Faithful to the Faithless

As Allen mentioned last week, today we are going to see that Abram-this man of faith-is not perfect. In fact, he can mess things up with the best of us. Last week we learned about faith from the life of Abram. Today we’re going to learn about the faithfulness of God in the life of this man of faith and see how it mirrors our life of faith in Jesus Christ. Like Abram, when God calls us He doesn’t call us to a neat and tidy, care free life of ease. And like Abram, we don’t come to God with a perfect faith. Our faith isn’t perfect, it fails and it grows.

In this story (Genesis 12:10-20) we’re going to see that Abrams response of faith to the call of God didn’t obligate HIM to now live a life of perfect faith but rather it elicited Gods promises and commitment to Abram-even through many subsequent lapses and failures of faith. You see, when it comes to keeping His promises God’s faithfulness always triumphs over sin.

This doesn’t mean at all that because of the faithfulness of God we (or Abram) have a license to sin; like spoiled brats who take advantage of their father’s high position. No, there were consequences and discipline. It’s the grace and kindness of God that teaches and trains us to say no to ungodliness.

The promises of God to Abram were no ordinary promises (extends to all generations). God promised Abram and his offspring blessing and land but He also promised us blessing; blessing that would come through one descendent of Abram: Jesus Christ. So this promise given thousands of years ago to a pagan moon worshiper has been fulfilled in our lives. We have been saved by Grace, through faith. Eph. 2:8- “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”. Without the faithfulness of God-His promise as well as our faith would be nonexistent.

I don’t think Abram expected a famine. Would you if you were Abram? There you are, sitting on your porch lighting a tiki torch to the moon and God calls your name. He tells you to leave your country and your family and go to a place that He will show you. And then He promises to give you the land, kids (previously barren), to protect you and to top it all off, to bless all the families of the earth (every family, every generation) through you. And Abram believed and went.

And as abruptly as the call came, famine shows up. If I’m Abram, I requesting a meeting. God, you told me to go and you promised all this really cool stuff but now there’s no food. This famine (severe) wasn’t in the plan; I didn’t see it in the fine print. But Abram made a decision to go to Egypt. This had to be an emotional adjustment; I think an adjustment we can relate to. The surprise of trials can leave us wondering what’s going on or even questioning God. But it will help us if we adjust our expectations ahead of time and realize that…

1. Our faith does not exempt us from trials-vs. 10

Just because God promises good things doesn’t mean we won’t experience trouble and trials. On the contrary, scripture tells us that we will-James tells us to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”. And throughout scripture we see the people of God encountering hardship and difficulty, oppression and persecution.

If you doubt this just think about the normal things in life: marriage, children, careers, homes. These are all blessings. If you’re married you know what I’m talking about, you know the joy and blessing of marriage; the anticipation of your wedding day, a sense of belonging and acceptance with your spouse, the fulfillment of deep intimacy that can only be accomplished by the miracle of God uniting 2 people as one. But there’s other realities at work, aren’t there? It doesn’t take long to realize we married someone just like ourselves-a sinner-which is a recipe for a trial. What about having children, pursuing a career, buying your first house? All these are blessings from God but all bring trial to varying degrees. Kids sin, get sick, make messes and break things; we lose jobs or don’t get the one we wanted, or we get disillusioned with the job and the people; houses cost money, need maintenance, they flood, burn, bugs eat them, neighbors bother us. Blessings don’t exempt us from trials.

What about following Christ? Christ promises blessings. Allen described the fallacies of the faith movement last week so I won’t get into those details right now but you may have come to know Christ under false pretence. You may have heard a gospel that sounds something like this: “Is your life empty? Are you looking for meaning? Do you desire greater fulfillment in your life? Come to Jesus. He can give you what you need. Give your life to Jesus and He will give you abundant life.”

The problem with this gospel presentation isn’t in what’s being said, but in what’s left out: sin, the holiness of God, the cost of atonement and the cost of following Jesus-a daily cross, to deny ourselves. If this isn’t the gospel you heard it doesn’t mean you’re not a Christian but it could be having a harmful effect on the way you live your life and relate to God. What do you do when trials come? How do you see God? Is He abandoning you, angry with you or punishing you? Do you need to “muster” more faith? Or is your life of faith separate from your life of trials. Faith involves the blessings, but the trials are up to you to fix because this couldn’t have anything to do with God.

The truth is that our faith doesn’t exempt us from trials. Jesus, the Son of Man who had no place to lay His head, was baptized and filled with the spirit and went immediately to the desert for a 40 day fast followed by temptation from Satan. Not to mention his suffering and death. Our faith does not exempt us from trials…but

2. Our faith will sometimes fail- vs. 11-16

I think it’s interesting that the famine and the decision to go to Egypt doesn’t seem to shake Abram’s faith. But on the way, he started thinking [I think he’d been thinking a lot. “What a beautiful day, God is so good, and my wife is so beautiful…Hey wait…everybody else is going to think she’s so beautiful...”], which leads to speculation […and they’re going kill me], which lead to sin [I’ve got to make a plan]; fear, manipulation, deception, selfishness and acting independently of God.

Faith is gone and survival mode has set in. He appeared to pass the severe famine test (benefit of the doubt) but he’s failing when it comes to trusting God for protection and, as Allen said last week, he throws his wife under the bus in the process.

Let’s read vs. 11-13.

• 11-Ladies, if any man ever begins a request like this, beware. "Baby, you are so beautiful…"

• 12-They will say this is his wife. The irony is that this is true; this is what he should have been saying.

• 12-They will kill me but let you live-he has this all figured out-but we’ll see that he’s wrong

• 13-Say you’re my sister-drawing wife into his scheme through fear, manipulation-she was ½ sister

• 13-why, for me (because of you), my life (for your sake)

This is Abram’s response to fear and the unknown. And he’s getting ready to find out what happens when he takes matters into his own hands. The first thing to note is that he was right. The Egyptians did think Sarai was very beautiful and they did take her. There was a real risk and danger. But what he’s missing is faith in God and courageous leadership.

From the time he realizes the potential for danger he never consults God and he seems to have forgotten the promise. Remember: “him who dishonors you I will curse”. Instead, Abram goes through with his plan, which is shot through with holes, and then sits back and watches it falls apart. He abandons Sarai, risks the promises of God and does nothing about it-nothing except enjoy the royal treatment. What’s he thinking now: “well everything didn’t go exactly as planned, but let’s look at the bright side: Sarai is alive and I sure didn’t expect all this: unlimited Starbuck’s, Macy’s, a couple of Jaguar’s. Maybe this is temporary blessing from God until we get back to the Promised Land.” - (these gifts in vs. 16 were a stereo type of being filthy rich in this culture)

Can’t we all relate to this? We fear and scheme and then adjust our expectations on the back end, “That wasn’t as bad as it could have been”, instead of trusting God and adjusting our expectations on the front end.

Abram didn’t trust God with his fears but it was God who saved him from far more than he knew. We know that our faith does not exempt us from trials and that our faith will be tested and we will at times fail but the point of this story isn’t in Abram’s faithlessness but in God’s faithfulness.

3. Our faith is ultimately based on the faithfulness of God

From the time Abram decides to go down to Egypt-God appears to be silent. Abram isn’t speaking to God and God isn’t calling out to Abram. But God is not silent, He’s working. His grace is at work every step of the way-in spite of Abram’s sin. God protected Abram’s life and Sarai’s purity. And then in verse 17 we see God act-He’s keeping His promise (vs. 3) to protect Abram in a very specific way. Even though Pharaoh was deceived and didn’t knowingly take Abrams wife, God still “cursed” the man who “dishonored” him.

But God isn’t just a cleanup guy, running behind us fixing our problems and cleaning up our messes. He’s committed to his promises and His will, but He’s also committed to us. Failure never goes un-used. Somehow God uses us to carry out His plan and when we fail and sin He not only protects the plan but also changes us through the process.

It makes me think of the difference between working on a house project alone or involving a small child. You know you could do it either way but it would be much quicker and more efficient if done alone. I suppose if the only objective was to complete the project that would be ok. But involving the child is going to give opportunity for the child to learn and grow, to build confidence in the things that the father is teaching him and for the child get to know his father. What a blessing to be a child of God.

I think we get a little glimpse of the training process in vs. 18-20. God afflicted Pharaoh but I believe He used him to rebuked Abram. How embarrassing. Here you are, man of faith, being rightly questioned and corrected by a self-proclaimed pagan god. Pharaoh was irate. In the Hebrew, his command for Abram to go is stinging: “here, wife, take, go!” And Abrams response?…silence. What’s he going to say? So he leaves with his tail between his legs. In this story, Pharaoh appears to be the righteous one, Abram the sinner, Sarai the victim and God saves them all.

Even though Abram put God’s promise at risk, God’s faithfulness was triumphant over his sin. And this won’t be the last time. Throughout scripture we see this refrain repeated: men fail but God is faithful. Adam, Abraham, David, Solomon; they all failed. But the hand of God has been steady throughout history and today is no different. We are the recipients of the blessing that Abram’s faith pointed to.

Jesus Christ is the one through whom blessing has come. He’s familiar with trials, He knows what it is to be tested and His whole life was dependant on the faithfulness of God-the Father. Jesus lived a life of perfect faith and in Him we share in that faith.

Remember that Abram’s response of faith to the call of God didn’t obligate him to now live a life of perfect faith in order to keep God on his side. No, God promised and committed to bless, protect and preserve Abram-and that’s what He did, even through many failures of faith.

The same is true for us. We responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ in faith but it wasn’t perfect and it still isn’t. But God is faithful. Hebrews 12:2 says that we are to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”. Author and perfecter; He starts it and He ends it. It’s His promise, His commitment and His power that ensures our faith will be perfected on the day of Christ Jesus.