12:1 Now the LORD said1 to Abram, “Go from your country2 and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”3
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak4 of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Footnotes
[1]12:1Or had said [2]12:1Or land [3]12:3Or by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves [4]12:6Or terebinth
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
12:1 Now the LORD said1 to Abram, “Go from your country2 and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”3
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak4 of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Footnotes
[1]12:1Or had said [2]12:1Or land [3]12:3Or by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves [4]12:6Or terebinth
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
We are continuing our study in the book of Genesis. We're gonna find ourselves this morning in Genesis chapter 12, and the story of God calling Abram out of nowhere. And we're gonna be walking through, that calling, and then we'll also be exploring a little bit further as, as they go to Egypt. And so we'll be we'll be looking at that, and also, you have in your worship guides, I believe you also have Hebrews chapter 11. We'll be looking at that later on, but I wanna begin by reading, from Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Jeffrey Heine:
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the Oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.
Jeffrey Heine:
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land.' So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
Thanks be to God. Let's pray. God of Abraham, you alone are God, father, son, and spirit. We call upon your name this morning. We need your grace and mercy, new and fresh today.
Jeffrey Heine:
We need your presence and your victory. Lord, we need to hear from you, because you alone have the words of life. Where else can we go but to Jesus? So Father, for the sake of your Son, through the work of your Holy Spirit, speak to us. For your servants are listening, We pray these things in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:
Amen. In 1972, the musician Paul Simon was being interviewed on the Dick Cavett show. The host asked Paul what his methodology was for songwriting. Did he start with the music or the lyrics first? Well, Paul was beginning to answer the question, he asked for someone to bring him a guitar on stage.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he told the host that he had been working on a new song for some time, but he only had 2 verses. He said he had been stumped on where to go next. But he would play as much of the song as he had, work in progress. And after a few jokes about Dick Cavett, helping Paul Simon finish the song, Paul began to sing. And he sang about how he ran into an old lover on the street last night, and she seemed glad to see him.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he just smiled. He was playing the first stanzas of Still Crazy After All These Years. The pieces that he did have at that point in time, the melody, the chords, the 2 verses of lyrics, They were exactly as they would end up in the eventual recordings years later. But after playing those 2 verses, Paul stops. He did not know yet what more he wanted to say.
Jeffrey Heine:
You see, in that moment in time, captured on late night TV, Paul could not see where things were going. He could not see how one day all of those pieces would fit together, fragments of verse and chorus. And one day, it would become one of the most popular songs of the seventies and of his career. Now at that moment, the song just stops, leaving behind expectation and the hope of what might become of it all. Now, I had the luxury of first watching this episode decades later, knowing full well how the song would end up.
Jeffrey Heine:
When I listened to those first pieces of the chords and lyrics, I knew where that song was going. And for the people in 1972, for the host Dick Cavett, for the studio audience, and the people watching television live across the country, they had no idea. And neither did Paul Simon himself. But when I listened, I knew. It reminded me of one of my favorite Soren Kierkegaard quotes.
Jeffrey Heine:
Perhaps it's one of your favorites too. It goes like this. Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. I was listening to the work in progress song. I was listening backwards, though.
Jeffrey Heine:
I knew where it was going. But that's not how life goes. We live forwards, not knowing what is next, and sometimes not knowing where we're going, Not knowing if today will be one of the many days that will just exist for a moment in our memories and then be forgotten? Or will today be one of the most important days of our lives? We don't know if the next person to say hello might end up being a lifelong friend or just simply someone we will never see again.
Jeffrey Heine:
We understand our lives backwards, but we must live our lives forwards, not knowing what is next. We get the privilege of reading the story of Abram backwards. In fact, I keep wanting to call him Abraham, because that's how he will be known for the rest of the Bible, but not just yet. We get to read Abram's story with the rest of Genesis, the rest of salvation history in view. And while that is helpful, it can make it hard to live in the tension of the story as it unfolds.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's like wanting to sing that next line of the song to Paul Simon through the TV screen, and to tell Abram to trust in the Lord. Stay in the promised land. Wait for Sarai to become pregnant. Believe the promises of God. They will be fulfilled in God's son, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
And we wanna add this climactic verses that we find in Hebrews 11 that declare that all these covenant promises and all the faith of the people of God come from the father through Christ, sealed forever by the spirit. But we cannot do that for Abram, no more than I could finish the song for Paul through the TV. We don't get the luxury of doing that for ourselves either. Do we? What would you go back and tell yourself about your greatest worries 5 years ago?
Jeffrey Heine:
The things that were most pressing on your heart, your mind 5 years ago, what would you say to yourself 15 years ago? What about the challenges you're facing today? How will they resolve? Where are things going from here? God's lasting and living word speaks to our present moment from both the past and the future, because God is not bound by time.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it is best for us, as those coming to the God to the word of God, to listen, to listen and receive what God is saying. Perhaps it's especially important in an ancient text like Genesis to quiet our questions for a moment and the assumptions that we hold, and first receive it as it is. Here in Genesis 12, we begin walking with Abram and Sarai. And their story sets in motion the story of God's people, a chosen people, chosen by God, called through his covenant promises. And so often, the thing that prevents me from understanding what the scriptures are saying is what I already think I know about the scriptures.
Jeffrey Heine:
To say that another way, so often the thing that prevents us from understanding and knowing God better is what we think we already know about God. And today I want to encourage you to engage with this story of Abram. Curiously. Wonder. Now, I'm not saying that we're to read with our minds off somehow.
Jeffrey Heine:
By no means. I'm suggesting that we read with a spiritual curiosity on. That means listening to hear what is being said and seeking first the God who is speaking. Because something happens when we read the scriptures, and we seek first to listen and to receive it as it is, not as we might wish it to be or presume it to be, and not just for information that we can somehow gain and take hold of, but rather, we posture ourselves to wonder at the word and to receive it as it is and to seek first this God who is speaking. So picture yourself sitting encamped in the wilderness next to a large mountain.
Jeffrey Heine:
The mountain is known as Sinai. You and everyone you know, you've just escaped captivity and slavery in Egypt. Generations of your people have been born into slavery in Egypt as captives. You don't know what life is like outside of that slavery. But a man named Moses, who claiming claims to be a prophet of God, has led you, you and your people, through plagues of judgment and through a sea divided and into freedom.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yahweh has rescued you from your captivity. However, you didn't really imagine being camped out next to a fiery mountain like this. You didn't expect gathering manna from the ground each morning and having only enough food for one day at a time. Some of your family members have started saying that life as slaves in Egypt was often better than this. And all of this is happening as the prophet Moses is finally writing down at God's direction the stories of the people of God, stories which have been passed down from generation to generation.
Jeffrey Heine:
Moses, this divinely chosen leader, is admittedly not a great speaker. But I believe that his impediments of speech seem to have made him an excellent writer. He chooses his words carefully and prayerfully. He's writing down your people's history, the stories long passed down parent to child, stories about creation and how things came to be, stories about sin and how things came to be. These promises, these promises of being called out for adoption by God, they find their roots in the story of a pagan man and his wife, Abram and Sarai.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the story begins in a city called Haran. And out of seemingly nowhere, Genesis chapter 12, God speaks. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.
Jeffrey Heine:
And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The Lord God calls Abram in these three verses, 3 parts to this call. Part 1, verse 1, is a command to go. It's a call to leave behind his place, to leave behind his land, to leave behind his people. He's to leave behind everything that he knows to follow God.
Jeffrey Heine:
So, where is Abram going? Well, Yahweh says, go to the land that I will show you. This calling is dependent upon God's continuous direction. It's not only a call to leave his homeland, it's a call to deep trust. The calling of Abram to leave his land, to leave his people for an imprecise unnamed land.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's called to leave everything that is his, even his inheritance of his father's house. What he is entitled to, he has to walk away from it. I know, many of you from your stories, which even this past week, the pastors, we were reading membership testimonies. I know from many of you, in knowing your stories, that your obedience to Jesus and following his call to faith and salvation has meant leaving behind many things. I know some of your stories have included families that have turned against you, but do not speak to you anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:
Friends that have written you off, dating relationships that have had to end. And I know that for others, it's it's even included this further turning to Christ and and finding ways to live a life seeking to obey him in celibacy. The history of the saints are full of these kinds of stories. The call of God on your life is a free salvation, and following Christ is often costly. Look at each call to go.
Jeffrey Heine:
Leave your country, your kindred, your father's house. Abraham had to leave all these things that he knew, everything that was his. And he had to walk into the unknown, following a God that he did not really know yet. An unknown land described only as the land that I will show you. But this calling is enjoined with a promise, namely the promise that God will show Abram the land that he is to go to, which means that God will be giving Abraham turn by turn directions, because God will be with him.
Jeffrey Heine:
God is with him every step. And this call for Abraham to leave, it it helps remind us that God is with us every step too. As you follow him in that costly obedience, as you step into the unknown, he's with you. Part of the great commission that Jesus gives to his disciples, the end of the gospels is recorded, there. We see that Jesus tells them, teach these new believers to obey everything that I have commanded.
Jeffrey Heine:
And to do that faithfully, think about that, to do that faithfully, that's not just one conversation. And then they're baptized and they're good to go. No. Teaching someone to obey everything that Jesus has commanded means that that we journey together. We journey with one another through life, through unmapped lands of rejoicing, and sorrow, and suffering, and celebrating.
Jeffrey Heine:
We follow God's directing. And contrary to sometimes common thinking, there isn't a simple roadmap for Christian living that's just 1, 2, 3. No. There's the indwelling of the holy spirit. And there's a holy community of saints called the church.
Jeffrey Heine:
And we point one another to Jesus and remind one another of the truth of his promises. Every follower of God is called into the place, the unknown place of trust. We see it here in these opening words of Abram's call. Part 2. God promises that he will do something through Abram's obedience, saying, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Jeffrey Heine:
God accompanies this call to Abraham, with a promise of blessing. Through Abram's obedience, God is going to make a nation, a people for God's own possession. He will bless Abram, and this this blessing will also extend to the name of Abram being great. What people were seeking after in building a tower in a previous chapter, that their names would be great. God is promising that to Abram.
Jeffrey Heine:
And not just celebrity for celebrity's sake, but to be a blessing to others. It goes back and forth from communal, a great nation, to the personal, I will bless you and make your name great. And then it goes communal again, so that you will be a blessing to others. Do you think that Abram, in a quiet moment, ever said to himself, what did I ever do to deserve this? Because Abram was the son of people who worshiped other gods.
Jeffrey Heine:
His family, we would call that pagan. They worshiped idols, false gods. He lived and worked in a pagan city, one of the largest cities of commerce at that time. Abram was a pilgrim foreigner, and God was pursuing him, choosing him, calling him out of nowhere, and promising to lead him. I surely think that Abram looked at his life and his relative indifference to this one true God and probably more than once said to himself, what did I ever do to deserve this?
Jeffrey Heine:
3rd part of the calling, verse 3. God promises Abram protection through blessings and curses. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Abram is being called by God to leave behind everything that he knows and enter an unknown land.
Jeffrey Heine:
But God is promising his presence in leading him, and his presence in defending him. God will bless those who bless Abram, and he will curse those who dishonor him. All of these words of God's call of Abram would have been so important for the people of God to remember as they've been called out of Egyptian captivity in a foreign land and led into the wilderness of Sinai, not knowing what would come next. It must have been so significant for them to remember that wherever God called them to go into the unknown, that he would be with them, defending them. He would be their deliverer.
Jeffrey Heine:
I don't think that you have to be camped out at Mount Sinai to need to remember these promises. We can, and should, compare our own calling to trust and follow God with the call of Abraham to trust and follow God. But perhaps it's even more important for us to see our connection to Abram's calling. Because the calling of Abram is ultimately the calling of the church, that is the people of God throughout time and history redeemed in Christ Jesus. It is from Abram that God would raise up a holy nation, and it is through Christ that it would be accomplished.
Jeffrey Heine:
Remember, Abram will be called righteous, not because of his obedience, or his character, or his actions. Abram will be called righteous only because of Jesus. In the New Testament, we we read the Apostle Paul telling us in a letter to the Romans that the one who is righteous by faith, they are the one who shall live. Righteous by faith. Abram is made righteous by faith, and that happens through God's gift of giving him faith to believe and Jesus giving him the righteousness to be righteous.
Jeffrey Heine:
And God's calling on your life is likewise dependent solely upon the righteousness of Jesus, secured and applied to you in the gift of faith. In Genesis 12, we don't hear a verbal response from Abram to this calling from God, but we do see a response in verse 4, which says, so Abram went as the Lord had told him. Abram's 75 years old when he departs his homeland. Abram leaves with his wife, his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and they set out for the land of Canaan. And when they arrive, Abram stops in a place called the Oak of Morah.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it's there that God appears to Abram and says, to your offspring, I will give this land. See, God's fulfilling his promise that He would show him the land. He's showing him that this is the land of promise, and I will give this very land to your offspring. And in response to seeing this and hearing from the Lord, Abram builds an altar, and he worships God. And then he continues his journey, following the directions of the Lord, building altars of worship along the way.
Jeffrey Heine:
In a sense, the Lord is teaching Abram how to worship. He's teaching him how to be a worshiper of Yahweh. And these altars are like flags in the ground, claiming it not like an invading army, but but as a place of worship. God is leading Abram to learn obedience, and that obedience is worship. Do you see your obedience to the Lord as acts of worship?
Jeffrey Heine:
Well, they kinda separated out. There's singing and music, but is your obedience worship to the Lord? In response to seeing and hearing from the Lord, he builds these altars. And Abram will go from the hill country on the east of Bethel. They're gonna put their tents up and build altars along the way, worshiping, calling out to the name of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
And after some time, Abram will journey on again. And then he will journey on again. Abram is trusting the Lord, following him from place to place, learning to live a life of dedication and worship. Think about this. He's building altars, but he's setting up a temporary dwelling for himself and his people, living in tents, but building altars to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's learning to trust him. And the picture that comes to my mind as he's out in the wilderness, and he's going from place to place, and he's learning and training up and how to follow and worship Yahweh, the picture that comes to my mind is like a training montage in a movie. You know, where where a mentor is teaching a student. In a sequence of rapid clips that displays the struggle of learning, but but progress along the way. Maybe you can recall some of these.
Jeffrey Heine:
Like, it's like, in the movie, Rocky 4, where Rocky is training to fight Drago. If that's an unfamiliar reference, it's like the training montage where Kevin Bacon is teaching people how to dance and Footloose. If that's unfamiliar, it's like the training montage in The Karate Kid, or Dirty Dancing, or The Empire Strikes Back, or Mulan, or Cool Runnings. I could go on. Now you're just gonna be thinking about cool runnings for him.
Jeffrey Heine:
I picture God leading Abram to build the altar, teaching him what it means to serve him, to love him. And he learns along the way from place to place, building altar after altar. Abraham was obeying the call. God was displaying his trustworthiness by fulfilling his promises to be with him, to guide him. But then something happens.
Jeffrey Heine:
In verse 10, we read, 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. Alright. Hold on. There's a famine in the promised land.
Jeffrey Heine:
How can there be famine in the promised land? How can this be the land that God has called him to, to leave everything behind and come to this land? Didn't God promise blessing and greatness? Isn't this the land flowing with milk and honey? How is this God's plan?
Jeffrey Heine:
How is this the calling of God? Called to a land with famine? There's not supposed to be famine in the promised land. Right? Or chaos in the Christian, or doubt in the believer, or sorrow in the worshiper, or frustration in the Christian marriage, or illness in the faithful, or disunity in the church.
Jeffrey Heine:
Right? Abram was called to a land of promise, and there is famine in the land. Passages like this, they show us that the so called prosperity gospel show us for the sham that it is. But I'd also caution that we we often encounter a shadow prosperity gospel lurking inside of us, quiet, subtle. It hides inside our expectations.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's the expectation that when I do the right thing, I deserve to get good things back from God. We won't preach it. We won't tell other people about it, but we will expect it in our hearts. And when we read passages like this, it can bring out attention inside of us, a conflict inside of us. And I wonder if any of these quiet moments Abram ever stopped and asked, What did I ever do to deserve this?
Jeffrey Heine:
All he's done so far, step by step, is obey. What did I ever do to deserve this? Famine in the promised land. He left his home to follow God's calling. And if we are supposed to believe in the sovereignty of God, and we are, then it seems to reason that the famine was not a threat to Abram's calling, but somehow part of it.
Jeffrey Heine:
But Abram chooses to run from it. And in doing so, he runs away from one of the promises of God, that that God would give him a land. And he runs from this blessing and promise that God would be with him and defend him. What happens when our calling doesn't look the way that we think it should? Do we suppose that the communication got scrambled somehow?
Jeffrey Heine:
When the job or the marriage or the neighborhood or the church doesn't look the way that we imagined that it would when we first were called. What do we do then? Was God wrong? Were were we wrong? Or perhaps the sacrifices that God asks of us will sometimes hurt.
Jeffrey Heine:
And surrender and sacrifice will sometimes feel like a loss. And perhaps the plans that God has for me, plans to prosper me, might not fit my definition of what I think it should look like to prosper. How do we worship then? Those first hearers of Moses's retelling of the story of Abram probably felt this tension and asked these questions, too. Again, we can imagine looking around at the crowds of the families going in and out of their tents, huddled in the shadow of Sinai.
Jeffrey Heine:
We can wonder with them, how is this the calling of God? How is this God's plan? How can there be famine in the promised land? Abram saw the severe famine in the promised land, and instead of waiting on the Lord's provision, or at least according to the text, crying out to the Lord for help, he takes off. He leaves the land of promise and goes to Egypt.
Jeffrey Heine:
As Abram is about to enter Egypt, he realizes a looming problem. He says to Sarai, his first recorded words here, you are so beautiful. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, and they will take you into captivity. Now Abram is probably right. It was the law in Egypt that the pharaoh could seize any foreign woman or child.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so Abram is probably right that this is a real threat as they enter the land. But I think we need to recall the context of this problem. He is running off to Egypt. And and I read this, I see this move to Egypt as being distrust of God. And one of the reasons that I read it this way is because this scene will happen again later in Genesis.
Jeffrey Heine:
There will be another famine in Canaan, the promised land, and when Jacob is leading the people of God. But at that time, God will will be explicit and tell Jacob it's okay to go to Egypt, because Jacob does not want to leave the promised land. But God will assure Jacob that he will bring Israel back to the promised land. So if Abram was distrusting God and going to Egypt, whatever happens from there will be a derivative disobedience. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:
It's all just gonna unfold from there. And that's what we see happen. Abram comes up with a lie for any inquisitive Egyptians. He tells his wife, say you are my sister, that it will go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. So hold up again.
Jeffrey Heine:
So Abram went to a foreign land where he believes it is likely that people will kill him and take his wife. And his best alternative option is to avoid being killed while still seeing his wife taken into captivity. And this is not just his wife. Remember, this is Sarai. This is the means by which God's promise of offspring, a nation, will come through her.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's compromised. As he leaves the promised land, he compromises the land. As he goes into Egypt, and settles with this deal that Sarai can be taken, the threat of becoming a great nation, the threat of offspring, His posterity, these things, all the covenant promises just made are all under threat. But this is how sin works. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:
Distrusting God in one instance leads to more distrust in the next. Compromise leading to compromise. When Abram enters Egypt, things go as he anticipated. The Egyptians, they see Sarai. She's very beautiful.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the princes of Pharaoh, the king, they praise her, her to Pharaoh, and they tell him of her beauty. And she is taken into the house of Pharaoh. And because of Sarai, as Abram had hoped, Pharaoh dealt well with him, giving him livestock and servants. But think of this. It doesn't matter how many donkeys you get.
Jeffrey Heine:
Your wife is in the house of pharaoh. You can look back. He gets male donkeys, female donkeys. It's kind of a deal. He also gets camels, which we're not really sure if camels were in that area at that time, but somehow he gets some camels.
Jeffrey Heine:
So, good for you, Abram. But your wife is the wife of Pharaoh. See, Abram was told by God that he would make a nation from him, that he would defend him against anyone who dishonored him. But Abram sees the danger of the famine and he runs. He sees the danger of the pharaoh and he lies.
Jeffrey Heine:
What good are the promises of God's defense if you're always trying to sort things out for yourself? What good, what good is it being a child of Almighty God if you're going to live like an orphan anyway? You live like you have to take care of everything on your own. You're fatherless and you have to live and fight on your own and in your own strength. What good is it to be called a child of almighty God, but live like an orphan.
Jeffrey Heine:
And when we see the men and women of the Bible as they actually are, and not some sensationalized heroes. We realize that they are painfully like us. We too can hear the promises of God, believe them, delight in them, and then live like they are not true. We can confess with our mouths and so quickly deny with our lives. And we see that here with the great father, Abraham, Taking charge as though it's his job to make the promises of God come true rather than waiting, trusting and obeying.
Jeffrey Heine:
We too can run off and try our own way, try to make God's promises come true on our own, in our own strength, and to our own satisfaction. And at the base of Sinai, a crowd of liberated slaves began longing for their old captivity. They're starting to contemplate that run back to Egypt. They're thinking to themselves, if this is God's calling, then we're just getting famine. And this is too far from my definition of what it means to prosper.
Jeffrey Heine:
But the steadfast love of God will never waver. God's promises hold firm, even and perhaps especially in the face of our foolish disbelief and disobedience. Hear this. God will let us fall down. He will let us fail, but he will never let us go.
Jeffrey Heine:
God will let you fall down. And God will let you fail. And he will never let you go. Many centuries later, a descendant of Abram will one day write down and cry out to the Lord. Where can I go from your spirit?
Jeffrey Heine:
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.
Jeffrey Heine:
God would be there. He would not leave Abram alone. In the weakness of Abram's faith, God will hold him fast. God would defend Abram despite his foolish self reliance. And he does this.
Jeffrey Heine:
The Lord afflicts Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai. Through that affliction, Pharaoh will learn of the deceit from Abram and Sarai. And he will confront Abram saying, 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 so that I took her for my wife?
Jeffrey Heine:
Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. This is an unexpected key change. The pagan pharaoh calls out the immorality of the great patriarch Abram. Pharaoh give gives orders to some men to march Abram and his people out of Egypt.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, back toward the Promised Land. God went to battle on Abram's behalf. And this would not be the last time that God would march into Egypt to ensure that his covenant promises were fulfilled. Egypt, pharaoh, plagues, the people of God, It would all happen again. Because God will not fail.
Jeffrey Heine:
He will not fail his people, nor will he forsake his promises. In Hebrews chapter 11, which you have in your Worship Guide, we read a summary of the calling of Abram. They're referred to as Abram. And the writer says this, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Jeffrey Heine:
By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from 1 man and him as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. You see in Genesis chapter 12, in that moment in time, Abram could not yet see where his story was going.
Jeffrey Heine:
He didn't know what would be the end of all those pieces of promise. He couldn't see how one day all those pieces would come together in the person of Jesus Christ. Those initial pieces of lyrics and chords in chapter 12 will develop into the beautiful song of God's faithfulness to Abraham and Sarah and these covenant promises. God will lead them, and he will be faithful to every word of promise. And Sarah will learn through great trials to consider faithful the one who had promised her barrenness would end.
Jeffrey Heine:
The writer of Hebrews goes on saying, Abraham and Sarah, they died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, Haran, they would they would have the opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. God was teaching Abram and Sarai to trust him, how to believe that he is trustworthy.
Jeffrey Heine:
And that would not happen through ease and comfort. It would be born of struggle. Abraham and Sarah would wake up in the morning, and they would have to actively set their hearts and minds on the promises of God. Because there would be days that they would wake up to famine, a barren land. And there would be years where they would wake up childless in a barren womb.
Jeffrey Heine:
And there would be days where they'd wake up disbelieving with a barren heart. But God would not leave them there. No. God planted deep in their hearts a desire for a different, better country. The desire to seek a homeland, to seek the promises of God from afar.
Jeffrey Heine:
And they would glimpse them at a distance. These promises being fulfilled in Jesus. We know that because Jesus would one day teach that Abraham looked from afar with joy saying, your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day. He saw it and was glad. But the people said to him, are you not yet 50 years old?
Jeffrey Heine:
And you say, you have seen Abraham? Jesus would respond, truly, truly, I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am. Like Abraham and Sarah, we all desire a land of promise, a heavenly homeland, a better country. And we can find ourselves questioning the plans and purposes of God when the times of famine come. Illness, chaos, sorrow.
Jeffrey Heine:
But before we pack up our camp and try to make our own way apart from God, we would do well to remember that while we do not yet know where things go from here, what the next note or the next lyric might be, our God does. He knows the song of your life by heart because He wrote it before time began. And each and every verse finds their eternal and emphatic, yes, in Christ Jesus. The hope of Abram and our hope is the family of God. Christ confirms, upholds, fulfills, and accomplishes every covenant promise that the people of God have clung to generation after generation.
Jeffrey Heine:
It is Christ who called you out of the captivity of sin and death and brings you to the promised land of God's grace and mercy. He's done this through his perfect life, his atoning death, and his glorious resurrection. And it is through the ascended Christ that God's right hand holds you fast. And while so often in the foolishness of our sin, we experience the consequences and pains of not holding fast to Christ. While that's true, we cannot change the grip of his grace on us.
Jeffrey Heine:
His right hand upholds us and holds us fast, here, today, in this very hour. And he will hold you fast for all eternity. So thanks be to the God of Abram, the God who is the author and finisher of our salvation. Let's pray. Lord, by your spirit, would you help us to see Jesus?
Jeffrey Heine:
Would you turn our eyes and our hearts and minds to look upon him? Lord, I pray for these brothers and sisters here this morning. We call out to you that we believe, but, Lord, help our unbelief. Help us to trust, love, and obey Jesus all the more today. Continue to speak to our hearts to bring challenge and comfort, to meet with us.
Jeffrey Heine:
Give us the strength to cry out, the strength to turn, the strength to repent, and renew the joy of our salvation today, Lord. We pray these things in the name of Christ, our King. Amen.