthright, when he traded it to Jacob for some lentil stew. “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Websters 1828 Dictionary defines despise as an action which shows
- To contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have the lowest opinion of.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7.
Else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Matthew 6:24.
Abram Went to Egypt …
Genesis 12: 10 10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
Sojourn = Abram plans to live there a) as a permanent residence or b) as a temporary alien.
The famine was God’s way of …
- Punishing the iniquity of the Canaanites (maybe)
- Clearing the land of Canaanites for Abraham to inhabit it (maybe)
- Seeing if Abraham trusted divine Providence to sustain him in the land to where God told him to go. (likely – even very likely)
- exercising the faith of Abram, who was to trust the God that brought him to Canaan also could sustain him there,
When Abraham entered Egypt, because of the famine, he abandoned or affirmed God’s plan.
We also see from the word “severe” and the fact that Abe is worried about being killed in Egypt that the famine must have been quite significant, and threatened his livestock, which is his food supply that traveled with (there were no convenience stores), and threatened all the people he acquired in Haran per Gen 12:5, to get him to consider risking what he thought was his life to go to Egypt.
It is your option to determine if in your opinion – When Abraham entered Egypt, because of the famine, he abandoned / affirmed God’s plan.
Abe’s slander sends Sarah astray
Genesis 12: 11-13 11When Abe was about to enter Egypt, he wanted to have Sarai, his wife, say she is sister because …
- Sarai was a beautiful woman – and it’s obvious no woman that good looking would be with a guy like Abraham.
- The unholy custom of the time was the Egyptians would kill a husband to take a wife, but they would negotiate with a brother for a sister or a father for a daughter whom was unbetrothed, and presumed a virgin.
- The custom of the time was women had no say in what would happen to them.
- Abraham was shrewd and schemed up a plan to save his own neck, at Sarah’s expense – although, perhaps he had no idea Pharaoh would take her. Or perhaps he thought God would protect her.
Sin’s lose-lose dynamics
In Genesis 12: 14-16 what win-win or the win-lose or the loose-lose dynamics that occurred when Pharaoh took Sarai into his house.
- Pharaoh wins because he added another trophy to the many wives/concubines he already had, or does he lose because he’s trapped in sin? W/L
- Abram won because he got “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels,” or does he lose because he lost his wife? W/L
- Sarai won because she got to live as a concubine in a wealthy palace, or does she loses because Sarai lost her husband and may have to be with a man she doesn’t know and whose customs completely are foreign to her W/L
- Everyone lost because sin is a lose-lose proposition. What does it profit a man to gain the world but to lose his own soul?
God supported Sarah who submitted to the slanderous sister story
1 Pet 3:6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord (one to whom power or authority is delegated). And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
2 Pet 3: 6 – indicates Sarah did not fear the frightening circumstances of submitting to a less than perfect husband and being taken into Pharaoh’s harem.
In this she was a devout woman who looked to God to work His will for her through her husband’s decisions.
God alerts Pharaoh to make Abram accountable
Abraham is divinely disciplined
In Genesis 12: 17-18 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house because …
- God was signaling to Pharaoh should not touch Sarah. 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 they were thus plagued.
- Pharaoh is plagued because God is teaching him a lesson to which he had better pay close attention. His ambition, avarice and sense of entitlement has caused him to bite off sin, which is far more than one thinks they’ll chew.
- The princes who had praised and commended Sarai to Pharaoh had better think twice before recommending he apprehend other women passing through his province.
- The flaw of men is that they fall in love/lust with their eyes. By contrast, woman fall in love with their ears.
- The challenge for compatibility of the sexes is that when men see something they like, but which they really do not know well enough, they may say things that women like to hear. The guy doesn’t know what the girl’s favorite color is; doesn’t know if she likes puppies, horses, rainbows or unicorns, but is motivated because he likes the way you look.
- So guys must resist the temptation to respond to what he sees by saying, “Hey, miss fine; would be my valentine— or something like that.” Girls train yourself that if you hear a guy say something like
- That, you respond with: Excuse me; do I know you? Do you know what my favorite color is; do you know if I like puppies, horses, rainbows or unicorns? What are you a pervert, who is letting your feelings override your common sense – saying something like that to me — when you don’t know anything about me!?”
- Satan works by enticing us through what we see. He enticed Adam & Eve in Eden, and what finally convinced them to sin was “the fruit looked pleasing to the sight.” By contrast, God works by inspiring us through what we hear, as stated in Rom 10: 17 which says “Faith comes by hearing.” Isaiah 1:18 says “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” God says, contemplate what you hear and consider what I am going to work in our salvation. Consider the Finished work of Christ, which erases your sins and imputes Christ’s righteousness to you.
- We are not sure if Pharaoh really would not have taken Sarai had he known she was married, or if Abraham was correct and they would have killed him and then his wife.
- At any rate, pharaoh apologizes for apprehending Sara
- God was disciplining Abram,
- Imagine you are Abram in In Genesis 12: 18 and being summoned to the Kings massive, imposing throne room, which has huge doors and soldiers lining the walls and on both sides of the long carpet you must walk to approach him, Imagine the balconies full of archers, who are ready to take aim at you at the King’s command.
- Imagine Pharaoh’s voice echoing throughout the chamber as your name is called as you enter. And as the king says, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
- Ab’s discipline was consistent with Heb 12: 5-115And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
- “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
2. God was rescuing Sara
Both 1 & 2 
God Protects His Promised Plan & Supports Sarah In Her Submission To Aberrant Abram
The Genesis 12: 14-16 exodus from Egypt parallels Israel’s EXODUS from Egypt because …
- In Genesis 12 – Abe is worried Sarah will be taken and he’ll be killed. In Exodus Egypt killed male children but left females
- In both Gen 12:16 & Exodus plagues persuade the Egyptian leader to release the captives. Although in Exodus Pharaoh keeps changing his mind on releasing Israel, and suffers additional plagues.
- In both Gen 12 & Exodus – Abe plunders Egypt and is prospered by the abundance of gifts he is given in Gen 12:16. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
- In Genesis there is no pursuit, but in Exodus Pharaoh pursues Israel, and his army is drowned in the sea.
Slander sells us short as it tells the truth in such a way as to mislead or injure others.
- Trusting God means trusting His established methods and order. Sarah submitted to what obviously is a questionable decision by her husband and is protected and commended for doing so.
- Sarah Sublimely Submitted to model what is one the most challenging aspects of the Christian Life: wives submit to husbands
- Ephesians 5: 22 – 24 says, 22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
- While Abram is to be commended as a man of great obedience, he is a great man of faith because there is no indication that he raised the arm of the flesh to put Sarai away because she was utterly lacking in her ability to have a child, God promised.
- Ephesians 5: 25 – xxx indicates how men never are to be critical of their wives – as we are to model and love and cover our wives as Christ covers our shortcomings. As commendable as Abram seems to be on this point, he utterly failed at the self-sacrificing love required for one to give up himself for his wife, as he put Sarai in harms way clearly to protect his own neck. I pray God gives us men grace to make the self-sacrifices that best secures our wives.
- 25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
- I also pray that God gives wives Strength in their Struggle to Submit.
- God’s order for the family requires husbands and wives to come together as one head and one heart. Families need to have a balance between a dad’s hard head and mom’s soft heart. As the two become one and figure out how to make decisions the family can achieve balance. Anything entity with 2 heads is a monstrous abnormality. Any entity lacking a heart – or lacking the proper influence of mother’s heart also is a dysfunctional, unbalanced malformation that fails to live up to God’s design.
- Pharaoh demonstrates to us that just because you have power to do something, does not mean you should. What he legally could do under the laws of his land is absolutely immoral according to the Word of God
- Our flesh pressures us to use power inappropriately to drag our families into sin.
- Everyone loses because sin is a lose-lose proposition.
God Protects His Promises in our lives too
God does not reject Abram for sending Sarai into harms way, because …
- God protects his plan to provide for our salvation through Christ, the messiah, bringing Him forth through Abram’s bloodline.
- Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are …
- KJV – without repentance / irrevocable
- ESV, NAS, NIV – irrevocable. NLT – can never be withdrawn
- Meaning – about which no change of mind can take place because they were conferred from deep conviction.
- God’s salvation works for us on 3 levels simultaneously by
- justifying us at the moment of Salvation;
- Gen 15: 6 we read Abraham believed God and it was counted (ESV, NLT) / credited (NIV, KJV) / reckoned (NSS) to him as righteousness.
- Rom 3:29 we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
- Rom 4:2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about–but not before God.
- Rom 5;1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
- Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified
- Rom 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved
- Gal 2; 16 … know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
- 1 Cor 16; 11 But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Titus 3:7 having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
- sanctifying us through our daily walk
- 1 Cor 16:11 For But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- John 18:19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. … And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (Sounds like imputed sanctification)
- 1 Thess 4:3-5 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
- Rom 15:6 that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit
- Hebrews 10:10 we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
- Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified
- Hebrews 2: 11 For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.
- Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- glorifying us in heaven, in the near future, having adopted us as sons/daughters
- 2 Thess 1:12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you
- in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 2 Thess 1:10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
- Rom 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Let’s pray:
God we appreciate how You have redeemed us and, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies and empowers us to faithfully obey and offer our lives for You to fulfill Your plan through us.
| Gen 5: 1-32 |
Age | Who Was Born | Adam Fathered Seth at age 130, & Lived 930 Years Altogether Adam’s Contemporaries Include… | ||
| At | 130 | Adam fathered Seth | Adam was | 130 | of his 930 years when Seth was born |
| At | 105 | Seth fathered Enosh | Adam was | 235 | of his 930 years when Enosh was born |
| At | 90 | Enosh fathered Kenan | Adam was | 325 | of his 930 years when Kenan was born |
| At | 70 | Kenan father’ Mahalalel | Adam was | 395 | of his 930 years when Mahalalel born |
| At | 65 | Mahalalel father’ Jared | Adam was | 460 | of his 930 years when Jared was born |
| At | 162 | Jared fathered Enoch | Adam was | 622 | of his 930 years when Enoch was born |
| At | 65 | Enoch fathered Methuselah | Adam was | 687 | of his 930 years when Methuselah was born |
| At | 187 | Methuselah fathered Lamech | Adam was | 874 | of his 930 years when Lamech was born. (930-874 = 56) |
| At | 182 | Lamech fathered Noah | (874+182 = 1056) 1056 − 930 = 126. Adam died 126 years before Noah was born. Adam lived 56 years after Lamech, Noah’s dad, was born. | ||
| Adam was 622 when Enoch was born. Enoch was 365 when raptured
(622+365 = 987 – 930 = 57) Adam died 57 years before Enoch was raptured. |
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| Methuselah was 369 (= 187+182) when Noah was born. Gen 7: 6-16 says The Flood began when Noah was 600. Methuselah died at 969 (=369+600) |
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| Gen
11: 10-26 |
Age | Who Was Born | Noah Lived 350 Years After The Flood & 950 Years Total (Gen 9:28). Noah’s Contemporaries Include… |
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| At | 100 | Shem fathered Arpachshad | Noah has left to live | 248 | of 930 years after Arpach born (This is 2 years post Flood) |
| At | 35 | Arpach’ fathered Shelah | Noah has | 213 | of 930 years after Shelah’ born |
| At | 30 | Shelah fathered Eber | Noah has | 183 | of 930 years after Eber was born |
| At | 34 | Eber fathered Peleg | Noah has | 149 | of 930 years after Peleg born |
| At | 30 | Peleg fathered Reu | Noah has | 119 | of 930 years after Reu was born |
| At | 32 | Reu fathered Serug | Noah has | 87 | of 930 years after Serug born |
| At | 30 | Serug fathered Nahor | Noah has | 57 | of 930 years after Nahor born |
| At | 29 | Nahor fathered Terah | Noah has | 28 | of 930 years after Terah born |
| At | 70 | Terah fathered Abram | Noah died | -42 | Noah died when Terah was 28 |
| Total | 390 | The 390 years really is 388 years because Shem had Arpac’ 2 years post flood. Noah died 350 years post flood, when Tera was 28, which only was 42 years before Abram was born. (28+42=70) |
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