ABRAHAM IN EGYPT

Gen 20-1-20; 13:1-4

Morning Meditation 1/1/2013

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

NOTICE 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 grow it must be tested.

1 Peter 1:7, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"

Faith must lay hold on the things that are unseen. Trials are never easy. Trials are tried with fire. But in God’s sight they are much more precious than gold.

NOTICE THE FAILURE

Verse 10: “He went down to Egypt.” Egypt is a type of the world. Had God failed? Absolutely not. He was not even sought. It is tempting to go to the world for help before we seek the Lord. Satan offered Jesus the world without the cross. But He refused. We should seek the Lord first when we are tried. He will either remove the trial or give us grace to go through it.

Verse 12 reveals that his downward step led to fear. He was now afraid for his life. His courage for God is gone. None are so weak and silly as Christians when turned aside from the life of faith.

Verses 11-12 show that it led to selfishness. He is more concerned for his own safety than the honour and chastity of his wife. When a Christian turns away from God his interest is sure to become centered in himself.

Verse 13 reveals that his downward step led to hypocrisy. He pretended to be what he was not, only the brother of Sarai. This was a deliberate missrepresentation.

Verse 18 reveals that it led to open rebuke. Pharaoh said to him, “What is this that thou hast done?” It is sad when child of God has to be rebuked by a man of the world.

Verse 17: Shows that Abraham’s failure led to trouble upon others. “The Lord plagued Pharaoh because of Abraham’s wife.”

NOW WE SEE THE RESTORATION

Genesis 13:1-4, "And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD."

It has been said that the man of God makes 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 the backslider is to return to the place of altar i.e., The cross of Christ.

May the Lord bless these words to our heart.

In Christ

Bro. White