April 20, 2018 - Day 12 - Genesis 12

I am writing from my desk in Seattle, WA.

Genesis 12:

We open with the Lord calling Abram to leave his country, people and father's house to go to some special land.  The Lord tells Abram that he's the coolest kid on the block.  Whoever is nice to Abram, the Lord will be nice to; whoever is mean to Abram, well, the Lord will whip some ass.  This sounds like something a king would write about himself.  I assume the author wants us to know that Abram is elite.  I choose to believe God is above cursing people.  Curses from God sound like a way for primitive humans to justify their ridiculous behavior.

So Abram, his wife (Sarai), and his nephew (Lot) head off for Canaan.  Low and behold, the Canaanites were there.  The Lord told Abram not to worry about those losers, and land was as good as his!  God sure does have favorites! lol

Abram headed to Bethel (shout-out to Steffany Gretzinger) and then continued toward the Negev.

To avoid the famine, Abram took an Uber down to Egypt.  Abram tells Sarai that because she's so hot, they'll kill him and keep her; so they are gonna pretend she's his sister so they can both live.  At this time in history, women were PROPERTY.  Nothing more.

Pharaoh's cronies saw her and got real excited (imagine the drooling dogs on old cartoons), brought her to Pharaoh's palace and then they treated Abram well.  Now this is a tough spot to be in.

Abram's choices are

1.  Stay and starve to death in Bethel
2.  Admit Sarai is his wife, die, and she becomes a concubine
3.  Say that Sarai is his sister, live, and she becomes a concubine

I'd be going for option 4, whatever that is.

Because they were so pleased with Sarai, Abram scored all kinds of loot:  sheep, cattle, donkeys (male and female), servants (male and female), and some camels.

The Lord gave some diseases to Pharaoh and his crew because of Sarai.  Remember that Pharaoh was using someone else's property, this is certainly not okay in antiquity.

Pharaoh was all pissed at Abram, told him to take his wife and GTFO.

Sometimes God gives diseases to the bad guys?  In Pharaoh's defense, he didn't know.  He was set up.

I'm not saying I feel bad for Pharaoh, but he didn't exactly have all the information he needed.



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