Tag: When we Wonder Too Far ... Genesis 12-15

Genesis 13:1-4

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

Tag:  After Wandering Too Far ... 

In the beginning no of chapter 12 of this book, Abraham is called, by God, to go to the land of Canaan.   When he arrives there, where God told him to go, he sets up an alter to worship and praise God and to mark his spot.    However, a famine comes to the land, and what does Abraham do? 

Genesis 12:10

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Although God does use this wayward trip to increase Abraham’s wealth, it was not an act of faith; it was rather an act of fear.  God had called him to the place he had arrived.  But, he didn’t like the conditions and sought comfort and peach in Egypt, a place God would eventually rescue the entire nation from, out of captivity (Exodus).   Egypt, in Scriptures, is almost always a picture of our old life, a life before God, the “carnal” life, the life of the flesh.  Abraham, not trusting God during the famine, ran to Egypt.   But, he did not stay there.  As the above passage points out, Abraham came back to the place of worship and to the land God promised him.   God knows we will, at times, end up in Egypt.  But, God is a God of grace and forgiveness.   Abraham came back to the beginning.  Abraham “returned” to God.   That is the picture of the Christian life.  We all, at times, will find ourselves in Egypt, in the carnal, old life, looking for some other place to solve the “famine” in our lives.  But, God wants us to return to Him and find Him as the source of our famine.   God brought Abraham to this place. God brings us to our place.  When we don’t see what we “want” in that place and we see “famine,” that does not mean we should go off to our “Egypt.”    God wants us to “return” to the place from the start and worship Him and rejoice in Him.  It is hear that God will say to Abraham:

Genesis 13:14-16

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

There is no famine a heart of Faith can’t solve.