Get Thee Out – God Calls Abraham Genesis 12

Obedience brings blessings.  The Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country.  That would be a tough one.  What if the Lord said suddenly get out?  Would I be willing to do it?  Abram was 75 years old when God called him and he listened and obeyed the Word of the Lord.

When the Lord says it, we better obey it.

It might mean leaving all family and belongings behind, but it will surely be a better place.  It’s always a better place when it’s the place that God shows us.

The blessings promised: v 2-3

God would make of Abram a great nation.

God would bless him.

God would give him a great name so that he would be a blessing to others.

God would bless those who bless him and curse the ones who curse him.

Through him all the families of the earth would be blessed.

So Abram departed

That’s all.  No questions asked.  He had no idea where he was going. He just did as the Lord had spoken unto him.   He was 75 years old when he left.  Age is nothing with the Lord.  He can use the young and old.  It mattered not to him how old Abram was.  What mattered was his obedience. When God speaks, I just need to trust and obey.   We may have questions as to why, where, what, when, etc. and maybe in time God will answer these questions, but first and foremost I just need to do what the Lord speaks unto me.  Lot took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his nephew, and all their substance and souls they’d gotten in Haran.

Abram worships as he travels

Worship is important all along our journey on this earth.

God talked with Abram on his journey and showed him the land he would give to him and his descendants.  Abram believed, built an altar and worshipped, calling on the name of the Lord.  Abram was not ashamed to worship and call on God in the presence of his family and household.  It is the first thing he does when he stops to pitch his tent.

Famine in the Land

Because of a severe famine in the land, Abram went on to Egypt.  Did God tell him to do so?  I don’t know.

Our earthly land has a great famine.  We are starving for the Truth, for the Gospel.   There is only one place to end this famine and that is through the Word of God.  There we can know the Truth which sets us free through Jesus Christ.  There we can feast daily on His word and be filled for He has promised to fill those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Now that Abram is in Egypt he fears for his life.  When we go away from God’s plan, we too ought to fear for our lives.

Abram’s decision to deceive the Egyptians

Abram was afraid now in Egypt for himself and for his wife.  He instructs his wife to say she is his sister for he was afraid when they saw her beauty they would take her and kill him.  When we do things our own way, they usually don’t end well, but praise God He often steps in and protects us even in our ignorance or our deliberate disobedience.  What a merciful and gracious God!

The Egyptians gave much to Abram for Sarai.  The world often takes our focus off of the riches of Christ and lures us into thinking that it has much to offer us.  Not true!  What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his soul!  No matter how much Abram was given of worldly goods it could never replace his integrity or the life of his own wife!

Praise God, He protects his own and His name.  He plagued Pharaoh with a great plague.  God must have told Pharaoh ( or someone did) that Sarai was the wife of Abram and now Abram has to face his lies.

God can also turn the hearts of rulers.  Pharaoh could have killed Abram, but instead he gave Sarai back and told Abram to get out of here. Pharaoh commanded his men to escort them away.  Remember “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water He turneth it withersoever He will.” Proverbs 21:1

Some lessons to learn:

• Help and deliverance are found in the Lord along.
• Be Still where God has put you and let Him provide
• “If God did not deliver us many time out of our sins and distresses which we bring ourselves into in a sinful way, and bring us to our duty, we would be ruined” -M. Henry
• The life of faith has many temptations and trials.
• “A lie which is part truth is ever the worst of life, so a truth which is part a lie is a very dangerous one.  It’s not a truth at all”  -Biblical Illustrator
• We are weak, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.  But praise God when I am weak He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me and His grace is sufficient to meet me in my time of need.
• Places of refuge may prove to be places of danger and distress to God’s Own.  God is our refuge.
• “Great plagues are near to great sins” – Biblical Illustrator
• “God is the only protector of the innocence and chastity of His saints.” -Biblical Illustrator
• “God will reprove and punish the proudest of kings and princes for His people”-Bib. Ill.
• The wicked may just reprove the concealed sins of the saints
• Adultery is wrong and written on the conscience of men.
• God can make the mightiest enemies command good for, and be a guard to, His saints and all they have.  (Paul too was protected by guards)
• Had Abram not been rebuked, he may have been tempted to stay in Egypt and forget God’s promises.
• God told Abram to get out of his land and now he uses this to remind him of that very thing.  For now Pharaoh tells him to get out of this land.  Don’t try to make your own way.  There only one good and perfect way and that’s God’s way.