Abraham and Sarah go to Egypt (Genesis 12:10-13:2)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.429 --> 00:00:21.269 Genesis twelve, verse ten through thirteen two. Now there was a famine in 2 00:00:21.309 --> 00:00:26.699 the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the 3 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:31.539 famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, 4 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:35.219 he said to Sarah, his wife, I know that you are a beaut 5 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:39.289 a woman, beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they 6 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:42.850 will say this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they 7 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:46.770 will let you live. Say You are my sister, that it may go 8 00:00:46.929 --> 00:00:50.320 well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for 9 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:55.320 your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptian saw that the woman was 10 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:59.920 very beautiful and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to 11 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.030 Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake, 12 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:10.310 he dealt well with Abram and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, 13 00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:15.670 male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord Afflicted 14 00:01:15.750 --> 00:01:22.579 Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. So 15 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:25.780 Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? 16 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:29.939 Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you 17 00:01:29.980 --> 00:01:34.290 say she is my sister, that I took her from my wife? Now 18 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:38.290 then, here's your wife, take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men 19 00:01:38.409 --> 00:01:42.010 orders concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he 20 00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:46.290 had. So Abram went up for me Egypt, he and his wife and 21 00:01:46.489 --> 00:01:49.400 all that he had and lot with him, into the NEGAB. Now Abram 22 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:55.959 was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. He may be 23 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:20.620 seated. So in our previous passage, the beginning of Genesis Chapter Twelve, 24 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:28.659 God had made a very outstanding promise to Abraham. The Lord called him out 25 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:32.729 of paganism, out of his country, out of his family, and called 26 00:02:32.770 --> 00:02:37.129 him to go into cane in the land that I will show you, the 27 00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:39.849 land that I will show you and, as I mentioned last time, this 28 00:02:40.009 --> 00:02:46.080 land was going to take a central place in the story of Genesis and really 29 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.759 this whole story of of the Old Testament. But, as we also considered 30 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:57.560 from Hebrews, this land that Abra him went to was amazing, but yet 31 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:01.509 still a foreshadow of something greater that God was promising to Abraham, a heavenly 32 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:07.590 country, is Hebrews puts it, and he goes from there and he gives 33 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:10.389 him more blessings. In addition to this, God blesses Abraham and says, 34 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:14.020 I will make you a great nation, I will make your name great, 35 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:17.020 you will be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you, and him 36 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:21.580 who dishonors you I will curse, and then you, all the families of 37 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:31.370 the earth, will be blessed. Then in Chap in verse ten, we 38 00:03:31.530 --> 00:03:40.009 read that there was a famine in the land. This pattern of God making 39 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:47.080 this amazing promise and calling us to follow him, to believe him for the 40 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:52.719 things that he has said, and then immediately that can counter difficulty is not 41 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:57.629 uncommon, and perhaps you have experienced this in your life. To hear the 42 00:03:57.669 --> 00:04:00.110 word of God, hear the promises of God and then immediately find yourself in 43 00:04:00.189 --> 00:04:09.030 a situation where that faith is tested. In a way, we might say 44 00:04:09.229 --> 00:04:15.540 that these promises, which are the very foundation of the things that God would 45 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:21.740 do in Christ we can say that the gossip pool itself was under threat at 46 00:04:21.819 --> 00:04:27.290 this moment. Why? Well, one there was famine in the land, 47 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:30.930 this land was not being the blessing that God had said it would be. 48 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:34.769 And then, of course, with famine comes the fear of death. And 49 00:04:34.850 --> 00:04:40.759 if Abraham Dies and if Sarah I dies, well then God has not fulfilled 50 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:45.000 his promise, has he? He promised that through them there would be offspring 51 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.279 that would be born, that they would be blessed, that they would inherit 52 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:51.560 this land, all of it would be torn apart, and we read that 53 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:56.269 this was no yet I don't know if there's an ordinary famine, but it 54 00:04:56.470 --> 00:05:00.790 was. The text tells us that it was a severe not only that it 55 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:06.620 was a famine, but it was a severe one. So we have this 56 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:11.220 question, then, that all of us are required to ask when our faith 57 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:14.579 is tested, our faith and the things that God has promised and said. 58 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:20.769 Will God take care of Abraham? How Will God overcome these things? How 59 00:05:20.810 --> 00:05:26.730 will Abraham and endure this famine? How will God keep him? But of 60 00:05:26.810 --> 00:05:30.290 course we can't answer any of these questions because Abraham doesn't stick around to find 61 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:36.360 out. He leaves, go to the land that I will show you great 62 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:46.360 famine by. He leaves, he goes down to Egypt. It says he 63 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:56.509 fears the possibility of God's unfaithfulness more than he trusts God. What if God 64 00:05:56.550 --> 00:06:00.230 doesn't keep his promise? What if I die here what if my wife dies 65 00:06:00.269 --> 00:06:06.779 here? And so Abraham makes a decision to risk his life, his honor, 66 00:06:08.019 --> 00:06:15.100 his wife's honor, his marriage, I would guess, to secure something, 67 00:06:15.139 --> 00:06:18.610 all of these things I just mentioned that he's risking to secure them, 68 00:06:19.329 --> 00:06:21.730 but of course they haven't really belonged to him in the first place. They 69 00:06:21.769 --> 00:06:30.930 belonged to God. As king who to whom everything belongs, and so he 70 00:06:30.089 --> 00:06:34.439 leaves this place where God has placed his name, where God has called him, 71 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:36.839 where God has told to him that he would be present with him, 72 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:41.639 and he leaves the place that God has told him to go to go to 73 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:49.870 Egypt. In this I'm reminded of Jonah, who's called by God to go 74 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:57.350 do something, and Jonah goes down. He flees from the presence of the 75 00:06:57.470 --> 00:07:02.819 Lord. Also reminds me of a LIMOLEC and Naomi who also during the famine 76 00:07:02.939 --> 00:07:09.660 in the land. They leave, they don't stay and endure the discipline of 77 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:15.129 the Lord. Instead, they take their sons to MOAB AND MARY WIVES MAKE 78 00:07:15.250 --> 00:07:23.569 ANY PAGAN WIVES MOABITE wives. How did it turn out for Jonah, the 79 00:07:23.730 --> 00:07:29.569 belly of the whale, big fish? How did it turn out for this 80 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:35.800 little family of Israelites? Two sons dead, a husband dead, the solution 81 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:43.759 of the family. Compare these actions of Jonah, of Abraham, of a 82 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:48.910 little like and Naomi, to Jesus. When Jesus, during a time of 83 00:07:49.029 --> 00:07:55.910 great hunger, was tempted, was tried. Let me read to you from 84 00:07:55.949 --> 00:08:05.459 Matthew Chapter Four. First, I noticed that it is the spirit of God 85 00:08:05.579 --> 00:08:09.459 that brings him into this place. Matthew Four. Then Jesus was led up 86 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:13.730 by the spirit of God into the Wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 87 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:22.689 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry and the tempter 88 00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:24.769 came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command 89 00:08:24.889 --> 00:08:33.840 these stones to become loaves of bread. Stop your suffering, you can end 90 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.799 this right now. Go to Egypt, go to MOAB, runaway, turn 91 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:45.230 the stones into bread. Jesus answered him. It is written man shall not 92 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:50.710 live by bread alone, but by every worried that comes from the mouth of 93 00:08:50.870 --> 00:09:00.620 God. What if Abraham and had remembered that to recognize the famine around him 94 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:03.220 and to say man does not live by bread alone, but by every word 95 00:09:03.340 --> 00:09:07.299 that comes from the Mart of mouth of God? And God has told me 96 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:13.610 to come here to be here to live here. Of course, that's the 97 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:22.570 hard thing. I can understand Abraham's actions every level. Really, even his 98 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:28.080 lying is it's only kind of a half lie. Really. Sarah is his 99 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:33.919 sister. We remember that from the genealogy that came before and from other places 100 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.269 in Genesis. She's she's his half sister. This is something you can say 101 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:43.350 when kind of look the guy in the eye and she can look the guy 102 00:09:43.429 --> 00:09:46.269 in the eyes say yeah, but of course in saying it this way they're 103 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:50.549 holding the truth back, and so it it is in fact a lie, 104 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:58.659 but he's scared. He does this disobedient thing. In Jesus, example, 105 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:05.659 we see God's righteousness, we see his amazing obedience. Even where Prophets and 106 00:10:07.330 --> 00:10:13.090 Patriarchs would disobey, Jesus did not, and this is good news because it 107 00:10:13.129 --> 00:10:18.970 means that one day he would be this perfect sacrifice. It would a tone 108 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:26.559 for our sin and allow us to find ultimate safety and security in the Lord. 109 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:30.799 We also see in this that we are being called to trust the Lord 110 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.159 to live by his word, even when that means suffering. In this world, 111 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:37.549 it may mean coming under temptation of the devil himself, it may mean 112 00:10:37.629 --> 00:10:43.149 fighting doubt in our hearts. It might mean feeling very bad in our own 113 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:50.059 bodies, but we must remain strong because, as we see from Abraham and 114 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:54.700 Sarah's example, Abram's and Sarah's example, things do not go well for them 115 00:10:54.779 --> 00:11:01.379 when they leave God's commands and promises, despite hoping to secure food for their 116 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:05.690 Tummies, lots of other problems and things go wrong. Sure, they might 117 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:09.450 have founded their food they needed, but for what? Can you imagine this 118 00:11:09.570 --> 00:11:15.129 terrible situation Sarah's in? I don't know if Abraham fully gained this all out. 119 00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:18.919 He's worried for his own life and he says so, you say this 120 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:24.159 and they'll leave us alone. So she says the thing he asks her to 121 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:28.720 say and they say great and take her into his house. Now what can 122 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:35.470 you imagine being Sarah the strange person's house? They think they're gonna they think 123 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:41.830 that he can marry her. I'm sure that they were worried about their their 124 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:48.539 deaths. What if Parah finds out? What happens? Then, how will 125 00:11:48.620 --> 00:11:54.620 this king react to these sojourners in the land who have just deceived him, 126 00:11:54.740 --> 00:12:01.330 tricked him, embarrassed him. So, as I said, Abram and Sarah, 127 00:12:01.370 --> 00:12:07.610 I didn't trust the Lord. They didn't trust they doubted that he would 128 00:12:07.610 --> 00:12:13.889 be faithful. But despite the feelings of threat and doom, there was never 129 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:20.000 any real threat at all to the Gospel, that is, to God's promises 130 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.120 to bless them. Why? Because of who God is. This is the 131 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:31.549 thing we must remember. Deuteronomy seventeen for y'all way. Your God is God 132 00:12:31.669 --> 00:12:35.509 of Gods and Lord of Lords, the Great, the mighty and the awesome 133 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:41.830 God. There is no threatening God, there is no undoing his promises. 134 00:12:43.070 --> 00:12:46.940 If God says this will be, it will be, no matter how things 135 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:50.779 look. Know How to our bad things get. Jeremiah, Thousan two hundred 136 00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:54.539 and twenty seven. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all 137 00:12:54.659 --> 00:12:58.490 flesh. Is Anything too hard for me? Matthew, one thousand nine hundred 138 00:12:58.490 --> 00:13:01.289 and twenty six. But Jesus looked at them and said, with man this 139 00:13:01.529 --> 00:13:07.169 is impossible, but with God all things are possible. One more revelation, 140 00:13:07.409 --> 00:13:11.610 one eight. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, 141 00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:16.519 who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, 142 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:24.360 the Almighty. When God promises to you that you will have everlasting life, 143 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:28.110 when you put your faith in Christ. That is the way it will be, 144 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:35.269 period. That's the way it will be, matter what comes. God 145 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:41.220 will save you. And of course, God comes through. Even though Abraham, 146 00:13:41.539 --> 00:13:46.179 like Jonah and Naomi and Almela, can you and me, we get 147 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:54.340 ourselves into the situations, God comes through. You might have read the story 148 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:58.009 like I did, and you see and say something like this, maybe even 149 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:03.490 out loud, that doesn't seem very fair. Poor Pharaoh, he really gets 150 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:07.690 the short end of this stick. In a way, at least it seems. 151 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:13.559 Pharaoh gets tricked and Abraham gets blessed despite lying, despite giving up his 152 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:18.879 wife and all these other things. And you would be exactly right. It's 153 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:24.509 not fair. But this is a story not about fairness and about justice. 154 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:31.429 This is a story about God's grace. Remember how genesis twelve begins. It 155 00:14:31.629 --> 00:14:35.830 is a story about God's grace, about giving to Abraham something he didn't deserve. 156 00:14:37.230 --> 00:14:41.580 And in this covenant of Grace, these promise, the solemn oath he 157 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:46.340 makes to Abraham and all the world through him, this promise in which we 158 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:50.779 believe. This story that we have right here as part of a very big 159 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:56.370 story, a true story about the grace of God, grace to Abraham, 160 00:14:56.490 --> 00:15:05.570 and even grace to Egypt, to all gentiles. For Abraham, we see 161 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:09.240 that his life is in fact preserved, his life's life is preserved, even 162 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:13.480 her honor and their honor is preserved, and he comes back to the land 163 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:20.710 of Canaan more wealthy than he when he left. Amazing in Verse Sixteen and 164 00:15:20.909 --> 00:15:26.110 says and for her sake he dealt well with Abram and he had sheep oxen, 165 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:31.389 male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels. 166 00:15:33.669 --> 00:15:43.100 Just a couple fun historical notes on this. The what is the way that 167 00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:48.059 this is listed here is pictured. You sort of imagine this long procession, 168 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:54.289 and this is why the male donkeys are separated from the female donkeys, with 169 00:15:54.409 --> 00:16:00.129 the male and female servants in between. This is how you would possess in 170 00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:07.279 this order. The camels would have been rare, donkeys not so much. 171 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:11.559 Camels, though, would have been very special at this time, something to 172 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.360 something that would have been a great sign of wealth. And so you can 173 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:22.830 picture in your mind, as one commentator put it, Abram and Sarah I 174 00:16:22.029 --> 00:16:27.269 riding on these, you know, Rolls Royce has these camels riding on these 175 00:16:27.350 --> 00:16:33.860 high up on these camels looking out on this great train as they leave, 176 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:37.059 as they go up from Egypt, he and his wife, with all that 177 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:42.019 he had and lot with him. Abraham leaves better than he came, and 178 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:48.049 this is this is the grace of God, isn't it? He leaves us 179 00:16:48.169 --> 00:16:51.809 better than we came. We come with nothing, we come with sin, 180 00:16:52.090 --> 00:16:56.809 we come with pollution, corruption or rebellion, disobedience, and we leave with 181 00:16:56.970 --> 00:17:03.039 all the blessings of heaven. This, of course, is perhaps a little 182 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:11.359 bit of foreshadowing of Israel leading Egypt later on. But think about Pharaoh too. 183 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:18.309 It's true that this didn't quite turn out as he had hoped, but 184 00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:25.789 nevertheless, notice that he doesn't sin. God preserves him in that, and 185 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:30.779 he preserves his life too. He gives him a trial. Yes, even 186 00:17:30.819 --> 00:17:33.900 as Abraham and Sarah I found themselves on a trial, Pharaoh and his house 187 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:37.660 find themselves with a plague, a great trial. But what did God use 188 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:42.420 that for? To help them, to help them to realize what was going 189 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:48.410 on, the problem at hand, to realize that Sarah I was not who 190 00:17:48.089 --> 00:17:56.529 she said she was. But it gets even better than that, because by 191 00:17:56.569 --> 00:18:03.920 allowing Abraham to go and therefore fulfill the God that promised, God the promise 192 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:11.119 God had made him. God kept this promise that through Abraham, all the 193 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:17.990 families in the world would be blessed, including Egypt, because these things that 194 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:22.630 God did here in Egypt, in this pagan king's life and in his household, 195 00:18:22.029 --> 00:18:27.819 he ended up bringing the possibility for the whole world, because Abraham lived, 196 00:18:27.859 --> 00:18:33.619 because God kept his promise. Remember, it was through Abraham that all 197 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:38.859 the world would be blessed, and so this includes Egypt. For Egypt, 198 00:18:38.900 --> 00:18:47.569 Abraham and the Israelites should be grateful. Deuteronomy Twenty three says you shall not 199 00:18:47.609 --> 00:18:56.119 abhor and Egyptian because you were a sojourner in his land. In this we 200 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:02.279 see yet another level of God's promises playing out in the world. You remember 201 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:07.839 that when God established his covenant of Common Grace After the flood, he established 202 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.750 this covenant with the Whole World and principles of justice, this principles in which 203 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:15.710 the the the events of the world would play out so that a covenant of 204 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:23.539 Grace would be made and fulfilled. That's happening right here, as God works 205 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:30.900 in the lives and gives common grace even to people who are yet outside of 206 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:33.700 the Covenant, so that the Covenant can play at. The covenant of Grace 207 00:19:33.740 --> 00:19:38.049 can play out in the world and be fulfilled to the blessing of these very 208 00:19:38.130 --> 00:19:44.690 people, to the gentiles, to you and to me, and these events. 209 00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:48.849 As Man Sins and crosses his arms and says I don't want to do 210 00:19:48.049 --> 00:19:55.839 that, God continues to work his plans that he began before the beginning of 211 00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:00.279 time, his plans that he has promised in the world. He he's bringing 212 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:04.559 it all together. And so, in all of this, though, we 213 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:10.869 see that God is absent from sin, he is very much present in grace. 214 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:17.549 We ought to pray him for this. We have to trust him too. 215 00:20:18.589 --> 00:20:23.700 Were the faithless ones? Were the ones who struggle to keep our promises? 216 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.660 Were the ones that fall? Struggle to obey and to do what we're 217 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:34.769 told? God? No, God always does the right thing, exactly as 218 00:20:36.329 --> 00:20:40.450 he says he will. And so because of that, when he makes these 219 00:20:40.529 --> 00:20:44.609 promises to us and says and he gives to us the offspring of Abraham, 220 00:20:45.210 --> 00:20:48.529 the Lord Jesus Christ, and causes him to be born of a woman, 221 00:20:48.650 --> 00:20:52.079 in born under the law, to redeem us out from under the law, 222 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:57.039 to redeem us out of our sin and our bondage, to bring us from 223 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:06.230 misery to blessing. We have to trust him in all times, in all 224 00:21:06.349 --> 00:21:15.509 circumstances and in every way. This will involve hardship, it will, but 225 00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:21.380 when we face those moments, let us remember the steadfast love of the Lord 226 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:27.819 rely on His grace. We don't need to look back to Egypt or go 227 00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:33.970 down to Egypt. We need to look up to heaven. The Christ is 228 00:21:34.329 --> 00:21:37.970 securing our place, having secured it by his own blood,