Lesson 12 - Genesis 12 & 13

Oh buddy we begin by now understanding that a God created covenant is nothing less than a new or modified law of nature and while the analogy might not be perfect in every sense there is no other word we can come up with that expresses the unfathomable cosmic force of a covenant offered and guaranteed by the Creator a promise a contract a doctrine a will and a testament these are all just weak and inferior man-centered devices as flawed and apt to break down as the humans who conjured them up and agreed to them on the other hand a covenant of god has at its source the very spirit of god therefore of anything that mankind is aware nothing can be as in alterable and certain is that the purpose of a divine covenant will be carried out so will you please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12 and we'll begin reading today at verse 4 and carry it through the end of the chapter we just read the first three verses last week that is on page 11 if you have a complete Jewish Bible chapter 12 beginning at verse 4 so our room went as out and I had said to him and low 20 a room was 75 years old when he left her on Avram took his wife Sarai his brother son load lot and all their possessions which they had accumulated as well as the people they had acquired in Iran and then they set out for the land of Canaan and entered the land of Canaan Avram passed through the land to the place called Shechem to the oak of Moray the Canaanites were then in the land odd and I appeared to Offerman said to your descendants I will give this land so he built an altar there to add and I who had appeared to him he left that place he went to the hill east of Bay fell and he pitched his tent and with Bethel to the West and I to the east he built an altar there and called the name called on the name of Aden I and then Avram traveled on and he went going continuing towards them to give but there was a famine in the land so Abram went down into Egypt to stay there because the famine in the land was severe and when he came close to Egypt and he was about to enter he said to Sarai his wife now here now I know that you are a good-looking woman so that when the Egyptians see you they will say this is his wife so they'll kill me but keep you alive please say you're my sister so that it will go well with me for your sake and so that I will stay alive because of you and when ah from entered Egypt the Egyptians did notice that the woman was very beautiful and Pharaoh's princesses saw her princes saw her and commended her to Pharaoh so the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house he treated offer him well for her sake gave him sheep cattle male and female donkeys male and female slaves and camels but odd and I inflicted great plagues on Pharaoh in his household because of Sarai Abrams wife Pharaoh called Avram and said what is this that you that you have done to me why didn't you tell me she was your wife why did you say she's my sister so that I took her to be my own wife now therefore here here is your wife take her go away so Pharaoh gave orders concerning him to his men and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had Abraham is the first of a series of men in the Bible called the patriarchs now sometimes Noah is called a patriarch but just as the judges and the Kings and the prophets of the Bible were not the only people who ever judged or ruled or prophesied Noah does not fall into the technical biblical classification of patriarch Adam Isaac apron or rather Abraham Isaac and Jacob father son and grandson these were the three men that have it all times been the ones referred to as the patriarchs now if we were to read only the Old Testament we would not be sure exactly where it was that Abraham received his marching orders directly from God Most High the Genesis accounts of chapters 11 and 12 seemed to make it that while temporarily settled in in at Iran of Mesopotamia Abraham currently called Avram God is call but the book of Acts chapter 7 tells us that before he got to Iran presumably on the family's Trek from or of the haldis God appeared to offer him some Jewish sages say no it was actually at or where Abraham was summoned I find that very unlikely for as long as Terah Abraham's father was still living he would have called the shots when it came to moving the family it would not have been at the order of his son at the least we know that it was either during or immediately before Terra Nahor and Abraham lived in Haran that God boldly approached Ephraim with a deal he couldn't refuse now what's clear is that Abraham's family was just as pagan as the rest of the world at this time it is unimaginable that prior to God's calling upon him that Abraham divorced himself from multiple God worship otherwise he would have been at odds with his entire family at every step and I'm confident that we would have found words in the tourist similar to those pronounced upon Noah that he was dead print from all other men in other words Noah had been judged as the most righteous of all men on earth we get no such claim regarding Abraham further implicit in the commandment of God to offer him to leave his country and to leave his father and to leave his family is that separation is demanded what Abraham was gonna have to do could not be accomplished by remaining among the people including his own family thoroughly dedicated to their perverted religion this constant pattern of God dividing electing and separating continues therefore by the creation of the first man of a new nation of people a people who would be set apart just for God I can't imagine that Abraham took this instruction to leave behind everything he knew in exchange for some words of promise even if the words were from a recently introduced God without a lot of doubt and trepidation it is equally as unthinkable that he simply accepted everything God said and carried it all out in absolute purity one can be divided and elected as was Abraham but that hardly means that all ingrained thoughts of the previous 75 years of life all the traditional the unquestioned ways of behavior behavior and of worshipping gods that he had learned simply fled from him if it were that easy and matter-of-fact the forced separation of Abraham and those who would go hit with him from the old wouldn't have been needed it's mankind's habit that we hate to let go of familiar things you just hate it even if those familiar things are weighing us down maybe even destroying us the security of the familiar present no matter how terrible or hollow sometimes is somehow better in our minds than the discomfort of facing an unknown future of change and left to our own devices we often try to move forward and to renewal while still staying attached like an abalone to a rock on all that really needs to be left behind the pattern God shows us it's not just about division not only about being elected or even about division and then election this third and final indispensable part of this dynamic process of remoulding us until his purposes are achieved has to occur in concert with the first two but that third part is separation separation is in one way or another a prerequisite to serving God does that separation even involve family sometimes you bet it does and interestingly tat is the exact example that's given here with Abraham I'm not talking about divorce it could happen that way not as God's will per se but divorce is the result of a bad decision on someone's part and the resulting separation now being used by God to achieve good in ways we could never have contemplated it could be the death of a spouse maybe a parent that causes this separation and it could be as with Abraham that for the purpose God has ordained for you you cannot stay tied to the old as painful as this separation is going to be but the separation could also be from friends longtime friends who simply do not share the values you know you must follow now perhaps from others who you find odd due to the wholeheartedness that you now have and following serving jehovah may be the separation must be from a church or a synagogue that has over time lost its first love and now it blindly chases after the world or some air-filled doctrines nothing unusual by the way there anything that we that should be all that unexpected given the sorts of things we're told in the book of Revelation see this concept of separation is central to Christ's teachings although it's not usually recognized as such it just seems as though these are but several of our Savior statements that cause us a lot of trouble here is the classic statement along those lines in Luke 14:26 if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple this is all about separation not about hatred in the sense that we typically think of it in the modern times this is being prepared expecting to perhaps be at odds with those closest to you as was Abraham with his family once you are called by God recognizing that you can no longer remain tied to the past particularly if it's a wicked past and that God's calling surpasses any other purpose for your of my existence let's listen to a little more of what Jesus would say on this subject in Matthew 10:34 don't think that I've come to bring peace on earth that's a hard one in it don't think I've come to bring peace on earth I didn't come to be bring peace but a sword for I came to set a man against his father daughter against her mother a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be the members of his household that's tough and Bible speak many of the members of Abraham's household became his enemies because he was called by God to abandoned everything they held there to become God's man for a very special assignment Christ came to divide and separate a sword as perhaps no other before him the sword spoken of by Yeshua is not so much a symbol of killing simple of dividing of cutting and he recognizes that for some the circumstances of their being set apart for him are gonna be agonizing heartbreaking therefore he continues by saying in Matthew nineteen twenty nine for everyone who has left households or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers or children or farms for my namesake they shall receive many times as much and they shall inherit eternal life separation which is often expressed in the Bible using words like set apart or sanctified or distinction separation must occur in one form or another if one is going to be a true believer this is because the primary change in nature for a human as a result of salvation is that he or she becomes holy did you know that by definite holy means set apart separated out so by means of accepting the separation God insists upon in verse four of Genesis 12 that's how ADA Abraham ratified the Covenant that God made with him that was the ratification in other words simply by going by leaving her on and his family and his nation and going to Canaan Abraham fulfilled his part of the deal the entire remainder of the terms of that covenant terms which would take centuries to develop and come about all of that was on God it was utterly impossible for Abraham now to fail to bake break the Covenant because the whole rest of it wasn't up to Abraham this is perhaps the best definition of what a permanent covenant is it's all on God unilateral a quick biblical rule about covenants if man or nature has to continue upholding some part of that covenant in order for it to remain valid then it's a conditional covenant which means it can be broken and therefore a consequence would come about verses 4 & 5 tell us that Abraham Sarai later called Sarah his wife and lote lot his nephew who was the son of Abraham's deceased brother Iran and along with a bunch of cousins and servants they headed south in the direction of the land of Canaan I remember Canaan is the name of a son of ham Canaan was the grandson who had a curse placed on him by his angry grandfather Noah so where Abraham was headed was the area that Canaan and his tribe had migrated to many years earlier we're now time period of around 1975 to 2000 BC by biblical record were perhaps not much more than 350 years since the Great Flood and scores of millions of people now inhabited the earth we are told that the land God showed Abraham was populated with Canaan i'ts Lords those descendants of ham and his son Canaan and that God led Abraham and his clan quiet distance through the land before they came to one specific spot that he let him to shake him now by the way today Shechem is known as Nablus one of the cities under Palestinian control in the West Bank area of dispute and there at Shechem God actually appeared to Abraham and some unspecified visible form God appearing to a man from a biblical perspective was very rare but it was to make a clear point that we must take at face value to this day it was there there at shake him that God told Abraham this is the land this is the land that he's giving to him into all his descendants so appropriately Abraham built an altar there and he sacrificed two Yehovah God now apparently either through God's choice or a preference that was perhaps left up to Abraham the clan moved on further south they journeyed about 25 miles likely three or four days at most stop for a time between what eventually came to be called beth-el and another city called I both el and I were just a couple of miles apart there Abraham built another altar again sacrificed now some undefined period later he took his family any journey even further on into the desert regions and by the way 'no give is Hebrew for south we should understand that without doubt Abraham's travels had nothing to do with his being someone with the urge of wanderlust moving was always dangerous and difficult rather this first patriarchs movements had to do with the never-ending search by by an owner of herds and flocks for new water and pasture sources for his animals now we don't know what period of time transpired from Abraham's entering the land of Canaan to his going to the southern end but during that time conditions apparently worsened until there was a full-blown famine that threatened his family's existence and a decision he was soon going to regret Abraham went to Egypt to seek relief from the famine and the ran headlong into Pharaoh who took a fancy to Abraham's wife Sarai now there's no mention of the Lord directing Abraham to leave and go to Egypt it was Abraham's concern to survive that's what drove him to Egypt a pattern which would be repeated by his grandson Jacob a couple of hundred years later yet Abraham hardly invented the idea of going to a nation that had been known for many years by then as the granary of the region and therefore Egypt to become a pretty standard place of refuge particularly for the Bedouin desert Wanderers of that era Egypt was for those who lived at the southern end of the Middle Eastern landmass what Mesopotamia was for those who lived up in the north it was a region of fabulous and dependable fertility now one thing we need to take from these previous passages is how readily and a bleep people traveled in 2000 BC there were many easy to follow well traveled rounds marked water wells and though it was not an everyday occurrence strangers showing up in foreign places we're not all not at all an uncommon event people of that era were very well aware of other peoples of far-flung nations news traveled steadily by means of the trade routes that criss crossed the Middle East and went as far to the east as India and China by Abraham's day now Abraham having made his decision to take his clan down to Egypt until the hard hard times passed back up and Canaan he prepared a deception for what he intuitively feared might happen and he told Sarai to say that she was his sister not his wife truth be told she was actually both his sister and his wife his half-sister daughter of another of his own father's wives now Sarai who was new to Egypt was immediately spotted by Pharaoh's men and it was reported to him that she was exceptionally beautiful and so in Hollywood films about Abraham will see a lovely young woman being carted off to be part of Pharaoh's harem considering that it was likely around 10 years since Abraham left Mesopotamia he would have been Abraham would have been about 85 years old at the time they entered Egypt but Sarah was only 10 years younger that means she was 75 years old now Abraham prospers very greatly from his deception he wound up with a great number of animals and servants all this would have been a customary gift a bribes price paid by Pharaoh to Abraham for the hand of his sister in any case somehow Pharoah finds out Sarah is actually Abraham's wife and probably due to some type of pagan practice becomes quite fearful and thinking the taking another man's wife will cause some type of a supernatural disaster to be falling and he's right to be concerned God suddenly strikes Pharaoh in his household with all sorts of plagues not all of Egypt know just Pharaoh's personal household so Pharaoh returns to write to Abraham and orders Abraham and his family to leave Egypt all their possessions all their people get out one thing we shouldn't overlook right here there is a relationship of sorts that is created that will bring the people of God's Lion of promise into contact can conflict with Egypt now for centuries to come it's also kind of interesting that this particular Pharaoh of Egypt was wise enough to know better than to mess too much with Abraham because several hundred years later there would be another Pharaoh and he would display a less than wise attitude towards God's people and neither he nor Egypt was ever the same from that moment forward well let's move on to Genesis chapter 13 pick your Bibles back up let's read Genesis chapter 13 together you have a complete Jewish Bible as page 12 Avram went up from Egypt he is wife everything he had and load with him into the Negev Avram became wealthy with much cattle and silver and gold and as he went on his travels from the Negev he came to Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and I where he where he had first built the altar and there autumn called on the name about her nine a lote who was traveling with Avram also had flocks and herds and tents but the land couldn't support their living together because their possessions were too great for them to remain together moreover quarreling arose between Abrams and Lodz herdsmen the Canaanites and the perizzites were then living in the land and Avram said to lope please let's not have quarreling between me and your between my herdsmen years since we're kinsmen isn't the whole land there in front of you please separate yourself from me if you go to the left I'll go to the right if you go to the right I'll go to the left lo looked up and saw that the whole plain of the yard and the Jordan was well watered everywhere before I don't I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah just like the garden of Adonai like the land of Egypt in the direction of soir so lo chose all the plain of the Jordan for himself and Alok travelled eastward thus they separated themselves from each other Avram lived in the land of Canaan lope lived in the cities of the plain setting up his tent near Sodom now the men of Sodom were evil committing great sins against Adonai I don't know I said to Avram afterload had moved away from him look all around you from where you are to the north the South the east and the west all the land you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever and I will make your descendants as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth so that if a person can count the specks of dust on the earth then your descendants will be counted get up walk through the length and breadth of the land because I'll give it to you Avram moved his tent and came to live by the Oaks of Mamre which are in Hebron there he built an altar two out of nine so abraham and his clan leaves egypt goes back up to canaan and we're told in verse two now Avram was very rich that is he actually profited quite a bit from his trip to Egypt I mean I can just picture Pharaoh loading Abraham up with all the gold silver precious jewels life's anything he wants just get the heck out of here and take your God with you by now many of you are probably thinking gee this sounds an awful lot like Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt yes it does this is another of these biblical types patterns this event sets up a pattern for that event that was to come several years later the coming to Egypt of Jacob and the subsequent exodus from Egypt of Jacob's people who will then be called Israelites as any owner of herds and flocks would do Abraham took his family took his livestock back to the areas he had already discovered were good for water and for pasture he went back then to the area of Bethel and I well this newfound wealth that Abraham had received from his adventure to Egypt soo presented some unanticipated problems between loked lot his nephew and Abraham seems the gut had blessed them so much as he promised the me would do that their herds and their flocks of livestock it had increased to the point there was no longer sufficient pasture lands or water to seeing them all so fight started breaking out among the herdsmen Abraham makes a decision they must separate in Anna generous and godly act Abraham tells law he may choose what portion of the land he wants for himself Abraham will take what's left so lo chooses her rather takes his wealth he goes to the rich lands of the Jordan River Valley he settles though towards the far end the far southern end of the Dead Sea at Sodom and Gomorrha Abraham in the fields and the hill country of Canaan lote in the cities of the valley another division and separation is occurring Abraham is being further separated from unrighteousness that haunts the soul as her soon gonna see of lote the city of Sodom was a notoriously wicked place lot will knew that that's why he chose it it's undoubtedly why he was drawn to it and I have little doubt that the older and much wiser Abraham knew exactly what load was going to choose when he asked well if after Abraham separates himself from Logan you holy speaks to Abraham is if to reinforce the godliness of wisdom of that decision God now adds some details to the terms of the Covenant he's already made with Abraham by telling him in verse 15 that all the land that Abraham sees in every direction will belong to him and his descendants and it will be their land in Hebrew odd hollow olam odd olam odd alam is a common hebrew term that means forever perpetual never-ending those aren't my words those are God's words so new law of the universe has just been decreed as regards the land and as regards the number of Abraham's descendants in the form of a permanent not a conditional covenant God didn't say if you'll do this I'll do that there was no amount of sin no level of rebellion that Abraham or his descendants could commit that would cause God to rescind that covenant and over and over again the prophets remind us of that fact in holy scripture yet for the last several hundred years much of the church has said that Abraham's covenant no longer exists that God has instead disposed of his promise to Abraham and essentially turned it over to Gentile Christians as the new Israel it's nonsense most certainly you have a warned that the Hebrew people would be removed from their land for a time because of their lusting after other gods but never never were they ever going to be permanently removed from that land and that is made abundantly clear in both the Old Testament and the new of all the scriptures I have ever read concerning the return of Israel all Israel to their land the one that strikes my heart the deepest is Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37 and we're going to take that up in our next lesson that's all for today please rise you

Channel: Torah Class

Views: 16,841

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: Genesis, Book of Genesis, Bible, Old Testament, Bible study, Free online Bible study, Torah, Torah Class, Torah study, Tom Bradford, Hebrew Roots, Messianic, Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 13, covenant, Abrahamic Covenant, Abraham, Patriarchs, Haran, Ur, Terah, Nahor, Sarah, Sarai, Lot, Canaan, Canaanites, Land of Canaan, Egypt, Pharaoh, Sodom, Gomorrah

Id: LjrpcwcR6Ks

Length: 36min 10sec (2170 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2016