Genesis 12 - 2009 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] tonight we get back online for our in-depth study of the book of Genesis here we meet Abram his wife Sarah and his nephew lot as they leave the land of error and travel to the land of Canaan and then to Egypt God makes Abram a promise one that affects us to this very day although they encounter challenges along the way and despite Abraham's doubts God is faithful join us as we journey with Abram and his family through the book of Genesis line on line let's pray Lord is just great to be back with the family the family of God among a group of people that is a real church that loves you and is about glorifying Christ and studying biblical truth no flair know some different antics to attract just simple worship and the word and I am so thankful that so many in your family have come out to this living room to sit for the next 50 minutes or hour to study your word together Lord you said in your word that you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek you and so father would you bless and pour out lavishly your blessing upon this group give us Lord the the blessing of understanding who you are what your plan is reveal more of our spiritual riches that are in Christ and give us that wonderful sense of satisfaction that always comes when we have made contact with the Living God we ask for that in Jesus name Amen Genesis chapter 12 now we have been studying Genesis and we have seen that so far we have dealt with events although people are mentioned it's been solely about events major events the creation or the formation of the heavens and the earth the formation of the universe that was followed by the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve and their story of bringing sin into the world so the formation of the universe the fall of man and then we saw the flood the flood that was a universal flood that covered the entire earth as God judged that entire generation and they all perished as the waters covered the entire face of the earth and we even noted that geological evidence for that then we looked at the fallout that comes from man's rebellion we saw the Tower of Babel we saw the judgment as God confused their languages and dispersed them on the face of the earth and now we turn a corner in our study of Genesis a very distinct division happens between chapters 11 in Chapter 12 you might say we're looking at the forming of nation if you want to keep it all alliterated points up to this point keeping with the F's this is the formation of the nation of israel and we go from studying great events to studying great people and we will primarily for the next thirty nine chapters look at the biographies of Abraham called Abram at first Isaac Jacob and Joseph those four will dominate the landscape in the book of Genesis now just to let you know how important this is to God the first eleven chapters of Genesis cover some 2,000 plus years historically the next 39 Proctor's only cover 350 years so God really didn't say a whole lot about cosmology and creationism and all of the things he could have said he left out that's really not important to the story what is of primary importance to the story is the generations and genealogy of a guy named Shama and we'll see how one comes from that lineage named Abraham and that will be the focus of the rest of the Bible the genealogy of Shem and part of that will be culminated in the Lord Jesus Christ who will come and then come again so you've got 2000 plus years of church history in the first eleven chapters 350 years of did I say church history not church history history and now 350 years in the next 39 chapters in that 2,000 years of history in chapters 1 through 11 we've covered about 19 generations now the next 16 chapters write the middle of Genesis we'll deal with one person Abraham Abraham he's called the father of faith or the father of those who believe and we're gonna look at his story his testimony and tonight we're gonna look at two things his testimony and his testing and that it comprises the twenty verses of chapter 12 now you probably know that there are three world religions as they like to say that want to trace their spiritual heritage at least in part back to Abraham or at least pay reverence to Abraham and that would be the Jewish nation principally followed by Christians and also Muslims all of them look to Abraham and revere him however if you've ever read the Quran in any of the writings about Abraham they have the story written a little bit differently when it comes to Abraham Isaac and Jacob they change they'll take Isaac out of the picture and put Ishmael as the promised son and in Genesis 22 the one that Abraham almost sacrificed to God so they will rewrite the story but nonetheless those three great religions pay homage to Abraham so we have a bulk of material that focuses on Abraham that's in the Old Testament but that influence carries on into the New Testament you'll have one chapter of the book of Romans that uses Abraham as a prime example of justification by faith you have two chapters in the book of Galatians that does sort of the same he as I said is used as the example the example of faith abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness so he becomes the example of what it means to be justified just by trusting in God apart from your own works because the writer and the New Testament Paul will say that Abraham came before the dispensation of the law hence faith is predominant over the law not only that but the writer of Hebrews in chapter 11 will mention Abraham in that Hall of faith we'll briefly look at that verse tonight and then three times in the Bible Abraham is called the friend of God the friend of God once in second chronicles chapter 20 once an Isaiah 41 and once in James chapter 2 he's called the friend of God to this day Arabs call Abraham a local Edel God's friend or friend of God now it says in chapter 12 that the Lord had said to Abram get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you now we do need to go back a few verses because well it's been a month and we may have forgotten some certainly I didn't get to cover all that I wanted to but more importantly Abraham's story Abraham's story begins in chapter 11 and I saw I think we should begin a few verses back because there's a lot I believe we have skipped over that really forms the personality of Abram now his name is Abram right now not Abraham he will be called Abraham God will change his name God likes to do that Abram means exalted father Abraham means father of a multitude that's what God will make him and we'll even see part of that promise tonight verse 24 of chapter 11 begins that story nahor lived 29 years and begat Terah after he begat terah nahor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters now Terah lived seventy years and begot Abram Nahor and Haran I just stop right there for a minute you see the name Haran that's the name of a person but it's also the name of a place that they will settle in for a period of years I'll explain why in a little bit but just for the sake of tonight's Bible study just so we don't confuse the place with the person if you don't mind I'm gonna call the person Haran and the name of the place har on that was the original way you'd pronounce it with the emphasis on the last syllable so I'm gonna call the place her on but the person Haran just so we can get those two and not get them confused in her minds this is the genealogy verse 27 of Tara Tara begot Abram Nahor and Haran Haran begat lot and Haran died before his father Terah in his native land in or of the Chaldeans then Abram and Nahor took wives the name of abraham's wife was Sarai the name of Nahor's wife Milkha the of Harran the father of Milcah and the father of ESCA but Sarai was barren she had no child and Terah took his son Abram and his grandson lot the son of Haran and his daughter-in-law Sarai his son Abraham's wife and they went out with them from or of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan and they came to Haran and dwelt there so the days of Terah were two hundred and five years in Terah died in Haran excuse me her ran now the Lord had said to Abram get out of your country from your family from your father's house to a land that I will show you Abram came from a place mentioned twice in chapter 11 or-or-or of the Chaldeans this is in southern ancient Mesopotamia what is today southern Iraq now or of the Chaldeans was the greatest commercial most advanced cultural city of that time the spate of the archaeologists has revealed it was the capital of ancient Sumer s um er it was the capital it was a highly advanced civilization the city of or of the Chaldeans at the time of Abram had about three hundred thousand people and so many people lived in that ancient walled city it was an advanced civilization again the archaeological discoveries have revealed advanced advancements and musical instruments and in crafts there was a university there with a giant library they specialized in astronomy and in mathematics an advanced culture but at the same time it was one of the centres of idolatry idol worship and so in the centre of that town was a huge temple and a ziggurat or a tower like the Tower of Babel that stretched up into heaven there was a lot of different gods and goddesses that were worshipped in or of the Chaldeans I'm painting the picture so you know where the father of faith came from and what his digs were like what his hometown was like a lot of different gods of nature it was animistic in in that worshipped nature an described deity too much of the natural world one of the principal gods in fact the principal temple in or of the Chaldeans was to the moon-god called interestingly enough sin SI n the moon God so Abraham was and originally he was a moonie and his family turn with me to just keep a marker here and go a few books forward to the book of Joshua more information is given in that book Joshua chapter 24 Joshua tells us about Abraham's background Joshua chapter 24 notice it says then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel for their heads their judges for their officers and they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to all of the people thus says the Lord God of Israel your fathers including Terah the father of Abraham and the father of nahor dwelt on the other side of the river in old times and they served other gods and then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river that is the Euphrates River and led him through the land of Canaan or throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac so we have a little bit of the home life of a ham or Abram at the time shining through he was he was raised in an atmosphere of idolatry according to some of the ancient sources we don't know if it's true or if it's just a fable that taro was a dealer in idolatry he made statues little idols and sold them and Abram was his assistant and so no doubt there was the worship of the moon God and the other gods of nature in that household and it rubbed off on Abram and he was not a believer in Yahweh until God appeared to him and drew him out of that culture and brought him into the new land now go back to Genesis 11 I think we painted an adequate picture of or of the Chaldeans something else we can't skip over however notice in verse 28 something happened in the home life of Abram growing up that caused great pain and responsibility verse 28 then Haran that is the brother of Abram son of Terah Haran died before his father Terah in his native land or the Chaldeans that's a tragedy it impacted Abraham's life just keep that in mind as you study about him there was loss I lost my brother when I was 22 years of age it made a profound and lasting impact on my life and if you've ever had somebody in your family died the very moment of the death notification is is fastened in your mind forever you know exactly where you were and what you were doing and you can even get in touch with those emotions if you've ever watched somebody die you vividly remember that I watched my mother die I remember where I was when I heard that my father had died I remember where I was when I heard my brother had died makes a lasting impact and so this tragedy this pain of loss shaped the early life of Abram we have to keep that in mind when we study who this man was because now he will be saddled with the responsibility of raising he his brother's son lot and he will take lot with him and he will form part of the story in chapter 12 13 14 etcetera now there's an old Jewish fable that says the way Heron died was that his father Terah told his boys that they had to worship all of the gods of or of the Chaldeans and one of them was the god of fire they refused to do that and so the father through the son Haran into the furnace and he died burned to death in front in view of his father and we don't know if that's true or not it just says he died before his father it could mean number one that his father watched him die he died before his father or it could mean not just directionally but it might mean chronologically he just died before his father died it could mean one of those two things either way he died and Abram will raise his son and something else we have to make note of because the Bible will make a huge note of it verse 30 but Sarai this is Abraham's wife she'll be called Sarah later was barren she had no child so you have a guy coming out of an idol worshiping country whose brother died after he had a son and you have Abram himself and his wife Sarah who were unable to have children they were infertile they were barren all of that shaped his past life now that's a setup for the rest of the story because you know that what God does is miraculously intervene and give them a son named Isaac a son of promise in a miraculous way she was barren however did you know that in ancient cultures a woman who is barren was seen as being cursed by the gods if you're in a polytheistic culture you were cursed by the gods because if you were blessed by the gods you would have children and if you were extraordinarily blessed by the gods you'd have many children now that kind of superstition makes its way even into Judaism because Jacob who will have two wives one named Leia one named Rachel once Leia finds out she's pregnant do you remember what she says she says the Lord has looked upon my affliction that's what she called being unable to have a child it's an affliction I'm infertile I'm afflicted then when Rachel finds out that her sister got pregnant and she didn't get pregnant she turns to her husband and grabs him and says give me children or else I die she didn't want to be left out she didn't want to be under any kind of divine curse and unfortunately that's stuck within the traditions of Judaism for generations even some of the ancient rabbis I found a rabbinical saying one of the ancient rabbis said there are seven people that are excommunicated from God number one a Jew who has no wife number two a Jew who has a wife and who has no child it was seen as quite an affliction a stigma if you will so I imagine that after they got married Abram and Sarah planned their lives we're gonna have lots of kids but she never could get pregnant and I've talked to infertile couples 6.1 million Americans 10% of the adult reproductive population today is in that stage in that state and there are other ways God can bless but it's a very distancing thing for somebody trying to have children every time they see a family bring their child for dedication it's a it's a hurtful thing that's the kind of pain that they were experiencing while they move to Haran but they're hurt here's here's what we often pass overlooking in verse 1 what all of this were in verse 1 see I told you we couldn't get through 13 it'll be God's grace if we get through chapter 12 notice it doesn't say the Lord said it says the Lord had said to Abram get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land I will show you well when had the Lord said that the Lord had said that not after this moved to her ran from order of the Chaldeans but when he was in or of the Chaldeans God told him then appeared to him then and said get up and go and he got up and he went but he didn't go all the way he stopped in Haran and spent at least fifteen years there before he finally made it into the promised land fact he doesn't obey tell verse 4 of chapter 12 notice this is so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and lot went with him and Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran so God had said for him to leave so he left but he wasn't leading his father was chapter 11 verse 31 Terah took his son Abram and grandson lot the son of Haran and his daughter-in-law Sarai his son Abraham's wife and they went out with them from or of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan and they came to her Ryan and dwelt there so they didn't go all the way but they stopped at a town and they didn't leave that town until the old man dies once the old man is dead then Abram goes into the promised land this is what it would be like if God said to us in Albuquerque I want to bless you so much I'm gonna blow your mind with a blessing but for that to happen you have to move to Mexico City so you go all the way from Albuquerque and you stop and live in El Paso that's a border town but it's not Mexico City Haran was a border town it was the very edge of Mesopotamia before you got into the land of Canaan they stayed in that border town for about 15 years now why did they go to Haran well it's interesting if you compare the names of Tara's relatives with some of the names of the area around Haran they're identical that is either the people were named after those places or the places were named after the people so a lot of historians believe this that the father of Abram Terah originally was born in the land of Haran that's where he was born that's where he lived and he migrated 600 miles to the southeast over to or of the Chaldeans where he raised his family but later on got older in life and after God had appeared to Abram and Abram said you know I think we ought to get out of here is that's a good idea I've always wanted to go back home I want to go back to her on where I'm from and so they migrated back but they stayed there now watch this go with me now you got to get the full story to get this go to Acts chapter 7 Acts chapter 7 is very helpful because Stephen is recounting Jewish history to the Jewish elders and believe me he's not going to mistake make any mistake when he's talking to them this is the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem Acts chapter 7 in verse 2 Stephen said brethren and fathers listen the god of glory it's a very unique title used only here of God the god of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and he said to him get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you and then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran from there when his father was dead he moved him he that is the Lord moved him to this land in which you now dwell so so let's piece it together this is what happened God gloriously appeared to Abram when he was in or of the Chaldeans where he was raised and God said you got to do three things leave home leave your family leave your relatives and go to a land that I will show you which is the land of Canaan now he did the first thing he left home he did not do the second he didn't leave his relatives they all went with him or should I say he went with them because it was his dad that was doing the leading and they did not go to the land that God was going to show them the land of Canaan they stopped in El Paso in Haran and they lived there for at least fifteen years until the old man died and then he went into the land of promise the land of Canaan so all I can say about that is this I know that Abram had a tough he was raised without spiritual resources in a land of idolatry he was raised in a family where he got a shocker when his brother died all of the expectations he had for his family of having children I mean what kind of a name is exalted father when you have no kids his wife is infertile and then they have to be dislodged and move so all of that was tough and there were tough circumstances but he did not obey God he didn't go all the way into the land where God told him to go he brings his father he brings lot lot will prove to be a problem and his dad proved to be a delay to finding the will of God here's the application for you and I your past whatever your past is whatever the circumstances that have brought you to this place your past and who you are as defined by your heritage your past ethnicity family upbringing lack of love whatever happened your family that can either be a hitching post for you or a guide post you can let it hold you back or you can learn from it be shaped by it and see it redeemed it can be a hitching post or a guide post and it seems that whenever we bring into our new life and Christ's stuff from the old life it becomes a problem it can become a delay by the way you know what her on means literally delayed hey let's go to the town of delay let's go to El Paso and get stuck for 15 years that's what they did okay now let's go back to our story in Genesis 12 that we have painted that entire picture look at verse some verse 1 the very end of it to a land that I will show you I will make you a great nation I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed did you get those promises 5 times God says I will I will I will so often we like to make we being I think preachers and churches and some Christians like to make your Christianity all about what you do for God what have you done for Christ what have you done for God the truth is we can't do anything for God until we realize what God has done for us first John chapter 4 we love him because he first loved us he made the first move and when we realized that and only until we realize that can anything by His grace and through his Spirit ever be done for the cause of Christ and so I'm always a little leery when somebody makes it all about what I've done for Christ I haven't really done anything for Christ Christ can do things in me and through me and for me I remember back in the early days when John F Kennedy was president and that famous speech that defined him ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country ever ever hear that you say no I've never heard that only when you do it okay well he said it but I think a lot of people make their relationship with God like that that's not what God can do for you but what you can do for God I love that God says Abram I understand that you're a pagan idolatry has had a family tragedy and you can't have children so I will I will I will I will I will can you handle that oh good that's all it takes if you can believe that then watch what I can do with you that's essentially his story he had no ability to have children nor did his wife but God would bless him and make him a great nation look at those promises a little more carefully we have time first of all God says I'm gonna make you a great nation see that in verse two I will make you a great nation don't you think God has a sense of humor to tell a man with an infertile wife he's an old man nonetheless 75 years old and he finally gets there that he's gonna make him a great nation when he can't even have one child but what happened it did happen did it not there was Abraham and then miraculously Isaac and the Jacob and the patriarchs and then they grew and there was a famine in Egypt and they went down to family gypped for 400 years and they multiplied and then God delivered them and brought them into the land of Canaan that became known as Israel and a monarchy developed with Saul and David and Solomon and today is the nation of Israel with 7.2 million people that live within it 5.6 million of them are Jewish representing a 43 percent growth rate due to immigration of Jews from all over the world alone they become a great nation a ten billion dollar per year economy it is number four in the world in exporting citrus fruit to all over the world and number three in the world for exporting flowers they're a great nation God said I'll make you a great nation today they are a great nation next promise is that you'll have a great name I will make verse 2 I will make your name great I mentioned that all these three religions trace their heritage at least in part back to Abraham God calls himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob he identifies with the name of Abraham and I'll tell you how great the children of Abraham have been if you look at world population the Jewish population is pretty insignificant less than two-thirds of 1% of the world's population is Jewish less than two-thirds of one percent and yet they have that race has claimed between 25% and 33% of all Nobel Prizes ever given out a third promise of God gives them is that you'll bear great news he says you will be a blessing and look what it says the end of that verse in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed all the families of the earth will be blessed just think what we would be missing if there were no Jewish people no sons and daughters of Abraham well we would be missing our Bible I couldn't say to you tonight turn in your Bible to there would be no Bible read through their first verses of Romans chapter 9 and Paul lists all of the assets that they have given us we would be without the Ten Commandments if there were new to no Jewish nation that's the basis of our American jurisprudence system there would be no Savior and without no Jewish Savior there would be no Christianity we'd be missing an awful lot in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed as ultimately a prophecy of the Jewish Messiah who would be of the seed of Abraham forth and finally what God is saying to Abraham Abram at the time is you will become a great need now follow this one you will become a great need for he says I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you as I read the newspapers and I turn on television and I heared the rhetoric here you have today the nation of Israel with the enemies of Israel all around her wanting to throw her into the sea trying to destroy any Jewish testimony of any kind geographically historically and so I hear the rhetoric saying well you know Israel really needs the United States of America in a lie and really needs international support I laugh at that here's the truth the United States of America needs Israel they've become the need just look at all of the nations who at one time turned against Israel in ancient history whether it's Babylon Assyria Rome Egypt they became second-rate nations in modern times Spain England one time England when the British Empire the Sun never sat on the British Empire was it was the ruler of the Seas ruler of the world read what happened just before and during World War two and if you've ever seen the movie the Exodus or read the book by Leon or as Exodus it recounts the story of them being placed in ships trying to escape the persecution of Europe but the British turned them away only for them to die in the boats or go back to Europe to be confined in concentration camps by the Nazis just follow the nation's ancient or modern that have turned against Israel and see what has become of them I will bless those who bless you and I will curse the one who curses you I'm not worried about the economy I'm not worried about health care as much as I am worried about this issue we will decline very fast if we decide not to align ourselves with the nation that God said he would bless those are promises you can take them to the banks so verse four Abram departed as the Lord had spoken that was back in or of the Chaldeans finally he gets around to it and lot went with him this is his nephew sort of adopted now by Abram he's going to raise him and Abram was 75 years old when he departed from her on now he left God never told him where he was going he didn't give him the GPS coordinates he didn't even give him the name of the country didn't say Canaan which will be called is really just said look at verse one go to a land that I will show you now his dad said we'll just make that her an that wasn't God's plan it was Canaan but God never told him where can you imagine what that would be like imagine you call a moving company a moving truck pulls up in your driveway loads all your stuff in it and the driver asks you where do you want me to take this and you go you know I don't know yet the Lord hasn't told me it wouldn't go over very well he didn't know exactly his destination he just had a promise that God will show you will that's future tense just move just go I'll tell you when to stop his dad told him when to stop unfortunately they stayed in the land of El Paso for all of those years without getting into the Promised Land but he departed and he went and Abram took Sarai his wife I probably need to be fair at this point and read you don't have to turn to it I'll just read that little section in Hebrews 11 that I mentioned this is the New Testament commentary by faith Abraham obeyed eventually but he did and it sees him as such when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive his inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of that same promise so whatever the delay was let's get past that eventually he did take the promise that God gave him and he acts on it and he'll be blessed because of it and he'll walk by faith he'll have his lapses but he's walking by faith he's standing now on the promise of God finally eventually but he's standing on the promises of God a good question that we should all ask ourselves from time to time is what do you do with God's promises there are so many of them in the Bible what do you do with those promises you you might say well I read them others might say I do better than that I underline them others might say I'll go a step further I memorized them all very good steps but of course the ultimate and best answer would be I keep them I live by them I practice them there's a great story when the United States of America was being founded there were no bridges over the Mississippi River and this country was being settled it was early winter and a man was travelling came up to the Mississippi River saw that it was frozen was unsure how deeply it was frozen and he wanted to cross it before nightfall it was getting dark he spread out on all fours to distribute his weight evenly which isn't really a great strategy when going over ice but he did it and he's slowly slowly moving distributing his weight very cautiously very trêpa dysley and then his attention is diverted because behind him he hears singing and up comes a carriage pulled by horses loaded down with goods and the man singing drives right across the frozen river how foolish did the man on all fours now feel now he realized oh this must be a local this is secure I can stand I can walk on this there's a great old hymn of the church standing on the promises of God my Savior standing on the promises of God if some of us were honest we couldn't sing that we would have to sing creeping on the promises of God my Savior creeping on the promises of God not standing firm still others couldn't even say that they'd have to say I'm sitting on the premises rather than even standing on the promises but but nonetheless Abram went from creeping to walking so he wasn't a creep let's go now back to chapter 12 verse 5 then Abram took Sarai his wife and lawd his brothers and all of their possessions that they had gathered and the people whom they acquired in Iran and they departed to go to the land of Canaan so they came to the land of Canaan this is about 2000 92 2100 BC when this event happened when Abram came into the land now if you have a map in your Bible and you trace the route of or from order of the Cal DS through harren down into the land of Canaan you'll notice that he begins in the Mesopotamian Tigris Euphrates River Valley and he goes up now he's really wanting to go from here to here side to psyche would be quicker but he goes up up up up up and he moves toward the northwest and then finally takes a turn and goes down into the land of Canaan here's why that was following the river boundaries it was it was a lush area your cattle your people could be provided for if you were to go straight across there's nothing but empty vast desert now this finally dawned on me when I took a taxi ride from Amman Jordan to Baghdad Iraq years ago one way in a car it took me 25 straight hours to drive across that empty desert from Amman Jordan to Baghdad it finally dawned on me I get it Abram couldn't have come this way there's nothing here to sustain life you have to follow the River Valley and go up and out of the way and then down and tell you what my taxi drive was like the taxi ride from hell this guy was a perpetual smoker smoking though you know those camel nofilter cigarettes one after the other and you know what he played the whole trip Madonna tapes what could be worse than that smelling smoke listening to Madonna through 25 hours of desert oh my goodness I rather would have walked the way of Abram verse 6 I better speed up the pace Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the terebinth tree of Moray and the Canaanites were in the land of Shechem is so important later on Jacob will buy a piece of land there dig a well by the New Testament times it will be called Sychar the land of Samaria Jesus will go there talk to a woman who is at the very well that Jacob dug in fact she will say are you greater than our father Abraham who gave us this well it's a very very important place in their geography verse 7 then the Lord appeared to Abram second time he appeared once was in order the Cowley's pared abram and said to your descendants I will give this land and there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him now God promises the land it's part of the Covenant the land to Abraham and his descendants now he had a lot of descendants how many sons did he have that we know about two most prominent ones are Ishmael and Isaac as we move on in the story God will be very selective and he'll say I'm giving this land to you Abraham but not to Ishmael but to Isaac and his descendants now Isaac is gonna have a couple kids and God will again be later on very selective he'll say I'm not giving this land to Esau I'm giving it to Jacob and Jacob will have 12 sons and they will become the twelve tribes of Israel and so God will be very selective who he gives it to and eventually they will occupy it after they leave Egypt after being there for hundred years so keep that in mind and he moved from there to the mountains east of Bethel that's seven miles north of Jerusalem pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I that's how AI is pronounced I on the east there he built an altar to the Lord and he called on the name of the Lord so Abram journeyed going still toward the South the Negev desert in in Hebrew okay that's the first nine verses verses 10 to 20 is the second part of the chapter first is his testimony now is his testing I hope this is very encouraging to you I hope that it's encouraging when you find out that the the first real test after God gives him all the Covenant promises the first real test he failed I'm so encouraged by that he's called the father of faith the father of them that believed and the firth first test of faith he failed in believing the promises of God now you and I are going to face trials of faith some people panic whenever they get a testing or a trial who what happened God doesn't love me listen how would you ever know if your faith is real unless it's tested easy to test God when the cupboards are full when the economy dwindles a bit things get tighter is God still able to provide how was your faith then see faith is like a muscle if you want to build up a muscle you you break it down you apply pressure against it and you push against that pressure and and that process builds muscle same with faith the pressure is what builds you up you'd never know if your faith is worth anything at all unless it was tested yet some people freaked out and and have these expectations that they follow Christ and everything's just going to be we fun and perfect and Wow and then reality hits there was a man who loved his lawn one year hundreds of dandelions filled his lawn he tried everything to get rid of me couldn't get rid of him he tried more things couldn't get rid of them finally he writes to the Department of Agriculture and tells him the problem tells him his tried solution and he said what should I do next what should I try now they wrote back and said try getting used to them you're going through a trial what should you try next try getting used to them they're prescribed by God to test and therefore strengthen your faith well let's see what happens there was a famine in the land what did you get that this is the land of promise this is the land I will show you this is the promised land he soon as he gets there I'm here honey we're in the promised land and she probably thought really this is it because there's a famine here sweetie it interesting that the land God gave them has a famine in it and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell therefore the famine was severe in the land why did he go to Egypt keep in mind where he came from he came from a place called or the Chaldeans and there's two rivers that flood that Valley called the Tigris and Euphrates Egypt was very much like his home or the Chaldeans there's the Nile plain and that river feeds a wonderful valley now he's in the land of promise the land of Israel can't wait to show some of you the Land of Israel because one of the things you you understand about it is that it is solely dependent upon rain that's why God said to later on to Moses if you obey me it'll rain if you don't obey me I'll I'll shut up heaven and you won't get any rain so there was the early rain and the latter rain the the Ouray and the mall coach they call it in Hebrew and it was completely dependent upon rainfall not so or not so Egypt so he's going to a place the heknows can sustain life during a famine he's going to a place it's very much like home and it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance men you can never go wrong saying that to your wives at any time honey you're a knockout you're a beautiful but Abram had ulterior motives it wasn't just a pure compliment it wasn't like stars in his eyes he's got a plan therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will that they will say this is his wife and they will kill me but they're gonna let you live please say you are my sister that it may be well with me for your sake that I may live because of you the man of faith gods hero in the Old Testament the father of them that believe doesn't have much faith here does he what's his plan why actually it's a half lion it's a half truth and a half truth is a half lie she was his wife but they had the same father though they had different mothers we find that out in chapter 20 that'll give us that information so it was half true but it was also a lie she still was his wife now we find out from ancient history that the Egyptians favored Semitic women and she was a semi and thought they were beautiful because the Egyptians said of their own women the Egyptian women that they faded early and if it was a brother-sister relationship that was at least where Abraham came from more sacred than even a husband-and-wife relationship if you if you know how old Sarah is at this point it becomes even more interesting she's 65 years old he's 75 she's 65 she must have been quite a looker to be 65 and still looking like wow that Abram would sink I got a lie about this woman because she's beautiful now we aren't given a physical description but again if we rely simply on the stuff that's passed down it might be historic it might be hearsay it might be a legend according to one Jewish source they said there is no bride or virgin that has passed under the canopy that's how Jewish couples got married that could be compared with Sarah they used to say that God gave 1/3 of all women's beauty to that one woman she had a perfect figure the records tell us she was just gorgeous so he lies said that you know though they'll let you live but they'll kill me so he's trying to protect himself please say that you're my sister verse 14 so it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman that she was beautiful the princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house he treated Abram well for her sake he had sheep oxen male donkeys male and female servants female donkeys and camels at this point I am certain that Abram thought good I'm getting away with this I'm being I'm being blessed by this for you see no doubt he was thinking pragmatically when he was up in Canaan and there was a famine in the land and he thought after all I've got to take care of my family everybody's going to n2 Egypt that's what they do in a family I've got to look after my family it's my god-given duty but all of the promises that God gave to Abram were for the land of Canaan God told him to go to the land of Canaan God never said go to the land of Haram God never said then also go to the land of Egypt so he just did it on its own at this point he's thinking I'm getting away with it everything's favourable there's a great proverb in Proverbs 16 that says the the lot is cast into the lap but every decision is from the Lord a Donald Gray barn house used to translate that man throws the dice but it's God that makes the spots come up the ancients used to have their own version of that the dice of the Gods are loaded so here's Abram thinking I got away with it but boy he did not but the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife and Pharaoh called abram and said what is this that you have done to me why did you not tell me that she was your wife a husband who is out of the will of God is dangerous to his family to himself here this man places his wife in jeopardy because God has still has his hand upon Abram and Sarai placing Pharaoh in his household in jeopardy all because of this disobedient man by the way there's never a mention that Abram prayed built an altar worship God called on the name of God while he was either in Haran or in Egypt only while he was in the land of Canaan he will when he gets back but right now he's not the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife Pharaoh called Abram and said what is this you have done to me why did you not tell me that she was your wife why did you say she is my sister I might have taken her as my wife now therefore here is your wife take her and go your way you know here there's this a real basic but very very crucial truth whenever we sin we never sin alone it always involves other people it always has ramifications far above and beyond just who you are and what you're doing in your little situation it affects people around you later on and Joshua a guy named Aiken remember a guy that named Aiken he steals money and he steals a garment he sins it causes the entire nation of Israel to be defeated at the Battle of I much later on David will number the people of Israel just for his own pride and 70,000 people of Israel will die because of his stupidity Jonah will go the other direction when God tells him to go preach in Nineveh and he'll place the entire cargo ship that he is on in jeopardy and all the people aboard it because of his disobedience and so here is Abram standing before an unbelieving King a Canaanite excuse me an Egyptian king what irony this is when unbelievers start rebuking believers here's the unbelieving Pharaoh rebuking the man of faith the father of them that believed saying dude what are you doing I could have had your wife now take her and go your way so we must ask Abram was it worth a little bit of relief from the famine there was a husband a wife they were at the mall they were shopping together as they were looking at items this beautiful young woman walked by and the husband looked up and his eyes followed her and followed her and followed her his wife didn't put down the items she was examining she just in a whispering tone said was it worth the trouble you're now in I can hear God saying Abram was it worth the trouble you're now in verse 20 ends of the chapter so Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had if your doubt leads to disobedience you are dangerous and he was dangerous God said that Abram was to be a blessing he turned out to be a curse to Pharaoh so what what great lessons he lost his testimony he'll get back on track in the next chapter but you know it does just sort of leave us with the reminder that we're being watched we're being listened to some more than others but all of us are being watched and all of us are being examined and all of us are being listened to and we have a testimony and it's either a good one or a bad one it's either solid or soiled and some Christians boy you you want them to be more vocal and and let people hear about what they believe in because their lives are pure others need to wear warning labels quite frankly because they're not good testimonies they're not good examples and you want to tell some of them don't tell anybody you're a Christian because it spoils the whole testimony Abraham's whole faith testimony was spoiled but at the same time I'm encouraged that the father of faith wasn't perfect and that the Bible never flatters its heroes because I have failed God I have failed in my testimony and God keeps bringing me back to Bethel bringing me back to the altar bringing me back to forgiveness I'm very encouraged by his story Heavenly Father we thank you for the time the family could get together and enjoy the study of your word and part of our worship listening and gleaning and applying the the ancient but so relevant applications of truth from the old testament so relevant are they that they're reiterated and amplified in the new testament for new testament believers as an example of faith and yet Lord we are so that's so thankful that we have seen the man as he really is not perfect but a man a human being with flaws and foibles the one who is following you thank you Lord for your covenant promise in Christ where you said I will I will I will and we're blessed because all nations would be blessed because of the seed of Abraham in Christ thank you for that and thank you for this time and thank you for this group of faithful believers who love your word showing that they love you in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 16,975

Rating: 4.6172247 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Genesis, Sermon

Id: GamyYAjDxZU

Length: 64min 14sec (3854 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018