Title: Testing of our Faith

Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:10

“Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.”

Main idea: The tests Abram faces represent what we might encounter as we seek to live out God’s calling on our own lives. God’s call doesn’t make us immune to difficult situations and tests.

Abraham had arrived in Canaan, the place where God had told him to go, a famine came. A famine where God has sent you is a real test of your faith. Abraham’s faith was tested here regarding the will of God, the promises of God and his obedience to God.

His destination was unknown.
When Abram left the land of Chaldees the present-day Iraq, he apparently did not know that Canaan was the land of promise. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” He had been asked to leave a land he knew quite well—and in which he undoubtedly felt at home—for a land that was not only new but also unknown to him at the time.

There was famine in Canaan.
Abram had heard the call of God and had responded in faith. He had left his father’s home and had arrived in Canaan. Now a test came. There was famine in Canaan, and Abram turned from following after God and went to Egypt. Unfortunately, even though there were ample circumstances to justify his course of action, if that action evidenced a failure of belief in God, as it did, the unbelief was still unbelief and no one can please God who does not trust him as Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

There are places in the Bible where God allows or commands one of his people to go to Egypt: for example, to Jacob, in Genesis 46:3, God said “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.” When Jesus’s life is in danger because Herod seeks to kill Jewish babies, his family doesn’t flee from God’s protection by escaping to Egypt on their own initiative. Rather, they flee to God’s protection in Egypt out of obedience to his stated will (Matt 2:13-15). For the most part, however, in biblical language Egypt stands for the world and wrong alliance with it; and, thus, God’s people are to stay away from it.

Isaiah 31:1 says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.”

Abrahams Test of Faith.
There are indications in Scripture that spiritual ‘high points,’ when God draws near or speaks in a special way, are often followed by unusual testing. In this respect is the experience of Elijah after the public vindication of his lone stand for God on Mount Carmel. It was followed by a threat on his life and by deep depression (1 Kings 19:1-4). Jesus was sent by the Spirit after his baptism out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12-13). The personal reassurance for Jesus, ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’, seems to be a preparation for the severe forty-day testing in the lonely desert, when Jesus clung to God’s word, and so defeated Satan (Mt. 4:11). Abraham, on the other hand, appears to have been caught off his guard by the famine conditions. The psalmist found in Psalms 73:2-14, the person who declares his trust in the Lord sometimes seems to be singled out for trouble, while the godless prosper.

Will of God tested.
We often think that if we do the will of God everything will be great. The will of God is determined not by outward success but by the Word of God. And it was God’s Word that sent Abraham to Canaan. So, it made no difference whether Abraham experienced a famine or not, his moving to Canaan was the will of God. We know that whenever our expectation is frustrated and things do not happen according to our wishes, our flesh soon insists, “God has deceived you.”

Promises of God tested.
Trial seems to mock the promises of God. But they do not cancel the promises. Instead they often enlarge the blessings of promises. Peter said the trials of our faith are “much more precious than of gold” (1 Peter 1:7). That does not sound like blessings lost but blessings added.  The famine will not hinder God from fulfilling promises. Griffith Thomas criticizes Abram for his decision and adds, “It would certainly seem that Abraham was now thinking solely of the land and its famine, and forgetting God and His promises” (Thomas, 119).

Obedience to God tested.
Nothing challenges our obedience to God like hard times. Many of us will obey God in good times, but hard times is a different story. Abraham failed here. When the famine came, he left Canaan and went to Egypt. Famine drove him to disobedience, and that disobedience scarred the rest of his life. Obedience must be unconditional. It is faithfulness or failure. God’s Word, not famines should determine obedience. It is one thing to leave Haran and dash off after a dramatic experience of God’s call. It is quite another to keep going through famines, and a variety of tests and struggles.

Application
Do we identify with Abram at this point? Do we think that his decision to go to Egypt was reasonable? We reason that obeying God is all right as long as all goes right. When trouble come many of us not trust in God but to our own resources. We turn to the world for provision. And the world, Egypt does provide! It provides for its own and for those willing to affirm it and go its way. This is not the true course for the Christian, and the last thing a believer in God should do is look for help apart from God.

The danger of shortage in Canaan was to be preferred to the moral and spiritual dangers he had hardly been aware of when he went to Egypt. Indeed, it was a sin of omission in the first instance which had ultimately involved him in fear and betrayal of his wife: he had failed to draw near to the Lord, and had failed therefore to trust him, when trouble struck. The source of his danger was confidence in his own judgment. Like Abraham, we have to learn that it is all too easy to find ourselves off the track, simply because we have trusted our own reasoning instead of consulting our guide.

A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted. Peter compared the Christian’s trials to the testing of gold in the furnace (1 Peter 1:7), and Job also used the same image: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). God’s purpose in allowing trials is not only to verify our faith but also to purify it and remove the dirt. God knows what kind of faith we have, but we don’t know, and the only way to advance in the “school of faith” is to take tests.

All of us face major tests of faith. In those tests we must hold to the original understanding of call and to the belief that God will see us through to the achievements he wants. The record of Abraham’s life is one of the most interesting narratives in the Bible. He remained faithful to God’s call regardless of his failures.

What should Abram have done?
He should have trusted God in Canaan. God had not brought him into Canaan to starve. You are safer in a famine in His will than in a palace out of His will. I leave you today with these words, taken from Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.”

Let’s pray together
Heavenly Father, I thank you though we’re unfaithful You are faithful. I thank You Lord, You never forsake the righteous. In Jesus Name Amen.