Hello, welcome to Bible Wisdom Today. My name is Stan Watkins.

We often picture Abraham as a towering titan of faith, flawlessly obeying God’s call from the very beginning. Wasn’t he? The biblical reality is far more shocking. Abraham began as a polytheist from a pagan family, living in a culture of moon worship, married to a barren wife, and possessing a faith that would soon falter under pressure. Humanly speaking, he was not a likely candidate to become the father of God’s covenant people. Yet that is precisely the point.

In this episode, we begin one of the most important stories in all the Bible. Genesis slows its pace and focuses on one man through whom God intends to bring blessing to the entire world. We will examine Abraham’s surprising background, God’s astonishing promises, his baby steps of faith, and his equally striking failures. Along the way, we will discover a foundational truth that echoes throughout Scripture: God had a plan for Abram—a plan that did not depend on Abram’s worthiness, but solely on God’s grace.

Have you ever felt like your own unworthiness and failures disqualify you from God’s calling? Then this episode offers both insight and hope.

Abram’s background

Almost every interpreter of Genesis recognizes a major shift in style beginning with chapter 11, verse 27. Up to this point, the author of Genesis has covered long millennia of history in only a few short strokes. Just before this story, he spent only 17 verses breezing through 10 generations of the family line from Shem to Abram, ending with “After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Now, like the Starship Enterprise dropping out of warp drive, he spends 13-plus chapters exploring the details of Abraham’s life. Let’s look at how Genesis begins his story, reading chapter 11, verses 27-32.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive. 
 
 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.
 Genesis 11:27-32

Before we go very far into the story of the father of faith, let me make a brief comment about Abraham’s name. We generally know him by the name, “Abraham,” but he is named Abram at the beginning of our story. In chapter 17, God changes his name from Abram, which means “exalted father” to “Abraham,” which means “father of many. He also changes his wife’s name from Sarai to Sarah, both of which mean princess. This is a convenient way to understand his life story. The first half is the story of Abram and Sarai and the second half is the story of Abraham and Sarah, with the pivotal name change in the middle. I will have more to say about the overall arc of Abram’s story later. For now, I just want to let you know that I intend to use the names Abram and Sarai, when discussing the main characters during the first part of the story and Abraham and Sarah once we reach the second half.

The passage of scripture we just read gives many details about Abram’s background, beginning with his family. Terah, Abram’s father, had three named sons, just like Adam and Noah. This is the way the author of Genesis indicates that his life marks a major turning point in biblical history. The end of the genealogy from Shem which ended in verse 26 told us that Terah became a father at age 70. Abram is named first, not because he was oldest, but because he was the most important. By comparing Terah’s age when he had his first son, with his age when he died, and Abram’s age when he left Harran, we can learn that Abram was actually the youngest of the three. Abram married Sarai, whom we will find out later was his half-sister, the daughter of Terah but by a different mother than Abram. Abram’s brother, Haran, died young. His other brother, Nahor, married Haran’s daughter, his own niece. Nahor also left behind a son, Lot, who is mentioned because he will play a major role later in the story.

The author mentions right at the beginning of the story that Sarai was barren. This adds a peculiar bitterness as Abram and Sarai repeatedly are promised that they will have children, even a nation rise from them. The fulfillment of that promise comes only after a long delay.

The author of Genesis also tells us about Abram’s religious background, not in clear words, but through significant clues. First are the geographic clues. Both Ur, the city in southern Mesopotamia where the family lived before they began their migration, and Harran, where they settled until Terah’s death, were prominent worship sites in the cult of the Moon god, Sin. Ur of the Chaldeans was polytheistic, and Terah’s family was no different. Israel’s later leader, Joshua, explicitly says so (Joshua 24:2). Ur was dominated by a massive, three-staged ziggurat, like we described in our previous episode. Harran was an ancient city in northeastern Mesopotamia, near the modern border between southeastern Turkey and Syria. It was the second epicenter of moon worship, where the family settled for a time.

Another important clue to the pagan background of Abram’s family is found in their family names. Several of them suggest Lunar worship. The name of the patriarch, Terah, is linguistically related to Yerah, the Hebrew word for moon. The name of Abram’s wife, Sarai, was another form of the name for the wife of the moon god and Milkah, Abram’s niece, was named for the daughter of the moon god. In a later generation, Abram’s grandson, Jacob, would marry two daughters from Harran whose father was Laban, whose name means “white.” Again, this was a reference to the moon. That God called Abram out of this family steeped in paganism is an example of God’s sovereign choice.

Terah, Abram’s father, led a family migration from Ur to Harran. We are not told why. About this time, the city of Ur was sacked by the Elamites and Amorites, destroying its infrastructure and trade routes. Simultaneously, the Euphrates River also naturally shifted its course away from the city, causing the agricultural system to fail. Terah may have fled a dying, war-torn city seeking a better life along the trade routes of the fertile crescent. We also know that the family had experienced heavy family tragedy in the death of Haran, Terah’s son and Lot’s father. In ancient tribal cultures, the unexpected young death of a child in their birthplace was considered an ill omen of misfortune. Being a pagan worshipper, Terah may have been trying to protect his family. 

When they reached Harran, a sister city of Ur, their hometown, with a similar culture and the same religion, Terah decided to make his home there. One of the meanings of Harran is “crossroad.” As chapter 11 ends, this family is at a spiritual crossroads. They have been plucked out of polytheistic mysticism, carrying the memory of a dead brother and grieving the recent loss of their patriarch, their future tenuously tied to a barren womb. The author intentionally sets the stage so that, if God does not act, this story will soon die. This level of desperation is where God does His best work. God steps into the tent of this grieving, barren family and begins his work of salvation which will ultimately save the world.

God’s call to Abram

Let me read Genesis 12:1-3

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 
 
 “I will make you into a great nation, 
 and I will bless you;  
 I will make your name great,
 and you will be a blessing.  
 I will bless those who bless you,
 and whoever curses you I will curse;  
 and all peoples on earth
 will be blessed through you. ”
 Genesis 12:1-3

This paragraph begins with the important phrase, “The LORD had said to Abram.” Even though it is placed here after the family’s migration to Harran, it is apparent that God had initially called Abram while they still lived in Ur. In Acts 7, Stephen explicitly says that Abram received his call to leave his country and people while still in Mesopotamia before he lived in Harran. This call of God looks forward, explaining Abraham’s whole career of faith. God’s promises are gradually fulfilled throughout the rest of Genesis and the remaining books of Moses. When deliberately placed into the middle of the story, God’s call also looks backward, offering insight into the reason for Terah’s migration. Apparently, Abram convinced his father to join him on his journey, even though his father never became a true follower of the one creator god.

God’s call of Abram is couched in three phrases that become increasingly costly. First, God tells Abram, “Go from your country.” In Abram’s day, Ur was considered to be one of the most civilized and cultured cities of the world. Archaeologists tell us that a gravity system of running water provided homes with water, indoor plumbing, and even a type of air conditioning. It was no small thing for the Lord to call Abram’s family to pack up everything and become nomads living in tents.[1]

Secondly, God calls Abram to leave his people, his extended social safety net. Thirdly, He calls him to leave his father’s household, which provided his immediate inheritance, his legal identity, and religious security. Lastly, God called Abram to move before he even knew where he was going. God would show him later. 

God called Abram to trade the luxury of Mesopotamia for a nomadic tent and undefined destination. God’s command is heavily outweighed by his promises which immediately follow. God makes four great promises to Abram, which echo the hope of many eastern monarchs.

1.      First, He would make Abram into a great nation, a political unit with a common land, language, and government. This continues the application of God’s original great blessing of mankind, “Be fruitful and increase in number.”

2.      Second, God will make Abram’s name great. Abram’s legacy will be a true gift of God, unlike the empty efforts of those Babylonian tower buildings who grasped for a name by their own efforts. Abram’s name will become proverbial, “May you be blessed like Abram.”

3.      Third, God promises to bless those who bless Abram and curse those who curse him. This is a literary formulation of the basic “eye for an eye” principle—the punishment should fit the crime. It also shows that retribution and justice are not left to fate. God is personally concerned for Abram’s welfare and will actively intervene on his behalf.

4.      Fourth, God promises that Abram will be a blessing. The blessing of God builds progressively until we reach the triumphant, universal conclusion, “all people on earth will be blessed through you.” This blessing of God provides a transition from the judgment of the first 11 chapters to the blessing of chapters 12 and following.

Abram’s faith

In Genesis 12, verse 1, God called to Abram, “Go.” In verse 4 we read simply, “So Abram went.” His faithful obedience is an example to his descendants and foreshadows the many footsteps of obedience we will follow in the stories of the patriarchs. Later generations, including our own, continue to walk those well-worn footprints of faith.

This portion of the narrative reads like an expanded itinerary. Genesis 12:4-9:

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 
 
 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land. ” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 
 
 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 
 
 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
 Genesis 12:4-9

The author of Genesis emphasizes Abram’s obedience with the phrase, “As the LORD had told him.” Abram continued his migration from Harran at age 75, putting his obedience to God above personal comfort or loyalty to family. He took with him his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his herds and servants. Abram treats Lot like an adopted son and presumptive heir. 

The place names in this paragraph are listed in order from north to south: Shechem, Bethel, the Negev. This would be the ordinary direction of travel from Harran. The reference to “the site of the great tree of Moreh” at Shechem suggests that it was a sacred tree. “Moreh” means “teacher,” suggesting that it was a place for divine oracles. The Canaanites occupied the land at that time, which explains why Abram could not take immediate possession. At Shechem, “The LORD appeared to Abram.” This is the first recorded appearance of God to Abram and prefigures his later appearances at Sinai and in the tabernacle. The way he appeared is not explained. This is also where God first identifies the land of promise, “To your offspring I will give this land.” The promise of descendants and the promise of land are central to Genesis. Abram has reached his destination. This would have been particularly meaningful to the children of Israel poised on the border with Moses, ready to enter and possess the land. When Abram received God’s renewed promise at Shechem, he built an altar and presumably offered sacrifice, just like his forefather, Noah. 

Abram went on to a location in central Canaan near Bethel and pitched his tent. Bethel was not the name Abram would have used. He would have called it Luz, but the name was changed by his grandson, Jacob, after the LORD appeared to him in a vision of a stairway to heaven. Presumably Abram pitched his tent everywhere he went, so mentioning it here must mean that Abram settled here for a longer time. Here he again built an altar and called on the name of the LORD. This implies more than a simple prayer, but regular formal worship. Abram must have stayed at Bethel for quite a while. Later, he would return to this site and call on the name of the LORD again.

Throughout his travels Abram claimed the land through worship before he ever owned any of it. Finally, Abram continued toward the Negev. “Negev” literally means “dry land” and roughly marked the southern border of Canaan. It received too little rainfall for normal agriculture. Abram had now traveled throughout Canaan from north to south. He has seen the promised land; he has lived in it. More importantly, he has worshiped in it.

The expression “continued toward the Negev” literally means he “went on traveling.” This expresses the unsettled nature of Abraham’s life in the land of promise. The root of the word “travel” is commonly seen in the descriptions of Israel’s later wilderness wanderings. They must have taken great significance when they heard this word appear here in Abram’s story, as his journey took him to the location nearest their later travels.

Abram’ fear

So far, Abram’s walk of faith has been exemplary. God said, “Go.” Abram went. Can Abram keep his faithfulness going? Let’s listen to Genesis 12:10-20…

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. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 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!” Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
Genesis 12:10-20

Gordon Wenham provides a simple outline for this uncalled-for digression to Egypt. First, we read of Abram’s entry into Egypt, followed by Abram’s speech to Sarai. In the middle of the story, we see the fulfillment of Abram’s fears as his wife is taken into Pharaoh’s harem. Following this, the story unspools in reverse order, with Pharaoh’s speech to Abram and their exit from Egypt.

Famine compelled all the patriarchs to leave Canaan at various times. Not only Abram, but Isaac also retreats to Philistia in chapter 26 and Jacob moves his family to Egypt again in chapter 47. Fluctuating rainfall in the land of Canaan made it susceptible to famine until modern irrigation methods. Egypt was the normal refuge, since the Nile annually provided water for a steady food supply. God did not tell Abram to go to Egypt. Abram had walked throughout the land, building altars and worshipping. But now, when famine hits, his first response is not prayer, not an altar. He relies entirely on his own survival instincts. The expression “Abram went down to Egypt” is not a statement of moral regression, but simply a fact of geography. Canaan is hilly; Egypt is flat and low. The Bible commonly speaks of going down to Egypt of going up from Egypt. 

Genesis says that Abram went to Egypt to live there. He intended to be an immigrant, not just a temporary resident. This was somewhat alien to Abram’s nomadic lifestyle. In case the reader becomes disconcerted that Abram is carelessly abandoning God’s land of promise, the author mentions the famine again, with the added description that it was severe. He wants us to know that Abram had no other natural option.

Abram’s speech to Sarai

When they entered Egypt, Abram told Sarai his plan. He knew she was very beautiful and likely to attract attention from the princes of Egypt. Since he had no family in Egypt for protection, He feared that the Egyptians would kill him so that they could have his wife. He told her to say that she was his sister. This was partly true, since Sarai was Abram’s half-sister. The author does not record any comments by Sarai regarding this plan, implying that she consented. 

Why did Abram think that his 65-year-old wife would be ravishingly attractive? In fact, the Egyptians heartily concurred with his judgement. We must understand that ideas of feminine beauty differ between ours and traditional societies. For them, rounded matronly figures, rather than slim youthful ones, often represented the ideal of womanhood. Sarai might well have been very beautiful at 65 by that standard. Additionally, royal marriages were political and economic. Sarai was a high-ranking foreign noblewoman. This would be an attractive way to establish an alliance and possibly absorb another wealthy clan’s assets.

Did Abram really plan to allow Sarai to be taken by another man into an adulterous relationship? Probably not. He may have hoped to fend off any suitors by promises of marriage without actually giving his “sister” away. This seems to have been a family strategy. This is exactly what Laban tried to do later with his sister Rebekah, delaying her departure to meet her husband Isaac as long as he could. Later still Laban kept Jacob in service for 14 years for the hand of his two daughters in marriage. In the next generation, Jacob’s sons treated their sister Dinah’s suitor and his countrymen deceitfully, ultimately murdering all the males of Shechem and plundering the city.

Abram’s fears fulfilled

Abram was right to be afraid that Sarai’s beauty would draw attention, but he had no idea of the extent of the danger. Not only was Sarai noticed, but her beauty was reported to the Pharaoh. His advances could not be so easily put off, and she was taken into his palace. The word “Pharaoh” initially meant “great house,” meaning the royal palace. From about 1500 BC, however, it came to denote the Egyptian ruler himself. Its use here in that sense reflects its usage in the time of the author, not the time of Abram.

We first read of God’s promise to make Abram into a great nation right after we are told that his wife was barren. Now Abram places that womb of promise into Pharaoh’s harem! His human fear and his instinct for self-preservation had led him aside from cherishing God’s promise.

Sarai “was taken.” This denotes her formal taking as a wife, not necessarily marital intercourse. However, the term can loosely describe all aspects of marriage, so it is unclear whether she simply becomes a member of the king’s harem or whether she actually slept with Pharaoh. The story teller refrains from answering that question directly. The fact that the LORD sent serious diseases on Pharaoh, though, probably implies that he actually committed adultery.

Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake. It was common to present large gifts, bride money, to the brides’ family at betrothal. That is probably what is in view here, although it could simply be kingly goodwill toward Sarai’s “brother.”

There are several elements in common between this story and the story of the Garden of Eden. Both Sarai and the trees of the garden are described as beautiful or pleasant in appearance. Both stories also involve someone seeing and then taking the desirable person or fruit. Both Adam and Eve and Abram and Sarai were expelled from their home.

Pharaoh's speech to Abram

At the midpoint of this disappointing story, God intervenes, inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household. In response, Pharaoh summoned Abram. This is a serious word reflecting serious circumstances. Pharaoh was not calling Abram over for a friendly chat. “What have you done?” he asked, repeating God’s question to Eve. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister?’” He shows his royal anger by his rapid-fire questions and brusque expulsion. 

“Now,” Pharaoh announces, “Here is your wife. Take her and go!” In Hebrew, Pharaoh’s order was barked out in just four Hebrew words: “Here…wife…take…go!” His abruptness proclaims his anger. He was actually remarkably lenient, since Abram had tricked him into adultery! The ancient world considered this a grievous sin deserving of death. Here again we see God protecting Abram. Meanwhile, Abram does not respond to Pharaoh’s rebuke. He lets Pharaoh have the last word, acknowledging his guilt.

This second episode of Abram’s story surprises us by his unheroic behavior. It was the LORD who saved Sarai from the situation in which her husband’s cunningness had landed her. As a result of his visit to Egypt, Abram gained sheep and cattle, donkeys, camels, and servants, but not children. To acquire wealth and offspring was a sign of God’s blessing, but acquiring one without the other was not. The writer is not endorsing Abram’s conduct or suggesting that others imitate him. 

Notice the shock in this story. God promised to curse anyone who treated Abram with contempt, but it is Abram’s deceit that brings disease on Pharaoh’s household. The one chosen to be a blessing to all nations instead brings plagues on Egypt. This does not end Abram’s story, however. God still has a plan for Abram that does not depend on Abram’s worthiness, but solely on God’s grace. In his grace, God protects the line of promise, not because Abram is a faithful follower—or even a faithful husband—but because God is an unwaveringly faithful covenant-keeper.

Final Comments

When we read the story of Abram, we should consider what this story would have meant to the original readers, whom we imagine were standing expectantly with Moses on the border of the promised land. With this story, the Biblical author wished to foreshadow the history of Israel. This tale of their patriarch was a prophetic blueprint for the rest of Genesis and Exodus. Long before the children of Israel ever entered Egypt, their forefather had lived out their history. Abram had been driven to Egypt by famine, as later the children of Jacob also were. He feared that he would be killed but his wife spared. The children of Israel experienced a similar approach, when Pharaoh determined to kill the male babies but kept the girls alive. Abram was enriched by his stay in Egypt; Israel was enriched upon leaving Egypt. In both stories God intervened by plagues and Pharaoh ordered their expulsion. There was one important contrast, however. The earlier Pharaoh was highly respectful of Abram and his God; in the Exodus, Pharaoh was unchangeably opposed to God’s plan despite intense plagues.

Today, we saw Abram’s baby faith. Like all people of faith after him, he was not a perfect follower, but his faith grew through his walk with God. Abram’s growth in faith gives us hope when our own faith fails. In our next episode, Abram and lot separate their households. Soon after Lot chooses the best land for himself, he and his family are taken prisoners of war. Abram unhesitatingly risks his life to rescue his nephew, even though he didn’t deserve Abram’s grace.

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[1] Oord, W. H. (1970, January 1). Genesis 11:27–32 - Life of Abraham. Christian Library. https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/genesis-1127%E2%80%9332-life-abraham