Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does Genesis Chapter 12 mean?

Genesis chapter 12 declares a simple, powerful, and surprisingly deep truth: God chose Abram. God’s plan was to make for Himself a great nation, a people that were His own, and He chose to begin it with Abram. Genesis 12 records this moment, which is vital in the history of the world, of God’s people Israel, and of God’s plan to offer salvation to the world through faith in Christ. Abram will later be renamed Abraham.

Whether God and Abram had spoken prior to Abram’s official calling, the Bible does not say. Possibly without warning, the Lord speaks to Abram. He gives one command and an avalanche of promises. The command was for Abram to go away from his country, his people, and his father’s house. The promises must have been well beyond anything Abram ever imagined for his life. At 75, Abram was firmly middle aged for his day, comfortably wealthy, and married to an exceptionally beautiful woman named Sarai, though they were childless.

The Lord, without explanation or condition, promises to make Abram a great nation, to bless and make Abram’s name great so that Abram will be a blessing, to bless those who bless Abram and curse those who dishonor him. Finally, God promises that in Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. In response to this command, Abram, Sarai, Abram’s nephew Lot, and their large company head into the land of Canaan. This territory will one day become the Promised Land (Genesis 12:7).

Abram’s entourage first travels to Shechem, then to Bethel. Abram builds an altar to the Lord at each place, hearing another promise from the Lord at Schechem: “I will give this land to your offspring.” This promise is more specific than prior statements and would have seemed even likely from a human perspective. At the time, Abram was a 75-year-old man with no children and a barren wife, standing in a land fully occupied by multiple people groups. He had no army or means to conquer anyone, and yet the Lord promised this land to his descendants.

Next, Abram journeys south, toward a sparsely populated desert area known as the Negeb (or Negev). Then he and his contingent journey still farther south, into Egypt. They were forced to do so by a famine in the land; they had to find a way to buy food from the people who lived in the well-watered lands along the Nile. This will be the first test of Abram’s faith in the God who made big promises. Abram will fail the test, yet find God to be faithful, anyway.

In short, Abram was afraid he would be killed by the Egyptians when they saw how beautiful his wife was. As an immigrant in Egypt with no protection from any government, what would keep them from simply killing him and taking her for their own? Instead of asking for the Lord’s help, Abram makes up a scheme: He and Sarai would say she was his sister. It was a half-truth; they did share the same father (a practice apparently common in the day). It was also a full lie, in that it was really meant to hide the fact they were married. Abram’s hope, apparently, was that as Sarai’s “brother” he would be able to refuse any marriage proposals. Or, at least, to remove motivation for rivals to kill him in order to have access to Sarai.

Upon entering Egypt, Abram’s fear is quickly justified, partly due to his own deception. Pharaoh hears of Sarai’s great beauty, and also hears that she is—apparently—unmarried. So, he takes her for his wife. Pharaoh rewards her “brother” Abram handsomely, but Abram apparently has no way to refuse the Pharaoh.

That’s when the Lord steps in to ensure that His agenda for Abram’s life will succeed. When we try to fulfill God’s promises for Him, we typically just get in the way. So, to clean up Abram’s mess, God afflicts Pharaoh’s household with a plague of some kind. The resulting hubbub allows the truth of Abram’s marriage to Sarai to come out. Pharaoh, understandably upset with Abram and fearful of the Lord, sends the whole company, including Sarai, right back to Canaan.

Chapter Context
The end of Genesis 11 tells the story of Terah, Abram’s father, and the family’s journey to a new home in Haran. Genesis 12 shifts the story to Abram and his journey on into the land of Canaan. God promises to make Abram the father of a great nation, and to give Abram’s descendants that very land. Abram begins to worship the Lord, but quickly fails a test of his faith in Egypt. God shows Himself faithful in a miraculous way, preparing Abram for what’s to come in chapter 13.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father ‘s house to the land that I will show you.

Genesis chapter 12 begins one of the most crucial sections in the entire book of Genesis. Genesis is deeply focused on God’s relationship with the nation of Israel. That relationship has its first official beginning in this verse.

Scripture gives us no information on whether Abram experienced some prior relationship with God, or if he had previously communicated with the Lord. Abram’s people, including his father Terah, worshipped false gods (Joshua 24:2). Ur and Haran, Abram’s former and current homes, were apparently centers of worship of the moon. Prior to his calling by God, Abram was pagan in every sense of that word.

Very much middle aged for his era—75 years old—Abram was wealthy and settled with his father’s extended family in Haran. He was married to Sarai, but they were barren and childless. We’re not told that he was an especially good or bad man. As with many of the human instruments used by God, this is secondary—all that ultimately matters is that God intends to accomplish His will through this particular man and his family.

God shows up in Abram’s life with very specific commands and staggering promises. God’s first word to Abram is “go.” It’s important to note that Abram is given a two-sided instruction: both to “go from,” and to “go to.” God calls Abram to leave behind three things: his country, his extended family or people group, and his father’s household. He was to go to an unnamed land which God will show to him.

Abram could not stay where he was and still obey God. He is being called to leave His pagan culture in order to commit himself to the Lord. In going, though, God will promise to do great things for Abram.

Context Summary
Genesis 12:1–9 is a landmark passage in the Bible. God calls Abram to leave his people and land behind. He also promises to bless Abram and to make his descendants into a great nation who will one day occupy the land of Canaan. Though childless, and with no obvious path to becoming a father of an entire culture, Abram begins to worship the Lord in the land of Canaan, journeying through the land and building altars to God.

Verse 2. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

In the previous verse, God began His seemingly out-of-the-blue contact with Abram. God commanded Abram to go away from his country, his people, and his father’s household and to go to an unspecified land God would show him.

Now God begins a series of huge and powerful promises to Abram, which will accompany this leaving behind of everything he knows. God vows to make Abram—through his descendants—a great nation. God will bless Abram. God will make Abram’s name great. God will make Abram a blessing.

These promises were the very things the great kings and leaders of Abram’s time would have longed for themselves. We’re told nothing of Abram’s personal ambitions, but it seems likely these promises would have surpassed his wildest expectations for his life. Keep in mind, when these messages came to Abram, he was a childless 75-year old man living in his father’s household!

Even so, the next verse contains yet more promises from God.

Verse 3. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Verses 1–3 introduce the beginning of God’s relationship with Abram; this is the earliest history of the nation of Israel. Without any recorded preamble, God shows up in Abram’s life with a command to go away from where he is to an unnamed place. In the going, God promises to make Abram a great nation, to bless him, to give him a great name, and to make him a blessing.

Now God continues these promises: God will bless those who bless Abram. God will curse those who dishonor Abram. In Abram, God will bless all the families, or “peoples,” of the earth.

God’s words to Abram stop there. The next verse will reveal Abram’s response. Notice, though, that the only condition for receiving these promises seems to be that Abram goes. Aside from that, God’s promises here are not dependent on Abram’s actions, or obedience, or goodness, or worthiness. God simply says He will do these things to and through Abram. Period. This parallels the fact that Abram’s prior life and personality are given no description: his character is irrelevant to the purposes of God in this instance.

Knowing what we know now about the history of God’s relationship with Israel, it’s clear that God does indeed keep these promises (Deuteronomy 34:1–4; Joshua 1:1–9). Of course, Abram currently has no way of knowing that for sure. Instead, he will have to trust God to keep his vows (Hebrews 6:13–18).

Verse 4. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

In the previous three verses, God gave Abram a command and a set of powerful, astonishing promises. Abram was to leave his home behind and go to a place God would show him. Pointedly, Abram is told both to “go from” his old life and culture, and “go to” a new land and a new future. In the going, Abram would receive unimaginable blessings from God.

However Abram responded to these words from God, it would be an act dependent on Abram’s faith. Either he would trust God or he would not. As it turns out, Abram went. At the age of 75, Abram leaves his country, his people, and his home and heads toward whatever God has in store for him. He trusts God, which is the essence of the Bible’s depiction of faith (Psalm 31:6; 1 Peter 2:6; 2 Corinthians 3:4). Interestingly, Abram will later fail to express this faith, leading to controversy. However, after being renamed Abraham, he will perform one of the greatest acts of trust recorded in Scripture (Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17–19).

Among those Abram takes with him are his wife, Sarai, and his late brother’s son, Lot.

Verse 5. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother ‘s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

God called Abram to leave his country, people, and father’s household to go to a new country. But God does not just call Abram to “go from” his old life. The Lord also instructs Abram to “go to” a new land, and a new future. As part of this command, God also gave Abram great and powerful promises: to bless him and make of him a great nation. This moment in history marks the foundations for God’s relationship with the nation of Israel, His chosen people.

Abram believed God and obeyed. He went. This verse shows us what a wealthy man Abram was. He and Sarai had possessions and servants acquired during their time in Haran. They took those with them to the Canaan.

Abram also brought along his late brother’s son Lot (Genesis 11:27). The two had apparently become close. Lot had no living father (Genesis 11:28), and Abram had no children. Their relationship will play a significant role in the following chapters.

Verse 6. Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

God called Abram to leave his home behind, and go to a land God would show to him. God also gave Abram great and powerful promises that He would bless him and make him a great nation.

Abram believed God and went. He entered the land of Canaan, which would become the Promised Land (Genesis 12:7). He traveled across it, perhaps walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee on his way to a town called Shechem. Joshua 20:7 describes Shechem as being “in the hill country of Ephraim,” roughly in the center of the land.

In Shechem, Abram goes to a tree called the oak of Moreh. The Hebrew term moreh means “teacher.” It’s possible this tree was in an oak grove used by the Canaanites in their religious cults. It was a common practice of these cults to use nature, including trees, to seek messages from their gods. Perhaps Abram came to this place hoping to hear from the Lord. That’s what will happen in the following verse.

The verse reminds us that the Canaanites possessed the land at this time.

Verse 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.

Abram believed God’s promises to him (Genesis 12:1–3). He obeyed God’s call to leave his home and travel to another land (Genesis 12:1–5). Now, after Abram and his large contingent have traveled to the heart of the land of Canaan, the Lord appears to him.

This is apparently a different experience than when God spoke to Abram in verse 1. The Lord “appears.” We are not told what form He took. The Lord is called Yahweh, and the term used for when Yahweh physically appears to people is theophany. This is the first of several theophanies made to the fathers of Israel.

Yahweh brings a short, specific promise for Abram: I will give this land to your descendants. This is the first time God has promised the land of Canaan to the people who will become Israel. After leaving his old life, and his old culture, Abram was now home. Abram himself would not take possession of the land in his own lifetime, however. Even his descendants will not fully possess the land for several generations. But the promise had been made by God. It would happen.

Abram responded in the way that many people in Scripture do after being visited by the Lord. He built an altar. He may well have made an animal sacrifice, though that is not mentioned. It’s possible that Abram’s altar at Shechem stood as a reminder of this visit from the Lord for many years to come.

Verse 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.

After the Lord appeared to Abram at Shechem and promised to give the land to Abram’s descendants, Abram and his large company moved on to the region between Bethel and Ai. We’re told Abram “pitched his tent” there. This phrasing seems to imply that Abram and his people settled there for some time.

Also while east of Bethel, Abram builds an altar to the Lord and calls on His name there. The implication here may be that Abram began to participate in regular, formal worship of Yahweh in this place. The terminology is similar to that of Genesis chapter 4, where people are said to begin to “call upon the name of the Lord” after the banishment of Cain, and the birth of Seth (Genesis 4:26). As with the altar at Shechem, no mention is made of animal sacrifices.

Genesis 13:4 records that Abram later returned to this altar and called on the Lord’s name again. This strongly suggests this altar was a lasting structure and not merely a temporary arrangement.

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

After the Lord appeared to Abram at Shechem, he and his large company moved through Bethel and may have settled there for a time. The reference to “pitching his tent” is most likely an indication that he stayed for some length of time.

Here, in this verse, Abram and his entourage move on again, heading farther south in the land of Canaan toward the region of the Negeb. The Negeb was a dry, desert area. Without extensive cultivation, the land there could not support crops. At that time, the region was sparsely populated, and so it was not a good source for food or resources. It may be that Abram and his large group of people and animals had to keep moving away from the more populated areas to find a place to settle down, though we are not told so explicitly.

In any case, Abram has now journeyed across much of the land which God has promised to his offspring (Genesis 12:7). He has both lived and worshiped God in significant places. In one sense, Abram had already begun to take some ownership of the land God would give to his descendants.

Verse 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.

After spending some time in the land God has promised to his offspring, Abram and his large company are forced to leave Canaan. The land of the Negeb, where Abram’s family has most recently been (Genesis 12:9), is dry and hilly. It was prone to famine in seasons of drought, especially before modern methods of farming came along.

A severe famine, then would most likely have forced most inhabitants of the region to travel to find resources. There simply was no food or water to support them in the Negeb. Egypt, on the other hand, had the advantage of the flat lowlands along the Nile river. People of the surrounding regions often immigrated to Egypt hoping to survive a famine.

Abram will not be the last of the patriarchs, the fathers of Israel, to move to Egypt in a time of drought. The sons of Jacob, Abram’s grandson, will travel there to seek food and encounter their estranged brother, Joseph (Genesis 37—47).

Context Summary
Genesis 12:10–20 tells a story of Abram’s fearfulness and God’s faithful intervention to keep His promises. A famine forces Abram’s large company to enter the land of Egypt in search of food. Pharaoh’s sons quickly notice Sarai’s great beauty, and Pharaoh takes her for one of his wives. This occurs because Abram, fearful for his life, has claimed that Sarai is his sister. In spite of Abram’s lie and failure to trust Him, God afflicts Pharaoh’s household for this dishonor, bringing the truth to light. Pharaoh, angry and fearful, sends Abram, Sarai, and the company back to the land of Canaan.

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

God has promised the land of Canaan to Abram’s descendants (Genesis 12:7). However, Abram’s large company are forced to leave the land of Canaan, and to enter the land of Egypt, in order to escape a severe famine. It is important to read verses 11–13 together to understand the full context of the scene which unfolds. For the first time, we get a glimpse of Abram’s fearfulness in spite of his belief in the promises of God.

Abram plans to tell a half-lie to the people of the land of Egypt to protect himself from harm, at his wife’s expense. Abram begins here by acknowledging to Sarai that she is a woman of great beauty. In the next verse, he will tell her why that’s a problem. His concern seems to be that those interested in taking Sarai as their own wife might choose to kill her husband in order to make her available.

Verse 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.

Forced to immigrate with his large company into Egypt to escape a famine, Abram is worried about his safety. Why? His wife Sarai is a woman of great beauty. He is just an immigrant seeking food for his people. From Abram’s perspective, this leads to a terrifying question: what’s to keep the Egyptians from killing him to get his wife?

Was Abram exaggerating Sarai’s beauty or the potential danger? Sarai would have been 65 years old at this point, after all. And yet, as the following verses will show, the Egyptians were indeed smitten with Sarai’s beauty. Abram’s concern that other men would desire his wife, at the least, were not entirely unjustified.

What we will see, though, is that Abram is not justified in the fearful action he takes to protect himself. At the risk of his wife, he will tell a half-truth which winds up going wrong (Genesis 12:15–19).

Verse 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.”

In the previous two verses, Abram presented his fear to his wife Sarai as they prepared to enter the land of Egypt. She was a woman of great beauty. What was to keep the Egyptians from killing him, a vulnerable immigrant seeking food, and taking Sarai for their own?

Now he reveals his plan: “Tell them you’re my sister.” This was a half-truth. Sarai and Abram were both children of Abram’s father Terah, though they had different mothers. Apparently, it was not uncommon at the time to marry a half-sister. Later, God would later forbid such marriages for the people of Israel, but He had not yet done so.

Of course, Abram’s statement was also a lie—it was spoken specifically to mislead others about his relationship to Sarai. Sarai was fully Abram’s wife. He was asking her to pretend not to be his wife to protect himself, obviously putting her at great risk. It’s possible that Abram hoped that being viewed as Sarai’s brother would give him the opportunity to reject any marriage proposals she might receive, rather than being a target for a jealous suitor. The following verses will reveal that it won’t work out that way.

Abram’s failing here began with not trusting the Lord to protect him. God had promised the land to Abram’s offspring, along with promises of protection and greatness (Genesis 12:1–3). Since Abram didn’t have any children yet, God’s promise meant that he would not be killed. Abram was not yet willing to believe God in a potentially dangerous situation.

Verse 14. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

In the previous verses, Abram expressed his fear that Sarai’s great beauty would cause the Egyptians to take her from him. Any question that Abram was overestimating Sarai’s beauty is answered in this verse. The Egyptians did indeed notice how attractive Sarai was. This notice, it seems, will be significant enough that even the rulers of Egypt will hear about her magnificent appearance (Genesis 12:15).

Abram’s plan for them to lie to the Egyptians by saying Sarai was his sister is about to backfire. He may have hoped that, as her “brother,” he would have the right to refuse any marriage proposals. Certainly, Abram was concerned that a husband would be vulnerable to murderous jealousy, while a brother would not. Of course, things will not work out the way Abram expects. Rather than solving a problem, Abram’s attempt to out-think God and take matters into his own hands actually causes one of the outcomes he was hoping to avoid!

Verse 15. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh ‘s house.

Abram’s great fear immediately comes to be—in part, because of his own attempts to avoid it. Abram’s plan was for his family tell a half-truth, intended as a whole lie: that Sarai (his wife and half-sister) was merely his sister. His hope may have been that, as Sarai’s brother, he would have the right to refuse any marriage proposals. At the same time, Abram felt that a beautiful woman’s “brother” would have been less a target for jealous violence than her “husband” (Genesis 12:12).

After Abram, Sarai, and their large company enter Egypt, the princes of Egypt’s Pharaoh report on her great beauty. Pharaoh takes Sarai for his wife—most likely one of many. Apparently, the Pharaoh didn’t need permission to take a man’s sister for his wife. Ironically, as later verses will show, even the pagan Pharaoh balked at stealing a married woman (Genesis 12:18–19)!

The passage doesn’t reveal whether Pharaoh actually slept with Sarai as his wife or was prevented from doing so by the affliction reported in the following verses. Given that Egypt’s ruler probably had many wives already, and God’s intentions for Sarai, the most likely situation is that he never had the opportunity to touch her.

Verse 16. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

First, Abram and Sarai lied to protect Abram from any Egyptians who would kill him to take Sarai as their own wife. Perhaps he hoped that as her brother he would be able to refuse any marriage proposals. The lie came in the form of a half-truth: that Sarai was Abram’s (half) sister. The intent, however, was to make others think she was not Abram’s wife, and this made even a truthful statement into a lie.

This scheme backfired. Instead of approaching Abram to request Sarai’s hand in marriage, or leaving her alone entirely, Pharaoh apparently just took her as his wife, and made some kind of payment to Abram after the fact. The bride price or honor payment included livestock, work animals, and human servants. Abram’s scheme had increased his wealth, but lost him his wife.

Abram’s fears of losing his wife and his life were justified, but he failed to take those fears to the Lord who had promised to protect and provide for him. He failed to trust the Lord to provide a solution he could not see. This is a classic example of good intentions being perverted by foolish actions (Job 5:13). Abram’s own godless actions actually instigated what he feared most!

Verse 17. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram ‘s wife.

After Abram’s plan to use deception to protect himself fails, the Lord steps in. God had made promises to Abram, and God would not allow Abram’s faithless choice keep Him from keeping those promise. This, along with the fact that Pharaoh almost certainly had multiple wives, suggests that he never had an opportunity to consummate his marriage to Sarai.

To prevent catastrophe, and to rescue Abram from his own stupid scheming, the Lord afflicts Pharaoh’s household with great plagues or diseases. Some scholars understand these plagues to be diseases of the skin. The Egyptians, though superstitious people, would have understood correctly that such plagues were a punishment for sin.

Apparently, through this affliction, Pharaoh comes to understand that Sarai is actually Abram’s wife and not merely his sister. The Bible does not say what process of investigation led to that knowledge. His response to that revelation is found in the following verses.

Verse 18. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Believing Sarai to be Abram’s sister and not his wife, Pharaoh took her as his own wife. In response, the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his household with plagues, leading to the revelation that Sarai was indeed already married.

Pharaoh is understandably upset with Abram. Not only did Abram withhold the truth that Sarai was his wife, he had received from Pharaoh great gifts of livestock, work animals, and human servants—all while remaining silent about the truth. Pharaoh summons Abram into his presence and begins to question him harshly. The questions continue in the following verse. Abram, apparently, remains silent once again.

The irony of the situation is enormous. Abram’s half-truth-and-whole-lie actually caused the very outcome he was trying to avoid. Apparently, even the pagan Pharaoh had enough respect for marriage that he recognized taking a married woman to be a moral crime. Had he known Sarai was Abram’s spouse, or so Pharaoh says in verses 18 and 19, he would not have taken her.

We must notice here that Abram does not act honorably in any way in this episode. The Lord, though, remains faithful to His promise. God intends to accomplish His plan through Abram and Sarai no matter what trouble their foolishness leads them into. We should, however, take note that later in life, Abram—then called Abraham—will demonstrate exactly the kind of brave, obedient faith which God expects (Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17–19).

Verse 19. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”

Pharaoh’s one-sided conversation with Abram ends with this. This and the previous verse record Pharaoh’s three pointed questions: What have you done to me? Why did you not tell me? Why? Pharaoh took with deadly seriousness the Lord’s affliction of his household with plagues. He understood he was guilty of wrongdoing, and he held Abram responsible for putting him in that terrible position.

This makes Abram’s attempt to protect himself all the more ironic. A pagan king recognized the moral crime of taking another man’s wife—but Abram’s deception almost cost him his wife! It’s not surprising, therefore, that the Bible does not record any meaningful answer from Abram to Pharaoh. What could he say? Abram was guilty of causing all of this with his deceptive plan to protect himself from harm instead of trusting the Lord to protect him and Sarai from harm.

Pharaoh concludes by returning Sarai to Abram and telling him to “take her and go.” It’s impossible not to hear the foreshadowing of what will happen between Moses and another Pharaoh many years later. Again, the Lord will send plagues; again, God’s people will be sent away. Again, God will keep His promises to Abram’s descendants.

Verse 20. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

After grilling Abram over why he had not told Pharaoh that Sarai was his wife, Pharaoh sends Abram away with Sarai and all the goods Pharaoh has already given to him. In the end, Abram comes out ahead despite his fearfulness, foolishness, deceptiveness, and silence. This is not an unintentional aspect of the story of Genesis—God’s use of flawed people, whom He blesses despite their sin, is a crucial point in understanding our relationship to the Lord.

It is becoming clear that God’s promise to Abram is completely one-sided. No matter what Abram does, God will keep His promise to bless Abram, to protect him, and to make him and his offspring into a great nation. Abram won’t earn it; God will give it. Over time, Abram will learn to trust God. His obedience with his son, Isaac, after being renamed Abraham (Genesis 22), will become a key example of godly faith in the face of doubt and danger (Hebrews 11:17–19).

End of Chapter 12.

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