July 4, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Psalm 78-80

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 12:1-20 (NASB95)
¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; ² And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; ³ And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” ⁴ So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶ Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸ Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; ¹² and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. ¹³ “Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” ¹⁴ It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵ Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶ Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. ¹⁷ But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸ Then 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,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.” ²⁰ Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Hebrews 11:8 (NASB95)
⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. ^[1]

Abram was called by God to go out into a new land and to become a great nation.  When God gave the blessing to Abram, it applied to all of his children as well.  I believe that one of the reasons that America is so prosperous in today's world is because we have supported Israel as a nation from the beginning.  Originally America held true to the values which are written in the Bible.  We held it as a book of authority in the highest courts and our public school system, and have just recently abandoned the Bible in our nation.  Yet we still support Israel, God may continue to tolerate our pride and our blatant efforts to kick Him out of America partially due to our support of Israel.  If America withdraws the support from Israel, as a nation, we should beware.  Today is the Fourth of July, we are celebrating Independence Day.  I hope that as all Christians through our great land consider this, they also consider a need to return to the Lord.  That we join together to campaign for Jesus Christ, speaking to all who will listen about the need to return to Him as Lord not only of our lives, but also of our nation.  Enough on that, let's continue with the study.

Through this chapter Abram moves on God's command to a new country.  How often is it that people say that when they are in the will of God they will be blessed?  Abram wasn't blessed, he faced severe famine which caused him to have to move again.  He wasn't a young kid either, at 75 years old he packed up his family and took off for Egypt.  This was after he had built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him.  This was after he had obeyed the will of God and traveled to a far country.  Remember, it wasn't like calling in the movers to move you, they did it the hard way.  They loaded their belongings up on pack animals.  They also drove herds of sheep and farm animals along with them because they provided food and displayed wealth.  Moving was difficult, it was hard to do, and it was full of danger.  Christians live in a world of illusion a lot of times.  In the study today we see a man of God who walked with God and listened to Him.  Yet trials came upon his life, severe trials that caused major life changes.  I seriously doubt that Abram looked at the famine in the land and picked up at the first sign of trouble.  He probably tried to make it in the land, then left for Egypt as a last resort, after all, God had promised to make him a great nation, in the land that He was in. 

In verses 11-20 we see where Abram the faithful became Abram the unbelieving.  God had promised to protect him and to make him a great nation in the previous verses.  Yet here he is concerned for his life, concerned that Pharaoh would kill him in order to take his wife.  God had already spoken with Abram, He had personally assured Abram that he would become a great nation.  We know that up to this point Abram was childless. 

Before we are too hard on Abram, first consider where he had been.  He had demonstrated great faith in leaving his land at the calling of God and moving to a new land.  In moving into the new land, his family suffered from famine, which means that they were starving to death.  Then they had to leave the land that God had promised to move to another land where evil people lived.  People who were so evil that they would kill and old man and take his wife.  Things were not looking good for Abram.  His faith suffered in spite of the sacrifices that he had made and his faithfulness in following God's command.  Perhaps by this time Abram had started to doubt and perhaps he felt that it was necessary to take things into his own hands, no longer believing that God would fulfill His promise. 

Whatever the reason, Abram deceived the Egyptians in an effort of self preservation.  He also placed Sarai in a very bad place where she was required to act as a wife to Pharaoh. Then God brought judgment upon Pharaoh and his land.  Even though Abram was faithless, God was faithful and held to the promise that He had given to Abram.  Pharaoh not only gave Sarai back, he sent Abram away with all of his belongings.  In other words, Abram got away without any penalty for his sin.  

Genesis 20:12 (NASB95)
¹² “Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; ^[2]

Abram deceived the Egyptians, but it is not a blatant outright lie, it was a deception where truth was used in order to deceive, which makes it worse than a lie.  Abram did not learn his lesson with this incident, later we will see that he tells the same lie in a different land.   

In closing I would like to emphasize that God does not give his kids great blessings just because they are following Him.  He doesn't make things glorious and prosperous when we are in the center of His will.  Sometimes, just like Abram, we may feel that we need to take things in our own hands because God seems to be silent. That is the time when we need to lean upon the Lord just a little more, resisting the urge to follow our own devices in order to continue to follow Him.  There is a great deception being spread through America today, it is the gospel of prosperity. God does not always bless His kids with great wealth and prosperity simply because they are faithful in worshipping Him. As we have seen in Abram's life, good things don't always come to those who are faithful.  Sometimes things go very bad.  Remember though, God is still faithful, He still will fulfill His promise.  Lean upon Him and don't let the devil steal away the faith that God has placed in your heart.

Father, as we consider Your word, build the faith in each of us as we study Abram's faith.  Let our faith be built upon the facts of Abram's life.

In Him,

Joe Turner.