Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.”
(Genesis 12:10)

Abram didn’t consult God about this. Yes, there was a famine. But a famine is not always a reason to flee. The question is what God wanted you to do. Where was God wanting to go? Abram should have consulted God to find out whether to go to Egypt or how he should have gone if he was going. It isn’t unusual. Abram’s son Isaac was told what to do when it was his turn to encounter a famine (Genesis 26:2). Whatever God told him to do, it would NOT have included falsehood. God ALWAYS does things in a righteous way and ALWAYS tells us to do things in a righteous way.

The sage Rabbeinu Bahya writes: ‘ויהי רעב בארץ וירד אברם, “there was a famine in the land and Avram descended, etc.” Our sages (Tanchuma Lech Lecha 9) told us that what happened to the patriarchs and is reported in the Torah serves as a preview of what would happen to their descendants in the future. Everything which happened in this passage foreshadowed what happened to the Israelites in Egypt during their exile hundreds of years later. The Egyptians took Avram’s wife from him and G-d punished them with great plagues and He allowed Avram to leave the land of Egypt with both livestock and silver and gold in great quantities. Pharaoh even ordered a guard of honour to accompany Avram out of his country. History repeated itself during the exile and subsequent Exodus of the Jewish people. This is what we read in Bereshit Rabbah 40,8 “whatever happened to Avraham happened to the Israelites. In connection with Avram, the Torah says: ‘there was a famine in the land, whereas we find in Genesis 45,6 that Joseph speaks to his brothers about two years of famine which had already passed at that time. We read in connection with Avram: “the woman was taken to the house of Pharaoh,” whereas in connection with the Israelites in Egypt the decree to kill the male babies meant that the women were taken as slaves by the Egyptians (practical meaning of Exodus 1,22 ‘let every daughter live.’) In connection with Avram we read (12,17) “G-d brought great plagues on the house of Pharaoh and his servants on account of Sarai, Avram’s wife.” In connection with the Israelites in Egypt the Torah writes: “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh (Exodus 11,1). We read in connection with Avram that he was called in to Pharaoh (12,18-19) and told “take your wife and leave!” In connection with the Israelites, (Exodus 12,31) Moses and Aaron were called in to Pharaoh and told to leave the country with all their belongings. There are several more quotations in that Midrash showing the similarity of what Avram and the Israelites experienced in Egypt.’

The sage Radak writes: ‘מצרימה, generally speaking, there was always plenty of food in Egypt even if famine was prevalent in neighbouring countries because Egypt did not depend on rain from above, but relied on the waters of the river Nile which were most dependable both in quality and in quantity. Even the Torah mentions this as an advantage of Egypt in Deut. 11,10 when comparing the land of Israel to that of Egypt. Avram could not cope with the famine in the land of Canaan, due to all his herds and flocks requiring water and grazing land. Besides, by then he had a household comprising many people for whose welfare he was responsible. לגור שם, he did not intend to settle in Egypt, only to wait out the famine there.’