From the Start - Part 24 | Fear Versus Faith (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 25)

Last week, we left off with Abraham and company near Bethel.

There, between Bethel and AI, Abram built his second altar to

worship Yahweh. He'd received a promise, and in

a sense, the building of this altar was a way of putting a

stake in the ground and claiming the land for Abraham's

descendants. He renewed his trust that Yahweh

would give them the land, making a great, making a great nation

of Abram, and that they would also be a blessing to the

nations. Now we finish out the chapter.

Our primary text this morning will be chapter 12, verses 10

through 20. So if you're able, would you

stand as we read Genesis 12 verses 10 through 20?

Genesis 12:10–20

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. When he was about to enter

Egypt, he said to Sarah, his wife, I know that you are a

woman, beautiful in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you,

they will say this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they

will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it

may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be

spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the

Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

And when the Princess of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to

Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into

Pharaoh's house. And for her sake he dealt well

with Abram. And he had sheep, oxen, male

donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and

camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh

in his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

So 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? So that I took her for my wife.

Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.

And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent

him away with his wife and all that he had.

You may be seated. The first thing we see this

morning that we'll look at is Fears detour.

Last week it seemed Abram was stepping into the promise.

His family had first moved from UR to Quran.

Then after 60 years they they finally moved from Quran down to

Canaan. Could the land sustain these

people? After all, up until this point

they lived in the Fertile Crescents, a land that was very

capable of sustaining them and which was aptly named the

Fertile Crescents. There was a famine in Canaan, so

they went down to Egypt. The Nile region is much more

reliable since its water is isn't dependent on rainfall in

Egypt. Rather, the water of the Nile is

actually dependent on upstream rainfall, that is, rainfall from

Sudan and Ethiopia. This means that it's seasonal

flooding is is much more predictable and stable compared

to rainfall in Canaan. As Abram made his way down to

Egypt, he was keenly aware of the dangers he might face

because of his attractive wife. I didn't know having an

attractive wife was a problem, but apparently it is.

Actually, I think there was some old song.

Was there an oldie? Something like pick an ugly girl

to marry you or something? I don't know what that was

about. I don't know.

I just seem to remember riding around in the car when I was

like a teen and hearing that song.

I don't know, that's weird. But having an attractive wife

posed a problem for Abram, so he concocted a plan and he told

Sarai to say say she was his sister.

By saying she's his sister, his life would be spared.

And if the Egyptians see how beautiful she is and and know

that she's his wife, then they'll eliminate him in order

to take Sarai into Pharaoh's harem.

Was Sarai his sister? Technically speaking, yes she

was his half sister. Tara was their father but but

they had different mothers. But Abram chose to lead with

that fact rather than the fact that they were married.

Probably not a good way to instill confidence in your

marriage to just completely disown her as your wife.

Gentlemen, don't do that. Although I'm pretty sure you're

not married to your sister, so that isn't an option.

So here Abram was being driven by fear and not faith.

He was being driven by fear and not faith.

For a moment Abram had walked in the promise, but but now he was

resting control from God. Throughout his life, Abram

repeatedly gives in to fear and he takes matters into his own

hands. Here, Abram was more concerned

with his own life than with the fact that his plan would

guarantee his wife becoming 1 of Pharaoh's ladies, essentially

giving his wife away to sleep with another man.

There's a healthy fear. Maybe we should call it a deep

seated respect. It's the type of fear that it

prevented you from doing something stupid in your youth

because you knew that there was a paddle waiting at home for

your father to apply it to your backside.

By the way, I might add, my parents are going to watch this.

I know this, but whenever mom had the option of spanking us,

we always took that option. You always wanted Mom to spank

you, not Dad to spank you. Sometimes, Mom, I love you.

But sometimes we had to withhold any laughing or something

because she just, she didn't hit hard enough.

It didn't really hurt. But yeah, we didn't want Dad to

be the one to apply the paddle to our backsides.

So their confession. I don't know if I've ever told

you that Mom and Dad, but yeah. So.

So this was a a sort of fear that kept us from doing a lot of

stupid things in our youth. It didn't prevent us from doing

everything, but it prevented us from doing a lot of stupid

things. We still got spankings, right?

But so that's healthy fear. But Satan likes to use fear to

destroy us. When fear takes over, it

completely consumes you and you become a poor version of

yourself. Abram had convinced himself that

he would be killed if the Egyptians thought Sarai was his

wife. Well, this wasn't a foregone

conclusion. When Abram chose fear, the thing

he feared never happened, proving that particular fear to

be unfounded. Next, fear can lead to

disobedience. Fear can lead to disobedience.

Satan loves to use fear to draw God's people out of obedience.

In Matthew 19, there's the accounts of the rich young

ruler. He asked Jesus, what do I need

to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him to keep the

commandments. In the end, he names a bunch of

the commandments and the man's response was, OK, I I've kept

all these what, what else do I need to do?

And confused he, he asked what what he what was he lacking?

Jesus says sell what you have, give the money to the poor and

come follow me. The man went away from Jesus

sorrowful because because he didn't want to do that.

He couldn't do that. He couldn't imagine.

Sure, he had said he wanted eternal life, but he couldn't

imagine living without his money and without his possessions.

He was afraid of losing those things, and this fear of losing

his possessions caused him to be disobedient.

Now at this moment in Abraham's life, fear had caused him to

lose trust in God's working and and so he lied to protect

himself. These were acts of disobedience.

Now, in spite of his fears, Abram was materially blessed by

Pharaoh, adding to his already significant assets.

He already had a good number of assets, a significant amount of

wealth already. And now that all gets added to

by Pharaoh. Abram got more sheep, he got

more oxen, donkeys and and even camels.

We think of camels as being entirely normal and in that

region of the world, but at this point in time they were not that

common yet. And so to have camels was

exceptional, and to have camels was a sign of great wealth.

Now, in a sense, Abraham's lack of faith had endangered God's

plan for the coming Messiah. But but God didn't permit this

man's actions to interfere with his plans.

Sure, Abram was being prospered, but something bad was happening

in Pharaoh's house. They were experiencing plagues.

They they were experiencing great illnesses.

We don't know exactly what these were or if anybody died from it,

but but it was enough to get Pharaoh's attention in.

God's grace overcame Abram's fear.

God's grace overcame Abram's fear.

In this moment, Pharaoh was ticked off.

Somehow he figured things out and he took Abram to task.

Why did you lie to me? Why did you say she is my

sister? I could have done something bad

and slept with another man's wife.

Here the Pagan idol worshiper Pharaoh was acting in a more

righteous manner than Abram. That doesn't that's not to say

he was righteous, of course, but in this instance he's he's

acting in a righteous manner. Abram had given his wife up to

sleep with another man and and that man had the integrity to

realize he shouldn't sleep with someone else's wife.

So Pharaoh gave her back and he sent Abram and his entire

entourage on their way. Now letting them live.

That was nice of him. He let them live.

Not only that, he let them keep everything that he had given to

Abram. So they left Egypt, and they

headed into the Negev Desert, a fairly inhospitable land Now.

I can't help but think Abram must have had his tail tucked

between his legs. Embarrassed at how he'd

represented Yahweh and how he hadn't trusted in his provision.

Abram and Lot's families returned back to Bethel, back to

where things basically began. And the text says there Abram

called upon the name of the Lord.

He'd lost the plot for a moment, but he realized that he needed

to come back and to trust God more.

Well, as they, with a much larger retinue of people and

possessions, resettled the area, they began to have problems.

They'd acquired so much that the land couldn't support all of

them there. Some scholars say there were

possibly over 1000 people now in their group between Abram and

Lot's crew. So they had so much, so many

people and, and all the sheep and and herds, they all needed

to be supported. So now look in your Bibles at

verses five through 13 of chapter 13.

And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and

tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling

together. For their possessions were so

great that they could not dwell together.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock

and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

At that time, the Canaanites and the parasites were dwelling in

the land. So there's even more people

there that need to be supported by the land.

Then Abram said to Lot. Let there be no strife between

you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we

are kinsmen. It's not the whole land.

Before you separate yourself from me, If you take the left

hand and I will go to the right, or if you take the right, then I

will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and

saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like

the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction

of Zoar. This was before the Lord

destroyed Saddam and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the

Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed E thus they separated from each

other. Abram settled in the land of

Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and

moved his tent as far as Saddam. Now the men of Saddam were

wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

I will say sometimes you'll be like, that's not how you say it.

In Hebrew, the word is Sodom and Gomorrah.

So I will probably bounce back and forth because you get used

to saying something a certain way.

Sodom and Gomorrah is how you are used to hearing it.

I will try to say that, but it might just come out in more of

the Hebrew way of saying it, the Hebrew pronunciation.

So just a fair warning. So now we look at the prosperity

of short sightedness of Lot. Abram and Lot had both amassed

significant wealth and there just wasn't room for all of them

near Bethel. Their herdsmen weren't getting

along with each other, so something needed to be done.

Abram looked S with lots and and he said, hey, if you take the

left, then I'll go right if you go right, then I'll go left.

It was readily apparent which land would be the most

profitable and productive and and Abram was a nice uncle, so

he allowed Lot to choose. Lot went with the left.

The Jordan River Valley was much more fertile.

It would respond well to being worked and it would also provide

plenty of food for all the animals.

So our next point is Abram's faith led to generosity.

Abram's faith led to generosity. In this moment, faith allows us

to be generous because we know our true source is God.

Abram's faith had returned and and he knew God would take care

of things. Abram was Lot's uncle and he had

the right of choice. It was his right to to pull rank

and and say I will take the Jordan River Valley and you take

Canaan. The the more difficult land to

work. But he didn't do that.

In order to keep the peace between their families, Abram

offered Lot the first choice of the land.

He offered Lot the first choice of land.

In an act of faith, he allowed Lot to have the better land, the

land that was like the Garden in Eden and what they'd experienced

down in Egypt. The Jordan River is about 65

miles from the Sea of Galilee in the north.

You see it there at the top of the slide, this Sea of Galilee

there 65 miles down to the beginning of the Dead Sea.

But the land lot was specifically eyeing was the was

the 22 miles South of Bethel. Bethel would be situated right

under where it says West Bank. That is about where Bethel was.

And so he's looking S from Bethel, and he has his eyes on

all that land there to the South and even further down the Dead

Sea. Moses tosses out a couple little

details, kind of like footnotes in the text here, casually

mentioning this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and

Gomorrah, then stating the men of Sodom were were wicked, they

were great sinners against the Lord.

These statements served to remind Moses generation about

the context in which Yahweh was carrying out His plan.

It wasn't all Peaches and cream. Things weren't going to be easy

because there were wicked people in the land.

The clear thing being communicated by Moses here is

that Lot's thinking was short sighted and it compromised his

soul. Lot's thinking was short sighted

and it compromised his soul. Lot wanted what he wanted.

His concern was for his own interests satisfying his own

desires. All he could see was greener

pastures for his sheep to graze in and and support for his

entourage. He moved to a bad place, but he

wasn't bothered by it. These were wicked men and their

influence on him wasn't good. And rather than exercise wisdom

and avoid Sodom, Lot kept moving closer and closer to Sodom until

he finally took up what he thought would be permanent

residence there in Sodom. And you can see from Bethel he

moved towards the Dead Sea. Then he kept going and going

further South, further South, until he arrives there in Sodom.

The allure of worldly pleasures and and comfort frequently work

this way. You kind of become numb to the

bad things going on. It moves us a little at a time,

until one day we find ourselves entrenched in the world system,

wondering, how did I get here? If we're not careful, abundance

can cause us to become apathetic to the things of God.

But this wasn't how Abram lived. He responded to abundance by

worshipping God and being generous.

Abram didn't allow the riches around him to move his eyes off

of Yahweh. Lot's vision was on his riches,

on his possessions. He saw things through the eyes

of the flesh rather than through the eyes of faith.

Picking up our last section, chapter 13, reading now verses

14 through 18, the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated

from him, Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you

are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all

the land that you see. I will give to you and to your

offspring forever. I will make your offspring as

the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the

earth, your offspring also can be counted.

Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for

I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent and came

and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and

there he built an altar to the Lord.

So here we see the promise renewed.

Lot's family had left and and Yahweh spoke to Abram.

Look, everything you see is going to be yours. north-south,

east, West, it's all yours. Your offspring will become as

numerous as the dust of the earth.

Lot had chosen a particular plot or or region of land, the Jordan

River Valley. But but Yahweh told Abram, it's

yours. Everything you can see is yours.

That meant the Jordan River Valley and beyond, up north,

past the Sea of Galilee, S towards Egypt and West to the

Mediterranean Sea. It was all going to be Abraham's

descendants. He'd given up the best land to

Lot only to find out he hadn't really given up anything and he

had gained everything. God reiterated His promise to

Abram. There were people in the land,

but Yahweh was still going to keep His promise and this served

as assurance of God's working for Moses generation.

This assured that God was working for Moses generation.

As Moses contemporaries read this, they may well have been

about to enter that Promised Land, or even possibly in the

process of taking the Promised Land, and these words would have

served as a reminder to them that they would realize the

promise Yahweh had made to their long distant father Abraham.

They'd lost heart. They'd become discouraged.

The people of the land were were strong and and they were tall

and and the text says it made them feel like they were

grasshoppers, though the Israelites doubted whether

whether they could complete the task of head of them.

They were struggling to have faith.

Moses words were a reminder God made a promise to Abram so they

could trust him to protect them as they entered the land.

Not to mention they'd experienced, they, they'd seen

that, that in, in their, in their previous generations, what

God did when he brought them out of Egypt and how he provided for

them, bringing them out of out of Egypt crossed the Red Sea and

through the wilderness God had provided all along the way.

So what are some takeaways here from this passage this morning?

First of all, choose faith over fear.

Choose faith over fear. Now, this isn't a call to

reckless living in foolish decisions.

Some people will call that faith.

No faith. That is not what faith is.

Scripture repeatedly cause us to exercise wisdom, not just to

pull it out as a tool to use from time to time, but to

actually walk in wisdom. Faith is belief that God is

constantly working behind the scenes and in every area of our

lives, even when there is no tangible evidence for it.

Fear is unbelief, doubting God will do what He said He will do.

When we walk in faith, we're walking in confident assurance,

in a God who loves us, who knows our thoughts and cares about our

deepest needs. When we walk in fear we forget

who God is and we become self absorbed.

Faith and fear can't coexist. Strong faith will destroy fear.

It crowds fear out of our hearts and minds.

Every trial we face as an opportunity to move one way or

the other. Am I going to be faith filled in

this trial or will I give in to fear?

A few years ago I had a season where I was giving in to fear

and allowing it to take over. It was paralyzing.

I struggled to make decisions, I became depressed and my walk

with God became a matter of going through the motions.

So I kept faking it until God gave me peace to get through

that trial and trust again. I routinely meditated on Joshua

19 and the words of Joshua 19 are are repeated all throughout

the book because it was because these are words that God's

people needed to hear as they're going into the Promised land.

Moses had died and Joshua was taking up his mantle of

leadership. The task before him was to lead

the people across the Jordan River and to take the land God

had promised. God said in Joshua 19.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not

be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God

is with you wherever you go. Yahweh had promised His presence

to Joshua and the Israelites and and that was their basis for not

living in fear. I knew God was with me and God

would take care of me and whatever happened in the midst

of my own trials, I knew He would work everything out for my

good. When anxiety creeps in, we're

wise to remind ourselves of all God has already done for us and

minds on His promises. His word drives.

Out the fear that Satan is trying to inflict on us.

So we choose faith. Over fear.

Next, failure doesn't cancel God's faithfulness.

Failure. Doesn't cancel God's

faithfulness. This is perhaps.

One of my favorite parts about the rest of this book.

God had called these people this one family to represent him on

earth and and to be the family line through which redemption

would come to humanity. In spite of this.

In spite of the special position that they have, they will fail

all along the way. Failure is par for the course

here, and none of the Patriarchs are presented as pure and

perfect. God's faithfulness.

Is demonstrated in his choosing to use broken and sinful people

for his purposes. His grace is on.

Full display in every generation of the story.

Someone's failure. Doesn't mean it's the end of the

story, rather it's just part of the story that God is using

broken people to accomplish his purposes.

If you failed, don't give up. Don't hide out in.

Shame. Don't run away from God.

Pursue him. He already knows that you

failed. You're not hiding anything from

him. But he uses the.

Broken and sinful, he takes those pieces of our lives and

redeems them for his purposes. So if you find that you've

wandered off the trail somewhere like Abram, did he?

He lost sight of. Yahweh for a moment.

Return back. To where you started, return

back to God. Return back to your first love

and walk in repentance and faith.

Your past doesn't define you. God.

Does and He is faithful. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes. Father God, we.

Thank you that. You.

Are faithful that you choose to to use broken, sinful people.

You started it. Here.

With the story of. Of Abram.

He lost sight. He lost track.

But. You are committed to that

family. And that family would.

Still be the one. Through whom the Messiah?

The one to bring redemption would come.

So we thank you. For your faithfulness and God we

acknowledge. We acknowledge.

That in our lives you are faithful when we turn from you

when we are disobedient. As your word says.

You're gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

So we can turn. To you, knowing that you are

compassionate and you love us. God, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your word, the opportunity to look into it.

And see the. Examples of one of the

patriarchs. The first patriarch.

And how he'd fallen off track and he got back on course.

Thank you for. This time in Jesus name, Amen.