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The Lord provides, YHWH Jireh, is found in Genesis 22:14 to name the place where Abraham brought Isaac as an offering to God.
As we look to come to this event and look that the shadows and substance of the event, we first will look at the man Abraham.
Abraham is referred to as the father of faith.
However, a question for us, was Abraham a man of faith?
Abraham, a Man of Faith?
In Judaism Abraham is one of three men seen as pillars of faith, he is included with Moses and David.
Abraham is considered the father of the faith.
Jewish people and many Christians look to Abraham as he foundation of faith.
But is he really a man of faith?
Or did that develop over time?
Abraham does not Fully Obey
When we think of Abraham, many think of his call to leave Ur to go to Canaan.
But did Abraham really obey that call?
God sends Abraham, formally Abram, to Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3) but Abraham did not go immediately.
He went as far as Haran until his father died (Genesis 11:31).
The people of Haran worshipped the same gods as in Ur.
So it seems that upon the Lord’s promise to Abraham, he left Ur with his father but did not go to the land of Canaan as God said.
It could be that Abraham feared the views of his earthly father and left his country but did not fully commit to the heavenly Father’s plan until he was no longer worrying about what his father thought, because he was dead.
Let us not be too hard on Abraham.
Many of us, even as fathers or grandfathers, still want the respect of our fathers.
I had a friend once tell me that he alway had a hard time sharing the gospel with his father because as he said, “even though I am 52 years old, I am still a child in my father’s eyes.”
Not only does Abraham not fully obey the promise of God and fear men, specifically his father, but he also feared men as he avoids conflict.
Abraham Avoids Conflicts
When Abraham and his nephew Lot left Egypt there became strife between their herdsmen because they needed more space for their flocks.
Abraham was the older member of the family and should have been the one to make the decision.
However, avoiding conflict Abraham let Lot decide the future for both men.
Lot’s decision reveals that he made a selfish decision, yet Abraham submitted himself to Lot’s decision.
Abraham wanted to avoid the strife.
Instead of having faith that God would provide for both of them, he tried to avoid the conflict.
It seems that Abraham did not want to be the one to make the final decision.
Now some will say that Abraham was honorable because he submitted himself to Lot and displayed humility and preference for others.
After all, when Lot was captured, it was Abraham that led the the armed men to get Lot back (Genesis 14:14).
That could be, but with the rest of the way we see Abraham, we can just as easily see him as a weak man avoiding conflict and letting others make decisions for him.
After all culturally it was dishonorable for Abraham to submit to his nephew.
So, which is it?
Well as we see more of his character then we might tend to see him as a conflict avoided, who fears men not God rather then not a man of faith.
We find that he is a man that relies on himself rather then God.
Abraham Relies on Himself not God
When God promised Abraham that he would have a son from his own body (Genesis 15:4) he doubted the Lord’s words (Genesis 15:2-3).
Even though Abraham “believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) Abraham did not fully trust the Lord’s promise.
He wanted a sign (Genesis 15:8).
So, he relied on his own way to fulfill God’s promise.
Even though God had made Abraham a promise and provided him a sign, still he did not trust God’s plan.
God stated that Abraham would have a child of his own body (Genesis 15:4).
However, after many years of trying and still no children, Abraham listened to the advice of his wife to take her slave, Hagar, as a wife and produce a child with her.
They did not trust God’s plan but instead developed one of their own.
This plan of theirs may have been something that they justified with themselves, for the son that Abraham had with Hagar was from his own body as promised.
They knew God’s promise but got inpatient and came up with their own plan.
When we know what God’s will is but seek to fulfill God’s plan only partially then we are not being obedient to God.
It displays a lack of faith to attempt to fulfill God’s will with man-made plans, even if we can make it seem spiritual.
People do this often.
This plan of theirs lead not to God’s pleasure but instead to conflict within their family (Genesis 16:5-6).
When God came to Abraham and clearly promises him a son by Sarah, he laughed (Genesis 17:17) instead of trusting God’s ability.
He doubted that a 100 year old man and a 99 year old woman could bare a child.
When God made Abraham a promises instead of relying on God, he begs God to accept Ishmael as the promise.
Ismael was the plan that Abraham and Sarah hatched in their disobedience to God’s plan.
They were impatience.
Now God is being very specific with Abraham that He is referring to Isaac, and Abraham still wants God to accept his man-made plan over God’s will.
People often disobey the clear will of God for a half measure and when it produces conflict, instead of repentance, we, like Abraham, try to negation with God to accept their situation as His own.
We do see some faith from this promise.
After God left Abraham, Abraham obeyed God’s word by getting circumcised (Genesis 17:23-27) as God commanded (Genesis 17:10-14).
Think what that must have been like for a 99 year old man to get circumcised.
This was no easy task.
It would have been painful.
He also made all the males in his household suffer the same pain.
Even in the midst of so much of his disobedience and failure, here we see Abraham take a great step of faith.
But we see that Abraham still was a man that feared men over fearing God.
Abraham Prostitutes His Own Wife
Abraham was married to his stepsister.
He headed to Egypt due to a famine.
Abraham was desperate because of the famine, but he was also afraid for his life.
He feared that the Egyptians would kill him to take his wife as their own.
So, his solution was to have her tell something that was true but not the whole truth.
He was still trying to fulfill the promise of God by relying on himself.
That always leads to trouble when we do that.
Many people do this.
They justify their sin by deceiving others with saying things that may be independently true but not the full story and that deception is still a lie.
People do this to feel that they are still being spiritual but the purpose is deception, making the behavior sinful.
However, in Abraham’s case it is worse.
Abraham is not only wanting to deceive the Egyptians but he expects that someone will want to take his wife to marry her and he seems ok with that.
Abraham, the great man of faith, allowed his wife to be taken into the Pharaoh’s harem.
What kind of husband allows his wife to be taken to not only sleep with another man but to marry another man?
Does that sound like a man of faith?
So Abraham got paid for Sarah to live with another man.
However, God protected not only Abraham’s life but also Sarah’s.
The Lord provided an escape for them.
Pharaoh said that he took her as his wife.
We could assume that he consummated that relationship.
Abraham allowed it to happen and received riches for it.
What did Sarah think of her husband for allowing that?
I do not think that she said he was a great man of faith.
Do you?
Genesis 13:2 states that Abraham was very rich in livestock and in silver and gold.
Where did he get those riches from?
Genesis 12:16 tells us that he got some of it from Pharaoh for taking Sarah as a wife.
We would like to think that this horrible experience taught Abraham a valuable lesson to trust God, who protected both of them, instead of trusting himself, who got them into this mess of prostituting his own wife.
One would think that Abraham learned from the previous failure from years earlier, but no.
Abraham could have trusted God when He told Abraham, “as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age” (Genesis 15:15).
The Lord promised Abraham a life till old age but for a second time Abraham feared men and not God.
Abraham did not learn from his own mistakes nor did he trust in the Lord’s promise of him living to an old age.
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