Making a Choice

DEVOTION

GENESIS

MAKING A CHOICE

Gen 12:10-20

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 she 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, menservants and maidservants, 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.

NIV

First we need to know that although Abram had a visit from God and followed his command to leave his country, his people and his father’s household and set out to a land he would be shown, he was not a perfect man. We think of Abram, who would be renamed by God Abraham, as a great man of faith. But that does not make him a great perfect man of faith. This narrative gives some insight on that truth. Although we should also be careful not to judge the actions of a man living in a culture thousands of years ago. From further on in Genesis we see a statement of Abraham that Sarai was in fact his sister. They had the same father but not the same mother. So in truth they were half brother and sister which again was acceptable in those days, but not in our culture today. The truth we need to see in this narrative is not about Abram telling her to say she was his sister, which was true, but about him not trusting God. God showed him the land of the Canaanites as the one he would give to his descendants and that is where Abram should have settled. But there was a famine in the land, actually in the Negev. This was on the southern region of modern day Israel. Because of the famine, Abram, in his own accord, left the Negev and traveled to Egypt. We see here as in other places that whenever there was a famine somewhere else, Egypt had food. The Nile River valley was and still is a very fertile land which is not subject to famine. Nevertheless we are not told that God instructed him to leave the land he would give to his descendants and go somewhere else just because there was little hard times ahead. The whole course of actions about Sarai being his sister for his own safety shows us he was not trusting God, but devising his own plan for survival. Although it is true that because of this deception he gained far more wealth then he had, but because God intervened in the life of Pharaoh revealing the truth of Abram’s deception, he had to leave Egypt and go back to where God wanted him to be. There may be times in our lives when we think we know better as to how we are going to make it through tough times and we devise a plan of our own to survive. We might think we should move on to a better place then where we are. We might think we should get a better job paying more. We might think we should, we should, and we should. The point is whenever we think we should we are not trusting God. When God tells us to move to a place, to live in a place, to work in a place, to worship in a place, then that is the place we should be. Although it is also true that God does move us, as he moved Abram from Ur to Haran and from there to the land of the Canaanites, he intended Abram to stay where he moved him. Abram moved on his own and it was a disaster. Maybe not for Abram, but his wife, Sarai was subject to the hands of another man other than her husband. His actions caused hurt to her, as well as to the household of Pharaoh. Again, this may have been acceptable in that culture, but the point is he did it, not God. We need to know that we are in the place God desires us to be and although we might experience a famine of sorts, we need to continue to trust God to show us how we are to remain where we are. God always has a plan for our lives. God will always provide for us in the place he has shown us to live. Abram knew where he was supposed to be, but he left it for his own needs. There are times when God does move us. He closes a door on our job and moves us on to the place he wants us to be. There are times he might move us from one church to another, one city to another. We have to know it is him, not us who makes that move. This is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, to live within us, giving us the sense of the will of God concerning our lives. God is the one who have given us this measure of faith.

Rom 12:3

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

NIV

The intent of his giving us this measure of faith, and we should not guess as to whether he has given one a greater measure then another, for God does not show favoritism, is so we will trust him. It is impossible for man to trust God if he has no faith, so God gives everyone faith. We are told that Abraham’s faith was counted unto him as righteousness.

Rom 4:9

We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness.

NIV

It is certain Abram was having some difficult times with his faith in God, but it also was a learning experience for him and as he grew in his faith, he trusted God more and more even to the point of being willing to offer his own son to God. So we should not be too harsh on him at moment in his life, he is learning, he is growing, but he is struggling in his faith. We are not much different. We find the measure faith God has given us to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Then at times we revert back to trusting our own efforts, but we grow in our faith, we learn we cannot trust our own judgement, we need to trust his. We learn, we grow, we become the person of faith God intends us to be. Then we question, we second guess his plan for us. We think maybe we should do something else, that we have a better plan. But the Spirit bears witness to God and his plan and we continue to learn to trust him more and more. Our lives are but a journey of learning to trust. Our humanity will always struggle, but as we learn more and more to trust, our humanity submits more and more. As with Abram, it is living either with self or with God. We make that choice.