Gen 12 part 2

Make good choices

Good Morning Everyone,

It’s great to be here with you again this Sunday,

Let me remind us that last week, we focused on the great call to Abram and what it means to be a blessing, we looked to the imperatives of Abrams call, which were Go and Be.Go and Be for us looks like, repenting of our sin and be a blessing, growing others in the knowledge of the grace of God.

This Sunday we will continue with Abram as he takes on this new direction for his life. We heard through the reading this morning that his trip to Egypt was not such a perfect moment of witnessing to others the glory of God. This mornings sermon will therefore unpack God’s faithfulness to his promise even though we continue to sin. We will see God’s great mercy upon Abram and how that mercy relates to our lives today

But before we begin, let us pray together,

Dear God,

We thank you for your word read this morning, we pray that you would teach us through your Spirit this morning that as we enter into the time of preaching that you would open our hearts and minds that we would receive understanding of your Spirit is saying to the church, and Lord please help me to speak clearly and faithfully for the glory of your name,

Amen,

Decision making is hard. And if you don’t agree, then you probably haven’t had a group of people deciding on what movie they are going to watch for the night.

Honestly, the overwhelming choice for the perfect movie, being decided diplomatically by a group of friends is a slow train wreck.

Thankfully movie selection doesn’t usually result in a moral dilemma. Although these days, with so much nudity and gore in movies it has kind of become that.

Anyway, the point is, making decisions can be hard, and sometimes they come with major consequences.

Let’s look to a couple of decisions that Abram and others make as we learn about the Egypt narrative in Chapter 12,

Abram, faces two particular decisions. The first is an ethical choice a matter of fear vs faith. The second is a moral choice, to lie or speak the truth.

Let us turn to Genesis 12:10 “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.”

FEAR vs FAITH

A famine in the land, What?? this isn’t what it’s supposed to be! Surely, there’s been some sort of mistake!

You can imagine Abram, standing in the land with his wife, Sarai, and a bunch of his herdsmen looking at the dry land, thinking what is going on? Why is this so hard? Did God not promise Abram this land?

And so Abram is faced with his first dilemma. Do we stay in the land?, or do we go? It’s an ethical dilemma, Does Abram stay in the land of famine in the faith that God will provide what he needs? or does he go out of the land of famine, the land of promise for the fear of losing everything?,

And recorded for us is simply Abram’s decision to this problem he faces. There was a famine in the land. Evidently Abram went down to Egypt on account of it.

What we are given in this story is a quick account of the actions taken but not the understanding of how Abram made the decision. But that doesn’t mean we can’t ask questions of the text here. And I believe we ought to, because if we were reading this for the first time, and maybe that’s you today, we ought to wonder. Why is there famine in the land?, and why has Abram gone to Egypt?

We can’t know for certain why God made a famine, the Bible doesn’t say. And we can only speculate as to why Abram chose to go. For context, Egypt at the time already had the great Pyramids, they’d been standing tall for around 1000 years before Abrams time, they would have been a sight to see. also Egypt must have been known to have good supplies. Information that would have easily been picked up by travelers and merchants. Therefore it’s reasonable to think that Abram might have wanted to see such a place and certainly he would have wanted to feed his people.

And so Abram, standing in the land is faced with this dilemma, and what’s really cool, is that Abram is not told what to do, this shows that is Abram clearly is not a puppet of God. The author of Genesis is giving us a glimpse into the concept of free will. That is the freedom for Abram to make decisions on his own.

Now this choice to stay or go is not sinful either way. They are simply two options that both have perceived consequences. And so Abram decides to go to Egypt to feed his people. There’s no foul in that. and the bible does not condemn this choice of Abram.

Now, you may ask, is God driving Abram to Egypt? That’s a possibility, but it’s also possible that God would provide the food Abram needed if he stayed. So it’s not definitive to say that God wanted Abram to go, but neither is it definitive to say that he should have stayed. The point is, Abram went and he was free to make that choice.

You might say, Joe your making a big deal out of out verse here, but let me assure you that this verse is an encouragement for us. See life as a Christian is not simply straightforward. Like everyone in life we face tough decisions, see often we face different kinds of famines, job losses, relationship break ups, for the youth, exams may be on the horizons. See for Abram this famine is a hardship and he must choose to do something about it. So also do we need to make choices about our hard times.

Many of you have moved countries or cities to work in New Plymouth. I’m sure that was a hard decision to make, costly, tough on relationships, and difficult to adjust to a new culture. However, the point here is that these kind of choices are for us to navigate. We are free to make choices in life.

However! Now that Abram has made his first decision to go to Egypt. Abram now shows us that some choices should be glaringly obviously bad choices. Because Abram, is next given a moral choice, and unfortunately he goes on to choose to lie. Not good.

First decision - go or stay - either is ok

second decision - lie or tell the truth - only one is ok

Lie or speak the truth

Now this is the point where I become disappointed in Abram. And I’ll explain why shortly. But for now, walk with me as we look at his decision to lie to Pharaoh. I’m going to point out three aspects of his decision to lie because the lie reveals a few things about Abram.

1) First of all, he assumes ill of the Egyptians. Before he’s even been there, he makes a judgement on the morality of the Egyptians on what can only be made from information hes gathered from hearsay, gossip from other travelers. He assumes all Egyptians to be immoral people and so makes plans based on that information.

2) Secondly, he instructs his wife to lie. Now if you’re familiar with Abram you’ll know that in Chapter 20, Abram does this same lie to another king. And Abram reveals then that Genesis 20:12 “Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.” So while this is a half truth, for me the shock revelation from Chapter 20 is that he planned this lie after he was called by God and before he left his fathers land Genesis 20:13 “And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”  Basically, it did not take long for Abram to be convicted by God’s call, to then scheme a lie. In other words, soon after God saved him, he was still a sinner.

3) And the third aspect of his lie, reveals that he is most concerned for himself. Sarai’s actions were not for her benefit, that’s for sure! It was to protect himself, that he could get the supplies he needed.

And that’s the thing about lies, is that they don’t often achieve what we are hoping for but rather they reveal what we truly love and value. And here, it’s clear that Abram truly values himself. So much so that he willing for his wife to become part of another mans hareem. This is not a good moment for Abram.

And I mentioned that I get disapointed on Abram at this point and that’s not because Abram is doing something stupid like lying about his wife to Pharaoh, or thinking about protecting himself, or assuming ill of others. No, I’m not dark on Abram because of that.

I’m dark on this narrative because when I read it and see all my lies that I’ve told. I see the times when I thought telling a half truth would be better than telling the whole truth. And I’m not just talking about life changing issues here.

The other day, I told Ness that I made all the beds in the house so that the boys could nap when they are ready. She smiled at me with such thankfulness and gave me a warm embrace showing that it meant a lot to her that I did that job. Truth be told, I made one bed, the other two were already made. For some needy reason I felt that I should be appreciated for my efforts and so I told kind of the truth, but really I lied by leading her to believe I did more than I actually did. That is wrong, that is sin.

And that is what I see in this passage as I read the folly of Abram. Sometimes I say, come on Abram!!! You didn’t have to lie you fool, trust God, tell the truth! And in reality I’m just shouting at myself.

Which is the hard truth for all of us today. In this story, we are like Abram. Sinners. Sinners who freely choose to engage in sinful behavior even though we know better. Even though we have been called by God to live as a blessing unto others.

And so like Abram, we need to repent.

Because sinning is not okay. Not even slightly. Sin is what separates us from God, it’s what rots our relationship with others. Sin is what we need to be saved from.

And thankfully in this passage, God provides a great deliverance. Because God is faithful to his promise even though his people are not. And that is what we see here with the final verses of this passage.

Verses 17 - 20

Pharaoh becomes afflicted with great plagues on account of Abrams sin. Now we might first read this and think, oh man that’s tough on Pharaoh, he was tricked into this situation and yet he gets the punishment.

And I want to point out here that, while we may judge a situation on the surface and consider the weight of Abrams sin verses the weight of judgement upon Pharaoh as unfair or unjust. We must remember that this is God’s domain.

And I might add that Pharaoh’s approach to meeting women is no reflection of God’s design in Genesis chapter 2. That is to say, Pharaoh like Abram is no innocent man. But rather a man who receives an act of God that has every possibility of convicting Pharaoh of his own sin.

But aside from that aspect, there is something far more profound at play here. This narrative is a hidden little gem in that it gives a foretaste of a greater act that will come many hundreds of years later. Let me lead you there by asking some questions;

Where are we in this narrative?

Egypt

Who is being afflicted by plagues?

Pharaoh

Who is in need of a rescue?

God’s people, Abram and his family

Why do they need rescuing?

Sin

What happens in the end?

God’s people are delivered from Egypt and head toward the promise land. With all the provisions they need.

It truly is an Amazing journey here, and one that sounds very similar to a very famous story that is found in the book of Exodus. Where God delivers his people from the bonds of Egypt to the promised land with all the provisions they need.

It’s a very similar story of the great exodus movement except for a very important theme. See God’s people in the story of exodus are being freed from the sin that oppress them. They are slaves of Egypt. However, For Abram, he’s not oppressed by Egypt, rather he is the perpetrator of the sin. Abram therefore is not being saved from Egypt, but rather Abram is being saved from himself.

This Egypt narrative is for us to learn about the grace that God has shown his people in light of their ongoing sin.

Because this is a God who is revealing to the world the great mercy that he has for those who follow him.

But wait I can hear you saying,

How is it merciful that Abram gets to go to Egypt, commit sin and get away with it?? What mercy is that? Surely that is injustice!

And that’s the point! To us it looks like injustice, because Abram does deserve to be punished, he does deserve justice! He committed a sinful act and he should face the consequences of his choices!

And you know what?

That right there is an example of God’s mercy! That’s the blessing that God promised Abram at the start of the chapter. See Abram’s sinful act is held to account, and it does receive the justice it deserves, but it wont happen for Abram until God sends his only son to take the punishment for Abrams sin, over a 1000 years later.

The apparent injustice of Abram’s journey to Egypt provides us an example of what propitiation is. That is, it’s an example of God taking the cost of sin upon himself according to his promise. Which is the good news that we need to hear today!

Because we need to see the reality of our own sin. We need to come to grips with how our sin is punishable by death. Like Abram sinning against a king, we too have sinned against a king. Not the king of New Zealand, or Egypt, but the King of God’s kingdom. God himself. And so like Abram we stand before the king at his mercy. And like Abram, we must stand before him expecting to hear the worst.

Because we deserve the worst, we deserve to be punished because our sin is our rebellion against God. Against our creator and father in heaven who made us good in the beginning. He made us in his image to reflect his glory in all of creation. And our sin rot that image, it has made us not good, unworthy of his glory.

So, there we are in Genesis 12 standing before the king, awaiting his sentence of death for our sin against him. And rather than hearing the death sentence, along comes God’s blessing. For this is what God prepared the world to receive through his promise, through his nation birthed by Abram and Sarai.

Along comes Jesus, the promised blessing, the promised savior. The one whom takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus stands before the throne and he intercedes for us. He draws us near to him and he says to the father, I have paid this sinners debt. They are with me, They have been set free...

And to me that seems upside down and back to front. Why does Jesus suffer as a consequence of my sin? How is that fair?

That’s the point!

God shows through this mighty act of sacrifice that he loves the world, that he sent his only begotten son to die the death that we deserve, that all who believe in him will not die but have eternal life. And This is all possible because when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the throne, he has brought us with him for we are made alive in Christ!

We were dead folks walking. Yet we have been brought to life in Christ.

Such is the mercy of our great God!

And imagine the feeling for Abram, being found out for his deception, knowing full well what the consequence of his actions will be and instead of facing death, instead he is saved by the grace and mercy of God, not because he earned it or did any good, by saved by faith… What a joyful moment! What a reason to say Rejoice! Rejoice! For the king has pardoned my sin.

That is what it is for us too,

If you have faith in Jesus, then you accept that he has taken the punishment for your sin upon the cross. And so like Abram, you have been saved! Rejoice!

See, the wonder of this passage is that God doesn’t just give up on Abram. He doesn’t go, well, I tried with this guy but he was useless. Lets start again.

No God, in his faithfulness to his promise, preserves Abram.

You know part of me wanted a different ending to this narrative. Part of me wanted Abram to be punished in someway for his folly. Because surely Abram must learn a lesson here, rather than just getting away with sin and even being provided with all his riches and possessions.

And it’s not until we understand what Jesus has done for us can we truly understand this narrative. For this passage in Genesis is a passage of God’s grace, not a passage of crime and punishment.

See Jesus, came to earth for a very specific reason. We talked about it last week when we unpacked the context of the blessing of the promise. And we must do that again. because it is in the context of Jesus’ work on earth that we truly understand the grace of God.

Which is why we read the passage from Ephesians. For it simply captures the message of this narrative of Abram so profoundly.

Ephesians 2:1–2 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—”

You see we are Abram, dead in our sins. For Abram was a dead man standing before a king who by rule of his country could send Abram off to be killed for his actions against him.

Ephesians 2:4–5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

Pharaoh, merciful to Abram pardons him in his grace. Which is an image of what God has done for us in Christ. Because just like Abram, we are not saved on account of our own doing. But by the faith we have in the promises of God

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Abram cannot boast of his freedom from Pharaoh, for he did nothing to deserve it, rather Pharaoh displays his mercy towards Abram. Mercy that is perfectly given in Christ on the cross.

For Jesus, unlike Pharaoh is a sinless man, a perfect human who knew no sin. Pharaoh is not Jesus. He simply had the opportunity to display such qualities. Which is no surprise because Pharaoh like Abram is also created in the image of God, an image that carries God’s mercy.

And so that leads us to ask, what are we to do as a result of God’s mercy?

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

God prepared Pharaoh for the arrival of Abram. Abram had the choice to go and God prepared the way.

God prepared Pharaoh to be merciful upon his affliction rather than vengeful.

So while we look to Abram and recognise that it his faith that saved him by God’s grace. We must too look to the example of Pharaoh and his rich mercy for a man who wronged him. We must look to the actions of Jesus on the cross who took the afflictions of our sin upon himself because of his mercy.

Therefore as we read this narrative of Abram in Egypt and we think how can I grow in Christ.

We think about the free will we have, to make choices and walk through tough decisions. For life is full of choices, this way or that way. This job or that?

And we see a couple of principles for making good choices in the Characters of Abram, Sarai and Pharaoh.

On the one hand be like Abram....

Live by faith in the grace and mercy of God. Trust God that he has rescued you from your sin and live for him.

On the other, don’t be like Abram. Don’t solve the problems you perceive in this world by crafting clever lies. Don’t think too highly of yourself.

On the one hand be like Sarai,

When she followed Abram to Egypt, she shows us the principle of submission that we see in Ephesians 5:21 “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Men and women, we must trust those that God puts in authority over us, we must all support the ethical decisions that leaders, trusting that the Lord will provide. As he provided for Abram and his choice to go to Egypt.

But on the other hand,

Discern moral choices. Don’t follow someone in to a lie. If you are required to break God’s moral code in order to help someone else out. Don’t do it. Do not be a part of immoral behaviour for any reason. That is not what we were created for. And poor Sarai had to be subjected to the treatment of the Egyptians. She was trapped in the lie and folly to her for not standing up against Abram’s folly.

And Pharaoh,

On the one hand, be merciful to others. No matter the plagues that affect your life on account of others and their actions. Be merciful, do not seek revenge. But rather forgive! For that is the work of Christ. That is what God’s word teaches us to live for. Forgive one anther as Christ forgave you.

But on the other hand,

Don’t cultivate a culture around you that people feel compelled to act immorally. Be approachable and open to hearing the concerns of others. No matter what your status is, maybe your a king, maybe your a nobody. Are you approachable?

Now there’s a lot in this passage. And I’m sure much more to explore. As I said last week, Genesis is the foundation of God’s redemptive story, and each component points us to the one who perfectly redeems the world, Genesis prepares us to understand truly who Jesus is. For Jesus is our hope, he is our life.

So as we think to the year ahead and we look at all the decisions we make, let us make them knowing the wonder and power of Gods mercy. Think first of God, then through prayer consider the great mercy of God, then make your choices.

Let us pray

God we thank you for your mercy, that you have taken the cost of our sin upon yourself. May we always have in mind your mercy when we make choices in our lives. May we always honor you, giving you all glory and praise,

We say in Jesus name,

Amen.