A Failed Faith Test

Howdy from the Panhandle, it looks like it's going to be another warm one today. Here in the Panhandle we are in the middle of a pretty sever drought, but I don't think it is as bad as Abram had it. While he and his family were wondering in the land of Canaan there came a famine and a test of faith. Both would create a crises in Abrams life.

Gen 12:10-20

10 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. 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."

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.

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.

1. Abram Goes To Egypt (vv.10-11)

There was a terrible famine in the land of Canaan. The once fruitful land was turned into barrenness. This famine would test the faith of Abram who journeyed there, and a very painful test it was.

Abram had not been in Canaan very long when a famine compelled him to leave it. Famines were frequent in Canaan. Nothing could be done to prevent them. The one remedy was to move into Egypt, where the Nile furnished water for cattle and crops. Abram and his large group made their way to Egypt. The Hebrew word used for sojourn, indicates that a temporary residence was anticipated. As soon as the rains came and famine let up, Abram would be on his way back to Palestine. No evidence is given to help determine which Pharaoh was ruling in Egypt at that time.

This is the uniform phraseology employed in describing such a journey, which is a continuous descent from the mountains or high table-lands of Palestine to the low level of the Delta. He did not go back to the place of his birth, regretting his pilgrimage and despising the promised land (Heb 11:15). Although the distance of Egypt from Canaan was comparatively short, the conditions on which the harvests in the two countries depended were, as has been said, very different, the want of rain, which destroyed the crops in the latter, not at all affecting those in the former, and only patches of ground being tilled in Canaan, while in Egypt agriculture was systematically and extensively practiced. - (From Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

The famine in Canaan should have taught Abram, that even in the promised land food and clothing come from the Lord and His blessing. Instead he looked to Egypt and the power of this world. In looking to Egypt, Abram forgot that real help and deliverance are to be found with the Lord alone.

2. Abram Fears for His Life (vs. 11-20)

When fearing for his life in Egypt on account of the beauty of Sarai his wife, Abram asked her, as he approached that land, to say that she was his sister, since she really was his half-sister (Gen 11:29). Sarai's complexion, coming from a mountainous country, would be fresh and fair compared with the faces of Egyptian women, which, as the monuments show, were dark-brown or copper-colored. Abram had a bad opinion of the morals and manners of the country. So anticipating that Sarai, whose style of beauty was far superior to that of the Egyptian women, might captivate some proud noble, who would try by any means to obtain possession of her, Abram became apprehensive of his life.

Abram’s fear was not without cause as far as Egypt was concerned. But his precaution did not spring from faith. He might possibly hope, that by means of his plan, he could escape the danger of being put to death on account of his wife, if any one decided to take her. But how he save the honor and keep his wife? Abram's plan did not seem well thought out. Maybe he thought he would be able to protect and keep her as his sister more easily, than if he acknowledged her as his wife. But the very thing he feared and hoped to avoid actually occurred. The mother of future leaders of the Hebrew nation was taken into an Egyptian harem! (vs. 17-20.)

God settle the whole matter, He afflicted the Pharaoh with plagues until he realized that something was wrong, and drove the Abram and all those with him from the land. Abram took Sarai, his followers, and his property-greatly increased by his trip in Egypt-and made his way back across the miles to the Negeb and on into Canaan.

Such behavior as Abram's in Egypt was not at all worthy of the majestic soul of Jehovah's special ambassador to the nations. He would need to grow if he was to approximate the divine blueprint for his life. He needed to go back to Bethel and rebuild the altar of Jehovah.