Abram and this world’s rulers (Genesis 12:10-20)

God partners with Abraham to save the world. The flaw in God’s plan is God’s determination to partner with us. Haven’t we already seen that the world is unsustainable when humans are unfaithful to God? (Genesis 6:5-13)

What if Abraham is unfaithful? Won’t our unfaithfulness destroy what God is building through us? Won’t our unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? (Romans 3:3)

God’s whole kingdom project seems unstable:

Genesis 12:10 (NIV)
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Not only were there people already living in the land (verse 6), but this land could not support them. It’s easy for us to idealize the Promised Land, but most of it is not great farmland. Particularly in the Negev (the south near the Dead Sea), it’s a dry and barren place.

So why did God choose this location for his people? The reason is geography rather than agriculture. Canaan is the bridge between three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. It’s at the heart of the nations as they spread out from Shem, Ham and Japheth. The Babel builders wanted to make a name for themselves so that people would not be spread over the face of the whole earth (11:4). God’s people exist to proclaim, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1, 9).

Abram and this world’s rulers (12:10-20)

This is not yet restored creation. Though God decreed fruitfulness for the earth (1:11-12), it fights back with thorns and thistles, dearth and death (3:17-19). And death doesn’t only come from natural causes:

Genesis 12:11-12 (NIV)
¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.”

It’s a violent world where brother kills brother (4:8), and people constantly plan evil against each other (6:5; 8:21). When God gave us the right to take a killer’s life (9:6), warriors saw death as a means to build kingdoms (10:8-12). Abram left Babel, but the rest of the world also has rulers who use the power of death to take whatever they want. From a Jewish perspective, lust and violence characterize the nations.

Abram decides to sell off Sarai to save himself:

Genesis 12:13 (NIV)
“Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

Abram gets a fat dowry for providing Pharaoh with a desirable woman.
The plan works: Abram gains wealth and honour:

Genesis 12:10-16 (NIV)
¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

Are you horrified? Abram just committed to partnership with God, and already he’s selling out to Pharaoh. It’s as if his commitment to God — and to Sarai — means nothing to him. Unfaithfulness to God dogs Israel throughout the OT, and it’s often compared to marital unfaithfulness. (e.g. Jeremiah 3; Ezekiel 16; Hosea).

So, is this the end of God’s restoration project to save the nations? Has unfaithfulness already destroyed the partnership with God? Wasn’t this the problem in the garden (Genesis 3)? Wasn’t this why violence corrupted God’s world (Genesis 6)? If Abram has sold out to Pharaoh, isn’t the partnership with God over?

God knows how to unravel Abram’s unholy and deceptive alliance with Pharoah:

Genesis 12:17-20 (NIV)
¹⁷ But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

The Lord reveals himself to Pharaoh. Pharaoh listens to the God Abram misrepresented. Pharaoh breaks this unholy alliance with Abram, commanding him to return to Canaan — exactly as God wants! Abram has been unfaithful to God, but God has remained faithful to Abram, rescuing him from his own deceit and disobedience.

But Abram has not dealt with his unfaithfulness. Later, he repeats the same deception, selling Sarah to a Philistine king, gaining both the dowry and a reparation payment (Genesis 21). Abram’s son Isaac pulls a similar stunt (Genesis 26). And Isaac’s son Jacob was a power-grabbing deceiver from birth (Genesis 25:26; 25:31; 27:19; 27:36).

The problem of unfaithfulness to their covenant with God dogged Israel through the Old Testament. Ultimately, the relationship between heaven and earth can only be restored through a descendant of Israel who is faithful: a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit (John 1:47), someone whose faithfulness reveals God-doing right for all people (Romans 3:21ff). In the end, God’s faithfulness undoes our unfaithfulness.

To kingdom come

Genesis 12 is just the beginning of God’s global rescue project, restoring the world to his reign through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who became Israel.

There are so many ups and downs along the way, as the city Abram was looking for (Jerusalem) misrepresented God’s reign and fell to Babylon (2 Kings 25). God then declared that Babylon would fall (Jeremiah 51), and Jerusalem would rise again, so the Lord rises upon you and the nations will come to your light (Isaiah 60:2-3).

When God finally sent his anointed leader to Jerusalem, they handed him over to the “Babylon” of their day (Rome) to be put to death. That’s when God overturned the power of death, raising him up with all authority to reign in heaven and on earth. That’s how God’s reign (the kingdom of God) was restored to the earth in Christ.

In the end, Babylon falls (Revelation 18). Heaven’s government finally comes to the earth as a New Jerusalem, where all the peoples of the earth live in the reign of heaven’s anointed ruler, the King of Kings (Revelation 21).

The partnership between God and humanity that launched in Abraham is finally fulfilled in the descendant of Abraham who restores the whole human family to God:

Galatians 3:7-9, 14 (NIV)
⁷ Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. ⁸ Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” ⁹ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. …
¹⁴ He [Christ] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Related posts

• What if we’re unfaithful? (Gen. 12:10-20)
• Abraham’s life: a summary (Gen. 12–25)
• Abraham and the obstacles to God’s kingdom (podcast)