Thursday Night Bible Study

-->

Genesis 12:5-20 

"Steppin Out" • 1.28.10 • Thursday Night Bible Study

Intro

- At 75 years old, Abram is about to set out on a journey that will encompass 100 years of life.

- He is leaving Haran, a place where most of the last remnants of his life laid. His Father was dead and most of what he knew about life was behind him.

- He is leaving his country, his home, and 99% of his relations. His nephew Lot has been allowed to travel with him, some have said, as a possible heir, seeing Abram was childless.

- God allowed Abram to take Lot. He always allows us to make our mistakes.

- In the following verses, we discover that bringing Lot along was only the first of several mistakes!

Text

• Genesis 12:5-10 : "Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people 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 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. 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. 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. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. 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.'" : The first five verses are similar to a tour guide book! The journey that Abram has been on covers over a thousand miles.

- The city of Haran was a place of prosperity for Abram and Lot.

- Abram left Haran with a lot more than he came into town with. He had acquired possessions, literally substance, likely refering to livestock, but is a generic term for anything that can be moved.

- Beyond possessions, notice also that they acquired people. Slaves or servants were added to Abram's caravan. We are meant to know that Abram was a rich individual.

- Haran to Canaan, was roughly a three hundred mile journey south. The city that he came to was Shechem.

- Shechem would later become a city of some importance and in Christ's time, it would be the dwelling place of the Samaritans. For now, it was a city by the terebinth tree of Moreh.

- At this time, the Canaanites were present. Abram saw them there already inhabiting this land. He must have wondered at it.

- These Canaanite nations were already a formidable group of people. How could Abram take possession of this land?

- Remember at this time, he has not been told which land would be his. God is about to show him that it's this land that he is staring at. God appears at this place and says, "We're here!"

- This same Canaan, already inhabited by the Canaanites, would one day belong to his descendants. God was going to give Abram's descendants this land.

- It is God's land to give, even though someone else currently occupies. The promise is for another time. This is often the case with the Lord.

- His promises are not always for this moment. Like Abram, faith requires that we learn to wait.

- When Abram hears this promise, his immediate response is to worship. He builds an altar to worship God for what He is going to accomplish!

- Abram makes a stop in Bethel, which is later known as Bethelehem. His journey would continue south. The only major place south is Egypt.

- Egypt is just a short jaunt from Bethel. Bethel is in the land of Canaan. The name means "house of God." But the house of God had no food in it!

- Verse 10 tells us that there was a famine in the land. In fact, it was a severe famine. Food or it's distribution, had been severely devastated in that region for one reason or another.

- This is an interesting development: The land that God has led him to has Canaanites in it and a famine has struck it.

- What would you feel about that? God, I have set my eyes to follow you and you bring me here, to a place that is not anything like I imagined? This place is hostile and it's barren.

- Abram makes a logical decision to move toward a place that DID make sense to him: Egypt.

- The Nile river runs through Egypt. The waterways that were engineered by the Egyptians kept all of the nation in a perpetual state of flourish.

- It was a natural place to dwell and wait out a famine. The problem however, is two fold: Primarily, God is not involved in his decision making.

- There is no discussion. God's advice is not solicited. This is a bad decision!

- The second is a common error that is made by each of us. In God's economy, the natural decision is not generally the spiritual decision!

- This decision made sense, but it will put the faith family in tremendous jeopardy.

˚ "Abram was not wrong for being concerned about famine and feeding his family, but Abram was wrong in thinking God would not provide for his needs in the place where God called him to live. After all, God called Abram to Canaan, not to Egypt."[i] David Guzik

- Where God does the leading, He'll do the feeding!

- Egypt was an advanced society, but was an idolatrous, polytheistic society. It made sense from just one standpoint, but did not take everything into account.

• Genesis 12:11-13 : "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. 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. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.'" : The bible gives us an excellent picture of what happens when crisis situations arise in the lives of a believer.

- You have to visualize the scenario. It's about dusk and Abram looks over at Sarai. He's thinking about how beautiful she looks in the light of the setting sun.

- According to Jewish legend, Sarai made all other women look like monkeys![ii]

- She turns and looks at him and smiles. It blows his mind, but then it awakens his fears.

- "This is a woman that I would kill for. What will the Egyptians do to me on account of her!?" The sign on the road said "Egypt: Next Exit!" Abram is freaking out!

- Let's examine the descent that Abram experienced. First, Abram poses a possible scenario. He only allows for one scenario, without the thought of God's involvement.

- Fear dictates what scenario will play in our minds. This is a natural response, but is godless.

- Egyptians WERE known to requisition new harem members and there was nothing anyone could do about it. It was possible that spouses would be eliminated just to avoid "complications."

- The second issue with Abram's thought process is that he only trusted to the worst outcome. Notice Abram's words: "They WILL kill me!"

- The scenario is real. The fear is real. But the outcome is not determined, except in Abram's mind. Abram forgets God's promise and consequently, who he is!

- Finally, Abram's solution trusts only in his own ingenuity.

- "Let's lie!" That's a great solution Abram! Tell them that she is your sister.

- Abram's view is skewed the most in this moment, as he involved Sarai in his faithlessness and trusted his own safety as her responsibility!

- Most poignant in these verses, is the fact that God is not even consulted. Abram, a man who has spoken to the Lord, followed Him, and trusted Him this far, falls in fear at this moment!

• Genesis 12:14-16 : "So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels." : Abram's worst fear did in fact become a reality. The Egyptians saw Sarai and brought her as a gift to their Pharoah.

- Abram, as the brother, becomes the negotiator for his "sisters" dowry! As she is led away, he is counting his new possessions! Not a good time!

- Fear has led them to this place, and often men who have bowed to fear, stand counting their riches in one hand, while watching their family go down in the other!

- As for Sarai, she was brought to his very palace. Abram's plan worked out fine in the short run. Pharoah treated Him great on account of her.

- The Pharoah made Abram even richer than he already was. But Abram was miserable. The woman that he loved was now the same as property in the house of this ungodly Pharoah.

• Genesis 12:17-20 : "But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 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? 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.' So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had." : The Lord shows up in a moment of desperation.

- He intervenes in just the right time. Abram must have wondered, "How am I going to reverse this situation?" I wonder if he said the words "I need a miracle!"

- All other recourse is spent. Thankfully, God bails Abram out. I wonder if how many times we could write that over our lives! Like Abram, we have gotten ourselves into all sorts of messes.

- By our own devices, we have fallen. How gracious God is to pick us up and save the day.

- God sends great plagues to Pharoah and His house. It is revealed to Pharoah that Abram is responsible for this. I would imagine that God literally spoke it to him.

- Understand this: The faithless person caused the worldly person pain! That's an interesting picture isn't it? Abram was supposed to be a blessing and here, his lack of faith brings a curse.

- Does our lack of obedience, wisdom, boldness or vision bring unnecessary suffering? What is the cost of a lack of faith? Perhaps we will never know.

- These plagues were not punitive. They were inflicted upon them for Sarai's protection.

- The Pharoah's words are painful. "What is this you have done to me?" Abram's lack of faith was more than just a lapse into unbelief. It was more than just a personal digression.

- Abram's lack of faith put Sarai into a compromising position and gave Pharaoh a poor impression of what a man of God should be.

- Listen to these words: "Here is your wife." The truth comes out and stings. In the end, the Pharoah sends him away.

- What a wasted opportunity? What sort of encounter do you think God intended Abram to have? What might have been accomplished?

Conclusion

- Part two of this message will be available next week...