When Faith Fails

Last week, we began a new series of messages, and we're looking at the story of Abraham.

And Abraham is known best for...

Anyone?

His faith.

Yes.

His faith.

And I think because of that, sometimes we can put him up on a bit of a pedestal.

We think of him as, wow, Abraham, the man of faith.

And then we kind of see ourselves as down here, kind of a lower level.

You know, should we do that?

Well, we're going to find out this morning as we continue along with Abraham's story.

Perhaps we are more like Abraham than not like him.

So if you have your Bible with you, please open it up to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Or on your smartphone or however you have it here this morning.

Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

We heard last Sunday about how God appeared to Abraham.

How he told him to go, leave his hometown of Ur and travel all the way to the land he would show him, which was the land of Canaan.

And he packed up all his possessions.

He obeyed the Lord's call and he went in faith, trusting that the Lord would show him, provide for him.

He accumulated some possessions, I guess, and servants and things like that along the way.

And so this morning we find him in Canaan, this land that God has promised to give to him and his descendants.

And here he is living in a tent with his wife, who we know from last Sunday is barren.

She's unable to conceive.

And with his nephew Lot and with all their servants.

They're living as foreigners here.

And this is the land that God said, I will give it to your offspring.

Quite a promise.

So things seem to be going well for Abraham until all of a sudden things take a turn for the worst.

Verse 10.

Now there was a famine in the land.

And Abraham went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Now this is a little bit hard for us to relate to maybe.

I mean, when we're hungry, when we need more food in the fridge, we go to the co-op.

Right over there.

We get some groceries.

We take them back to the house.

Not something that we easily relate to.

Scarcity of food.

It's headlines when there's no tomatoes at the co-op for a whole week.

I mean, I imagine that at this point, Abraham has probably sold off some of his livestock and his cattle.

You know, he's doing the best as he can to keep food on the table for his family.

And then eventually things get to the point where this is, you know, we got to do something here.

And he packs everything up and journeys down to the fertile regions around the Nile to Egypt.

And he decides to live there for a while because of how severe the famine was, this food shortage.

So it's here that we find out a little bit more about Abraham.

Verse 11.

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai,

I know what a beautiful woman you are.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.

Then they will kill me, but will let you live.

Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake.

And my life will be spared because of you.

So here Abraham is with his family, this whole company of people that's with him.

And they're headed down to Egypt.

And as they get close to this, which at the time was a great empire,

one of the greatest in the ancient world,

Abraham looks at his wife.

And then he looks ahead.

And he looks back at his wife.

And he looks ahead.

And fear starts to rise in his heart.

He realizes, I'm going to Egypt.

I'm going to the place where the most powerful man in the land,

in the region, lives.

Pharaoh.

Pharaoh.

And Abraham's wife, I mean, his logic is very simple here.

He knows that his wife is beautiful.

She's a supermodel.

They've probably had other men express their interest in her at times.

And, you know, he's kind of thinking,

as soon as they see her, they're going to desire her.

They'll find out that she's married to me.

She's not available.

And so they're going to kill me.

I mean, this is, these guys are powerful.

There's nothing I can really do to stop this from happening.

And so he comes up with a plan.

Say you are my sister.

We won't tell him about, you know, us being husband and wife.

And then when we get there, we'll see what happens.

Hopefully nothing bad.

But just in case, if I'll be treated well and not killed.

And, you know, I'm not sure how Abraham was thinking this was going to end.

You know, was he planning to kind of steal Sarai away in the middle of the night

from the palace at some point in case she did get captured?

I mean, let's, let's just acknowledge for a minute what kind,

and this is, this is, to me, this is a pretty disgusting thing to do to your,

to your wife.

I mean, it's kind of self-serving for Abraham.

How would you feel, women, if your husband did that to you?

You know, say that you're my sister, you know.

Kind of feel like you, you know, she's being thrown under the bus a little bit here.

You know, and what happened, we don't know, like what, what if they treat her poorly?

What if they abuse her?

What if they, you know, what about me, Abraham?

That's kind of what I'm thinking here.

Yeah, this is, this is, and we have to remember, this is ancient times.

I mean, women's rights are not the same back then as they, they are now.

But in some senses, there, there are similarities.

I mean, today even we see men who are powerful, wealthy, using their power and wealth to use women

and, and to go after them and to satisfy the lusts of their hearts.

Interestingly enough, even way back then, we see almost more respect for the institution of marriage.

You know, it's kind of a backwards way of thinking.

Well, if she's married, we'll have to kill Abraham because marriage is a big deal back then.

You know, whereas today, you know, men will just take sexually from you in our culture, in our world,

regardless of the commitment that you've made.

And so there's some big differences, but there's also similarities.

And Abraham, he does what many of us would do in a situation like this.

This seems dangerous.

This seems tricky.

I guess we'll just come up with, with a bit of a plan.

And this is the outcome we hope to achieve.

So, so let's go with that.

Um, I mean, we could be quick to, to, to jump on Abraham and say, what are you doing?

Like, how could you treat your wife like that?

It's certainly not the way that Jesus, I imagine, would treat his bride.

You know, he would lay down his life to protect her.

He would stand up to Pharaoh and say, don't you dare touch her.

She's my wife.

You know, that's, and so we definitely, I, I look at Abraham and this decision here as a failure,

you know, as a, as an act of fear, an act of unbelief, an act of cowardice,

not protecting his, his wife who God has given him.

Um, but how often do we do the same kind of thing?

When we're faced with a difficult situation, we're not quite sure how things are going to work out.

Well, let's come up with a plan here.

You know, what are the factors?

What am I hoping to achieve here?

What, let's just figure this out.

The only problem with Abraham's plan is that it's missing the most important part.

God's not in it at all.

We just heard last Sunday that God had made these, these promises to Abraham.

I will bless you.

I will make your name great.

I will make you into a great nation.

And what's Abraham thinking?

Well, as soon as they see you and find out if I tell the truth that I'm your husband,

they're going to kill me.

Well, how is the Lord going to make you into a great nation, Abraham, if you're dead

and have no offspring?

How is he going to make your name great if you're only remembered as, as the guy who had

a really beautiful wife and, and was killed?

How is he going to bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you?

If the first sign of trouble, somebody comes, you know, threatens, threatens you.

And like Abraham has lost sight of the promises that God has made to him.

God specifically promised, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse

you.

I will protect you is the general meaning of that.

If somebody comes against you, I will be against them.

And Abraham has lost sight of that completely.

He's worried that they're going to kill him.

He acts in, at best, forgetfulness of, of God's promise.

Or perhaps if he remembered God's promise, at worst, simply doubts or, or doesn't believe

that the Lord will take care of him in this situation.

And so what happens next?

When Abraham comes to Egypt, when Abraham came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a

very beautiful woman.

And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into

his palace.

He treated Abram well for her sake.

And Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants

and camels.

So Abram was right.

He was right that they would desire his wife.

He was right that they would try to take her.

And he seems to have got a lot of good stuff given to him.

But we got to wonder how Abram's feeling at the end of all this.

I just basically traded my wife for a bunch of animals and some servants.

And, you know, now what?

I lost my wife, you know, like my beautiful wife.

What's going to happen now?

Am I going to see her again?

And will we ever...

What's going to happen here?

And an even bigger question.

What's going to happen to the promise that the Lord has made here?

Because without this marriage, there is no great nation.

There is no blessing all the families of the earth through you.

And so it's at this moment that we're kind of looking for the Lord to intervene.

But the question that I kept thinking about is, what do we expect the Lord to do here?

I mean, look at what Abraham has done.

He's doubted God.

He's basically made his decision without regard for the promise that God has given him.

He's been a selfish jerk, really, to his wife and basically said,

Here, I don't want to die, so here you go.

Nuts to our love, to our marriage.

I'm not sure what he's really thinking.

He probably wouldn't have admitted all that.

So what's God going to do when he intervenes in the story in this next moment?

What are we expecting from him?

Well, Abraham, I mean, you kind of got what you deserved.

Like, look at what you did.

Look at what you did to your wife.

You didn't trust me.

I gave you a promise, and you didn't believe me.

So here you go.

That's kind of what I expect.

But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife, Sarai.

So Pharaoh summoned Abram.

What have you done to me?

He said.

Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

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.

Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men.

And they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had.

So the Lord does intervene.

But maybe not the way that we would have expected.

He is against Pharaoh and his household.

He afflicts them with a disease.

And even though Abram is really the one who has blown it here, the Lord allows Abram to essentially go free.

And the sense there is that he also could take all the stuff that he had got from Pharaoh.

He plunders the most powerful man in the known region.

And there is no consequence seemingly for what he did to his wife, for the fact that he lied.

It is not really what we expected.

At this point, we have to admit, this is a surprising act of mercy on the Lord's part.

But we hope that Abraham learns his lesson, right?

That next time he'll trust the Lord.

He'll take him at his word.

He'll make his plans and decisions with God in view.

Does he?

Not even close.

In fact, he does the very same thing again only eight chapters later.

In chapter 20, I'm going to read it for you.

It's a different person.

Now he's moved down into the Negev, the southern regions of the land of Canaan.

And there's a guy there, a local king named Abimelech.

It says,

For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abram said of his wife Sarah,

She is my sister.

Then Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him,

You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken.

She is a married woman.

Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said,

Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?

Did he not say to me she is my sister?

And didn't she also say he's my brother?

I've done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.

Then God said to him in the dream,

Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience,

and so I have kept you from sinning against me.

That is why I did not let you touch her.

Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet,

and he will pray for you and you will live.

But if you do not return her,

you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.

Early the next morning, Abimelech summoned all his officials,

and when he told them all that had happened,

they were very much afraid.

Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said,

What have you done to us?

How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom?

You have done things to me that should never be done.

And Abimelech asked Abraham,

What was your reason for doing this?

Abraham replied,

I said to myself,

There is surely no fear of God in this place,

and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she really is my sister,

the daughter of my father,

though not of my mother,

and she became my wife.

And when God had me wander from my father's household,

I said to her,

This is how you can show your love to me.

Everywhere we go,

say of me,

He is my brother.

Then Abimelech brought sheep,

and cattle,

and male and female slaves,

and gave them to Abraham,

and he returned Sarah,

his wife,

to him.

And Abimelech said,

My land is before you.

Live wherever you like.

To Sarah he said,

I'm giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver.

This is to cover the offense against you

before all who are with you.

You are completely vindicated.

Then Abraham prayed to God,

and God healed Abimelech,

his wife,

and his female slaves,

so that they could have children again.

For the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelech's household

from conceiving because of Abraham's wife, Sarah.

So here we go around the second time.

Abraham does the exact same thing.

Powerful man in the land.

Say you are my sister.

He didn't apparently learn his lesson,

and his thinking was the exact same as well.

There's surely no fear of God in this place,

and they'll kill me.

They're going to kill me.

He lost sight of the promises of God.

Again,

to protect him,

to bless him,

to make his name great,

to make a great nation out of him.

He acted in unbelief.

He acted in doubt.

And what happens?

Same thing as before.

Abimelech takes his wife.

Now he's in a bad situation.

And again,

the Lord intervenes.

He visits Abimelech in a dream.

He tells him he's a dead man.

If he doesn't return Sarah to Abraham,

Abimelech actually pleads his case with God.

God kind of accepts that plea,

but says,

you return his wife.

Go to Abraham.

He'll pray for you.

You'll be healed.

Abimelech calls Abraham in,

goes through the interrogation,

just like with Pharaoh.

Why did you do this to me?

And the reason is the same.

A second time.

At the end of this,

Abraham walks out of there

with kind of a blank check

on where he can live

in this area,

in this kingdom

that this king is in charge of,

and with a whole bunch of animals

and servants,

and with a thousand shekels of silver.

I don't know about you,

but that's not really the end

that I expected to read there.

Again, we see God's unexpected mercy

and kindness to Abraham.

I mean, here Abraham blows it.

He forgets what God has promised to do for him.

He throws his wife under the bus.

He blows it with her.

He lies,

and God blesses him.

He blesses his socks off.

He gives them,

in fact,

he even establishes Abraham

as a prophet to Abimelech.

I don't know if you notice that,

but it's like,

you want to be healed, Abimelech?

Well, go to Abraham.

He is a prophet.

He will pray for you.

He humbles this king

before this foreigner

who lives in the tent over there.

What an unexpected response

from the Lord.

What an amazing gift of grace,

and it's here that we start to see

how the Lord intends to keep

the promises that he's made to Abraham.

we go back to those promises again,

and we have to take a second look.

I will make you into a great nation

if,

no,

it doesn't say if.

I will bless you if.

I will make your name great if.

No,

it doesn't say that.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you,

I will curse if.

We're expecting there to be

some kind of a condition there,

aren't we?

Especially if Abraham goes

and does what he does,

and he doesn't trust

the Lord's promise,

and he does this to his wife,

and he lies,

and all these things.

And all of a sudden,

we realize that

that's not what the Lord said.

His promise was,

can be summed up with,

I will bless you,

Abraham.

I will put my special favor upon you.

Period.

Period.

Doesn't matter if you blow it.

If you,

if you sin,

if you don't hold fast

to that promise,

I will hold fast to you.

I will bless you.

What an amazing,

unexpected gift of grace

and mercy.

What kind of God is this?

Who makes promises

like this

and then keeps them

even when the people

that he's made them to

blow it

and don't believe them.

The question is,

will Abraham learn

to trust the Lord's promises?

This is twice that he's done this.

As more difficulties

come into his life,

will he learn

to take the Lord

at his word?

To look at those difficulties

and then look up

and consider

what God has said to him.

That he really will

honor his word

and keep his promises.

And that's really the question

that hits us as well.

I mean,

our stories are different

than Abraham's,

but we too

face difficulties.

We face troubles.

Things happen in our lives

that were unexpected.

Not a famine,

but other things.

What will we do

in those situations?

Will we do like Abraham

and just come up

with a plan

to make the best of it

and hope to get this outcome?

Or will we make our plans?

Will we make our decisions

in full view

of what the Lord

has said to us?

The promises

that he's made.

Will we trust him?

And if we do,

we'll make different decisions.

Abraham failed here.

He did.

Twice.

And we failed too.

But we can learn

from Abraham's

lack of faith

in this situation,

even though he was

the great hero

of our faith.

perhaps we're more

like him

than unlike him.

But at the end of this,

this story is,

it is about faith,

and we can learn

from Abraham about that,

but it's about

something even bigger

and better than that.

It's about a God

who has

this incredible,

amazing,

huge

grace

and compassion

and kindness

and mercy

to a sinner

who didn't deserve it.

That's the same

kindness

and compassion

and mercy

that would later

send his own son

into the world

for sinners like us

who don't deserve it.

Abraham didn't do anything

to deserve this special

favor from God,

these promises

that were made to him.

In the same way,

we haven't done anything

worthy of God's favor

or we could never

earn our way

into a right standing

with God.

God didn't sweep

Abraham off the table

and say,

oh, you blew it.

I'll start over

with someone else.

He intervened.

He stepped into

the situation.

He maintained

his promise.

He gave grace

and he did

the same thing again

thousands of years later

through his son,

Jesus.

Even Abimelech

has something

to teach us

in this story

about the grace

of God.

Abraham

was the chosen one.

He's the one

that was going

to get God's

special favor

and blessing.

Did you notice

that little bit

about the prophet?

You know,

Abraham's a prophet.

You go to him.

That's weird.

I mean,

Abimelech's talking

to the Lord

in his dream.

Why doesn't the Lord

just say,

well,

give his wife back

and I'll heal you.

He says,

no,

give his wife back

and then go to Abraham

for he is a prophet

and he will pray for you.

Then you'll be healed.

Why does he do it

that way?

Yes,

it's partly,

I think,

to kind of lift

Abraham up

in relation

to Abimelech.

But as I got

thinking about it,

the normal way

that God

speaks to people

at least

through this

time

is through

his appointed man,

through his prophet,

which makes

what he did

for Abimelech

all the more special.

He went out

of the ordinary way

and appeared

to the guy

who was not chosen

in a dream

and warned him.

A gift of grace.

I don't want you

to be guilty

for the sin

of this guy.

I've made a promise

to this guy

to protect him,

which you're going

to be in trouble

because of that,

but I don't want you

to be guilty

for something

that you didn't even

realize you were

stepping into.

Even that,

a surprising,

unexpected gift

of grace

to this king

that's not even,

he's not even

the chosen guy.

This is the kind

of God

that we serve.

The Lord is gracious

and compassionate.

And I want to end

this morning

with a reminder

from Paul

in his letter

to the Romans,

Roman church,

that makes

this clear.

Just like Abraham,

we have all sinned

and fallen short

of the glory of God.

but we all

may be justified

freely

by his grace

through the redemption

that came

by Christ Jesus.

And it doesn't seem fair,

does it?

It doesn't seem right.

But that's the point

of this.

God sees the world

in its brokenness,

in its sin,

in its rebellion

against him.

he's not waiting

around for the world

to get its act together,

to become good enough.

He steps in.

He intervenes.

He gives a gift

of grace.

He sets his favor

upon his people.

Period.

And Christ

is the ultimate

example of that.

A little later

in Romans,

Paul says this,

at just the right time

when we were still powerless,

we couldn't do it.

We couldn't be good enough.

We couldn't earn our way

into his favor.

At just the right time

when we were still powerless,

Christ died

for the ungodly.

Very rarely

will anyone die

for a righteous person.

Though for a good man

someone might

possibly dare to die,

but God demonstrates

his own love

for us

in this.

While we were still

sinners,

Christ died

for us.

An unexpected gift.

An undeserved gift.

The Lord

is gracious

and compassionate.

Slow to anger

and rich in love.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Father,

as we read

this old story

of Abraham,

we are kind of surprised.

Oftentimes,

we think that

we have to be good

to receive

good from you,

to get your blessing.

But we thank you

that it's

not the way

it works.

We thank you

that you

have come

to us

with a gift.

We thank you

for Jesus.

We thank you

for his blood

which has made

us right

with you,

which has put us

into

this amazing

connection

with Jesus

so that we

have become

heirs to

with Abraham.

Not just

of some promises,

but of all

your promises.

Jesus,

you are amazing,

Lord.

And we give you

glory.

We give you

praise.

In Christ's name,

Amen.