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Chapter 12 deals more completely with God's call to Abram. Notice that the call came in the "Glory of God", in such a manner as to leave no doubt as to the Divine authority of the call. "Leave your country and go to a land I will show you." In return, God promised Abram 6 things:
Abram was 75 years old when he left his home. As we have seen, he took with him his father Terah, his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. They traveled north to Haran a distance of some 700 miles where his father died. They then travel south and west into Canaan stopping close to Shechem a distance of about 600 miles. There Abram built an altar to the Lord.
Now in Canaan there was a famine. Certainly Abram must have wondered why God sent him into a country where there was no food, so Abram leaves Canaan and goes down into Egypt where food was abundant. Here he demonstrated very much a lack of faith.
Sarai, Abrams wife, was very beautiful, even at the age of 66. Going into Egypt, Abram reasoned that should the Egyptians take a fancy to her they would probably kill him so they could marry her. He had trusted God up to this point but here he demonstrated a lack of faith. So to the Egyptians, Abram introduced Sarai as his sister. At least he was half right, as she was his half sister. Sarai was taken into Pharaoh's palace and would have been taken into his bed had not God intervened.
God brought a sickness upon the house of Pharaoh and Pharaoh realized that Sarai was Abram's wife. Sometimes there is more honor among the heathen than among believers. Pharaoh was gentle and understanding with Abram. He commanded his army to escort Abram and his family out of Egypt.
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