Genesis 12. 10-20 Faith and failure.

Living in the Negev, the “Dry Place” ( where there can eb no rain throghout the summe) on the southern side of Canaan, Abram found himself in the middle of a famine (v. 10).  This, in the land of promised blessings,  was a severe test of Abram's faith.  So, he headed off  to Egypt, a fairly prosperous place where people commonly went in times of famine. Records from Egyptian border officials show that people were often allowed to enter the land to find food. Years later, Abram’s grandson Jacob would look to Egypt in time of famine. But there's a problem, entering into this big, powerful pagan country.
Fear cut in as Abram analysed the facts (you are a woman beautiful to behold) and assumes the worst (the Egyptians will kill me).  (11-12)   Remember Dr Hook?  “When you're in love with a beautiful woman...”
When you're in love with a beautiful woman You know it's hard
Everybody wants her Everybody loves her, Everybody wants to take your baby home.
Only it wasn't his friends Abram had to watch, it was the king, Pharaoh., who would “want to take his baby home” and kill him to get him out of the way. 

We open ourselves up to fear when we add to the facts (Sarai was no doubt a beautiful woman) and add in our own assumptions, as though they were part of the facts.  Functioning well in challenging times, depends in part, on knowing the difference between the facts, and our negative assumptions about the facts. 

Failure. But don't worry. Abram had a scheme, so clever you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox.  In fact he had already decided, before they even set off on their journeys, that the time might come when they would claim to be brother and sister.  It was a  half-truth: Sarai was his half-sister (an arrangement we find abhorrent but which was tolerated four thousand years ago) and there is ancient evidence for the idea of  there being a  special social status attaching to a “sister-wife”.  But despite all that, the intention was to deceive.  So Abram said to Sarai, “Say you are my sister”. (13-15).   You remember the phrase “being economical with the truth”   made famous by Lord Armstong during the “Spycatcher” trial in Australia.  At that trial when barrister Malcolm Turnbull asked a really good question: “What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?”  

So here was Abram, set on minimising the risk to himself while subjecting Sarai to the discomfort of separation from family, living in a Royal Harem, with the possibility of having to give herself physically to a man she didn't love.  Abram was no gentleman at this point in his life.  He was a coward.  And he was so short sighted.  Sure, nothing happened. Abram rightly guessed that Sarai would not have been allowed anywhere near the Pharaoh for months, but would have joined a Harem and had a lengthy time of preparation: but that wouldn't last for ever.  Abram  told himself he would eventually think of something.   We all know that realities are better faced, and unpleasant tasks don as soon as possible.  And it was unbelief.  After all, God had said “I will make you a great nation” so Abram's life wasn’t' going to end at this point in some Egyptian dungeon.  

For a while, none of that seems to bother Abram:  as Sarai's brother, Abram was treated generously by Pharaoh, and  he gained considerable wealth (counted in cattle and sheep).  It may have been short sighted, cowardly, and downright dishonest: but it seemed to be paying off.

“Found out!”  Then people in Egypt started to get sick and to suffer from insect attacks.   God judged Egypt with plagues.  (17-19)   We actually don't know quite what they were.  Humanly speaking, maybe some kind of “public health” issue.   Now not every plague or flood or earthquake is “God's judgement”.  We live in a  broken world, where the good God spoke into the world in creation has been damaged and spoiled.  But on this occasion, as they struggled with the outbreak, and (presumably) used their own diviners and magicians to find out the cause, the Egyptians discovered that it was God.  It was happening because one beautiful woman who had been taken into the Harem – Sarai – was already married. Pharaoh  summoned Abram in, and asked him what he thought he was doing?  I imagine at that point, Abram swallowed hard: he's made the situation ten times worse. Not only was Pharaoh powerful enough to kill off Abram but now he was really angry, too.   God was at work – but Abram was still in a tight spot!

Freedom  What Pharaoh does is say  “Here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”  (19b, 20). And Abram is able to escape with Sarai – and all he had gained in Egypt....  This is a remarkable foretaste of the plagues of the Exodus; hundreds of years later Abram's descendants would end up stuck in Egypt; God would send plagues to persuade Pharaoh to let his people go, and when they eventually did escape, they left with the gold and jewellery the Egyptians had given them.  

This is grace at work! Despite the fact that Abram has badly messed up, God has given him the intervention he didn't have the faith for and indeed he didn't deserve!  The plagues – sent by God – were enough to chasten Pharaoh so that he as prepared to let Abram go.  Wasn't god good to Abram?  Despite his complete lack of faith, he spoke to Pharaoh through a series of natural disasters.  And he gave Abram the kind of Pharaoh who was prepared to listen, and let him go.  He was working his plan out all the time, even through Abram's unbelief, cowardice immaturity and immorality.  I'd say that was grace.  It was mercy. 

• “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. (or Because of his steadfast love we are not consumed) his mercies never come to an end.   (Lam 3. 22).  
• “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Malachi 3. 6).
• “No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel,  for I am God and not a mere mortal.”  (Hosea 11. 9)  

So God was working things out.  He was looking after Abram; he was protecting both Abram and Sarai, and even adding to Abram’s wealth at the same time.  That's grace. 

Abram journeyed back Northwards, towards the Negev – the dry place, with his wife, his sheep, his cattle.  And with the Lord; with his faith.  God had proved himself capable of providing for Abram's needs and protecting him.  A dry year or two was a problem to Abram, but not to the Lord.  And God had proved himself faithful, generous and loving, even in spite of Abram's failure and weakness and sin. 

He had obviously learned and grown thorough his experience in Egypt.   There would be plenty more challenges to Abram's faith. Some of these challenges, he would face with faith and wisdom.  That's a story for another time.    

If we were journeying with Abram, back to the Negev, what would we want to say to Abram? Possibly “You plonker Abram; what were you thinking about?  How could you?”   But I don't think we should be too hard on Abram: not because his mistakes weren't serious –  they were serious – but because they are our mistakes as well.  We recognise deception, fear, cowardice, short-sighted thinking, unbelief, in our own lives. 

This old man, who had such amazing faith as to get up and go, to an unknown land, because God said so, can encourage us with his faith.  In fact Rom 4. 11 says “Abraham is the spiritual father of those who believe ” whether or not they obey the Jewish laws.  But he can encourage us with his failures, too.  Because it took him the rest of his life, years and years of small victories and serious defeats, to be able to overcome the unbelief, the instinct to fix things himself, just in case God didn't do it.  His experience shows us that it is possible for us, too, to be men and women of faith.    

© Gilmour Lilly April  2015