Tuesday: Abraham’s Call
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 17th of October 2023
Following the call of God, Abraham entered the land as God had commanded him. However, right from the start, things didn’t seem to go too well for him. He arrived where God told him to go, but according to the Bible, “the Canaanites were then in the land” (Genesis 12:6, NKJV)—pagans known for their cruelty and violence. No wonder that right after Abraham got there, the Lord appeared to him and said, “ ‘To your descendants I will give this land’ ” (Genesis 12:7, NKJV). No doubt Abraham needed the encouragement.
However, things still didn’t go particularly well for him, at least at first.
Read Genesis 12:10-20; Genesis 13:1. What things happened to him next, and what mistakes did this man of God make?
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How discouraging it must have been for him: leaving a comfortable and most likely prosperous existence in the homeland, only to go, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8, NKJV). And one of the first things he faced was a famine! This famine was so bad that he had to leave the place he had been told by God to settle in and go somewhere else. And then things got even worse after that.
“During his stay in Egypt, Abraham gave evidence that he was not free from human weakness and imperfection. In concealing the fact that Sarah was his wife, he betrayed a distrust of the divine care, a lack of that lofty faith and courage so often and nobly exemplified in his life. . . . Through Abraham’s lack of faith, Sarah was placed in great peril. The king of Egypt, being informed of her beauty, caused her to be taken to his palace, intending to make her his wife. But the Lord, in His great mercy, protected Sarah by sending judgments upon the royal household.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 130.
No one has ever said mission work was easy, and by lying, by being deceitful, Abraham only made matters worse. Fortunately, God is a God of patience, and He didn’t cast off His servant for his mistake, which, unfortunately, would not be the only one Abraham would make. How comforting to know that even despite our errors, if we cling to the Lord in faith and submission, as did Abraham, not only can our errors, sins, and faults be forgiven, but the Lord can still use us for mission.
What lessons can we take from the story about Abram in Egypt?
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I think that most of us have been in a situation where we have made a decision that has turned out badly and the only excuse we can offer is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Abraham found himself in that position twice, trying to hide that Sarah was his wife. We can probably deduce from this that Sarah was a very attractive woman. But more importantly for us, we can see that Abraham was a slow learner. The fact that God does not give up on slow learners should give us hope and encouragement.
Peter, the apostle, was also a slow learner. Even though he denied Jesus three times, Peter was given special mention when Jesus asked to meet the disciples after the resurrection.
In the great Gospel commission, Jesus promises "and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Matt 28:29 last part, TLB
And I think that means that he is still with us when we do things that we thought were a good idea at the time. We might be slow learners, but God is patient and longsuffering.
Amen to this, Maurice Ashton. Peter even thought he could get God (Jesus) to allow him to just forgive others up to 7 times but God (Jesus) told him to do it 70 times that much and then goes on to show how He and His Father and also the Holy Spirit are already doing that very thing in their forgiving us and others by telling Peter the parable of the unjust steward where the King of that steward forgave the steward an unpayable sum (which to me represents the gift of His Son Jesus and also life itself,) there is no way that anyone of us can pay God for the gift of Jesus nor life itself. And to me, Jesus promising to be with us to the end of the world, is an "Echo" of what He promised to do way back even before He led the Israelites into the promised land with Joshua their leader, when Moses wrote God's Promise to us in Deuteronomy 4:29,30 that we would find Him when we would search for Him with all our hearts now in these "Latter Days of ours," because He is there for us to do so now.
Amen, and thank you Jesus for being so patient. Sometimes I think about this story with Abraham and wonder what he was thinking when he made this decision but I guess unless you're in his shoes it's hard to tell. Perhaps he made the decision quickly without really thinking it through. Also I wonder if he and Sarah had not gone to Egypt in the first place then he would never have had to make the decision. Perhaps if they stayed where God told him to go then God would have looked after him and Sarah through the famine anyway. All what if's but still interesting to ponder.
Abram arrives at Canaan, and the canaanites where there. The call doesn't make life smooth for Abraham from the onset! Challenges come his way and he makes decisions on how to solve them without involving God... the consequences are catastrophic to others because of his sin!
Repeating the same mistake afterwards and still God using him is a big lesson to us.
There‘s this quotation:
„ A smart person learns from their mistakes, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others and the fool never learns.“
Yet I think we always try to fix things up quickly without having an opportunity for reflection, that‘s when things get messy. Regret is a tool that helps us understand that we actually made mistakes, but it doesn‘t end here.
Peter regretted and by God‘s grace he learned his lesson, while Judas regretted too, but he was either foolish or too blinded to accept God‘s grace.
Nicodemus , having seen Jesus on the cross and later when placed in the grave, he felt that he has lost much by not connecting himself with the Saviour during his life. E. White describes that scene in „Desire of Ages“.
Nothing is lost although sometimes our flaws seem to cause damage in our lives, as long as we remember Romans 5:20 (NIV)
„But the Law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin]. But where sin increased, [God’s remarkable, gracious gift of] grace [His unmerited favor] has surpassed it and increased all the more.“
Abram did not get to the title "father of faith" instantly. He went through a lot of defeats, mistakes, and downfalls. But he never left his relationship with God. He persisted. Evil wants me and you to focus on our limitations; on the contrary, Love presents us with forgiveness, peace, and promises of MUCH better things! We can all become "fathers and mothers of faith," just like Abraham; "all we need is Love." Hold on to the Creator = Love!
God treats as children teaching us as we follow his path. Each of us are like Abraham, making mistakes as we seek to serve God.
At the end of the lesson for today, the question was asked, "What lessons can we take from the story about Abram in Egypt?"
What I take from today's lesson is that Pharaoh and his household were punished by God for doing nothing wrong. At the same time, Abraham and Sarah left Egypt better off when compared to how they arrived. The bible said that Pharaoh treated them well while they were in Egypt and did not take away anything from them when they left. Pharaoh even preached to Abraham and Sarah before they left. How do we make sense of this story?
That’s an interesting observation about Pharoah preaching to Abraham—much like Balaam’s talking donkey.
But I also think that Abraham lost an opportunity to be a witness for the Lord God. Not only that, but Abraham was a FALSE witness about God to Pharoah by his lies and actions. Abraham was deported as a fearful enemy rather than leaving as a loving friend.
We also have to be very careful about what our actions and words are saying about God so that we don’t lose an opportunity for mission.
Abraham messed up a very important missionary journey! God didn't love just Abraham -- sometimes it seems we tend to think that. God loved those Egyptians and sent Abraham to witness to them. God also loved the Canaanites knowing full well they were filling their cup of iniquity and heading to destruction and was giving them Abraham to call them back to a worship of God while their door of mercy was still open.
Abraham's blunder wasn't just a last minute thing either -- Abraham did it again, in fact he told his wife to say she was his sister every place they went, and his son Isaac did the same thing. (Gen 20:2, Gen. 20:13 and Gen.26:7-10)
It just shows the custom of the day placed little value on women and wives, they could be dispensed of to protect the male. We see it even worse with Lot (Gen. 19:8) If Abraham (and Isaac) loved his wife why wouldn't he protect her, why would he deliberately expose her to abuse and danger in order to save himself. It could have been any other Egyptian, not just the king who desired to have her? Why would Abraham sacrifice her to possible abuse to avoid any possible harm to himself?
Do we look back to Biblical practices to determine God's plan for women? Or do we realize God worked with people, in spite of serious cultural issues? A major controversy in our church today has people looking back to Biblical practices as being God's plan for the place of women. How does that fit in with our idea of mission and revealing God's character?
Of course, God, in Abraham's case intervened. He kept the Egyptians from committing a great sin and restored Abraham's wife back to Him. Yes, God is merciful and patient! And interestingly, every time Abraham came up with a plan that excluded Sarah, God said, no, Sarah, your wife will be the mother of the promised heir. We can learn a lot from that story about our duty as reflectors of God's character in mission work, dealing with culture, and with each other, as well as learning to trust explicitly in God!
Ulrike I loved your comment and it inspired me. I do get perturbed when I read how women were treated and even now I do have dialogue with God, regarding treatment of young girls, and women in our society today in different parts of the world. I have to pray always for God to give me understanding and patience that he sees the atrocity that women endure. Thank you for the comment it really lifts me. Thank you your sister in Christ.