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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Story of Abraham [3] Bible Verse:Genesis 12:10-20 (ESV) "Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, ”What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. " Message:
The veneer of civilization is thin, and as we see rather vividly demonstrated, Jewish morality has not yet come into being; the ten commandments and law of Moses are many centuries in the future. Abram and his band must go to Egypt or starve; but because Sarai (who is perhaps in her 30’s at this point) is beautiful, the Egyptians would probably have killed Abram on the spot and taken her.
Flight into Egypt by Albrecht Durer
Another flight into Egypt
about 1500 years after Abram.
And so Abram pretends that she is his sister and gives her to the Egyptians. Delicacy is impossible here; he has effectively sold his wife into high-level prostitution so that they might all live. And Sarai must have been beautiful indeed, for Abram gets a good price for her: all sorts of livestock and servants (who would have had a status somewhere in between servitude and slavery). Early monarchial civilizations, although a major step forward from the chaos of minor tribalism, were terribly hierarchical. So Abram, becoming the master of servants, got some social status as well as property.
Steps in the story have been lost; we know only that Pharaoh somehow learns that Sarai is Abram’s wife and that his afflictions spring from taking her as his own. The story has many parallels to the later account of Moses, although the Pharaoh seems more kindly disposed towards Abram than his later counterpart would be towards Moses.
Note on Middle Eastern geography and politics:
The Sinai Desert forms a natural barrier between Canaan and Egypt. Despite this geographical handicap, Egypt dominated Canaan in Abram’s day, simply because its civilization was so advanced so early in time.
As we know from Exodus, at some point the entire Hebrew tribe will be taken into slavery in Egypt. But the Sinai was a formidable barrier to a bronze-age army, and such a disadvantage to Egyptian influence that their domination disappeared fairly early, when other great civilizations arose with easier access to Canaan (such as the Assyrians).
In fact, once Moses escaped from Egypt, they would not trouble the Hebrews again . . . at least, not until 1967! And even then, the Sinai played a huge part in Egypt’s defeat.
Meditation : Prayer : May the Passion of Christ be ever in my heart. May your law and your goodness guide my every thought, O Lord. And may the power of your Holy Spirit flow through my words and my actions today, and always.........Amen |
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