The Age of the Patriarchs
The age of the patriarchs began as a preparation for God to enter into successive covenants with humanity, culminating in the covenant He establishes with man in Christ Jesus through His precious blood upon the Cross. This work begins with the calling of Abraham, the father of the fathers. Through him all humanity, circumcised and uncircumcised alike, received the promise of blessing. By faith he was justified while still uncircumcised (Romans 4); he received circumcision as a seal of that faith. Thus Abraham possessed a bodily fatherhood toward the circumcised and a spiritual fatherhood toward everyone who walks in his faith.
The Lord Christ declared that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced (John 8:56). Everyone who receives Christ and understands His saving work therefore enjoys sonship to Abraham and shares the rejoicing of his heart.
God’s Dealings with Abraham: Genesis 12–25
Before following the account in Genesis 12–25 chapter by chapter, we should set out the principal stages of God’s dealings with our father Abraham.
First: His Life before Reaching Canaan
1. He lived with his father Terah and his brothers in Ur of the Chaldees. There he married Sarai, his sister through his father but not his mother (Genesis 20:12). He departed with his wife and his nephew Lot, under the leadership of his father Terah, toward Canaan. They reached Haran and settled there (Genesis 11:31), and Terah died there. Whatever the immediate motive for this migration, Stephen declared that it rested upon God’s call to Abraham in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran (Acts 7:2).
2. At seventy-five Abraham was called to depart for Canaan (Genesis 12:1). He may have chosen the route through Damascus, for Eliezer of Damascus, the steward of his household, came from there (Genesis 15:2). The route between Mesopotamia and Canaan through Damascus was an established road. He appears not to have lingered much along the way.
Second: His Unsettled Life in Canaan
He first stayed at Shechem (Genesis 12:6), then went to Bethel (Genesis 12:8), and traveled south toward the Negeb. When famine came, he went down into Egypt and, fearing Pharaoh, said that Sarai was his sister (Genesis 12:10-20). He returned to the south country of Palestine (Genesis 13:1), separated from Lot, and went to the oaks of Mamre at Hebron (Genesis 13:12-18).
Third: His Residence at the Oaks of Mamre
Abraham stayed at the oaks of Mamre for between fifteen and twenty-five years. He entered into an alliance with the Amorite rulers (Genesis 14:13) and defeated Chedorlaomer to rescue Lot and his possessions (Genesis 14:1-16). On his return, Melchizedek king of Salem blessed him (Genesis 14:17-24).
There the Lord appeared to him and confirmed the promise that he would inherit the land (Genesis 15:7). Hagar bore Ishmael (Genesis 16). When Abraham was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him, entered into the covenant of circumcision, and assured him that Isaac would be born of Sarah (Genesis 17). Abraham also received God and His two angels as guests, and Isaac’s birth was again announced (Genesis 18). There too he spoke with God concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18).
Fourth: His Residence in the South Country
He moved from the oaks of Mamre into the south country. There Abimelech king of Gerar sent to take Sarah as his wife, but the Lord prevented him. God tested Abraham, asking him to offer his son Isaac upon Mount Moriah. After Abraham had been proved, he returned with Isaac, and they went to Beersheba (Genesis 22:1-19).
Fifth: At Hebron
Abraham returned to Hebron. Sarah died there and was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23).
Sixth: Perhaps in the South Country
After Sarah’s death, when Abraham was about 140 years old (Genesis 24:67; Genesis 25:20), he sent to Mesopotamia to obtain a wife for his son Isaac (Genesis 24). Abraham took Keturah as a wife. He died at the age of 175 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 25:1-9).
The Call of Abram
Genesis 12:1
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Even after the Flood, humanity gathered against God, treating Him as an adversary rather than a loving friend. Yet in His love God did not turn His back upon it. He searched among humanity until He found one man worthy to receive the call to become the father of God’s people, through whose seed the nations would be blessed. This father, Abram, was called to leave his country, his people, and his father’s house, that through him humanity might make a new beginning in its relationship with God.
Abram is the tenth in the succession of fathers descended from Shem after the Flood. “Abram” means “an honored father.” God changed his name to “Abraham,” meaning “father of a multitude” (Genesis 17:5). Having begun his life as an honored and exalted father, he was made by God the father of a great multitude: the father of the fathers, the father of all believers.
Abraham lived with his father Terah and the rest of his family in Ur of the Chaldees. It is usually identified with the renowned city south of Babylon whose ruins are called al-Muqayyar. Archaeological discoveries indicate that it existed about a thousand years before Abraham’s age and formerly lay upon the shore of the Gulf. It was also famous for its moon god Nannar and the bitter abominations associated with his worship.
Abram lived amid this commercial coastal environment, with its great wealth and pagan abominations, but remained faithful in witnessing to God through his life. The Lord testified: “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac” (Joshua 24:2-3). In this region Shem’s descendants lived beside Ham’s descendants, and evil spread even among the sons of Shem. The author describes Abram as the one who remained a true worshipper and witness to God amid the world of his day. He drew his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot to live a holy life in the Lord.
Seeing Abram’s faithfulness, God called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees. He renewed the call in Haran after Abram had lived there a long time with his father, his wife, and his nephew, and after his father had died there (Genesis 11:31-32). Genesis does not recount the original call in Ur, but gives the call received in Haran. Scripture nevertheless confirms that the divine call came in Ur before he entered Haran (Acts 7:2).
God did not overlook one faithful person in an entire city, indeed in the whole world of that time. He made him a rock from which believers would be hewn. As Isaiah says: “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the LORD shall comfort Zion” (Isaiah 51:1-3).
God asks those who pursue righteousness and seek Him to look to their father Abraham as the rock from which they were cut, that they may truly become Abraham’s children. Let them see how the Lord called him “alone,” without despising the one, and made him a multitude and a consolation for the heavenly Zion. God loved him so greatly that He delighted to call Himself “the God of Abraham,” and to describe His heavenly paradise as “Abraham’s bosom.”
Amid a dark pagan environment God saw one heart longing to meet Him. He called it to depart from Ur of the Chaldees and from Haran, both centers of moon worship, that He might raise up from its descendants a holy Church. The divine call was: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1).
Saint Jerome comments upon this divine call:
“He left Ur of the Chaldees and Mesopotamia, and went in search of a land he did not know, lest he lose Him whom he had found—God. He did not think it easy to keep both his country and his Lord at the same time. From his earliest days he was ready to fulfill the prophet’s words: “I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were” (Psalm 39:12). He was called a Hebrew, meaning “one who passes over,” because he was not satisfied with present temporal advantages. He forgot what lay behind and always reached toward what lay ahead (Philippians 3:13), keeping before him the psalmist’s words: “They go from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). Thus his name bears a mystical meaning, opening the way before you to seek what belongs to others rather than what belongs to yourself. [229]”
He also says:
“The father of the fathers was asked to leave Ur of the Chaldees, the city of Babylon—confusion—Rehoboth (Genesis 10:11), and the broad places. He was also to leave the plain of Shinar, where stood the tower of pride rising toward heaven (Genesis 11:2, 4). He had to cross this world’s waves and pass over its rivers, beside which the saints sat and wept when they remembered Zion (Psalm 137:1), that he might dwell in the promised land, watered from above rather than, like Egypt, from below (Deuteronomy 11:10), seeking the early and the latter rain (Deuteronomy 11:14). [230]”
This divine call addresses every human soul. It calls us to leave, in our hearts, love of the world and of self, that we may meet the heavenly Lord and live with Him in His embrace. It is a call to every generation. It drew the hearts of many Fathers, who understood that it touched their personal lives. We give a brief account of some of their comments.
Father Paphnutius sees it as a divine call to the ascetic life: to leave one’s country, meaning love of worldly wealth; one’s kindred, meaning the old life with its evil habits; and one’s earthly father’s house, to seek the heavenly Father’s house. He says:
“First He told him, “Get thee out of thy country”: out of the possessions of this world and its earthly riches. Second, “from thy kindred”: from your former way of life, with the habits and sins attached to you from your first birth, bound to you as though by friendship and kinship. Third, “from thy father's house”: from everything in the world that your eyes behold. Of the two fathers, the earthly and the heavenly, one must be left and the other sought. David speaks in God’s person: “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house” (Psalm 45:10). Surely He who says, “Hearken, O daughter,” is a Father. [231]”
This saint understands the call as an invitation to enjoy three stages of renunciation: bodily renunciation, the rejection of the former way of life, and the spirit’s liberation from visible things to be occupied with heavenly things. It is not enough to leave one’s country by fasting and every kind of bodily ascetic practice, nor to leave one’s kindred by abandoning old evil habits. We must also leave the old father’s house to enter the embrace of our heavenly Father, saying: “For our conversation is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).
Father Caesarius of Arles sees this divine call fulfilled in the waters of baptism through the Holy Spirit. He removes sin from our land, the body, destroys its evil habits, our kindred, and takes us from the house of our former father, the devil, to dwell in the house of our new Father. He says:
“We believe and understand, brethren, that all these things have been fulfilled in us through the mystery of baptism. Our land is our body. We fittingly leave our land by abandoning our carnal habits and following Christ. Has not a person left his country, that is, himself, when he becomes humble after pride, patient after being quick-tempered; when he leaves dissoluteness for chastity, greed for generosity, envy for compassion, and harshness for gentleness? Truly, brethren, whoever is changed in this way through love of God has left his country. Before baptism our land, our body, was considered the land of the dead; through baptism it has become the land of the living, of which the psalmist said: “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Through baptism we become the land of the living rather than the dead, the land of virtues rather than vices. The Lord says, “unto a land that I will shew thee.” We come joyfully to the land God shows us if, with His help, we drive sins and vices from our land, our body.”
““Get thee out… from thy kindred.” Kindred here means the vices and sins that were in some sense partly born with us and grew and flourished after childhood through evil habits. We leave our kindred when, through baptismal grace, we are emptied of sins and vices and do not return like a dog to its vomit. “Get thee out… from thy father's house.” Let us understand this spiritually, beloved brethren. Before Christ’s grace the devil was our father. The Lord speaks of him when He rebukes the Jews in the Gospel: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). Through baptismal grace, rather than our own strength, we should be made worthy to leave our country, the desires of the body, and our kindred, vices and sinful habits, and flee the devil’s house. With God’s help let us make every effort not to return to the devil’s company or friendship. Rather, let us imitate Abraham’s faith and continually do good works, that we may receive forgiveness and enter into friendship and fellowship with God. With great fear and reverence let us consider what the Lord told Moses: “Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee” (Exodus 34:12). We believe that through baptismal grace all sins and transgressions are removed. If we return and make a covenant with them, they become a snare to us. [232]”
Abram’s departure was not easy. He lived in a coastal city known for wealth, advancement, and culture, and was bound to his family. Moreover, the call came when he was no longer young: he left Haran at seventy-five, an age when a person needs stability. He had no son to inherit from him or care for him in old age. A young person tends to move readily; as one grows older, movement becomes harder, especially when it means a complete change of life and conduct. Yet Abram moved in obedience to God with the flexibility of a child. Saint Ambrose says:
“Our father Abraham, appointed as an example for generations to come, was commanded to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house. Despite all the family ties binding him, did he not prove that he subjected affection to reason? With full deliberation he resolved to pass through difficulties without inventing excuses for himself. [233]”
Thus Abraham accepted the divine call and obeyed, overcoming difficulties and human affections. Wonderfully, when God called him to depart, He did not specify where he would settle, but said: “unto a land that I will shew thee.” What is this land God shows in exchange for our leaving the old things, except the enjoyment of entering His new heavens and His new earth? He does not wish to leave us deprived or abandoned. He gives more than we leave; He gives us a new land. As Saint Paphnutius says:
“It is a land you cannot know or discover through your own effort, but “a land that I will shew thee,” a land you have not seen and do not know. [234]”
Saint Gregory of Nyssa understands the goal of this departure as entry into a new land, the enjoyment of knowing God:
“If, with the Apostle’s exalted spirit, we take the words symbolically and penetrate the mystical meaning of the history without losing sight of its actual events, we find that Abraham, the father of faith, certainly left his country and kindred at God’s command upon a journey befitting a prophet thirsting for the knowledge of God. I do not think the blessings he was counted worthy to receive correspond to an ordinary migration from one place to another. As I understand it, his departure from himself and his land was a departure from earthly, carnal thought. He raised his thought as far as possible above the limits of ordinary nature and cast off the soul’s attachment to its senses, that his eyes might open upon invisible things without any sensory obstacle. No sight or sound would distract the mind from its work; rather, he walked “by faith, not by sight,” as the Apostle says. Thus Abraham rose through the excellence of his knowledge to what is considered the summit of human perfection, knowing of God everything that finite human capacities can grasp. [235]”
Abram, a Blessing to the Nations
Genesis 12:2–3
2 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: 3 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.
Although the divine call carried many difficulties, they could not be compared with God’s promises. With every call or command God gives a promise. When He says, “come out from among them, and be ye separate,” He promises, “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). God called the childless Abram and promised to make him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great. When He asked him to leave Ur’s wealth, He promised that he would be a blessing, that He would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. When He asked him to leave his kindred and father’s house, He said that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.
God will not remain indebted to a person. He seeks an opportunity to give abundantly. He desires His children to enjoy true fullness rather than deprivation.
Perhaps Abram had resigned himself in Ur to having no son of his own to inherit from him. Yet God would not merely give him a son; He would make him a great and blessed nation. He did not promise merely to bless possessions, many of which would be lost in his journeys, but to make him a blessing. He did not promise only relatives and friends; in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.
God longs to give His children without measure or calculation. He makes them not merely blessed people: each becomes a blessing. We carry God within us, and our lives become light shining in the world and leaven capable of leavening the whole lump. He desires to give us Himself, that we may be a blessing, if, like Abram, we truly leave our country, our people, and our former father’s house. We even leave our name, bearing “Abraham” instead of “Abram”: we relinquish the old bodily name to bear a new name in the Lord. Origen says:
“He cannot receive God’s covenant and the sign of circumcision, or enjoy speech full of mysteries, while he remains in his household, among his bodily kindred, bearing the name Abram, so long as he is bound to flesh and blood. [236]”
Wonderfully, when a person abandons everything, he does not live in deprivation but enjoys God’s promises. He receives not only what concerns himself, but what is for the whole community, indeed for humanity. Abram was told that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. This was fulfilled when the Lord Christ came of Abram’s seed, and through Him the peoples were blessed. It may also be fulfilled in another way in every believer who enjoys Christ’s transfiguration upon the mountain of the inner heart and so becomes a blessing to many. The Lord declared this in His renowned sermon: “Ye are the salt of the earth… Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14).
Saint Augustine speaks of Abram’s blessing:
“Let us observe that Abraham received two promises. The first was that his descendants would inherit Canaan, indicated by “I will make of thee a great nation.” The other promise was far greater, being spiritual rather than bodily. Through it he would become father not only of the Israelite nation, but of all nations that follow the footsteps of his faith. [237]”
Abram’s Faith in Action
Genesis 12:4–9
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram 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. 6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 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. 8 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. 9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Abram’s faith did not stop at knowing God through theoretical ideas that he memorized and defended. Nor did his knowledge find expression only in particular acts of worship. In faith he obeyed God as his greatest Friend. Divine inspiration says that Abram departed as the Lord had spoken, taking Sarai, Lot, their possessions, and the souls they had acquired in Haran, and setting out for Canaan (Genesis 12:4-5).
The Apostle Paul says: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed” (Hebrews 11:8). Through faith Abraham’s heart went out from Ur of the Chaldees, and afterward from Haran, for he looked for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
Abraham’s obedience was complete in his heart but partial in its execution. He first left Ur with his father Terah. We do not know why Terah departed. Was he attached to Abraham? Did he find an opportunity to leave pagan worship? In any case, Terah went with Abraham to Haran, where the company halted for about fifteen years. Abraham could not set out until his father’s death. Terah probably found the journey to Canaan burdensome and so delayed the whole company.
May no Terah accompany us in our departure from Ur, causing us to remain for long years at Haran. Rather, let us hasten toward the heavenly Canaan and enjoy God’s promises without hindrance.
If “Ur” means “light” [238], “Terah” probably means “mountain goat,” and “Haran” means “mountainous” [239], we should leave the Chaldeans’ brightness and attractive glitter without being tied to trivial things such as the mountain goat. We should not stop in Haran, the mountainous regions, but hasten toward Canaan, flowing with milk and honey.
At last, when Terah died after about fifteen years at Haran, Abram could obey the divine call fully and with great speed, setting out toward Canaan. The entire journey seems to have taken no more than a year.
The first place Abraham reached in Canaan was Shechem, meaning “shoulder.” The Canaanites inhabited it with a shoulder resisting God. With a resisting shoulder Joseph’s brothers left Shechem for Dothan, interpreted here as “rebellion” (Genesis 37:14-17). Later, however, it came to represent the shoulder bent in love toward God, bearing burdens. It became part of the promised land, a Levitical city and a city of refuge.
Shechem was a walled city (Genesis 33:18; Genesis 34:20) at the foot of Mount Gerizim (Judges 9:7). When Jacob returned to Canaan, he found Hivites living there (Genesis 34:2). He bought a field where he pitched his tent (Genesis 33:18-19), and Joseph’s body was buried there (Joshua 24:32). When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite wronged Jacob’s daughter Dinah, her brothers Simeon and Levi killed every male in the city (Genesis 34:25-29). Joseph’s brothers pastured their flocks near Shechem (Genesis 37:12-13). There, by Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, Joshua read the book of the law (Joshua 8:30-35). It was chosen as a city of refuge (Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:21), and there Joshua assembled the tribes to hear his farewell address (Joshua 24:1). Shechem became Israel’s capital under Jeroboam, who led the ten tribes in revolt against Rehoboam (1 Kings 12). It survived the fall of the northern kingdom (Jeremiah 41:5) and became the capital of the Samaritans. [240]
Shechem, or Nablus, lies about forty-one miles north of Jerusalem and five and a half miles southeast of Samaria. It is in the upper valley enclosed by Mount Ebal to the north and Mount Gerizim to the south. The valley was known as Mabartha, meaning “passage,” since it formed a passage from the coast to the Jordan.
Abram seems not to have entered Shechem itself, but to have camped beside it and passed to the oak of Moreh (Genesis 12:6). This means “the teacher’s oak” or “the diviner’s oak,” apparently named after a teacher or diviner who lived there and whom people met beneath the tree.
Here Abram first erected an altar to the Lord in Canaan (Genesis 12:7). It is said that here Jacob buried the foreign gods in his household’s hands and the earrings in their ears, which they had brought from Haran (Genesis 35:4). Here Joshua took a great stone and set it beneath the oak by the Lord’s sanctuary. He told the people that the stone would witness against them, for it had heard all the Lord’s words, lest they deny their God (Joshua 24:26-27).
The place was sanctified when Abram offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God, who had brought him into Canaan and promised it to his descendants. Where God is glorified and foreign gods are buried, the place becomes a place of proclamation for the true Joshua, and the people hear the voice of the divine Word.
This is the first time we hear of the Lord appearing to a person, confirming His promise to Abram: “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Genesis 12:7). Abram could only build an altar and offer thanksgiving to Him who had called him, accompanied him along the way, and confirmed His care for him.
Abram moved toward Bethel, where he built an altar to the Lord and called upon His name (Genesis 12:8). Then he continued journeying toward the south, the Negeb.
Abram in Egypt
Genesis 12:10–13
10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: 12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
Famines repeatedly occurred in Canaan, and the remedy was to go down into Egypt, where the Nile flowed. The aged Abram had not been long in the promised land before famine came. Yet he did not think he had acted wrongly in leaving his country, kindred, and father’s house. He neither murmured against God nor belittled God’s promise to give this land to his descendants because it was exposed to famine.
Egypt was blessed by receiving Abram, the father of the fathers, and sustaining him in famine. Later it received his grandson Jacob and his family, and from Egypt the people of Israel came forth. Greater than all this, the Lord Christ Himself took refuge there in His childhood and blessed it (Matthew 2:13), fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 19).
Many nevertheless consider Abraham’s descent into Egypt a mistake, since he went without an explicit message from God such as his grandson Jacob received: “I will go down with thee into Egypt” (Genesis 46:4). Abraham’s descent represents the person who enters the promised land but soon relies upon human strength, going down to seek human help rather than divine help. Isaiah says: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!” (Isaiah 31:1).
Just as Scripture portrays Abram most beautifully as he departs in obedience to God’s call, leaning in faith upon His promise, it also reveals his weakness in a painfully human form. He relied on Egypt, yet knew the carnal desires that characterized the Egyptians of that time. He became afraid and asked his wife to say she was his sister, “that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee” (Genesis 12:13).
When Scripture describes this famine, it says there was famine “in the land,” not that famine prevailed against Abram. Of the Egyptians it says that “the famine prevailed over them” (Genesis 47:20). What is said of the famine in Abram’s time is also said of the one in Jacob’s days: “And the famine was sore in the land” (Genesis 43:1). Famines may surround believers but touch only the earth, the body. Unbelievers bow before them and are broken by them. Origen says:
“The famine did not prevail against Abraham, Jacob, or his children. If it became severe, it became severe “upon the earth.” In Isaac’s days too it was said: “And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham” (Genesis 26:1). Yet famine could not overcome Isaac. The Lord told him: “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee” (Genesis 26:2-3). In my opinion, this agrees with the later saying: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25), and elsewhere: “The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish” (Proverbs 10:3). All these passages declare that the earth can suffer hunger, as can those who mind earthly things (Philippians 3:19). But those who possess the bread by which they do the heavenly Father’s will (Matthew 7:21), whose souls are refreshed by the bread descending from heaven (John 6:51, 58), will not suffer the deprivation of famine. [241]”
Let us not fear famine, then. It strikes the earth and those who are earthly. Those who cling to the Lord and receive His holy body as spiritual food will not hunger. They eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7) and drink anew of the fruit of the true Vine (John 15:1) in the Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29). Let us cease to be earth, that hunger may not strike us. Let us enjoy heavenly life and eternal satisfaction.
Sarai and Pharaoh
Genesis 12:14–20
14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. 17 And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. 20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Abram erred in going down to Egypt without turning to God or awaiting His revelations. This error drew him into successive errors. The natural consequence was that he was deprived of his wife for a time when Pharaoh took her from him.
Wonderfully, what Abram was unable to declare—that Sarai was his wife—God revealed to Pharaoh, so that he returned her untouched. Abram even received wealth and honor.
God does not deal with a person simply according to his weaknesses. Had God permitted Pharaoh to touch Abram’s wife, Abram would have remained tormented in conscience throughout his life, whatever blessings and gifts he received. Therefore the Lord preserved her from Pharaoh’s hands and restored wealth and honor to Abram. Let us say with the psalmist: “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Psalm 103:10-11).
Abram was among those who feared and loved the Lord. He therefore enjoyed mercies that rise above the earth. In him was fulfilled the saying: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105:15). As Saint Augustine says:
“Abram waited for God to act on his behalf, and what Abram hoped for, the Lord accomplished for him. [242]”
Notes and References
[229] Saint Jerome, Epistle 71:2.
[230] Saint Jerome, Epistle 46:2.
[231] Cassian, Conferences 3.
[232] Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 81:1–4.
[233] Saint Ambrose, Duties of the Clergy 1:24.
[234] Cassian, Conferences 3:10.
[235] Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Answer to Eunomius 2.
[236] Origen, Homilies on Genesis 3:3.
[237] Saint Augustine, The City of God 16:16.
[238] Hastings, Dictionary of the Hebrew Words, “Ur.”
[239] Ibid., “Haran.”
[240] New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, p. 861; Josephus, Antiquities 11:8.6.
[241] Origen, Homilies on Genesis 16:3.
[242] Saint Augustine, The City of God 16:19.