An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapters Twelve And Thirteen – Abraham And Sarah

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Chapter Twelve Abraham, aged 75, is quite happily living in Haran, when God orders him to take all he owns and his relatives to go and live in Canaan (an early name for Palestine). Abraham is told that the land of Palestine will be given to him, despite the indigenous populations already living there. (any objections they might have are irrelevant it seems) Abraham is told that he has divine protection. God will bless anyone who is kind to Abraham but anyone cursing or hurting Abraham will be cursed by God. Abraham is promised that he will one day know universal love from everyone. Abraham sets off from Haran, leading all his family and slaves. His wife Sarai and Lot, his nephew, also goes along. Abraham wanders blindly round Canaan, until God appears personally before him and tells him again that the land of Canaan will be given to Abraham. The first great patriarch, Abraham, sometimes spelt Abram, builds a shrine on the location of his vision of God. After a brief visit to Negev, Abraham heads to Egypt to escape a terrible famine ravaging the land. Abraham knows that he must do business with the Egyptians to secure food. The trouble is that the Egyptians are killing husbands to take their wives for their harem. Abraham therefore insists that Sarai pretends Abraham is really her brother because, though she will still become a sex slave, Abraham will be left alive to trade as he wishes. Abraham gains sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels and slaves for selling his wife (posing as his sister) to the Pharaoh. God plays along with this appalling utterly immoral deception, happily letting Abram sell his wife as a sex slave, and then punishes the Pharaoh for taking a man’s wife a a slave even though Pharaoh has been conned by Abraham. He had no idea Abraham was actually married to Sarai. He orders the pair out of Egypt before God can hurt him any more, but Abraham has taken all the goods he wants by deception, using his wife as a slave, and leaving many in Egypt to suffer in the famine he profits from. Chapter Thirteen Abraham enjoys his ill-gotten wealth and eventually returns to AI, where he had built that first altar temple. Unfortunately, Abraham’s expanded herds (thanks to effectively robbing the Pharaoh) are now competing for crops with Lot who already has a large body of livestock. Lot’s people and Abraham’s fall into violent dispute and Lot decides to leave Ai and set up his own kingdom on the other side of the river Jordan on the outskirts of the city of Sodom. The equally doomed companion city of Gomorrah is not yet mentioned. At this time the people of Sodom were allegedly sinning against God. It isn’t stated whether or not Lot or Abraham were aware of the city having this reputation. Abraham is again visited by God who promises him all the land he can see in every direction, forever. He tells Abraham that hi peoples and animals will one day outnumber the grains of sand in all the desert Abraham can see. Abram builds another altar to God. Arthur Chappell