Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
“The God who calls the world into existence now calls a community into being. Is the Creator able to be a Redeemer? The future destiny of all humankind is wrapped up in the future of a particular people. As the primeval saga leads to despair, so the patriarchal stories evoke hope."(Asbury Bible Commentary)
"God made choice of Abram, and singled him out from among his fellow-idolaters, that he might reserve a people for himself, among whom his true worship might be maintained till the coming of Christ. From henceforward Abram and his seed are almost the only subject of the history in the Bible.” (Matthew Henry Commentary)
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
Abram was called "out into the fields and hills, far away from the custom comforts..." (Edith Schaeffer) "Those who leave their sins, and turn to God, will be unspeakable gainers by the change. The command God gave to Abram, is much the same with the gospel call, for natural affection must give way to Divine grace. Sin, and all the occasions of it, must be forsaken; particularly bad company.” (Matthew Henry) Christians are admonished: “Do not be unequally yoked together (Deut 22:10) with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor 6:14-15) The LORD God has something better for us than the idolatry of Ur or the city life of Haran.
"Genesis 12:5. They took with them the souls that they had gotten — That is, the proselytes they had made, and persuaded to worship the true God, and to go with them to Canaan; the souls which (as one of the rabbis expresseth it) they had 'gathered under the wings of the Divine Majesty.'" (Benson Commentary)
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
"Sichem; Heb. Sechem, a place afterwards so called in the mountains of Ephraim, Joshua 21:21 Judges 8:31, and here so called by anticipation.
The Canaanite is properly so called; that cursed, cruel, impious, and idolatrous nation: see Zechariah 14:21. This is added as an aggravation of Abram’s faith and obedience, that he durst and did profess the true religion in the midst of such a people, which could not be without great danger both of his estate and life.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary)
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Then Yahweh appeared to Abram—It seems that this was a physical appearance of Yahweh of Glory. Stephen preached: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran…” (Acts 7:2-3)
To your descendants I will give this land. The promise is not to give the land to Abram, but rather to his descendants. The Canaanites were "then in the land, as a settled inhabitant to continue there for a long time; whereas now in Moses’s time he was forthwith to be expelled out of it.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary)It was not until after the exodus from Egypt and occupation of Canaan, in the time of the prophets and kings, that Nehemiah the prophet praised God saying: "You are the LORD God, who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham; You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites… to give it to his descendants. You have performed Your words, for You are righteous.” (Neh 9:7-8)
"And there builded an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him: by way of gratitude and thankfulness for his kind and gracious appearance, and for the gift of the land of Canaan to his offspring; for on this altar he no doubt offered sacrifice in a way of thanksgiving, as Noah did when he came out of the ark.” (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible) "By this solemn act of devotion Abram made an open profession of his religion, established the worship of the true God, and declared his faith in the promise.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)
Yahweh chose Abram, and brought him out, and began to orchestrate the events in his life. It may seem that faith alone pleased God, but faithful hearts are obedient ones. God later praised him because he “obeyed my voice and kept my charge (mishmereth)—my commandments (mitzvah-- obedience of the command to get out), my statutes (chuqqah- built altars exhibiting faith in the blood atonement of the Redeemer), and my laws (torah-- called upon the name of Yahweh-- Gen 4:26)." (Gen 26:5)
Chuqqah "includes teachings which are accepted as divine decrees, despite their sometimes incomprehensibility and, in the most extreme cases, their seeming irrationality." It “comes from the root choq. The ancient pictographic meaning is of a wall and the sun rising. It draws a picture of something that is separated and then brought back together, being revealed or illuminated by light. The two qofs in chuqqah indicate a repetition or pattern. This is why it is also translated as to engrave, as to make a mark to distinguish i.e., a distinguishing mark that illuminates… One of its closest cognates is chuqar, which means to search out. The idea is that there are certain commandments that are hard to be understood until further information shines a light on it.” [http://www.wildbranch.org – lesson 158]
Paul taught: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Heb11:8)
8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
"and there he builded an altar unto the Lord: as he had done at Sichem; for wherever he went he worshipped God, and offered sacrifice unto him:
and called upon the name of the Lord: prayed unto him for fresh mercies, as well as gave thanks for past ones;... 'he called in the name of the Lord', he called upon Jehovah the Father, in the name of his Son, the glorious Mediator, who had appeared unto him, and whose day he saw and was glad. " (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible)
Genesis 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
'This famine must have happened within a few years after Abram reached Canaan.” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers) "Not only to punish the iniquity of the Canaanites, but to exercise the faith of Abram.” (Benson Commentary) Egypt did not have the connotation of sin that it has for us after the 400-year captivity of Israel. "He did not go back to the place of his nativity, as regretting his pilgrimage and despising the promised land (Heb 11:15), but withdrew for a while into a neighboring country.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary) “And his going thither only to sojourn, and with an intention to return again to Canaan, shows the strength of his faith in the promise; and so far was he from going back to his own country, from whence he came, that he went directly the contrary, for Chaldee lay north east of Canaan, and Egypt south west…" (Gill’s Exposition)
11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
But yes, the man of faith did not tell the whole truth. “This was in fact a half-truth. Sarai was Abram’s half sister (Genesis 20:12). Yet a half-truth is a whole lie. Abram’s intent here was clearly to deceive, and he trusted in his deception to protect him instead of trusting in the LORD.” (David Guzik)
"There is no state on earth free from trials, nor any character free from blemishes. There was famine in Canaan, the glory of all lands, and unbelief, with the evils it ever brings, in Abram the father of the faithful. Perfect happiness and perfect purity dwell only in heaven. Abram, when he must for a time quit Canaan, goes to Egypt, that he might not seem to look back, and meaning to tarry there no longer than needful. There Abram dissembled his relation to Sarai, equivocated, and taught his wife and his attendants to do so too. He concealed a truth, so as in effect to deny it, and exposed thereby both his wife and the Egyptians to sin.” (Matthew Henry)
"The world would no doubt exclaim against Abraham’s folly, and augur his ruin; and they are apt to do the same concerning men who enter on a religious course, and seek the happiness of heaven. But let the faithfulness of God to Abraham encourage us to persevere.
He received these promises in uncircumcision, but he believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Venture then sinner on this promised Saviour, and you shall now be accepted as righteous by faith only, for faith is the first condition of the covenant. On embracing Christ you are justified by his blood, and accepted in his person. You are then accounted righteous through Christ, and have a full title to eternal life.
Abraham’s faith was afterwards made perfect by works. View him leaving his country, venturing among strangers, and resting on the promises alone. He neither built a city, nor returned in the time of famine and persecution; but fixed his heart, his stedfast heart on a better country. Brethren, let us follow his example, and let us not fail to bring our families with us as he did; for the promises are made to us and our children.” (Sutcliffe's Commentary)