Day Two

In today’s readings I read about the end of the Great Flood, and the lineage that connected Noah to Abram. I also read about some of Abram’s adventures. In the New Testament, I read more about how Jesus fufilled the Old Testament prophecies and the Sermon on the Mount. The Psalms were notable for their crying out to YHWH while at the same time offering him praise.

This was new to me. “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” Gen. 11:31. How about that. Abram was not the first effort to get to the promised land. Terah made a run at it and then gave up. A little theme about God always working. One human fails, God moves on to the next. Interesting.

Here’s our morally ambiguous story for the day. Is Abram behaving as a model follower of God, or as a sinner?

Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Gen. 12:10-20. is it me, or is Abram showing some pimp tendancies here? Also, btw, why is God cursing Pharaoh who seems to be pretty much an innocent victim of Abram’s cowardice?