12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, {a} Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto {b} a land that I will shew thee:(a) From the flood to this time were four hundred and twenty-three years.(b) In appointing him no certain place, he proves so much more his faith and obedience. read more
12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be {c} a blessing:(c) The world shall recover by your seed, which is Christ, the blessing which they lost in Adam. read more
12:5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the {d} 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.(d) Meaning servants as well as cattle. read more
THE CALL OF ABRAM The Lord had before told Abram to leave his country, his kindred and his father's house, and go to a land He would show him. This call took place while he was still in Ur of the Chaldees (Acts 7:2-4). God declared that He would make of Abram a great nation, that he would be a blessing (v.2). More than this, God would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed him. Further still, in Abram all the families of the earth would be blessed (v.3). This is above all a... read more
ABRAM ’S CALL AND HIS RESPONSE How does the King James Version indicate an earlier date for the call of Abram than that which chapter 12 narrates? How is this corroborated by Acts 7:2 ? Stephen, speaking of this call, indicates that God “was seen to Abraham,” as if some visible manifestation was vouchsafed to him at the beginning. In what form this may have been we do not know, but sufficiently clear to have shown the patriarch the distinction between gods of wood and stone and the only... read more
The Same-varied Gen 12:1 God's claim upon the individual life is here asserted. God detaches men from early associations, from objects of special care and love, and makes them strangers in the earth. The family idea is sacred, but the Divine will is, so to speak, more sacred still; when the God of the families of the earth calls men from their kindred and their father's house, all tributary laws must be swallowed up by the great stream of the Divine Fatherhood. These calls, so shattering in... read more
CONTENTS The History of Abram, just glanced at in the close of the preceding Chapter, the Ho1y Ghost enters upon in this Chapter more particularly. The account of God's first call of Abram; his gracious manifestations unto him; the removal of the Patriarch in consequence thereof, from his native country, to go into Canaan; his going down into Egypt, with the events which followed. These form the subject of the present Chapter Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy... read more
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: How eminently was this fulfilled in Abram's history. First, according to nature in the flesh, in the children of Ishmael. See Gen_16:10; Gen_17:20 . Secondly, according to promise. Here Abram. was greater still in the issue of Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs. Numbers 22:10 . And Thirdly, and above all, in his spiritual seed, in which all the followers of his faith and... read more
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Reader! pause over this precious verse; and when you have duly meditated upon it, ask your own heart, whether it is not fully verified? Act 4:12 ; 2 Corinthians 1:20 .--Note, when God eminently blesses any one, it is that he may be a blessing unto others. read more
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Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Genesis 12:1-20
CHAPTER 12 The First Events in Abram’s Life 1. The call and the promise (Genesis 12:1-3 ) 2. Abram’s obedience (Genesis 12:4-6 ) 3. The second communication of Jehovah (Genesis 12:7-9 ) 4. Abram in Egypt and first denial of Sarai (Genesis 12:10-20 ) We come now to a new beginning, the Abrahamic covenant. It marks the beginning of that wonderful race, the seed of Abraham, the people of Israel. Abraham’s name is mentioned 74 times in the New Testament. How closely his history is... read more