Decoding Genesis 12:7-13: A Spiritual Journey

GEN 12

7 Then 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.

Rashi

So he built there an altar—In thanksgiving for the good tidings that he would have children, and for the good tidings that they would possess the land of Israel.

This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. ROM 9:8

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

This means that it is not the children of the flesh—This is an explanation of the foregoing verse, and shows, that by “children of” Abraham are meant, the natural children of Abraham, who are born after the flesh, or descend from him by carnal generation.

Who are the children of God—That is, not all of them, nor any of them, on account of their being children of the flesh, or Abraham’s natural offspring; for adoption does not come this way; men do not commence children of God by their fleshly descent; they are not “born of blood,” but of God, who are the sons of God.

But the children of the promise are counted as offspring—“Children of the covenant,” is a common phrase with the Jews; who reckoned themselves as such, because they were the children of Abraham: thus in their prayers they say to God,

“we are your people, ‘the children of your covenant,’ the children of Abraham your friend.”

And so they were the children of the covenant, or promise, which God made with Abraham and his natural offspring, respecting the land of Canaan, and their enjoyment of temporal good things in it; but they were not all of them the children of the promise, which God made to Abraham and his spiritual offspring, whether Jews or Gentiles, respecting spiritual and eternal things; to whom alone the promises of God, being their God in a spiritual sense, of spiritual and eternal salvation by Christ, and of the grace of the Spirit of God, and of eternal life belong; and who are the offspring which were promised to Abraham by God, saying, “you shall be the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:4): for which reasons, because these spiritual promises belong to them, and because they themselves were promised to Abraham, as his children, therefore they are called “children of the promise”: or rather, because as Isaac was a child of promise, being born after the Spirit, by virtue of the promise of God, through his divine power and goodness, when there were no ground or foundation in nature, for Abraham and Sarah to hope for a son; so these are named “children of promise” (Gal 4:28), because they are born again, not through the power of nature, and strength of their own free will; they are not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, according to the will of God and his abundant mercy, by the word of truth, through his power, Spirit, and grace; and by faith receive the promises made to them; and are counted and reckoned as “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29), whether they are Jews, or whether they are Gentiles: and since now the promises of God are all made good to these persons, the word of God is not without effect, or is not made void, by the casting off the children of the flesh, or the carnal children of Abraham, who were not children of the promise in the sense now given.

8 From 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.

Rashi

From there he moved—His tent.

East of Bethel—Consequently Bethel lay to his west, and that is what it states Bethel in the west.

His tent—First he pitched a tent for his wife and afterwards one for himself (Bereshit Rabbah 39:15).

And there he built an altar—He perceived by the gift of prophecy that his descendants would once stumble there through Achan’s transgression (see Jos 7): therefore he prayed there for them (Bereshit Rabbah 39:15).

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. GEN 4:26

Rashi

At that time people began—An expression of profaneness: to name people and idols with the name of the Holy One, blessed be he—to make them the objects of idolatrous worship and to call them deities (Bereshit Rabbah 23:7).

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. ACT 2:21

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Bereshit Rabbah 39:16

He built an altar to the Lord there—Rabbi Elazar said: He built three altars; one for the good tidings of being granted the land of Israel, one for its acquisition, and one so his descendants would not fall in battle. That is what is written concerning the battle of Ai: Joshua tore his garments, fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads (Jos 7:6). Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua said: They began evoking the merit of Abraham our forefather, as it is stated: I am dust and ashes (Gen 18:27). Did Abraham not build an altar in Ai specifically so that his descendants should not fall in battle at Ai?

And proclaimed [vayikra] the name of the Lord—This teaches that he caused all the people to proclaim the name of the Lord.

Vayikra—He began converting proselytes to bring them under the wings of the divine presence.

Abram journeyed, steadily journeying to the Negev—He directed his attention and charted his path toward the site of the temple.

Rashi

Still going—Lit. going and going. He journeyed in intervals, staying here a month or more, going on and pitching his tent in another place. Yet all his journeys were toward the Negeb to proceed to the south of the land of Israel which is the direction where Jerusalem is—which is in the territory of Judah who had their portion in the south of the land of Israel—to Mount Moriah which is his (Judah’s) possession (cf. Bereishit Rabbah 39:16).

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

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.

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 26:4

The fourth trial (was the famine). From the day when the heavens and the earth were created, the Holy One, blessed be he, had not brought into the world a famine but only in the days of Abraham, and not in any of the lands but only in the land of Canaan, in order to try him and to bring him down into Egypt, as it is said, “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt” (Gen 12:10).

Rashi

A famine in the land—In that land only to test him whether he would take exception to God’s commands, who ordered him to go to the land of Canaan and now forced him to leave it (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 26).

1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.

3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. GEN 26:1-3

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

Sojourn in this land—In Gerar, whither he had gone, Gen 26:1, and where we find he settled, Gen 26:6, though the land of Canaan in general might be here intended. That there were serious and important reasons why Isaac should not go to Egypt, we may be fully assured, though they be not assigned here; it is probable that even Isaac himself was not informed why he should not go down to Egypt. I have already supposed that God saw trials in his way which he might not have been able to bear. While a man acknowledges God in all his ways, he will direct all his steps, though he may not choose to give him the reasons of the workings of his providence. Abraham might go safely to Egypt, Isaac might not; in firmness and decision of character there was a wide difference between the two men.

. . . strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. ACT 14:22

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,

Rashi

I know—The Midrash Aggadah states that until now he had not perceived her beauty owing to the extreme modesty of both of them; now, however, through this event, he became cognisant of it (Midrash Tanchuma Lech Lecha 5). Another explanation: Usually, because of the exertion of travelling a person becomes unattractive, but she had retained her beauty (Bereshit Rabbah 40:4). The real sense of the text is: The time has come when I am anxious because of your beauty. I have long known that you are of fair appearance, but now we are travelling among black and ugly people, the brothers of the Cushites, who have never been accustomed to see a beautiful woman. A similar example is Gen 19:2, “My lords, please turn.”

When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he feared to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah," because she was attractive in appearance. GEN 26:7

Rashi

About his wife means to his wife, about his wife, just as (20:13) “Say of me, ‘He is my brother.’ ”

12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. MAT 10:28

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

Do not fear those who kill the body—Των αποκτεινοντων. Those who slay with acts of cruelty, alluding probably to the cruelties which persecutors should exercise on his followers in their martyrdom. But cannot kill the soul. Hence we find that the body and the soul are distinct principles, for the body may be slain and the soul escape; and, secondly, that the soul is immaterial, for the murderers of the body are not able, μη δυναμενων, have it not in their power, to injure it.

Fear him—It is, not hell-fire we are to fear, but it is God; without the stroke of whose justice hell itself would be no punishment, and whose frown would render heaven itself insupportable. What strange blindness is it to expose our souls to endless ruin, which should enjoy God eternally; and to save and pamper the body, by which we enjoy nothing but the creatures, and them only for a moment!

Study Guide for Matthew 10, by David Guzik

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell—God is the one to fear, not the men who persecute the followers of Jesus. The worst they can do is to destroy the body, but being a coward before God can have eternal consequences.

“Hence we find that the body and the soul are distinct principles, for the body may be slain and the soul escape; and, secondly, that the soul is immaterial, for the murderers of the body are not able, have it not in their power, to injure it” (Clarke).

“There is no cure for the fear of man like the fear of God” (Spurgeon).

13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

Rashi

That it may go well with me because of you—They may give me presents.

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. JOH 8:44