When the Godly Stumble

Introduction

We are often given to assume that if God spoke to us directly we would automatically change our lives, and that such changes would last a lifetime. We read in the Bible about the children of Israel who witnessed the great plagues and then, three days after leaving Egypt, feared they would be killed by the approaching Egyptian army. Such great displays of power are met with such little faith. We criticize them and think that if we had lived then, we would not have been so faithless. That is an arrogant attitude. Such thinking reveals that we see ourselves as superior in faith to them. What we must remember is that God saved a faithless people for a purpose. There are occasions such as the stoning of Stephen in which faith is met with real tragedy. We must be careful not to be arrogant about our faith.

What we are often tempted to do is take a text and try to quickly discern what its message is for me. It is good to study for relevancy, but the thrust of the Bible is to teach us something about God. When we learn what a text says about God, then we will be better able to discover the relevant points for our lives. Such is the case in Genesis 12:10-20. We have a story of Abraham’s life as he relates to God and to his wife. It is a sad story. It is easy for us to criticize Abraham and his lack of faith. But the story is also designed to tell us something about God. When we understand what the text says about God, then we are better able to understand the point it makes for us. Tonight we will be looking at this first recorded episode of Abraham’s life following his call to trust God. We will find that we are not much different from Abraham. We will face our own faithlessness and yet be encouraged.

Review and Catastrophe

You will recall from Genesis 12:1-9 that God called Abraham to leave his past and trust him for his future. God’s call to Abraham came because God is a gracious God who wanted to do something special and unique with Abraham. There was nothing in Abraham’s past that would even begin to make us think that he was worthy of this calling. God graciously called him. Abraham responded with faith. He left behind family, culture, and familiarity and went to a place unknown to him. God promised to give to his offspring the land of Canaan, virtually promising that Abraham would be a man without a place to call home for the rest of his life. Abraham continued to trust God.

But at some point, times get tough. And when times get hard, Abraham begins to look for solutions. One day drifts into another and there is no rain. His livestock are beginning to show the results of little food. His family is finding it difficult to even subsist on the little bit of food he can find. Abraham must feed a large group, and there isn’t enough food. The time eventually comes when even if it did rain, it would be too late to do any good. Abraham, like all of us, is forced to consider what it is going to take to survive.

Throughout this section there is no mention of a vision or discussion with God. Abraham is no different from us. “Didn’t you promise to take care of me?” he might think. Food and water are necessities. “I gave up all to follow you,” he might bitterly think. “Where is God in my hour of need?” he longingly hopes. God is silent. The wells dry up. The grass dies. The ground is parched. Abraham stands in the heat of the sun with dust dried in his beard and he knows that he can’t hang on much longer before he will perish. And God is silent. Abraham is real. He is a man who, like us, struggles with difficulties. But what we see is that Abraham makes no attempt to seek an answer from God. We see him making a series of conscious choices to avoid difficulty.

There are times when we think that our faith is supposed to keep us from difficulty. We wonder why God remains silent in the face of trying circumstances. This famine is a test for Abraham. There are times in our lives in which we will be tested. Will we panic? Will we strike out on our own? Will we wait for God to act? It is usually easier for us to read about another person’s difficulties and know exactly how we would handle it. It is something else to be in the middle of despair and demonstrate faith. Staying and allowing God to work is hard. Refusing to panic and seek the quick fix is difficult. Faith demands that we not give up.

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

Abraham leaves Canaan to go to Egypt. There is no indication that God approves or disapproves. We need to notice that in verse 4, Abraham moves because God told him to. In verse 10, Abraham moves because he wants to move. The difference may or may not be significant. But the point mustn’t be lost. We should make sure that we explore all of God’s possibilities before we launch out. Abraham is focusing on survival. He wants to live. He isn’t ready to die. This intense desire to survive is seen as they approach the Egyptian border. Abraham is 75. Sarah is 65. She is still a good looking woman. Abraham instructs her to lie about their relationship. Sarah is to tell the officials that they are related by blood rather than by marriage. Why?

Verse 13 explains it very well. Abraham’s reasoning is completely selfish: Tell these lies so that I will be treated well. If Sarah is seen as his sister, then they will pay him for her. Abraham already has an idea that the officials will be interested in his wife as a possible companion. Might as well get something for her. Second, tell the lies so that I will not be killed. Let’s make sure that we have the proper picture. Abraham is focused on surviving. He wants to survive even if it means leaving the area God has shown him. He wants to survive even if his wife is taken from him. He wants to survive at all costs.

Abraham is willing to give up his wife in order to survive. He is willing for her to become another man’s wife in order to survive. Verse 15 says that Sarah was taken to Pharaoh’s palace. We want to take that to mean that she was placed in his harem. We want to believe that nothing sexual transpired between Pharaoh and Sarah. Political associations resulted in harem keeping. Abraham is not a kingdom to be reckoned with. Sarah went to Pharaoh’s palace to be his wife or concubine. This was not a political association. This was a marriage with all of its benefits. And verse 16 says Pharaoh favored Abraham financially.

Abraham exchanged his wife for goats. And he exchanged a promise from God for the immediate. When Abraham gave up Sarah, he gave up the promise. When we lose our focus in life, we exchange God’s desires for immediate gratification. Sitting under the stars at night surrounded by his new wealth, Abraham can now think about all the children he wasn’t going to have. His wife was gone. He settled for what he could see rather than trusting God to bring about the correct conclusion.

In troubled circumstances we have the real tendency to focus completely on the immediate. We want the suffering to end and are willing to do almost anything to make it happen. Abraham forgot the promise of God and his forgetfulness caused him to lose that which was most important to him—his wife, Sarah. When we lose perspective we will exchange the important and the vital for immediate gratification. We lose our patience. We want an immediate resolve. But sometimes things don’t happen quickly. Sometimes famines last a while. Look at the progression away from God’s plan in which Abraham moves. A trial arises. He doesn’t seek God’s direction. He makes his own decision to slice into God’s promise by leaving the land. Then he tells lies. He exchanges the person through whom God will bring children for some financial gain.

Jesus said that when you exchange your soul for financial gain you really have made a bad swap. Abraham exchanged the important for the temporary. And he seems satisfied with his decision. But God isn’t going to leave him alone.

God Never Forgets

Abraham forgot the promise but God hasn’t. God inflicts Pharaoh’s household with disease. Pharaoh is a smart cookie. He quickly associates the disease with his new wife. He gets rid of Sarah and gets rid of Abraham from Egypt. God makes sure that Abraham has to go back to the land where he was supposed to stay. God hasn’t forgotten his promises. Pharaoh appears to be an innocent bystander. But even innocent bystanders are hurt by the sin of God’s people. For all the faith that Abraham is supposed to possess in leaving his culture, family, and familiar surroundings, he is displaying a great deal of faithlessness. But God hasn’t forgotten his promises. He will bring them about. You see, this passage is about God’s determination to fulfill his covenant with Abraham. The point about our lives is found in this one truth: Our God is busily involved in our lives bringing about the fulfillment of his will for our lives.

Abraham is faithless in this passage. But God is faithful. Abraham is visionless and directionless. But God knows the path. Abraham is deceitful. God is full of truth. The point of this passage is to show us God’s ability to bring success out of one man’s failure. Our God doesn’t give up. We may doubt him and his presence. We may not see any clear demonstration of his presence, but our God doesn’t give up. He knows exactly where we are going. And when we fail to listen, he provides a way for us to get back on track.

We are not left alone. This passage speaks of God’s great determination to keep us on track. Our God does not leave us or forsake us. He is committed to finishing what he has started in us. Like Abraham we may forget. We may get overwhelmed with the present. But our God is not distracted by outside occurrences. He maintains his focus so that we can be with him forever. This text should bring us some comfort in knowing that Abraham is completely human. This man of great faith had a hard time staying focused. But then so do we. But this passage also reminds us of God’s diligence and refusal to give up on us. Such a God is worthy of our praise and our rededication to trying to stay close to him.

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