When Abram Came Into Egypt
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Psalm 118:1-2,19-29
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord,
Through which the righteous shall enter.
I will praise You,
For You have answered me,
And have become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Save now, I pray, O Lord;
O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
God is the Lord,
And He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will praise You;
You are my God, I will exalt You.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
This is the word of the Lord
Praise be to God
Intro
Intro
Last week Abram received the call to leave his people and the land of his fathers to journey to the land of Canaan.
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Abram heeded the call,
arrived in Canaan
built an altar
and worshiped God.
Body
Body
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
The land of Canaan, though a land flowing with milk and honey, also seems to be prone to Famine
Here, during the time of Joseph, when the children of Israel go to Egypt to survive, during the events at the beginning of Ruth
Famine is a judgement on a wicked nation
Perhaps God is judging the Canaanites for their wickedness.
but God is using this as a test for Abram.
He just promised Abram countless blessings in the previous portion of this chapter
Now he is testing Abram’s faith.
God punishes one, and sanctifies another, with the same event.
Abram could very easily have returned to the land of his fathers, to Haran or Ur of the Chaldeans
but instead he goes the opposite direction, to Egypt.
The word here translated as Egypt is the word Mizraim, the son of Ham, brother of Canaan.
In this decision, Abram is showing that he does trust the promises of God.
However, asking Sarai to say she is his sister is not trusting the promises of God.
Sarai was 65 or older at this point, being 10 years younger than Abram
She would give birth to Isaac at 90 years old
She would live to be 127 years old.
Not sure how aging worked at this point in time, but nonetheless, she was very beautiful.
Abram was not overreacting in asking Sarai to wife for him
In western civilization, we are blessed to live in the remnants of Christendom
In other parts of the world, if you a man sees a beautiful woman and has the power to take her, he does.
Christianity changed this, but without a heavy Christian influence, this is the norm and has been for most of history.
Even in various “Christian” societies, King’s and rulers would still take women they desired.
Even David did this with Bathsheba and killed her husband to conceal his sin.
Today, this is becoming more prevalent in western nations with immigration from the third world.
London, Paris, all over Europe, there are huge “rape gangs” where there are large immigrant populations.
These immigrants have the power, because the local authorities are hesitant to come down swiftly because they don’t want to be viewed as racist.
In many of these governments, rape is a small price to pay to not be seen as racist towards the immigrant populations.
The threat of someone taking a husband’s beautiful wife and killing him was a very real threat throughout most of history, especially as a sojourner in a strange land.
But Abram is not trusting the promises that God just gave him, to preserve him, bless him, and make him a great nation.
He asks his wife to lie to preserve his life, which leads to other topics
is it ever okay to lie?
Many Christians will say it’s never okay to lie and cite the 9th commandment
“Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”
But ‘lying’ is completely contained within that 9th commandment.
Bearing false witness against your neighbor is just a small portion of what constitutes as ‘lying’
Elsewhere in Scripture, ‘lying’ is seen as evidence of faith
Hebrew midwives defying Pharoah
Rahab in hiding the spies in Jericho
Deception is also used positively in Scripture
Ehud with Eglon
Jael with Sisera
Deception is part of war
Several times the Israelites pretend to retreat, buy lie in ambush?
Is this sin?
Is deception always sin?
If you’re playing a game of chess, do you have to tell your opponent what you’re doing?
Is a football team in sin if they run a trick play?
Is a quarterback sinning when he does a pump fake?
Obviously ‘no’
Christians need to have a more developed understanding of this then “lying is a sin”
That is fine in explaining the 9th commandment to children, but there are times when “lying” or ‘deception’ is good.
otherwise, we have to condemn God and Scripture for when it is praised.
We could spend a lot more time on this, and probably have spent too much on it already, but in brief
If one is being untruthful to harm your neighbor or to cover your sin, you are sinning.
If someone is asking you an unjust question, a question where giving the truthful answer will allow someone to commit a sin against you or your neighbor, it is not necessarily a sin.
Example from not too distant past, if a government official was asking if you and your neighbors were properly social distancing, God does not require you to tell them you went to church without masks and sang all the while not keeping 6ft separation.
And “technically” Abram is not lying. Later on chapter 20, we see that Sarai is Abram’s half-sister.
Abram is not guaranteed harm in it being known that Sarai is his wife.
So he is sinning by not trusting God
So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
Abram is vindicated in his suspicion that the Egyptians would find his wife to be very beautiful.
Almost immediately, Sarai is taken and added to Pharaoh’s harem.
Like Esther, she isn’t immediately taken to Pharaoh’s room, but is likely prepared to be his wife, which could take months.
Abram is blessed by Pharaoh.
For allowing his “sister” to be taken as Pharaoh’s wife, Abram receives sheep, oxen donkeys, servants, and camels.
Abram was right that the Egyptians would find Sarai beautiful and that Pharaoh would want her as wife, but not correct in the sinfulness of the Egyptians.
Abram was a foreigner, legally he could take Sarai and give Abram nothing in return,
but he blessed Abram abundantly,
This shows that Pharaoh was not nearly as wicked as Abram assumed.
But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And 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’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
God protects Sarai.
He sends plagues.
We are not told the extent or nature of the plagues
But they might have affected the fertility of Pharaoh’s house
Later on, a similar episode happens with Abram and Sarai in Genesis 20
In this case, it is Abimilech who takes Sarah as his wife, being told that Sarah is Abraham’s sister.
God appears to Abimilech in a dream, forbidding him from consummating the marriage, because Sarah is already married.
God prevented Abimilech from sinning
God also had closed the wombs of all in his household
So maybe the same thing happened in Pharaoh’s house?
Whatever it was, Pharaoh is prevented from sinning against Abram, returns Sarai, rebukes Abram, and sends him away with the gifts already given to him.
It’s interesting that Pharaoh did not take any of the gifts back
Even though he was deceived by Abram and is king of Egypt,
he is the one that suffers material loss after this incident
But Abram is shown to lack faith in the promises God just gave him
But God is still faithful
2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”
“I will bless him who blesses you and curse him who curses you.”
Pharaoh was both blessed and cursed here
In unintentionally ‘cursing’ Abram by unknowingly taking his wife
He was cursed in the plague that came up on his household,
but that plague was also a blessing as it prevented him from irreversibly ‘cursing’ Abram by committing Adultery against him.
Pharaoh is shown to be righteous in his behavior against Abram, since he allowed Abram to keep the gifts.
That “blessing” given to Abram was returned by God blessing Pharaoh in not allowing him to sin against Abram.
In the very same Chapter where Abram is given this promise, not only do we see Abram forget it, but we see it in action with Pharaoh.
So Abram leaves Egypt with more possessions than he entered.
Like the children of Israel under the leadership of Moses, God’s chosen people leave Egypt with the help of plagues, carrying riches with them.
This event foreshadows his descendants escaping a famine in Canaan, finding refuge in Egypt, through Plagues, being sent out carrying riches.
Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
Abram returns to Canaan, very rich
We see that Lot was with them, though he was not mentioned in the narrative until now.
After failing to trust God and his promises, yet God still fulfilling His promises, Abram returns to where he built his altar, and worships God.
When we fail, when we fall into sin, or just don’t trust God, oftentimes, the last thing we want to do is run back to God.
But that is exactly what Abram does.
He goes back to where he first made the altar and Calls on the name of the Lord.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God has called us to faith in Jesus Christ
I referenced 2 Timothy 2:13, earlier, but here is more context:
This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
This might have been a hymn of the early Church, but it is very applicable saying for us
We need to trust the promises that God has given to us.
We believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
If we died with him
repented of our sins
died to self
were baptized with him
then we will also live with him
do you believe it?
If we endure
If we continue in the faith
If we run the race until the end
we will also reign with him
The new creation, we will reign with Christ
as coheirs
If we deny him
He will deny us
don’t deny Him
no matter what
Abram denied Sarai as his wife to Pharaoh
Don’t deny Christ,
But if you do, repent and be restored like Peter
If we are faithless
He remains faithful
You are not saved by the volume or quality of your faith, but by the object of your faith.
Abram had weak faith, not no faith
demonstrated by not returning to Egypt, but still being deceptive about his wife
Trust God and his promises, even if you do it imperfectly.
Work on increasing your faith, but rest in the object of your faith: Jesus Christ
He cannot deny Himself.
God fulfilled his promises to Abram even though Abram had weak faith
God will fulfill his promises to us even though we have weak faith.
Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
God is not expecting us to have perfect faith
He asks us to have faith
As we exercise our little faith, it grows into ever greater faith.
