{"id":4148,"date":"2014-12-15T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T16:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=4148"},"modified":"2014-12-15T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T16:18:07","slug":"genesis-chapter-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=4148","title":{"rendered":"Genesis Chapter 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Genesis\"<\/a>God for the first time is not dealing with all of mankind but with a people.\u00a0 The people God chooses is the descendants of Abram.\u00a0 Abram and Sarai, and he will be the father of the Jewish race and one who will bless all of us through Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We see them building altars and meeting with God.\u00a0 In verse 7 we see God appeared to them.\u00a0 This theophany is understood to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.\u00a0 Abram is told this is the land that I will give you pointing out the land of Canaan.\u00a0 Remember the Canaanites where a cured people by God.\u00a0 However, a famine was in the land so Abram and Sarai turns to the world (Egypt seems to always be a picture of the world).\u00a0 Remember Abram had a promise and God will fulfill that promise even in Canaan.\u00a0 As they get closer to the world they come up with a plan to lie and cover up who they are.\u00a0 When we get too close to the world we desire to \u201cfit in\u201d and forsake who we are in Christ.\u00a0 The pharaoh did like Sarai and took her in to be his wife.\u00a0 I know Sarai must have been a young looking 75!\u00a0 Pharaoh is told of Sarai in verse 15 and the word commended is used.\u00a0 This word is the first time the Hebrew word for praise is used. \u00a0This word elsewhere is used most of the time to praise God.\u00a0 With that thought this could mean not only did her outward beauty shine but her inward godliness shone.\u00a0 Because of God\u2019s promise, Pharaoh was cursed by God in some noticeable way and he confronted Abram.\u00a0 They were expelled from Egypt.\u00a0 What would have happened if they did not try to blend in? Maybe many in Egypt would have turned to God.\u00a0 Maybe you and I blend in too much.\u00a0 What would happen in our town if we stood up for God and trusted His promises?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4149,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148\/revisions\/4149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}