Bible Text: Genesis 12:10-20 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: Abraham

Sometimes God makes his way clear in our lives and we know what he wants us to do and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes we have a major decision in front of us and we don’t know what to do. We want God to just tell us, but he doesn’t. How do we live by faith when God doesn’t tell us what to do? Abram faced a very difficult decision like this and from his life we can learn what to do.

Download sermon pdf…

No Easy Answer
Genesis 12:10-20

Sometimes God makes his way clear in our lives, and we know what to do… and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes we have difficult choices to make and we just want God to show us the way, but there’s no clear answer. When I was in high school, I felt God calling me into ministry and to pursue a degree in Youth Ministry. That was clear. What wasn’t so clear was where I should go to get that degree. There were a lot of options. My brother went to Bethel; the Youth Pastor from my home church went to Northwestern; the Youth Pastor from the youth group I attended went to Crown College; and some other family members went to Oak Hills. So I had four good possibilities of where I could go to school and all of them had the degree I wanted, but how would I choose?

We face these big, life-changing decisions at different times in our lives and they can be difficult to make: Should I go to college or not? Which college should I go to? What degree should I get? Should I get married? Who should I marry? How many kids should we have? Should we adopt? Where should we live? What job should I apply for? Should I buy a house? Which one? What school should we send our kids to? Should I take the promotion? Should we move? Should we save for retirement? How much should we save? When should we retire? Where should we go? What should we do? The list goes on and on.

These decisions can be very difficult to make and sometimes there is no easy answer, but we have to move ahead. We have to choose. How do we make these choices when God doesn’t tell us what to do? What if we make the wrong decision? What if we have major regrets? What if we ruin our lives?

Last week we began to look at the life of Abram – a former moon worshipper who was called by God in a clear and powerful way to leave his home and family and set out on a journey to a land that God would show him. Abram obeyed this call and took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their people and possessions and left their home in Ur of the Chaldeans. They traveled hundreds of miles until they finally ended up in the land of Canaan where God told them to stop. This was the land he would give to Abram’s descendants. So Abram heard the clear voice of God and followed him. It was a matter of obedience. So last week we talked about the basics of living the life of faith and that includes seeking the Lord, listening to his voice, and then obeying him, like Abram did.

But what about when you have a major decision to make and you don’t hear his voice? When it’s no longer a matter of obedience, but a matter of choice? What do you do then? Today we are going to look at a huge, life-altering decision that Abraham had to make, and this time the Lord did not tell him what to do and there was no easy answer. What would Abraham do in such a situation? We are going to look at what he did and ask ourselves what we can learn from him when we face those tough decisions in our own lives and the direction is unclear.

Within a short time of settling in Canaan there was a major drought. The rainy season didn’t produce the kind of rain needed to harvest a crop and there was a severe famine. Being new to that area, Abram didn’t have the resources needed to survive a drought, so he found himself in a crisis situation – if he remained where he was, he and all his people and livestock would probably die and all would be lost. So they had to leave and find food. Where would they go? The only place in that part of the world you could buy food at that time was Egypt. (picture)

Egypt wasn’t affected by drought as much as everyone else, because they had a huge area that was irrigated by the Nile River and the water from the river came from a mountain range hundreds of miles away. So the Egyptians actually flourished during times of drought because everyone had to go to them to buy food. This brought economic prosperity and military strength, and Pharaoh was the most powerful king within hundreds of miles. He could get anything he wanted, especially during a drought.

One of the things that Pharaoh wanted was beautiful women. He didn’t have one wife that he was devoted to; he had a harem of beautiful women. And when he saw a beautiful woman and wanted her for himself, there was nothing that could stop him. He could take what he wanted and kill anyone that got in his way. There was nothing that anyone could do.

The problem facing Abram was that he was married to a beautiful woman. Sarai was known for being strikingly beautiful – a woman whose beauty would immediately draw attention. It might surprise us that she was 65 years old at the time, but back then in that climate, I read that it would have been similar to her being in her 30’s today. So Abram knew that if they went to Egypt, Sarai would be taken by Pharaoh, and he would be killed. As her husband he would have a huge target on his back and there was nothing they could do to stop it. All of his people and belongings would be repossessed and their epic journey would be over.

Talk about a tough decision: Stay in Canaan where drought and famine would kill you, or go to the only place that had food, but where Pharaoh would steal your wife, kill you, and repossess everything you had… I’m sure Abram called out to the new God he was following – the God who had clearly called him to leave Ur and go to Canaan; the God whom he was learning to trust and follow. “What should I do?” The Biblical account doesn’t tell us that God told him what to do. So Abram had to make a decision – a decision that would have huge ramifications for himself and everyone he loved. What do you do in the life of faith, when you have to make a decision and God doesn’t tell you what to do? How can you trust him when he doesn’t tell you where to go? Let’s see what Abram did.

Read Genesis 12:10-13.
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. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

So Abram made the decision to go to Egypt to get food. And knowing what they would run into when they got there, he devised a plan for survival: “Tell the Egyptians that you are my sister.” If they thought he was her brother he would be spared. Scholars and commentators jump all over Abram for making this decision:
• Benson Commentary: “The grace Abram was most eminent for was faith, and yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the divine providence, even after God had appeared to him twice! “Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.””
• Barnes’ Notes: “The prime fault and folly of Abram consisted in not waiting for the divine direction in leaving the land of promise, and in not committing himself wholly to the divine protection when he did take that step.”
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary: “His conduct was culpable and inconsistent with his character as a servant of God: it showed a reliance on worldly policy more than a trust in the promise; and he not only sinned himself, but tempted Sarai to sin also.
• Matthew Poole’s Commentary: “Here Abram, the father of the faithful, elsewhere celebrated for the strength of his faith, betrays his infirmity and distrust of God’s providence and promise, and this fact was not without great danger both to himself and Sarai.”
• Gill’s Exposition of the Bible: “[Abram’s instruction to Sarai] was done to conceal truth, and to deceive the Egyptians, and tended to endanger his wife’s chastity, as well as showed great timorousness in him, and distrust of the divine care and protection of him; and upon the whole it must be criminal in him, and shows that the best of men are liable to sin, and the strongest believer to fall, and that a saint may fail in the exercise of that grace for which he is most eminent.”

You can hear the criticism – failure, faithless, fallen, faulty, impatient, worldly, sinner, terrible husband, deceiver, criminal… “You faithless coward! How could you throw your wife under the bus and endanger her honor so you wouldn’t be harmed! Disgusting! How could you?!”

But my question for those who condemn him is this: What was he supposed to do? A lot of assumptions and accusations are made about Abram that have no backing. God hadn’t told him what to do or what not to do. He didn’t say: “Don’t leave Canaan.” Or “Don’t go to Egypt.” He didn’t tell him: “Go to this brook in this valley and there I will provide for you.” He didn’t say: “Strike this rock with your staff and I will cause water to pour out of it.” It was assumed by some that Abram didn’t trust God or wait on him for direction, but impatiently took matters into his own hands. But the nature of a drought and famine is such that you can see it coming before it gets there. You can see when the rains don’t come and when the crops wither. You can see that you’re running out of food and eventually there isn’t going to be any left. You can see that your sources for buying food are drying up and a famine is coming.

I imagine that Abram was calling out to the Lord for a long time and waiting for an answer: “What am I supposed to do?” I don’t think God told him what to do – it doesn’t say that he did. There were no directives or prohibitions given that I can see. I think it boils down to this: he had to make a decision. He had to do something or they would all die. So he chose to go to the only place he could go to get food. And he chose to deceive Pharaoh, because if he didn’t, Pharaoh would kill him and take his wife and all his possessions.

When you look at Abram’s relationship with Sarai in Genesis, it appears that he loved her and that he listened to her – even to a fault at times. I highly doubt he was just throwing her under the bus for his own benefit. In fact I would imagine that he was very afraid of what would happen to her when they got to Egypt. It’s not like telling the truth was going to save her. She was going to end up in Pharaoh’s harem either way, and if he told the truth he’d be killed and there would be no way for Sarai to ever get out. At least if Abram was alive, there might be some way of rescuing her in the future. What would you do? Abram’s decision was an extreme example, but similar to the life-altering choices that we have to make – choices in which we don’t receive clear direction from God. What are we supposed to do in those situations?

I went to a seminar on this very topic when I was at Crown College. I remember author and Professor Don Bierle showed us from Scripture that when we’re faced with a decision and we’ve prayed, but God hasn’t given clear direction, we move forward in the direction that makes the most sense to us. God doesn’t always tell us what to do, but he can easily shut doors and turn us in a different way. As long as you’re walking in obedience and seeking the Lord’s leading, you need to make a decision and trust that the Lord will be with you and can point you in a different direction if he needs to.

When it came to me deciding which college to go to, I had four good options in front of me and I prayed that God would show me where to go, but I didn’t hear him say anything. So I had to choose. I had to do what made the most sense to me and I had to trust that whatever I chose God would be with me and that if he didn’t want me to go in a certain direction, he would show me. So I ended up visiting all four schools, applying for acceptance and then financial aid. And after doing that I felt the most comfortable at Crown College and they gave me the most affordable price, so I decided to go there. It made the most sense and God didn’t stop me, so I went – and God was with me all the way.

Abram had to make a decision and he did what made the most sense to him based on the circumstances he was in. He didn’t violate any commands he had been given from God, and even though it was a very difficult decision to make and it put his wife in a dangerous situation, I believe he was trusting in the Lord. Well, let’s see what happened.

Read Genesis 12:14-20.
14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

What a great story! Most people get to the end of this story and think: “That scumbag. How could he do that?” But I take away something completely different. Abram made an extremely difficult decision. And because of it Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s harem – something that was going to happen no matter what. But because of his decision, Abram survived and Pharaoh actually dealt well with him. It appears that he actually gave him livestock and servants. And rather than leaving Sarai to be taken advantage of by Pharaoh, God intervened and afflicted Pharaoh and all his house with terrible plagues.

So Sarai shows up and immediately everyone gets really sick, except for the new girl. “What’s up with her?” What’s up with her is that she’s not Abram’s sister, she’s Abram’s wife, and whoever Abram’s god is, he’s put a terrible curse on them. So Pharaoh wants to get rid of this girl as soon as possible, with the hope that their misery will end. He finds Abram and asks him, “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?” And I’m sure Abram was thinking: “Ahhh… because you would have killed me…” And likely, because of the fear of Abram’s God who had already afflicted them with terrible plagues, Pharaoh doesn’t dare bring any harm to Abram, but rather commands his men to send him away with everything he has. Abram made a decision and God was with him. He trusted God even when God didn’t tell him what to do.

How are you supposed to live by faith when you have a difficult decision to make and God doesn’t tell you what direction to go? What are you supposed to do about your job? About your kids? About your financial situation? I think Abram’s example teaches us that sometimes you have to just make a decision that makes the most sense to you – you pray about it and look at your circumstances and then make a decision. As long as you’re walking in obedience to God and seeking him, you move forward and trust him. That’s living by faith when God hasn’t told you what direction to go – trusting him to be with you; trusting that if you’re going the wrong direction he will reveal that to you so that you can turn. Trusting that whatever you decide, he will be with you and give you what you need.