Genesis 12 - Faltering Faith
- Chad Werkhoven
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Anxiety begins the moment you move away from God's command.
Genesis 12 (NIV)
12 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
Canons of Dordt
Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints
Article 4: The Danger of True Believers’ Falling into Serious Sins
The power of God strengthening and preserving true believers in grace is more than a match for the flesh.
Yet those converted are not always so activated and motivated by God
that in certain specific actions they - by their own fault - depart from the leading of grace,
and are led astray by the desires of the flesh,
and give in to them.
For this reason they must constantly watch and pray that they may not be led into temptations.
When they fail to do this, not only can they be carried away by
the flesh,
the world,
and Satan
into sins,
even serious and outrageous ones,
They sometimes are carried away by God’s just permission!
Witness the sad cases, described in Scripture, of David, Peter, and other saints falling into sins.
Summary
Abraham is, of course, a household name all over the world. The three great religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity all hold Abraham in the highest regard. And when we see his faith on display here at the beginning of Genesis 12, it's easy to see why! God calls to Abram, seemingly out of nowhere, and tells him to leave all that he knows and go to the land I will show you.
Immediately after reading the LORD's promised blessing, we read the simple line, so Abram went, as the LORD had told him. He doesn't know where he's going or why, but those details don't matter at this point. The LORD commanded, and Abram obeyed without hesitation. That's true faith.
So although the entire world is very familiar with the first half of Genesis 12, it's easy to either overlook or set aside the abject failure of Abram's faith in the second half. The problem starts when he takes matters into his own hands. The LORD had sent him to Canaan, but then a famine hit, and rather than trust God to provide, Abram, on his own initiative, headed down to the abundance of Egypt.
As soon as Abram deviates from the LORD's instructions, anxiety sets in. Abram doesn't trust the LORD to keep him and his wife safe in Egypt, so he concocts a plan for that contingency as well, telling his wife to identify as his sister. That wasn't a complete fabrication (which seems creepy to our ears but society was far different then), but it wasn't the full truth either.
After the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharoah and his household because of Sarai, Pharoah unknots the deceptions Abram had spun and returned Sarai. How ironic that this chapter that begins with the Patriarch demonstrating tremendous faith ends with a pagan doing the right thing. Notice that the chapter ends with Abram silent in his shame.
Dig Deeper
This week we're going to dig into the stories of Biblical saints as they, by their own fault - depart from the leading of grace, and are led astray by the desires of the flesh. The Canons bring us to these sad accounts for two reasons.
First, so that you are reminded that you must constantly watch and pray that you would not be led into temptations. Although the power of God strengthening and preserving true believers in grace is more than a match for the flesh, you're not always so activated and motivated by God to be able to resist all of the temptations that bombard you. So stay far from them!
Secondly, we're reminded of the failures of great saints like Abraham to understand that it wasn't their greatness that saved them. It was the fact that God's grace is stronger than they were. This week we'll read that although these men seriously stumbled, God's grace brought them to repentance and restoration.
This is the same grace that has you firmly in its grip.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who blessed Abraham so that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would not be led into temptations;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: John 4
