God's Covenant With Abraham  
– Genesis Twelve –

          His name at first was Abram. Later God changed his name to Abraham. God gave his descendants a land and protected them until the Messiah could be born. God's plan was to send a Savior to the world. God called Abram (Genesis 12:1-3) and by faith Abram journeyed to Canaan. God promised that He would make a great nation from him. This would be the people from whom the Messiah would come. Abram was obedient to God. He left Haran taking his wife Sarai and his nephew, Lot with him. Abraham had many possessions. When they arrived in Canaan at the oak of Moreh the Canaanites lived in the Land. Abram built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him. He did this often. Wherever he went in Canaan he built an altar to the Lord and worshipped in the Lord’s name. When a famine struck in the land he took his family to Egypt. Abram asked Sarah to lie about being his wife because he feared someone would kill him for her. She was truthfully his half-sister, but she was his wife! Pharaoh took her to his house. Thing went well with Abraham but not with Pharaoh and his household. When Pharaoh knew that Sarah was Abraham's wife he "commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had."

          God's call to Abraham -- Genesis 12:1-5: Abraham grew up with a father who worshipped idols and in a city that was wicked. God called him to leave that behind. The Bible says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Hebrews 11:8) Abraham understood that it was the one, true and living God who was speaking to Him. He did not confuse the voice of God with the voice of some idol. The reason for this is, "They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not." (Psalms 115:5) Abraham's call was a call to service for God and to man. He was told to leave his family and to leave his home land. He was to go to the land that God would show him. Abraham trusted God and did as He required. God called Abraham saying, "I will make thee a great nation." God took him out of a nation; but He said, "I will make of thee a great nation." God promised to make Abraham's name great. He became a blessing to the world. God promised to be with Abraham saying, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee." Truly, in Christ, all families of the earth have been blessed through Abraham. The greatest value of God's promise has been that through the Lord Jesus, salvation is offered to everyone. (Mark 16:15-16) 

          The journeys of Abraham -- Genesis 12:6-9: Abraham left Ur with his father, his wife and his nephew. His father died at Haran. As he journeyed Abraham, "Took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." (Genesis 12:5) Taking Lot on the journey may have been an act of disobedience. It, for sure, brought many problems to the life of Abraham. God had said that Abram was to leave his family. When Abraham reached Canaan he came unto the plain of Moreh or the tree of Moreh. He camped about thirty miles north of Jerusalem. God identified this as the land He had promised Abram. "And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD." (Genesis 12:7-8)

          A lie that was to be told in Egypt -- Genesis 12:10-13: There was a famine in the land so Abraham went to Egypt for a while. Abraham had enough faith to travel at God's command. However, in Egypt his faith weakened and he forgot that God could deliver him. Sarah was a beautiful woman and Abraham was afraid the Egyptians would kill him to take her for themselves. In those days families had to approve weddings so Abraham told Sarah to say she was his sister. Abraham told a half truth. "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." (Genesis 20:12) Abraham's sin was that he was not trusting God. God had promised to bless him. Sins always have companions. A lack of trust led to lies and even misery for the innocent people. God had promised, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."

          Caught in the lie -- Genesis 12:14-20: Just as Abraham had anticipated the Egyptians saw Sarah's beauty. They told Pharaoh and she was taken to his house. It is of interest to observe that at this time Sarah was about sixty five years old. She lived to be 127 years old. "And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah." (Genesis 23:1) Abraham prospered as a result of this matter. Pharaoh "entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels." (Genesis 12:16) Pharaoh did not prosper so well. "And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife." (Genesis 12:17) Abraham was then caught in his lie. Pharaoh knew Sarah was Abraham's wife. He confronted Abraham about the matter and then sent Sarah back to him and commanded them to leave with all that they possessed. Let us follow the faith of Abraham and not the failures of Abraham.