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Last week we looked at the first half of Genesis 12. And it was very exciting to see how
God was going to build His people.
[SLIDE – Man, Mission, Land]
Genesis 12 gave us a man, a mission and (land)
a base of operations. And you think – terrific, here are the raw
materials for a wonderful human religion. Let’s go out and build a kingdom. Let’s make this religion happen. We’ve got a patriarchal figure, the man Abram. We’ve got a mission – to build a
nation to bless the world. And
you have some real estate – Canaan – a place of safety and belonging.
But what you get in Genesis is a book of beginnings – that’s what
the name Genesis means.
[SLIDE – Genesis – Beginnings]
And the beginning sets the trajectory, it promises a wonderful
hope but then there’s always a fall.
[SLIDE – Genesis – fall]
The LORD makes a wonderful beginning and promises wonderful
things. Then it’s left in the
hands of humanity and everything goes pear shaped. There’s the fall of Adam – that is
the fall of falls, that fall includes every one of us. But following that, God makes
mini-beginnings with people and they have mini-falls. The fall of Cain, the fall of Noah and
here this evening we’ll see the fall of Abram.
Here in the second half of Genesis 12, we realize that if it was
down to this man, attempting this mission and hoping in this
land, it will never ever work – not in a million years. The man Abram is not the almighty
hero. The mission he is on he
bungles horribly. And this land
(of Canaan) proves not to be a great haven of rest but, right now, a
place of famine.
That’s the first clue that we’re about to witness a miniature
fall. Verse 10:
Now
there was a famine in the land.
Abram’s just left a wonderful land called Ur of the Chaldeans
which was very fertile and where he made a very comfortable living thank
you very much. The LORD has called him to this land, Canaan, this
promised land. And you’d think,
if this is God’s promised land it would be pretty good. Yet, as soon as the land is promised
(v7) there’s a famine (v10). There is a beginning with hope and then a
fall.
But it’s not just the land that falls. In verse 10 Abram does something that – from the
perspective of the rest of the Bible – is a really bad idea. He goes down to Egypt. In Genesis 26, Abram’s son Isaac is
going through a similar famine and he is explicitly told by
the LORD ‘Do not go down to Egypt… [stay] in this land and I will be with
you.’
Because, in the Bible, Egypt is a symbol for worldly strength and
prosperity. People are always
told ‘Don’t trust in the worldly power of Egypt but in the promised power
of the LORD.’ Anyone can see how
Egypt will provide for you – it is a fertile land, there’s fruit on the
trees and grain in the storehouses.
But the LORD’s people are called to trust that He will provide for
us in the place He’s called us to.
So Abram has a choice – he can look down to Egypt and see actual
food. Or he can stay in the land
and he will have to trust the LORD’s promise. Which way does Abram go?
Down to Egypt.
And really that starts Abram on a fallen trajectory. A pattern develops whereby Abram is
deciding not to live by the LORD’s promise but to live by his own wit and
wealth. And in that context Abram hatches a very fallen plan indeed,
which he springs on his wife with impeccable timing.
Verse 11:
11 When he was about to enter Egypt,
It is the impeccable timing that only a
husband can really master. Just as
they’re queueing up at the Egyptian passport control, Abram leans over to
Sarai while she’s filling out her immigration card. He says ‘Don’t tick the ‘wife’
box. Say you’re my sister.’
Why tell this lie? Well
this lie, as with so many lies, is born out of fear. Abram fears that if the Egyptians clap
eyes on the gorgeous Sarai they will do anything to have her – including
killing off the husband.
Abram reckons Sarai really is that gorgeous. But it’s not just a husband’s pride –
v14 calls her VERY beautiful. And
in v15, this refugee, probably in her late 60s, is so stunning she
becomes the talk of the Egyptian palace.
(She is in her late 60s but she lives to 127 so you have to
re-calibrate.) She’s a middle
aged stunner. If she had kids
she’d be called a yummy mummy.
But they don’t have any kids yet so she’s just yummy. So Abram’s right – the Egyptians will
find Sarai very desirable. But
does he really think the Egyptians would bump him off just to get him out
of the way? When you read this
story you see that the Egyptians are nothing but kind to Abram. Even when it turns out he’s been
lying, the Egyptians treat Abram very well – much better than he
deserves. But Abram’s been
trusting himself and not the LORD and so he’s afraid. And when you’re afraid you lie.
In Genesis 20 we learn that Sarai is Abram’s half
sister. (They share a dad but not
a mum). And I’m sure Abram
comforted himself with that.
Later, when he was alone in bed, I’m sure he told himself: ‘I’m
not technically lying. I’m only
telling a half-truth about a half-sister – really it’s only a quarter
lie.’ But no it’s a massive
deception. Because of this
deception, the king ends up taking Sarai into his palace. To be the cleaner? No, v19 – Pharaoh says ‘I took her to
be my wife.’
It is a massive deception.
When Pharaoh wanted to marry Sarai, Abram basically stood by and
said: “No problem. Yeah she’s my
sister. What? She’s beautiful, I never really
noticed. To me she was always my
smelly little sis. Sure take her
as your wife, you have my blessing, just don’t forget to send me all
those riches.’
You see that was a key part of Abram’s plan. He wanted it (v13) to go well with
him. And v16 uses the same
words to show that it did indeed go well with Abram. How did it go well for him? Well (v16) he got rich. He was already a rich man, but this
deceit made him even richer – just as he had schemed back in v13.
Abram has traded his wife. And you have to wonder how he felt as
he received all these riches. His
wife’s with another man but on the horizon is another imperial convoy of
sheep and cattle – what a hollow trade that is. My beautiful wife… ten more she-donkeys. Did Abram ever think, ‘This is
ridiculous, I should tell them we’re married, I should just tell the
truth and trust the results to the LORD.’ Did he ever think that?
He never said it. He just
grew rich from the man who now had his wife.
You know we have a name in this culture for a
man who gets rich giving away women to others. They’re called pimps.
There’s also a name for what Abram has turned his own wife into. I’m not even going to mention that
word. What a mess. Trading his
own wife for livestock.
But then Abram doesn’t just get animals. Verse 16: he’s also traded his wife
for people – for male servants and female servants.
Now that’s interesting. Egyptian female servants. Does that ring any bells?
Turn to Genesis 16:1-2:
Now
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian
servant whose name was Hagar. 2
And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from
bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain
children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of
Sarai.
Can you imagine the pain in Sarai’s suggestion. ‘Abram, you know
how you got rich while I was taken by Pharaoh to be his wife. You know how you gave me to another
man and in return you received other women. Well why don’t you now enjoy
the spoils. There’s Hagar –
you’ve earned her.’ Can you
imagine marriage counseling?
Where do you begin?
Back in chapter 12 things are pretty bad. Abram pimps his own wife to save his
skin and get rich. That could be
the heading to this section of the Bible. This is some fall.
But it’s even worse than that.
We’re not just seeing Abram’s fall as a husband. Even more than this, Abram fails the
LORD in being a blessing to the nations.
In Genesis 12 verses 2 and 3, Abram is commissioned by the LORD to
bless the nations.
Here in Egypt is the first chance he has to put this mission into
practice. Here is Abram’s first
missionary journey. But it’s not
quite as successful as the Apostles’ first missionary journeys. On this mission to Egypt – the nations
bless Abram. But through
Abram’s deceit – they receive only curse. (v17).
Abram doesn’t bless the nations, the nations bless him but they
receive only curse. Abram has
somehow managed to reverse his Genesis 12 mission. He’s not just a fallen husband, he’s a
fallen missionary – he has utterly failed as a gospel witness.
Perhaps you know what that’s like from experience. It’s one of the most chastening things
in the Christian life when you’ve behaved badly and your non-Christian
friends and family pull you up on it.
You’ve blown it, and the non-Christians bail you out by behaving
much more admirably. Has that
ever happened to you? It’s
happening to Abram – the pagans in this story are completely
honourable. V18-20 – Pharaoh
doesn’t want to be an adulterer, he says to Abram, I don’t know what you
people of the LORD think is normal, but we want none of it. Keep the wealth we’ve given you, just
go.” The pagans have the moral
high ground. But God’s man, God’s
missionary – supposedly a light in a dark place – he has to leave in
disgrace.
It would be like getting drunk at a work party and then having
your sober, non-Christian work-mate rub your back while you throw up in
the bathroom. The non-Christian
is behaving so much better.
Imagine how crest-fallen you’d feel if the non-Christian says to
you like Pharaoh does, ‘Why have you done this? Why do you act like that?
Is this what your LORD allows you to do? Is this what being a Christian is?’ You’d just want to die wouldn’t you?
But that’s what’s happening to Abram here – times a thousand. ‘What kind of missionary are you? What kind of God do you follow?’ Abram has blown it as a husband and he
has blown it as a minister of the LORD.
And before you think of this is as an isolated incident. Abram does the same thing again to a
different king in chapter 20. His
son does it again in chapter 26.
The heroes of the Bible are deeply flawed. In amongst great acts of faith there
is tremendous peversity as well.
Noah – drunkard. Abram –
pimp. Moses – killer and
unbeliever – dies outside the land.
David – adulterer and murderer.
Disciples – denyers and deserters. Paul – blasphemer of Christ and killer of Christians. In fact you look back at the three
greatest leaders of the Bible (besides Jesus) and you couldn’t go past
Moses, David and Paul – they’d probably be my top 3 leaders besides
Jesus. All of them killers. All of them with blood on their
hands. And the Bible records all
of this – warts and all.
What kind of book is this?
This is not primarily a code to live by. This is not primarily the Makers instruction manual. This is the story of one hero and one
hero only – the LORD. Everyone
else is shown up to be a complete and utter mess by comparison. This book is the story of the LORD
rescuing sinful people like Abram, like me and like you.
James 1:23 says reading the Bible is like looking into a
mirror. Do you see yourself in
Abram? A failure in your
relationships, a failure as a Christian.
All the people who are closest to God and most in touch with their
own spiritual condition will confess freely ‘I am deeply fallen. If you could see my heart, you’d spit
in my face.’ I hope you can see
yourself as fallen like Abram.
Because when we see that we are failures like Abram we can take
heart: the Word of God can handle
sinners like me. The Bible is a
book about sinners and for sinners.
Have you fallen in your relationships? Abram pimped his own wife?
Have you fallen as a Christian? Abram brought curse and disgrace
to an entire nation. The Word of
God showed the way back for Abram, it can show the way back for you and
me.
I think the way back is shown by the context of this passage. This incident in Genesis 12 has two
bookends to it. Abram has two
mountain-top experiences before and after this fall. Look with me. Chapter 12:8: Abram had begun at the
altar between Bethel and Ai – calling on the Name of the LORD. And then (chapter 13:3) this whole
scene ends again at the altar between Bethel and Ai – calling on the Name
of the LORD. In between these
mountaintop experiences for Abram, he fell – down into the darkness of
Egypt. Yet even from the sin of
this whole episode, the LORD brought tremendous good out of it – plagues
fell on Pharaoh’s house and Abram came out richer than ever.
So, by the LORD’s grace, the shape of this story is like this.
[SLIDE – graph (shaped like a hockey stick) – Abram]
Now Bible students, does this story sound like any other Biblical
story. Going down to Egypt and then there being plagues on Pharaoh’s
household and God’s people coming out again taking with them the
Egyptian’s possessions?
It’s a clear foreshadowing of the exodus.
[SLIDE – graph (shaped like a hockey stick) – Exodus]
There the LORD brought God’s Son, Israel, out of the darkness of
slavery with great wealth plundered from the Egyptians. And – just as in this story – the
whole point was for them to come out so they could worship the LORD on
the mountain. So there’s a big
flavour of exodus to this whole story.
But you know the Exodus story is itself a small picture of the
true redemption of the whole world.
[SLIDE – graph (shaped like a hockey stick) – Jesus]
All of these events in Egypt were just shadows cast by the great
Light of the world – Jesus Christ.
His story defines reality. He is the Offspring of Abraham, and
God’s True Son. And at the cross
He descended to the very greatest depths and He was raised again in glory
– richer than when He had first descended.
That’s the big story – the blue print for every other story. And it’s the pattern by which God
works:– Out of darkness into light.
First slavery then freedom.
First cross, then resurrection.
Bad things then good things.
And none of it is deserved.
Abram didn’t deserve to get his wife back. He didn’t deserve to be let out of
Egypt unpunished. He certainly
didn’t deserve to leave Egypt richer than when He’d arrived. But that is the pattern of God’s
dealings with us. He is the
Redeemer who turns our failures to His good. It is His cross-shaped character to
enter into our darkness and to sweep it up with Him into glory.
And if He redeemed even Abram’s failings, now matter how you have
blown it, He can turn your failures to His glory. No matter how far you’ve fallen you
can never get to the stage where God can’t work with you anymore. He will never say of one of His
children – ‘I’ve seen some messes but that one’s a doozy. That’s a bit too fallen, that’s too
wicked, I can’t work with that.’
The LORD Jesus descended deeper than we could ever fall. Nothing is beyond Him. He can turn even wicked sin to His
glory. Which means we can turn to
Him no matter what we’ve done.
But do we? Do we turn to
the LORD when we’ve blown it?
Usually not. Usually we’re
like Abram – we call on the Name of the LORD on the mountaintop but not in
the depths of Egypt. Have you
noticed in our story that Abram calls on the Name of the LORD before
Egypt (chapter 12:8) and after Egypt (chapter 13:3), but in the midst of
his fall he’s silent. He only
prays when he’s close to the altar.
This altar is a place of bloody animal sacrifice. But strangely it is in the midst of
bloody sacrifice that Abram finds his spiritual feet again and prays to
the God of grace. And maybe you
think that’s weird. What does
cutting an animal’s throat have to do with restoring your prayer
life??
Well let’s imagine ourselves at this altar. We’d see sinful Abram, richer than
ever, having come out of Egypt and he approaches the altar with a very
reluctant animal. And as he puts
his knife to this innocent creature’s throat, maybe you’re thinking
‘What’s that poor animal done to deserve this death? And wily old Abram, what’s he done to
deserve God’s blessing? How come
the innocent one gets it in the neck and the guilty one is blessed? Surely it should be the other way around.’ If you’re thinking that – you’d be
right. The animal doesn’t deserve
this death. And Abram doesn’t deserve his life or blessing either. But, as we’ve seen, this story points
to a greater story and a greater sacrifice.
We learn that even from the names of these places. Bethel is a name that means “house of
God” and Ai is a name that means “ruin”.
This hilltop place of sacrifice is what stands between the house
of God on one side and ruination on the other. Where those two things meet there is bloody sacrifice.
The LORD Jesus Christ came as the Offspring of Abram and on the
cross He became the innocent sacrifice to pay the death-penalty for
guilty sinners like Abram, like me and like you. Every sacrifice of the Old Testament
pointed forwards to the cross – this was the true altar which Abram
looked forward to. Martin Luther
wrote of Abram’s faith like this…
"All the prophets [and he’s
including Abram as a prophet] did foresee in Spirit that Christ should
become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel and
blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world. Our most merciful
Father...sent his only Son into the world and laid upon him...the sins of
all people saying: “You be Peter that denier; You be Paul that persecutor,
blasphemer and cruel oppressor; You be David that adulterer; You be that
sinner who ate the apple in Paradise; You be that thief which hung on the
cross; and, briefly, You be the person who has committed the sins of all
people. Make sure that You pay and
satisfy for them.” … By this means the whole world is purged and cleansed
from all sins."
The cross is the true
altar of the LORD. And after all
our falls, when we come back again to the cross, there we find confidence
once again to call on the Name of the LORD.
Yesterday I heard
someone say, “Nothing changes you more than looking bad in the presence
of love.” I think that’s probably
true. “Nothing changes you more
than looking bad in the presence of love.” And I think that only really happens when we call on the
Name of the LORD at the altar of the cross. Because there we say “I’m so bad the Lamb of God had to
die for me. But I’m also so loved
that the Lamb of God did die for me.” At the cross I can be honest
about my failures and assured of His love.
Friends, when you fall – and Abram has taught us that even the
heroes of faith fall – when you fall – will you return to Christ’s
altar? Don’t pretend you’re not
like Abram and you don’t need anyone paying for your sins – you are like
him and you need the cross. But
when you come to see your sin don’t mope around on the fringes of God’s
throne room. Don’t get lost in
some spiritual sulk. That’s the
picture of Abram in chapter 13:3, he’s going from place to place in the
wilderness (Negev just means ‘wilderness’) – it’s a great picture of a
spiritual sulk. Don’t mope around
the fringes. Don’t think that
time or tears will atone for your sin – they won’t. Don’t try to clean yourself up for God
– come to Him for the bath. Come
to Christ’s altar, claim His blood-bought forgiveness and call on His
Name.
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