Abraham all fraught with fear

(new article tomorrow)

In Genesis 12, Abraham reasons with his wife, Sarai, “Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

[12] Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
[13] Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.”

“Sarai was a good-looking gal evidently, and the Egyptians had a habit of killing off the men folk and saving the women, like in Exodus 1,” says Jordan.

“So Abraham says, ‘I pray thee, thou art my sister.’ Now, was that a lie? Well, it was a half-truth because they were HALF sister/brother.

"Abraham’s saying, ‘If we tell them you’re my wife, they’re going to think you’re a good looking gal and they’re going want to take you, so let’s tell them you’re my sister.’

“He has no trust in God; he’s conniving. The passage goes on, ‘And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
[18] And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
[19] Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
[20] And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.’

 

*****

“That’s a great testimony to leave with, isn’t it? Have the old king get you in there and bawl you out about your own ethics! Pharaoh’s saying, ‘Why, you old sorry rascal, what’d you come down here for?! You don’t know nothing about life and living! Look what you brought on my family!’ I mean, that Pharaoh had more ethics than Abraham did and he shames him! 

“Now, there’s something interesting in that passage. Why in the world would God have plagued Pharaoh for taking Sarai to be his wife? David took another man’s wife and God didn’t put any plagues on him. Herod had his brother’s wife and God didn’t do anything special to him.

“Why would he have threatened Pharaoh that way? It had to have been something special about that wife; about the ‘seed of the woman.’ You see, there’s the conflict! There’s Satan’s attempt to destroy Abraham’s seed by destroying SARAI!!! And it’s getting to Abraham. He’s all fraught with fear.

“The thing that got Abraham in trouble is he quit walking in faith, depending on God, and went off into human viewpoint, and pretty soon fear overtook him and he got in circumstances he couldn’t control.

"Fear drove him further and further and further away into the satanic web that was designed to thwart God’s purposes, and God intervened with the plagues.

“The lesson is if God hadn’t intervened like He did, everything would have been lost for Abraham. Divine intervention to keep His dispensational purposes on track is part of God’s program for the nation Israel and it starts right here.

*****

“Abraham’s going to come up out of Egypt with his wife and all that he had and it says he was very rich in cattle and so forth. Sure he was rich! Pharaoh had given all kind of stuff when he went down there!

“Isn’t it interesting a guy goes out into the world (Egypt’s a type of the world) and he makes a mess of it and yet every time God brings him back out. Remember when they came out of Egypt in the Exodus, they came out with all her stuff?

“Abraham went right back to where he was at the beginning. He goes back and does the first work, just like Israel’s going to have to do.

“All of Israel’s history is there for you. They go out and succumb to the satanic policy of evil and yet, eventually, the true son of Abraham comes and brings them back out of Egypt, rich in the splendor of the Gentiles, possessing the riches. It will take the Millennium to make all that come to pass and God sits them right down where they were at the beginning.

“There’s something in all this about us. Have you been hearing parallels with your own spiritual life in here? Remember, Abraham is not just the ‘father of the circumcision,’ he’s also the ‘father of the uncircumcision,’ and in that he’s the father of all them who believe.

“My friend, it took death to get Abraham loose from Haran and you know it took death to get you and me to lose some of our past. Paul said, ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’ ”