Introduction:
A. The story is told of a young boy who came home from practice all decked out in his baseball outfit.
1. Cheerfully, his mom asked him, “How did Little League go?”
2. The little boy growled, “Terrible! I struck out three times!”
3. Trying to console her son, his mom said, “That’s okay, it’s all part of the game, honey.”
4. With exasperation the little boy said, “Mom, it’s T-Ball!”
B. Indeed, failure is a part of life – even in T-Ball!
1. All of us experience failure. All of us make mistakes. And all of us commit sin.
2. Sometimes even the faithful fail.
a. The good and the godly are imperfect. The strong can become weak. Heroes can falter.
3. There are at least two good reasons we should avoid putting people on a pedestal.
a. First, we set ourselves up for disillusionment because we will inevitably see flaws in our heroes at some point.
b. Second, pedestals come with expectations that no mere human can meet and we don’t do the people we admire any favors by placing unrealistic burdens on their shoulders.
4. So, no one should be put on a pedestal, whether they are the people we admire in our lives today or the people we admire in Scripture.
a. Any person, other than Jesus, whom we think is perfect, is someone we don’t know completely, because there is no way they are perfect!
5. Scripture tells the truth about our biblical heroes and all of them had their moments of mistakes, failures and sins.
a. Noah had that drunken episode.
b. Moses had that angry episode.
c. David had that adulterous and murderous episode.
d. Peter had that cowardly, denial episode.
e. And the list could go on.
C. And since we are studying the life of Abraham, can you guess what we will discover about him?
1. Was he perfect? Absolutely not. Did he make mistakes and commit sins? Yes he did.
2. For the most part, what we looked at last week about Abraham’s first steps of faith portray him as a hero.
3. While it is true that complete obedience came gradually for him, we need to tip our hat to him.
4. Having heard God’s call, Abraham picked up and left, abandoning his lifelong home, leaving friends and most of his family.
5. That was amazing enough by itself, but then add to it the fact that he did it not knowing where he was going.
6. On top of that, add to it the fact that he was a man in his mid-seventies!
7. How many older adults like change? Most of us prefer the familiar over the unfamiliar, especially as we age!
8. So in many ways, Abraham’s first steps of faith are nothing short of admirable and praiseworthy.
I. The Story
A. This is where we pick up and continue our story today in Genesis 12.
1. Verse 10 says: Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
2. Here we watch Abraham face his first challenge when a severe famine swept the area.
3. The land of Canaan where Abraham was living had a moderate climate much like parts of California.
a. In good years, when there was rain, the land produced an abundant harvest, but in drought years, the land could become parched and dry, and the grass would wither.
b. For those, like Abraham, whose livelihood depended on pasturing flocks, the dry years were difficult.
c. When food became scarce in Canaan, Abraham became fearful, and even though God had called him to the land of Canaan, he felt the need to leave and head to Egypt.
B. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Abraham asked God’s permission to go to Egypt, but based on how things played out in Egypt, it does not appear that Abraham was following God by faith.
1. Until the famine struck, we see Abraham talking to God and building altars to memorialize his relationship with the Almighty.
2. But once the famine became severe, we don’t see him making any prayers or altars.
3. Rather than seeking God’s lead, Abraham made a beeline for where the caravan merchants said he could find food in abundance.
C. For Abraham, Canaan and Egypt were two real places in a real world, but for us these two places have theological and symbolic implications.
1. Biblical scholar, F.B. Meyer writes: “In the figurative language of Scripture, Egypt stands for an alliance with the world…Abraham acted simply on his own judgment. He looked at his difficulties and became paralyzed by fear. He grasped at the first means of deliverance that suggested itself, much as a drowning man will catch at a straw.”
2. In the Bible, Egypt is always presented to us as a picture or symbol of the world.
a. It was where the children of Israel were held in bondage to Pharaoh for 400 years.
b. Even after they were delivered by the power of God, Israel still longed for what they had left behind in Egypt.
3. Later in Israel’s history, the prophet Isaiah used Egypt to symbolize the nation’s response to an invasion crisis. Isaiah wrote: “What sorrow awaits those who look at Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 31:1).
4. Our own personal escape to Egypt can take many forms.
a. Some people escape through drugs or alcohol, overeating or overspending, gambling or other addictions, like pornography.
b. Some choose a busy social life, or a sexual affair.
c. Some seek money or status or fame to escape from their spiritual famine.
5. Ultimately, whenever we try to satisfy our spiritual needs with worldly resources, we have fled from Canaan and have escaped to Egypt.
D. For Abraham, running to Egypt was not a sinful decision, per se, but like all decisions made without faith, turning to Egypt became a precursor to a moral tumble.
1. Abraham’s story continues in verses 11-13: 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
2. In case any of us are feeling superior right now, thinking that we’d never lie the way Abraham did in this situation, we need to remember the warning from Scripture: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” (1 Cor. 10:12-13)
3. Most of our days do not begin with an intention to fall into sin, but suddenly we face a crisis, a challenge to our faith, and then our default response takes over.
4. At this point in his life, Abraham’s default was not faith, but falsehood.
E. Many times we are tempted to rationalize our falsehood, and that was certainly an easy thing for Abraham to do for a number of reasons.
1. First of all, technically speaking, “Abraham’s falsehood contained a half-truth.
a. It is what many today would call “a little white lie.”
b. In addition to being his wife, Sarah was, in fact, his half-sister; they were born of the same father, but had different mothers (Gen. 20:12).
2. Second, Abraham undoubtedly rationalized his lie as necessary to save his own life.
a. By claiming to be Sarah’s brother, Abraham hoped to leverage local custom to his advantage.
b. He might have been killed as her husband, but ancient laws made him her guardian as her brother.
c. So anyone interested in taking Sarah as a wife would have had to approach Abraham for marriage arrangements.
3. And here we come to one of the most startling aspects of the story - Sarah is no spring chicken.
a. Sarah was at least 65 years old at this point in the story, and yet her beauty is so exquisite that Abraham feared that he would be killed because of her beauty.
b. And as we will see, Abraham wasn’t just paranoid, she was more than just beautiful in his eyes, her beauty at that age just might have gotten him killed.
F. The Bible says: 14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. (Gen. 12:14-16)
1. It appears that not long after Abraham and Sarah came to Egypt, someone called his bluff and his plan backfired.
2. Rather than giving him some wiggle room, his little ploy created a hopeless trap.
a. When the Pharaoh’s officials sang her praises to the Pharaoh, he quickly claimed her for his harem.
3. We can only imagine the anxiety Abraham and Sarah both must have felt at this point.
4. Fortunately, ancient marriage rituals included a waiting period long enough to ensure that a bride wasn’t already pregnant.
a. So Sarah lived inside the palace, but was protected from sexual contact from anyone, including the king, for a time.
b. Meanwhile, Pharaoh sent Abraham numerous wedding gifts in anticipation of the big day!
c. Did you notice all that came to him as gifts? Sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and servants – both menservants and maidservants.
d. It is likely that one of those maidservants was an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
e. Although no fault of her own, she will be forced to play a big and difficult role in the story of Abraham and Sarah and their descendents.
f. The price of living in “Egypt” is always a higher price than we realize, and a higher price than we would knowingly want to pay.
5. So while Sarah faced no immediate risk of being violated, imagine how she must have been feeling about her husband and his little plan.
6. Abraham’s little lie, which was intended to protect himself, had put his wife and his marriage at risk.
7. Once we move away from walking with God, our old habits and default behaviors take over and we often find ourselves mired in deception and trapped in sin.
a. And many times our sins don’t just affect us, but also brings suffering on our loved ones.
8. How in the world was Abraham going to get he and Sarah out of this damaging and dangerous dilemma?
G. God to the rescue! Thankfully, the God who had made such wonderful promises to Abraham was watching out for him and was willing to intercede and provide a way out of this dilemma.
1. The Bible says: 17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had. (Gen. 12:17-20)
2. We don’t know how long Sarah was in the harem of the Pharaoh before God inflicted the serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household, but I’m guessing it wasn’t very long.
3. Being an idolater and a superstitious man, the Pharaoh likely wondered if he had offend one of the gods or perhaps a rival territorial deity.
4. Somehow he discovered the truth that Sarah already had a husband.
5. Perhaps she drew his suspicion when she alone did not get sick when the rest of his household took ill.
6. The great irony of the story is that God used a pagan king to rebuke his chosen servant.
a. Abraham should have been morally superior to the king of Egypt and should have been able to shine the light of the one true God into Pharaoh’s darkness, but that is not what happened.
b. In the end, Pharaoh demonstrates more character and better morals than God’s chosen servant.
7. We can’t help but wonder what kind of opinion Pharaoh had of Abraham’s God after that episode.
a. And today we might wonder how many people have yet to embrace the God of the Bible because they have witnessed the many failings of Christians who claim to be devoted to God.
8. With all the power that Pharaoh had, we might have expected him to strip Abraham of his possessions and toss him into prison, or simply have him executed.
a. Pharaoh did neither, perhaps because he thought he had endured enough suffering at the hands of Abraham’s God, so he simply deported Abraham along with his wife, relatives and ill-gotten gifts.
b. Abraham didn’t leave of his own accord, rather Pharaoh sent him packing…how humiliating!
H. I’m guessing that when Abraham returned to Canaan the famine was still happening, since it appears that he had not been in Egypt very long.
1. Do you think Abraham came back to Canaan a little wiser for the wear? I hope so.
2. I wish I could say that he never defaulted to falsehood ever again, but he does the same thing in a later part of the story, which illustrates how hard it is to break our old patterns.
II. The Application
A. As we move toward the conclusion of this lesson, I want to quickly share with you four principles that emerge from this short account of Abraham’s wavering faith and default response.
1. I am borrowing these from Charles Swindoll’s summary of this chapter in his book on Abraham.
B. First of all, we must realize that everyone faces famines.
1. Some of the famines we face are severe and can seemingly come out of nowhere.
2. Perhaps the famine that strikes us is the worst possible news from the doctor, or a divorce, or the death of a loved one. It may be unemployment or bankruptcy.
3. When the famine strikes, we face a crisis of faith and are forced to ask: “In what and whom do I really trust?”
4. While our famines are fearsome and sometimes destructive, they provide an opportunity for us to grow deeper in our relationship with God.
5. Last Wednesday night, Joyce Perkins happened to mention to me something that Darlene Bastin, Joyce’s close friend who was the wife of a preacher and a mother who died at 37 years old from cancer. Darlene had mentioned that her battle with cancer had been an answer to her prayer to draw closer to God and she wouldn’t trade what she had gained for anything.
6. Going through our famines appropriately can do for our relationship with God what nothing else can do.
C. Second, we must realize that every escape contains a lie.
1. When we do anything we can to avoid facing our crisis of faith, and when we seek to escape through our old, familiar methods, we tell ourselves a lie: “I can handle this without God.”
2. When we turn to our old habitual default response, the coping strategy that has always worked for us, we are trying to escape our test rather than walking through it in the power of God.
3. Satan’s lies take many forms, but at their center is the lie that there is a better or easier way than God’s way, but the truth is there isn’t.
D. Third, we must realize that every Abraham struggles with a weakness.
1. And for most of us, we struggle with more than just one weakness.
2. Everyone, including the good and godly, have their share of imperfections and flaws.
3. These weaknesses cause us to make unwise choices as well as selfish and sinful choices.
4. Our only hope in overcoming these weakness is to draw nearer to God and depend upon God’s power to transform.
E. Fourth, we must realize that every compromise jeopardizes a Sarah.
1. Whenever we revert to our default response, someone gets hurt, usually the ones who are closest to us.
2. Our lives consist of relationships arranged in concentric circles.
a. Those living in the closest circles are most directly affected by our sinful default choices.
b. But the ripple effect of those default choices can move out to everyone connected to us.
3. In that sense, there is no such thing as a victimless sin, including our most private sins.
4. We may sin alone in secret, but the effects radiate to others and jeopardize their wellbeing.
Conclusion:
A. Allow me to end with an illustration from history that offers us a good example.
B. Hudson Taylor was a pioneering missionary in China during the late nineteenth century.
1. Near the close of his life, the Boxer Uprising broke out in China which was a violent attack on all foreigners and foreign influence in China.
2. The attacks were aimed especially at Christian missionaries and Chinese Christian converts.
3. While the government of China looked the other way, so-called “boxers” (gangs of Chinese street thugs) attacked foreign embassies, missionary compounds, and churches – terrorizing, pillaging, raping and killing.
4. Every day, new reports came to Hudson Taylor’s missionary headquarters of the death and persecution of missionaries and Chinese Christians.
5. Hudson Taylor had spent his life evangelizing China and building up the Chinese church and now it all seemed to be crumbling before his eyes.
6. One day, when the news was particularly bleak, Taylor’s associates wondered if the discouragement would be too much for the elderly man.
7. Hudson Taylor had spent the morning alone in his house, and when his associates came to see him in the afternoon, they feared they would find him discouraged and depressed.
8. But as they approached the house, they were encouraged to hear him singing aloud this hymn:
Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness, of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bade me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul.
For by Thy transforming power, Thou hast made me whole.
C. Are you going through a time of testing and trial that makes it difficult to cling to faith in God?
1. Are you facing a famine in some area of your life?
2. Are you tempted to escape your famine experience by fleeing to Egypt?
3. We may find some temporary relief in Egypt, but the price we will pay is more than we would ever want to pay.
D. I want to encourage all of us to remain in the “promised land,” even in the times of famine.
1. When life is so hard, we must hold tightly to God saying: “I trust you, Lord. I know you will see me through this experience. I will stay right here with you in the land of famine, and I will worship you at this altar. I will not be moved from my trust in You!”
2. When we do that, then we can rest in the joy of who God is, and see the greatness of His loving heart.
3. And when we do that, then God’s beauty fills our souls, and through God’s transforming power we are made whole.
Resources:
Abraham – One Nomad’s Amazing Journey of Faith, by Charles Swindoll, Tyndale, 2014.
Friend of God – The Legacy of Abraham, Man of Faith, by Ray Stedman, Discovery House, 2010.
