Heroes of Faith—Series 1
Abraham: Godly People Doing Ungodly Things
Genesis 12:10-20; 20
Heroes. The American Century Dictionary defines a hero as a “person noted or admired for nobility, courage, outstanding achievements, etc.” Who are our heroes? Children have always made heroes of policemen and firemen, and since 9-11, they have become all our heroes for the very reasons stated in the definition—nobility and courage. After all, they rushed in when everyone else rushed out. At the mention of heroes, how could we ever forget the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday in our military to protect the freedom we have in our nation. Maybe your hero was a movie or television star. Maybe a sports star. Maybe a parent, or a teacher, or if you are like Waylon and Willie and the boys, your heroes have always been cowboys, “cause there never at home, and they’re always alone, even with someone they love.”
We all have heroes, and those heroes are someone we want to emulate, someone whose character we admired, someone we looked up to. Well, the Bible is full of heroes. Now these people are not necessarily someone whose character we want to admire or emulate (heaven knows some of them were real scoundrels), but the characters we will discover in these next series of sermons will inspire us to courage, faith, and hope as we explore their lives and their relationship with God. Some of these characters will be well known, others not so well known, but they are heroes by any definition. They are heroes of faith.
The first hero we will discover is Abraham. Abraham’s story of faith can be found primarily in Genesis 11-25, but Abraham’s name is mentioned over 100 times in the New Testament alone. Jesus used Abraham as an illustration throughout the gospels. The Apostle Paul uses Abraham as the great illustration of faith in his letter to the Romans. So who was this Abraham?
Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation. Abraham, who was first known by the name Abram, was called by God to:
“Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
And Abraham did what the Lord asked him to do. Abraham was chosen by God to become the father of the Hebrew nation, and was the chosen vessel for God’s blessing to come upon all people. Surely we can learn a few lessons of faith from “the” one God chose to bless the nations. Just for the sake of simplicity, I am going to refer to him as Abraham, though we will find out that God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Abraham has such a prominent place in biblical history that few would doubt that he was a godly person, but we will discover very early in his life that even godly people can do some pretty ungodly things. Perhaps that is the first lesson we can learn from our heroes of faith—that heroes are people just like us. They struggle to live godly lives, and they don’t always make the best decisions—just like us. See what we learn from Abraham.
We pick up his story in Genesis 12:10-20. Listen:
At that time there was a severe famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to wait it out. [11] As he was approaching the borders of Egypt, Abram said to Sarah, "You are a very beautiful woman. [12] When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ’This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’ [13] But if you say you are my sister, then the Egyptians will treat me well because of their interest in you, and they will spare my life."
[14] And sure enough, when they arrived in Egypt, everyone spoke of her beauty. [15] When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to their king, the pharaoh, and she was taken into his harem. [16] Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
[17] But the Lord sent a terrible plague upon Pharaoh’s household because of Sarah, Abram’s wife. [18] So Pharaoh called for Abram and accused him sharply. "What is this you have done to me?" he demanded. "Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? [19] Why were you willing to let me marry her, saying she was your sister? Here is your wife! Take her and be gone!" [20] Pharaoh then sent them out of the country under armed escort—Abram and his wife, with all their household and belongings.
How could Abraham do such an ungodly thing as encourage his wife to lie to protect his own hide? Let’s review the circumstances of this event. First, Abraham had a challenge to face. What was Abraham’s challenge? Verse 10 tells us there was a severe famine in the land. Imagine if you will, Abraham hears the voice of God calling him to go to a new land, the place that God has promised to bless him, he gets there, sets up an altar and begins to worship God, and discovers the land is arid and dry and subject to famine. In fact, there is a famine in the land at the time of his arrival. Abraham goes from the highest of spiritual highs to the lowest of spiritual lows. Abraham has, if you will, gone from a spiritual feast to a spiritual famine. The greatest challenge to faith may well come after a spiritual high. That is exactly what happened with Abraham.
Now what? Rather than waiting on the voice of God, Abraham takes matters into his own hands. Why? Because he listened to the wrong voice. With every challenge to face there is always a voice to hear. We can hear the voice of the father, or we can hear the voice of fear. Abraham listened to the voice of fear. Remember, Abraham heard the voice of God calling him. He worshiped God at an altar he built at Bethel. This was a man who knew God’s voice. Yet when famine hit, he failed to listen to the voice that had led him this far.
Egypt, in the Bible, is most often symbolic of the power of human resources. Egypt represents throughout Scripture that which is foreign to God. In Abraham’s case, Egypt represents a reliance on human resources rather than divine resources. That is exactly what Abram did. He took matters into his own hands. His faith faltered ever so slightly, and it was made worse by the fact that he had just come down from a spiritual high. Abraham was trying to preserve the promise of God. The promise was that God would make of him a great nation. Abraham began to doubt God concerning this promise. How could God make a great nation of him if they died because of this famine? “Let me help God out here,” was Abraham’s thought. Abram is thinking to himself, “How can God make me a great nation if I am dead? Here’s my plan.”
Lest we be too hard on old Abe, let’s acknowledge that Abraham was seeking to know God’s will for his life. How do we know? Well, at least Egypt was ahead of him. Why would he consider going down to Egypt? Easy answer: The Nile River. Egypt was a place of fertile land. And it was a place Abraham had not been. He had heard about it, but had not been there. Remember, Abraham came from Ur. What was Ur? A port city at the convergence of two rivers. Ur was a fertile place, too. But Abraham had been there, and he knew God had called him out of Ur. So at least Abraham didn’t go back. He at least went forward. But he went forward listening to the voice of fear rather than the voice of God.
The first casualty of a spiritual challenge is faith. Abraham, motivated by self-preservation, failed to rely on the very God who made the promise to preserve the promise. So what does Abraham do? He lies, and he gets his wife Sarah to lie for him. Look at verses 11-13: As he was approaching the borders of Egypt, Abram said to Sarah, "You are a very beautiful woman. [12] When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ’This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’ [13] But if you say you are my sister, then the Egyptians will treat me well because of their interest in you, and they will spare my life."
Once Abraham questions God’s promise, things go from bad to worse. The lie backfires because Abraham failed to account for the fact that Pharaoh would actually want Sarah for his wife. What is that about anyway?
Abraham feared that if the Egyptians knew the truth, they would kill him to get Sarah. She would have been a desirable addition to Pharaoh’s harem because of her wealth, beauty, and potential for political alliance. As Sarah’s brother, Abraham would have been given a place of honor. As her husband, however, his life would be in danger because Sarah could not enter Pharaoh’s harem unless Abraham was dead. So Abraham lost faith in God’s protection, even after all God had promised him, and told a half-truth.
It was a half-truth, but a half-truth is the same as a whole lie. Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister. Look at chapter 20 of Genesis. Here, we see that Abraham has a hard time learning his lessons. See if this sounds familiar? Here, Abraham is trying to deceive King Abimelech, and he uses the same plan he used with Pharaoh—get Sarah to lie about being his wife. When King Abimelech finds out the truth, Abraham’s response is “she is my sister—we both have the same father, though different mothers—and I married her” (verse 12). Some lessons are just hard to learn.
So, Pharaoh gave Abraham untold riches for the right to take Sarah into his harem. And Abraham took the treasure. Then something interesting happens. The text says that God sent a terrible plague on Pharaoh’s house. In Old Testament times, plagues and death were associated with sin, so when the plague came to Pharaoh, he put two and two together and figured out that Abraham was up to shenanigans. He called Abraham into the palace and confronted him, “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?” Then Pharaoh sent the whole lot of them packing out of the country. Abraham packs Sarah and his nephew Lot, and all his newfound wealth, and returns to the promised land. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
So what are the lessons I learn from Abraham’s encounter with Pharaoh? I want us to briefly look at these:
First, godly people are always vulnerable to doing ungodly things whenever there is a challenge to face. Difficult circumstances can open the door to spiritual temptation. And the greatest temptation we can have in our lives is to doubt that God is faithful. When the going gets tough in our lives, then is when we need to trust God the most. Then is when we need to wait to ensure we are hearing the voice of God and not responding to the voice of fear. If we’re not sure, then we need to wait. It is not time to move forward with any decision or to devise any plan unless and until we are certain God has spoken, and he is leading us.
Secondly, we are most vulnerable to temptation after a spiritual high point in our lives. It was in the promised land that Abraham hatched his plan to go into Egypt. He was on the mountain at the time, enjoying God’s presence, and worshipping at Bethel.
The reality is we have a long way to fall after a mountaintop moment. It is also true that Satan will use his mightiest forces against us when we are closest to God because it is then that we are the most threatening to him. Bible teacher Beth Moore says in her book, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, that we are most vulnerable after a spiritual high because that is when we are least expecting to fall.
Thirdly, relying on our own resources only causes us more problems. We dig a deeper and deeper whole when we step outside of God’s provision for our lives. There is a gospel song entitled, “Sin Will Take You Farther Than You Want to Go.” That is what happened to Abraham, and that is what happens to us.
The story is told of four high school boys who couldn’t resist the temptation to skip morning classes. Each had been smitten with a bad case of spring fever. After lunch they showed up at school and reported to the teacher that their car had a flat tire. Much to their relief, she smiled and said, "Well, you missed a quiz this morning, so take your seats and get out a pencil and paper." Still smiling, she waited as they settled down and got ready for her questions. Then she said, "First question--which tire was flat?"
Abraham’s lie caused him to lose his wife, and he was brought face to face with God, and confronted with his lie when Pharaoh questioned him.
Fourthly, I learn that just because a person is blessed financially or materially does not necessarily indicate divine favor. Abraham was blessed financially by his lie. Pharaoh gave him livestock and servants, and even a camel. A camel was a sign of true wealth.
Many people just assume that since a person is wealthy they have God’s blessing on their lives. While that is sometimes true, it is not always true. Some preachers will tell you if you’re not blessed financially you are outside of God’s will, but here Abraham was clearly outside the will of God, yet he was blessed.
Proverbs 21: 6 says, “Wealth created by lying is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.” Satan can use the deceitfulness of money to trap us and call us away from the very one who makes us rich by his promise and presence.
Fifthly, I observe that our failure sometimes impacts others far more than it impacts us. We need to learn that our failure often has more impact on those around us than on ourselves. Abraham’s sin had more impact on Pharaoh than on Abraham. We quite often fail to see the damage done to others because of our failure. Though Abraham saw the damage done to Pharaoh, we may often miss it. Our abuse of substances or people--substances like drugs and alcohol, or people in abusive or illicit relationships—end in the destruction of our families, and we never see it until we are confronted with the destruction that lays in our wake.
Sixthly, I learn that God can use ungodly people to call us back to himself. Pharaoh calls Abraham and begins to rebuke him for his faltering faith, but don’t think for a minute that the source of the rebuke is Pharaoh. It is the Lord using a pagan ruler to rebuke his servant. Twice Pharaoh asks Abraham why he lied to him. This rebuke is indicative of just how far out of fellowship with the Lord Abraham is. Before Abraham left for Egypt the Lord was speaking to him personally, the Lord was appearing to him, and Abram was worshiping and calling upon the name of the Lord. But in Egypt the Lord is silent and worship is absent, and the Lord will use an ungodly man to rebuke the man of God.
Consider this for a moment. We hear so much on television, and see so much in print about the “right” versus the “left,” “conservative” versus “liberal” that there seems to be no place to agree on the things that really matter the most in life. I rather think the church has gotten itself off into Egypt, and perhaps the Lord is calling us back to himself through the “ungodliness” that we see in one another. What do I mean? For conservatives, perhaps God is using the “ungodly” liberal voices to call us back to the social aspect of the gospel. For liberals, maybe the “ungodly” conservatives are the voice of God calling us back to the evangelical nature of the gospel. By any measure, the ungodliness we see in our society in blatant sinfulness and brokenness are the voice of God calling to the church back to its first love, Jesus Christ.
Finally, and most importantly, I learn that God always pursues us no matter how ungodly the actions we take. This story in the life of Abraham is ultimately a story of a pursuing God who calls us back to himself even in the midst of our failures. This is not a story about our failure—not a story about Abraham’s failure. It is about a God who restored Abraham and kept his promise in spite of his failure. And God pursues us. He has pursued us all the way to the cross in Jesus Christ, and he continues to pursue us through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and lives to confront us, to convict us, and to call us back to himself so He can fulfill His promise in our lives. The reality is that his pursuit of us might be through the conviction we feel at having failed, but the conviction is not for purpose of judgment, but for the purpose of restoration.
We become like the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel, who wandered away from home, and the judgment for him came as the consequence of his decisions, and the son found himself eating with pigs. But the Father in the story didn’t judge the son, he simply welcomed him home, and restored him to his place in the family. That is God pursuing us so that he can welcome us back home and restore us to the place of his favor. There is the hope, and the most important lesson for us. God has called us, he has, in fact, chosen us in his son Jesus Christ. We are godly, but even when we do ungodly things, God pursues us. He is pursuing you this morning. He is pursuing me. Have we found the hope he offers in Jesus Christ?
