Tag Archives: Canaan

Abrabam and the Consequences of Compromise

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

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In a time of famine Abraham chose to go down to Egypt. He suggested his wife Sarah act like his sister so that he would not be harmed by Pharoah. Abraham’s vagabond days of being sustained by the mercies of God ended abruptly as he turned to Egypt as a source.  He had a full belly but a bankrupt heart!

Remember this was the same man who walked away from his home and family and vowed never to return.  This same man faced new enemies everyday in Canaan and never flinched or backed down.  In those days he walked in obedience to the known will of God. But now that Abraham had succumbed to fear and entered Egypt, he was out of God’s will.  He no longer walked in obedience and anointing.

When we walk away from the known will of God we forfeit God’s protective hedge of protection. Abraham walked out of Canaan, his fellowship with God, away from the tent and the altar.

The outcome of Abraham’s disobedience was that Sarah was put into a situation of real danger. The king claimed her for his harem, and the lie Abraham told opened that door. Abraham was trying to protect himself, but in protecting himself he exposed Sarah to indecency and danger.

Not only was Sarah endangered, but so was Lot. Abraham’s nephew went down to Egypt with him. Later on when the allurements and enticements of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah cast their spell over Lot, we are told that he saw Sodom as though it were the land of Egypt. (See Genesis 13:10) This lust for comfort and worldly glory was enhanced during this stay in Egypt. Abraham and Sarah quickly got over Egypt but Lot and his family never recovered from the worldly attachments they discovered in Egypt.

Egypt ultimately made Abraham very rich. You say, “What’s wrong with riches?  They are not bad, but a blessing?” Yes they can be a blessing unless they come prematurely from a wrong source before we are ready to handle them. Jesus taught us the difference between “owning things” and “things owning us”. (See Mark 4:19).  Jesus taught it was the “delighting in riches” that choked the Word in a person.

In Egypt Abraham was given sheep, oxen, menservants, maidservants, donkeys, and camels. This was the wealth of the oriental world. But when he came back into the Promised Land, the first thing we heard was the strife between Abraham’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen over the riches they received in Egypt.  Abraham could deal with the riches, Lot could not. In addition, Abraham willing offered up the Promised Land to Lot. It was promised to him, not Lot. Wow!

Furthermore, we are told Abraham and Sarah were given maidservants, one of whom was named Hagar. Through Hagar Abraham later conceived Ishmael. Ishmael is recognized by Muslims as the ancestor of several prominent Arab tribes and being the forefather of Muhammad. The price of living in Egypt was extremely high and is still being paid today.

Abraham was called to be a blessing, but when he got into Egypt, he became a curse instead!

“The Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”

A Christian out of fellowship with Christ is of no help to the lost people around him. Instead, he is actually a hindrance. His life of hypocrisy and weakness is a stumbling block and a plague upon the hearts of those who are watching him.

I end with this dramatic scene. Here was God’s man Abraham standing before a pagan king who had better morals than he. Listen as Abraham was publicly rebuked for his folly.

 

Then 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.”  (Genesis 12:18-19)

 

There is nothing more degrading for a Christian than to neglect God’s warning and afterward get rebuked by the world. God would always rather correct His children in private first.  It is never God’s heart to make a public display of our disobedience.  He loves His children too much to desire this type of display.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

Is there a Famine in Your Future?

01 Sunday Apr 2012

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The story of Abraham does not go far until Abraham’s faith is tested. This story encourages me because it seems I never go far with a “word” from God until I run into stiff resistance. We all can learn from Abraham’s failures, not just his successes.

We are not expected to do everything right!  We are expected to correct ourselves once we discover disobedience. Like Abraham, what Christian has not discovered what it is to lose his/her sense of joy and awareness of the presence of Christ?  This is the story about blowing it and then allowing God to fix it.

 

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. (Genesis 12:10 RSV)

 

The land of Canaan was and still is like parts of California — wonderful land with a magnificent climate, but dependent upon a limited amount of rainfall.  When it fails to rain consistently, the land experiences drought.  Abram was a man with flocks and herds, and when the rains failed, his livelihood was severely threatened. As the scarcity of food grew, he felt driven to leave, even though God had called him to be there.

Abram took counsel, not from God, but from his fears alone. To use a contemporary expression, he “pushed the panic button” or the “easy button” and down to Egypt he went. It was fear that drove him.  If we do not allow the Lord to speak, then we will be left to only one voice and on most occasions it will be our fears.

I am asked the question all the time, “Do I have to ask God’s permission for every little thing I do?  I mean, come on now, I thought I was free?  Can’t I decide a few things in my life?”   The answer is yes you can.  In fact, you can make all the choices in your life if you wish.  But if you want to discover the absolute best and avoid the pits like Egypt, then you will want to consult God as much as possible.

Abraham’s life is an example of what it means to “side step” seeking the will of God. By faith Abraham walked right into Canaan.  By fear of famine Abraham walk right out of God’s promises into Egypt.

If Canaan is a symbol for us of what it means to experience fellowship with the Lord, and Egypt symbolic for the world … then a famine is any circumstance that threatens our dependence upon God. It is any circumstance that makes faith difficult to maintain. In short, famines are any threats, real or imagined, against the known will of God in our lives.

Have you ever experienced a famine?  Have you ever been living in the full joy of fellowship with Christ and suddenly some circumstance beyond your control blew into your life?   Because of the presence of that circumstance (famine) it became difficult to maintain fellowship and hold on to God’s promises.

Understand this right now:  Famines come to everyone. With Christ or without Christ everyone has famines.  “It rains on the just and unjust.”

When famine strikes the temptation will always be to flee rather than to fight and stick it out.  No one enjoys trials.  Our internal flight mode kicks in.  We move to another neighborhood, change jobs, take a trip, or go home to mother. If we simply cannot flee, we try to run away mentally. We escape the unpleasant reality by a flight into unreality. It is easy to escape mentally to Egypt and float down the river of (De Nile) where life seems much more pleasant than it is in reality.

A few years ago people would lapse into daydreaming. (There used to be songs about daydreaming.)  Now we mentally vegetate electronically via the television, computer, or video.   Many live in the realm of fantasy all day long.

Whenever we attempt to satisfy the Spirit using the same resources of the world, we have gone down to Egypt. Compromise will never complete or satisfy the word God has for you. After God told Abraham to go into Canaan and possess the land as an inheritance, Egypt could offer nothing better.  Compromise is a poor substitute to the promises of God.

Abraham’s flight into Egypt is not a warning that we should have nothing to do with worldly people. We are expected to live our lives in the midst of the world and its ways. This story is about staying with God’s resources instead of leaning once again on Egypt.  Once you choose Egypt you will eventually adopt the attitudes, the expectations, and resources of the world. The point is to never forsake God and His resources in the first place.

The world is not the believer’s problem.  The world will always be the world.  Our problem is failure to trust the Lord amidst hard times.

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Letting Go of …Your Country, Relatives, and House

22 Thursday Mar 2012

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If Abraham was ever to enjoy the blessings of God he would have to relinquish the comfortable, the worldly, and wholly follow the Lord. The difficult portion of God’s summons to a life of faith was this call to relinquish those things which ultimately hinder the journey.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;” Genesis 12:1

 

God’s summons was simple …“go forth.” It was an imperative command.  Everything hinged on Abraham obeying those first words. Abraham was commanded to disassociate himself and relinquish those things which might cause him to stumble.  All bridges to his past had to be burned by his own hand. The Lord was asking Abraham to give up his past and his present situation in order to give him hope and a future.

I have never been to Ur. Some believe it was an ancient port city.  When my wife and I moved to New Orleans we thought we were moving to another country.  Port cities are different because of the influx of people.  We saw things in New Orleans that we haven’t seen since!  This was probably the type of environment God wanted Abraham to leave behind.

Sometimes God calls us out of bad environments and sometimes He calls us into these situations.  He knows what is best.  What we do know is that Ur would become the Chaldeans.  The Chaldeans would become the Babylonians.  The Babylonians would become the Syrians. Canaan did not compare to the luxurious comforts of Ur.  Yet the Lord was asking him to relinquish his country for the sake of Canaan.

In addition, Abraham was commanded to leave his relatives.  Acceptance, affluence, and protection would now be forfeited.  This included his inheritance and rights to family property. Had Abraham and extended family been able to move as a clan, he could have kept his identity and inheritance. In addition, there would have been a small group to lend support and protection in a new country and a new culture.

 

 

This seems harsh when we look at all that God was asking Abraham to relinquish. God knows what is best when it comes to the journey of faith, and He knows what is best for our spiritual development and progress in our life of faith.

Throughout the ages God has consistently called people to leave places of safety and security in order to place our total trust in Him. Jesus echoed these same principles only in a different way.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

The summons to a life of faith is a summons to total commitment to the Lord. What many people fail to understand is that though the summons to a life of faith is a summons to relinquish, it is also a summons to receive. For when we relinquish all to follow the Lord we receive in return the greatest blessings that don’t come close to comparing to those things we give up. Tomorrow I will share a few of those blessings.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Have You Received Your Summons to Live a Life of Faith?

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

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“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;”     Genesis 12:1-2

 

I have been spending some time reading and praying through Abraham’s life.  Chapter 12 begins the story of Abraham’s call to leave behind his extended family and follow after God.  I was reminded that this was not the first time Abraham heard the summons of God. Chapter 12 could be a renewed summons of God’s call upon Abraham’s life. It was on this occasion when Abraham became fully obedient.  I have been at this place.  Maybe you have been at this crossroad as well, when you finally made the choice to go full throttle for the Lord.  There are several reasons to believe this was God calling Abraham to rededicate or renew his life to the journey of faith.

Chapter 11 indicates the Lord had originally called Terah, Abraham’s father, to leave Ur and go to Canaan.   “And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan…”

Now we don’t see the Lord speaking directly to Terah or Abraham in this text, but we do see God directing them to leave Ur for the purpose of going to Canaan. This indicates that some form of God calling Terah and his family took place.

In Acts Stephen reiterates this truth.

“Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ’Depart from your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ “Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans, and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God removed him into this country in which you are now living.” Acts 7:2-4

 

Did you notice the tense of these verses.  It reminds us the Lord considered the call on Terah’s life to be also a call on Abraham’s life.  It was a process that took an entire lifetime to fulfill.

All this suggests this was not the first time that Abraham heard God speak to him. No, the Lord had already spoken to Abraham and now the Lord was calling Abraham to rededicate himself to a life of faith.

Knowing this truth blesses me. I have not always gotten the Lord’s call and word right the first time.  Like Abraham, if our heart wants to be obedient, the Lord will continue to speak and work with us until our obedience is sure.

 

 

We should avoid Terah’s mistake.  He stopped short of God’s call.  He settled in Haran.  Terah never made it to the Canaan. Instead, he settled for what life had to offer short of what God promised. It was possible that Terah started a life of faith, but became a castaway.  Terah wanted the blessings of God, like so many people.  I have known many who started the journey of faith in good shape and with strong convictions.  But somewhere down the road they settled for less than God ordained.

Even Abraham at first had a hard time believing God in the beginning. The truths gleaned from his life are that the life of faith is a process.  When we begin the journey of faith, our ability to trust in God is not perfect. In fact, the journey of faith is really a journey into maturity. Abram’s faith matured over the years because his life of faith was a process.

Just as Abraham had his moments of struggling to trust God, so will everyone else who receives God’s summons. Just as Abram wanted to hold on to the comfortable, the familiar, and the worldly, so will we. The main thing is to stay in our process.

If you are currently in the process of following the Lord, stay in your process.  Keep on, keeping on.  Things may not look pretty today, but if you stay with God’s word, His word will eventually have its effect in your life.

 

Blessings,

Pastor