MOP/BackBlast--3/4/12.Abram's Cheese Moved

To recap last Sunday’s [MOP meeting], we spent some time exploring Abram (later Abraham) in Genesis.  Full disclosure: I have no authority on these subjects and may have inadvertently excluded some of the passages and discussion points.

Genesis 12:1-9 – God calls on a 75 year old, wealthy Abram and asks him to drop everything, pack up his family and move to a new land.  God promised Abram that he would make him into a great nation and bless him and his offspring. 

• Can you imagine God coming to you and asking you to make that sacrifice?  Would you listen?  Would you trust God to make good on His word?  Abram did. He had FAITH in God he couldn’t even see and was rewarded. 

Genesis 12:10-20 –Abram went to Egypt to escape famine but was worried that the Egyptians would kill him and take his apparently smoking hot wife, Sarai, to the Pharaoh.  Therefore, Abram duped the Egyptians by saying his wife was his sister (partly true as she was his ½ sister) and he was spared yet the Pharaoh took her anyways.

• Did Abram falter by using deceit and not having faith that God would protect him? Abram told the same lie in a similar situation in Gen. 20:2 and on both occasions God disapproved of Abram’s methods although he didn’t confront or punish Abram directly.
• Another viewpoint is that Abram’s deceit was justified so that he could continue as a prophet of the Lord.  The Old Testament does have other passages where people use deception in order to fulfill God’s will (ie, Jacob posing as Esau in order to be blessed by Isaac).

Genesis 15:1-6 – Abram frets over being childless and having to pass on his name to a servant. But God tells Abram that he will have a son of his own flesh and his offspring shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  Abram believed in the Lord.

• To me, these verses speak of patience, faith and the fact that we cannot accomplish things without God’s help.   God is telling Abram not to worry, to trust in Him and He will provide for Abram (which God does).

Food for Thought:

• While God’s calling isn’t always obvious, if you seek Him you will find Him (Deut. 4:29).  And then it’s up to you to have the FAITH to follow His word.
• Your faith will grow stronger as your relationship with God grows
• We will often fall short when God tests our faith but we can learn from our failures by recognizing that we cannot overcome obstacles without God’s help.