Going Down To The Path Of Egypt Series

Theme: Going Down the Path to Egypt

Text: Genesis 12: 10-20

Introduction:

A. Good morning everyone. Praise God, again we have come together to express our love, our trust, our appreciation and gratitude to God. I missed one Sunday here but I pray that all of us are doing fine through the grace of God.

B. Please open your Bible to our passage this morning, Gen.12: 10-20. This is the 3rd sermon of our series in the life of Abraham.

C. In our passage we have what is probably to be the saddest event in the entire life of the Patriarch Abraham. We see that he made a decision that brought tremendous trouble not only to his own life but also to the lives of others as well.

Our text tells us that Abraham took his family and moved to the land of Egypt because there was a famine in the land of Canaan. Well, he might be thinking of keeping his family away from the economic crisis that the famine would bring. So it seems that his decision was reasonable and not a problem. But you know, it’s a big problem because he left the place where he was called to be and went down to the land that God did not tell him to go. His going to Egypt is an act of disobedience. It is an act of backsliding from the course that God calls him to be. Children of God, remember this, no matter how reasonable, stepping outside from God’s will for us is an act of disobedience.

In the Bible, Egypt is always presented to us as a picture or type of the world. So, spiritually speaking, Abraham took his steps toward the world again. It is sad that many believers are taking their steps back again to the world of sin, regardless of how the Lord blesses them. But like Abraham, they will soon find out that the path to Egypt is not the right path, but it is troubled path.

Now let’s study this incident of Abraham’s life and find the truths about the path to Egypt. The path to Egypt is always:

I. A DOWNWARD PATH.

The prophet Amos described Egypt as a low place. That’s why we are told in verse 10 that Abraham went down to Egypt. Likewise, when the believer start to walk on the path back to the world it will always bring him down. Look at Abraham when he started traveling down the path to Egypt:

1. He is led down from the Land of Promise. Canaan was the promise land and it represented “God’s best” for him. If he was to experience God’s best for him, Canaan must be the place where he should suppose to be. He should stay there. But he went down to Egypt, a decision that led him to leave the place where he could find victory and blessings. It was indeed a downward path. Abraham could never find God’s best for him in Egypt. Victory and blessings can never be found in the land of bondage. It is only in the land of Canaan where Abraham could find the best provisions of God; where he could find God’s rest.

The same is true with every believer. If we want to enjoy God’s best for us then we should stay where God wants us to be. We should stay in the center of His will where victory and God’s blessings can be found. But when the believer starts walking down on the path to the world, he will be leaving the place of victory, blessings and God’s rest.

2. He is led down from the land of preparation. The famine in the land of Canaan that time was not a punishment for sin. It was meant to prepare Abraham in possessing the Promise Land. His faith was just being in the test. But instead of submitting to the test and trust God, Abraham ran away. But it would better prepare and shape him in possessing the Promise Land. Maybe he’s trying to find comfort in Egypt. But do you know what happened because of that? It took more than 500 years before the promise of God to Abraham was fulfilled. Friends, listen to this, the promise was fulfilled but not in the time of Abraham! Trying to find comfort in Egypt, he lost the privilege of enjoying the fulfillment of God’s promise to him.

The world cannot give us the comfort we look for in times of testing. When testing comes to your life, do not run away, face it with trust in your heart. The testing you face in life is designed to prepare you when God fulfills His plan for your life.

We know that the grandest plan of God for all believers is to bring them to His eternal home. Every test here is designed to prepare the believer for that eternity with Christ. Don’t ever run away from the test; don’t ever run to the world for comfort. Instead, submit yourself and be polished by it. The testing of our faith here is preparing us for the future glory.