genesis 12:1-13:18, triennial parashah lech lecha, “go forth from”

Read Genesis 12:1-18:18 at Bible Gateway.

I study the Torah every year using the teaching tools of Scripture. (Why?)

The Hebrew paragraph divisions inspired by the Holy Spirit are:

Gen 12:1-9 {p} Promise of land and descendants
Gen 12:10-13:18 {p} Abram’s faith in the promise tested + promise reaffirmed

This parashah forms a single chiastic structure:

Gen 12:1-13:18 p+p
1a) Gen 12:1-6, Separate from your father’s house + the promise of YHVH + arrival at the oak of Moreh;
1b) Gen 12:6, The Canaanite was in the land;
1c) Gen 12:7-10, Bethel to the Negev + the land could not sustain him (famine);
1d) Gen 12:10-16, Arrival in Egypt;
1e) Gen 12:11-16, Sarai, Abram’s “sister,” taken into Pharaoh’s house + Abram made rich;
central axis) Gen 12.17, “But YHVH struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife;”
2e) Gen 12:18-19, Sarai, Abram’s “sister,” delivered from Pharaoh’s house + Abram rich (Gen 13:2);
2d) Gen 12:20, Departure from Egypt;
2c) Gen 13:1-6, The Negev to Bethel + the land could not sustain them (possessions too great);
2b) Gen 13:7, The Canaanite was in the land;
2a) Gen 13:8-18, Separate from Lot (father’s house) + the promise of YHVH + arrival at the oaks of Mamre.

The central axis is the account of YHVH striking Pharaoh with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. This isn’t the last time that YHVH strikes Pharaoh with great plagues. He strikes Pharaoh with great plagues when Pharaoh enslaves Israel, so that Pharaoh delivers her up. YHVH considers Israel His wife (Jer 3:20, 31:32, Hos 1:2, 2:2). Abraham’s life is propheticially picturing things that happen in the life of His nation Israel.

Instances like this reveal that the Torah is not only a book of history, but it is a unique history which prophesies of the things that will happen in His nation Israel, and by extension, the body of Messiah. It is a unique book of history-prophecy. So when we read of the judgment on the wicked, but God preserves those who are His perfectly safely through that judgment, we are reading a prophecy of our own future. 🙂