larshaukeland

012 Purpose in Abraham (in Egypt)

Purpose In Abraham (In Egypt)

Txt: Gen. 20:10-20, 13:1-4

In the spiritual world of our Christian experience, as well as in the natural world, changes might come very suddenly.
Who would have thought that a man with Abraham’s faith would turn aside at the first temptation.
At our bets and strongest moment we are in danger of falling, if not kapt by the power of God through faith.

I. The Trial
“There was a famine in the land.”
It is always a great trial to experience drought and lack
of pasture in the Land of Promise.
But if faith is to be triumph and grow, it must be tested.
“The trial of your faith is precious” (1 Peter 1:7).
Well-watered plains please the eye.
Faith must lay hold on the things which are unseen.
It is often in the place of blessing where the keenest
pangs of thirst is felt.
Trials make the promise sweet; there is no discipline of
soul without them.

II. The Failure
“He went down to Egypt” (v. 10).
Why? Had God failed? Oh no!
But it seems to have happened to Abraham as it often
turns out in our own experience.
He had been trusting more to the land than to the God
of promise; looking more to the blessing than the
Blesser.
This, God will not permit.
Our faith must not rest on His gifts, but on Himself.
Note what this downward step led to.

A. IT LED TO FEAR (v. 12)
He was now afraid they would take his life.
His courage for God was gone.
None are so weak and silly as Christians when
turned aside from the life of faith.

B. IT LED TO SELFISHNESS (v. 11-12)
He was more concerned about his own safety than
the honour and chastity of his wife.
When a man turns away from God, his interests is
sure to become centred in himself.

C. IT LED TO HYPOCRICY (v. 13)
He pretended to be what he was not, only the brother
of Sarah.
This was a deliberate misrepresentation.
This is the next step of the backslider, pretending not
to be what he really is.

D. IT LED TO OPEN REBUKE (v. 18)
Pharaoh said to him, “What is this that thou hast
done?”
It is sad when the child of God has to be warned and
corrected by the man of the world.

E. IT LEDE TO TROUBLE UPON OTHERS (v. 17)
“The Lord plagued Pharaoh because of Abraham’s
wife.”
The plague of divine judgement will doubtless need
to fall upon many because of the unfaithfulness of so
many of God’s believing people.
May our light so shine that they will be led to glorify
our Father in heaven.

III. The Restoration (13:1-4)
“Abraham went up out of Egypt, and came unto the
place of the altar which he had made at the first.”
It has been said that “the man of God makes but a poor
worldling.”
Abraham built no altar in Egypt.
There is no fellowship with God while we walk by sight
and not by faith.
The only remedy for backsliding is to come again to the
place of the altar, the cross of Christ.
This is the place of sacrifice, forgiveness,
communication, and consecration.
There was on happiness nor restoration for the prodigal
until he came back to the place from whence he had
wandered away (Luke 15).
“Ye have forsaken Me,” saith the Lord.
“Return unto Me, and I will heal your backslidings.”
(See Jeremiah 3:22)