HOW
TO KEEP YOUR
FAITH FROM FALTERING
FAITH FROM FALTERING
Genesis 12:10–13:4
Introduction
One of my favorite hymn writers is Fanny
Crosby. Though she was blind, Fanny Crosby wrote over eight thousand hymns. I
love the story of how she came to write the hymn All the Way My Savior Leads
Me. Apparently, Fanny was worried because she needed five dollars to pay
her bills. She had no idea where she would get the money. Fear consumed her.
One day, while stressing over her predicament, she heard a knock at the door.
Whoever it was had no idea of her need, but felt led to give Fanny exactly five
dollars. Fanny, considered this experience a rebuke to her lack of trust, and
she wrote these lyrics of her loving Guide:
All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! a spring of joy I see,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! a spring of joy I see.
Fanny Crosby’s faith faltered, we’ll soon see that Abram’s
faith faltered, and inevitably in our own journey of faith we too will live
through periods when our weary steps may falter.
As we study Abraham to learn lessons for the life of
faith, we want to recognize the attitudes and choices that can encumber our
journey. The journey is a process—with steps that lead to maturity—those of
grand success and others of vast defeat. But our faithful God uses both
successes and failures to mature us in our faith.
We already noted that though Abram started his journey of
faith in Ur, he was sidetracked, and he and his father Terah settled in Haran.
There Abram heard the summons to renew—the summons of a second chance—and he
responded in faith and continued on his journey until he made it to Canaan.
As we study the next passages in Genesis, we find Abram in
Canaan, the place where God wanted him to go. You could say that Abram is now
in the center of God’s will, but as we will see, trying circumstances will test
Abram’s faith. His faith will falter and he’ll crash. But the collision will
not be terminal, for God, in his faithfulness, will use Abram’s failure to
bless him and grow him in his life of faith. From Abram’s example in this
passage, we can learn how to keep our own faith from faltering when we face
difficulties, and remember that our faith matures through challenging
circumstances.
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. It came about
when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know
that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say,
‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please
say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and
that I may live on account of you.” It came about when Abram came into Egypt,
the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh’s officials saw
her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and
donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. But the
LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s
wife. 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? 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.” Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away,
with his wife and all that belonged to him. So Abram went up from Egypt to the
Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him. Now
Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. He went on his
journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been
at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had
made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD. (Genesis
12:10–13:4)
The Challenging Circumstance
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)
Abram’s challenging circumstance involved
hunger. Verse 10 indicates that the famine in Canaan was severe. The Hebrew
word translated “severe” means “burdensome” or “difficult.” Remember that when
Abram first heard the call of God, he was in his birthplace, Ur of the
Chaldeans—a port city of luxurious comfort, fed by two great rivers, resulting
in rich soil and plentiful harvests. Canaan, on the other hand, had an
exceedingly fragile ecology, making it subject to famine at any time. If rains
did not come at the needed time, or if it rained too much or too little,
planting and harvesting were adversely affected.[1]
Can you imagine what Abram thought as he realized the land
the Lord promised him would not be able to feed his family? He probably started
questioning the will of God for his life. How many times have you stepped out
in faith, and when you arrived and were faced with difficulty thought, “I made
a mistake.”
That’s our tendency as humans. Often the challenge we face
when hurdles come our way is that we doubt the will of God. Somehow we get the
notion that being in the center of God’s will means everything will run
smoothly. Quite the contrary! God will often send us through demanding
circumstances to mature us. We must meet the challenge, trust the will of God,
and recognize that trials come from the hand of a sovereign Lord.
It’s not surprising that Abram doubted God when we
remember the promises the Lord gave to him in Genesis 12:2–3. God told Abram
that he would take care of him and bless him as he set out on his journey, yet
here was Abram faced with hunger and fear—a fear that undermined his ability to
trust God.
We live in a sinful environment that is spiritually,
physically, emotionally, and mentally challenging to the life of faith. Because
sin consumes our environment, we may be faced daily with circumstances that
will test and try our faith. If we respond with a wholehearted trust in God,
our faith will not falter, but if fear overcomes faith, faith will falter.[2]
Abram did not pass God’s test of faith. His lack of trust
caused him to take matters into his own hands. Fear overcame faith, and Abram
faltered as he used his wife and lied to attempt to override the sovereignty of
God. How can we keep our faith from faltering? We must realize that fear is the
greatest enemy to the life of faith.
The Greatest Enemy to the
Life of Faith is Fear (12:10–16)
Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing
we have to fear is fear itself.” In our spiritual life, fear is our greatest
enemy. Now, fear can be a friend to faith if we let it strengthen our faith
(for example, if we exhibit a reverential fear of God), but more often than not
our fear will overcome faith. Genesis 12:10–16 illustrates how Abram gave into
fear and how our fright can speak louder than the Father.
Fear Can Speak Louder than the Father
In verse 10 we are told that because of the
famine in the land, Abram decided to leave the place where God commanded him to
go and make his way into Egypt. At first glance this seems like the wise thing
to do, but when you take a closer look at the verse you notice that something
is missing.
We know from the previous passages that the Lord brought
Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans with his father Terah. We know from Genesis
12:1 that it was the Lord who commanded Abram to leave Haran and go to Canaan.
What is missing in this journey? The voice of the Lord telling Abram to go to
Egypt. The absence of God speaking to Abram is no coincidence; it reveals that
Abram was letting his fear speak louder than the Father.
Abram now placed God’s promises in the background and let
his fears speak to him. He probably thought, “Will God really take care of me?
Is he really going to bless me as he promised?” These doubts started to chip
away at Abram’s trust in the Lord and began to overshadow his knowledge of
God’s promises. Abram’s view of reality became distorted, and he lost sight of
God.
Let’s not be too hard on Abram. He’s certainly not alone.
In Numbers 13 and 14, God’s people let their fears speak louder than the
promises of the Father when God commanded Moses to take leaders from the twelve
tribes of Israel and send them into the land of Canaan. Twelve men spent forty
days spying out the land. When they returned, they declared that the land had
much to offer, but ten of them were terrified to go in. They saw that the
people were gigantic and incredibly strong; therefore, they thought the
Israelites should not go in. However, two of the twelve men, Caleb and Joshua,
disagreed. Needless to say, the ten whose fear overtook them influenced the
rest of the sons of Israel, and the people cried and rebelled against the Lord.
They forgot the Lord’s promise to give them the land. They forgot God’s promise
to take care of them. Their fears spoke louder than the Father’s promises.
Much like the Israelites, Abram fell into this pattern of
fear and, if we are not careful, so will we. We will take things into our own
hands instead of trusting the Lord.
Fear Causes Us to
Take Things into Our Own Hands
Notice that in verse 1, God took the initiative
to summons Abram to the journey of faith. However, beginning in verse 10, Abram
took the lead. He determined on his own to “[go] down to Egypt.” The reason is
simple: his faith had faltered on account of his fears. Abram took things into
his own hands and left God out of the equation.[3]
Abram’s sojourn into Egypt was a clear indication that he
was operating on his own terms and not on the Father’s. There are a few times
in the Bible where we see the Lord commanding or allowing his people to go to
Egypt. A subsequent account in Genesis informs us that “God told Jacob to go to
Egypt” (Genesis 46:3). In the New Testament, an angel of the Lord told Joseph
to take Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to keep the baby from harm (Matthew 2:13).
But for the most part, when Egypt is mentioned in the Bible, it usually refers
to that which is of the world. To go to and to rely on Egypt is symbolic of
relying on human resources rather than trusting in the Lord.[4]
Typically, when God’s people find themselves in Egypt, it is because their
faith has faltered, they have taken things into their own hands, and they are
trusting in human instead of divine resources, which usually results in a
downward effect. That is, the lack of faith often leads to more sin. And that
is exactly what happened to Abram; he continued on this downhill spiral of sin.
When faith falters it can cause God’s people to do things in the flesh.
Fear Causes Us to Do Things in the Flesh
When you see the actions of Abram in verses 11
through 13 you begin to think that Abram never responded to God’s summons to
the life of faith. Abram’s actions in this passage were no different than an
unbeliever’s actions. Abram acted totally apart from God. Like an unbeliever
who has no faith, Abram feared famine and doubted God’s ability to provide him
with daily sustenance, and he feared the Egyptians and doubted God’s ability to
protect him from danger. Therefore, Abram resorted to scheming and deception
for the purpose of protecting his own life. Notice the conversation that took
place between Abram and Sarai just before they entered Egypt. “And it came
about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know
that you are a beautiful woman; and it will come about when the Egyptians see
you, that they will say ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they
will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well
with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you” (Genesis
12:11–13).
Abram knew that the Egyptians would kill him on account of
Sarai. If he told the Egyptians he was Sarai’s brother, it would buy them time
to escape because the Egyptians would negotiate with Abram for the right to
marry his sister. But if they knew Abram was Sarai’s husband, then they would
just kill him.[5]
Therefore, Abram took things into his own hands. There is
some truth that Abram is Sarai’s brother. Genesis 20:12 says that Sarai is
Abram’s half sister, but why would Abram resort to deception and half-truths?
Because at this point it was all about him. He didn’t want to die, so he did
things in the flesh. He made a plan to protect himself and to “help” the Lord
keep his promise.
A former classmate of mine had a pastorate in a small town
just north of Denton, Texas. One Monday evening he called me to tell me how bad
his day went. He had spent the morning at the hospital because one of his
deacons had passed away. When he arrived back at the church and the parsonage,
he found the fire department there putting out a massive grass fire that had
consumed the cemetery and about thirteen acres of a church member’s property
behind the church. What made this situation even worse is that my friend knew that
the bonfire he and his youth minister started behind the church the night
before caused the destructive fire. Then the church member who owned the land
behind the church asked my friend if he knew how the fire started. In fear, my
friend lied and told him that he didn’t. Of course the Holy Spirit did not let
him get away with the lie, and he had to tell the member the truth. My friend,
as many of us have done, let his fear overcome his faith for self-preservation.
In the same manner, Abram’s fear caused him to act in the
flesh and devise his own plan for preservation, but as we’ll soon see, Abram’s
fleshly and ungodly plan would backfire on him. “It came about when Abram came
into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh’s officials
saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s
house. Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and
oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels”
(Genesis 12:14–16).
Abram was correct in saying they would see that Sarai was
very beautiful. Abram was also correct that if they thought he was Sarai’s
brother, it would go well with him and his life would be spared. But Abram was
wrong about having enough time to negotiate with the Egyptians. His false
calculation would put his wife and his marriage in danger.
Though Abram experienced the blessings bestowed upon him
from Pharaoh, these blessings were not divine; instead, they came through human
initiative. Just because a believer is being blessed materially does not
indicate divine favor. Abram prospered materially, but he was spiritually
rundown. Furthermore, God’s promise to make Abram a great nation and bless all
nations through him was based upon the seed of Abram, a promise that was now in
jeopardy because of Abram’s faltering faith.
You could say that Abram left one problem only to find
himself with another. He left a physical famine and found himself with a
spiritual hunger, one that came upon him on the basis of his faltering faith in
the Lord’s ability to take care of him. When our faith falters and we take
things into our own hands, we can be assured that our problems will not be
solved. We merely exchange one challenging circumstance for another.
The greatest enemy to the life of faith is unhealthy fear.
Fear can either draw us close to God or drive us far from him. The latter is
the greatest enemy of God. When fear begins to drive us away from God it does
so by speaking louder than the promises of God. When fear speaks louder than
the Father, we are often tempted to take things in our own hands, that is, to
do things “in the flesh” rather than to rely on God. But all is not lost when
our faith falters, for when our faith falters we can be assured that our
faithful God will not.
When Our Faith Falters, Our Faithful God Will Not (12:17–13:4)
In verse 17 we see the faithful Lord intervene, “But the
Lord …” Those three words are a declaration of God’s faithfulness. In fact,
this story of Abram’s faltering faith is more about a faithful God than it is
about a faithless servant. Though Abram’s faltering faith would jeopardize the
promise of God, God’s faithfulness to his word would bring the promise about.
In making sure that his promise would be fulfilled, we see God’s faithfulness revealed
in three different ways. The first thing we see is God’s faithfulness to
intervene and discipline the faltering faith.
Faithful to Discipline
But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great
plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 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? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife?’ ”
(Genesis 12:17–19)
If we are tempted to think that the Lord
approves of Abram’s behavior, then verses 17 through 19 should dispel any such
notions. Abram left one challenging circumstance and found himself in another.
It would seem that trouble was on the horizon. Abram was helpless to save his
wife Sarai, but God was not.[6]
God would intervene by first bringing discipline upon Pharaoh and then by using
Pharaoh to discipline Abram’s faltering faith.
Verse 17 declares that the Lord struck Pharaoh and his
house with a plague or disease. Without any question, Pharaoh understood that
the disease was the consequence of taking Sarai into his household. In the
ancient world the assumption was that when disease or sickness occurred it was
always a direct result of a god’s displeasure. The pagan religions saw disease
and sickness as a direct result of sin.[7]
The Lord revealed to Pharaoh that Sarai was Abram’s wife, and as a result the
Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with disease.
Pharaoh then called Abram to him and rebuked him for his
faltering faith. But don’t think for a minute that the source of the rebuke is
Pharaoh. The Lord used a pagan ruler to rebuke his servant. Twice Pharaoh asked
Abram why he lied to him. This rebuke is indicative of just how far out of
fellowship Abram was with the Lord. Before Abram left for Egypt the Lord spoke
to him personally, appeared to him, and Abram worshipped and called upon the
name of the Lord. But in Egypt the Lord was silent, Abram’s worship was absent,
and the Lord used an ungodly man to rebuke a man of God.
Listen to Pharaoh’s questions once again, but this time
hear them as coming from the very mouth of the Lord, “Why did you not tell me
she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for
my wife?” The Lord confronted Abram on his faltering faith, and if Abram
were honest with God he would have to say that he lied because his faith
faltered back in Canaan. He lied because he failed to trust God in the Promised
Land, and he took things into his own hands to try to take care of himself.
Really all Abram had to do was to trust the Lord.
The Lord’s rebuke through Pharaoh demonstrates God’s
faithfulness to discipline his straying children. God intervened in the life of
Abram because his word and his character were at stake. The Lord deals with all
of his children the same way he dealt with Abram. He is faithful to discipline
and to deliver when his people’s faith falters.
Faithful to Deliver
Verse 20 shows us that not only is the Lord
faithful to discipline, but he is also faithful to deliver, “Pharaoh commanded
his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that
belonged to him.” Amazingly, Abram put himself and his wife in a predicament,
one that could harm both of them, yet the Lord faithfully delivered them both
unharmed. But we must be very careful to understand God’s deliverance.
In this case, God delivered Abram from the consequences of
his faltering faith, but God does not always do that. We can be assured that
the Lord will deliver us spiritually by providing forgiveness and cleansing of
our sins, but God often does not deliver us from the consequences of our sins.[8]
We see that take place time and again with the people of Israel. We especially
see that take place in the life of King David. David committed adultery and
murder, the Lord forgave him, but he did not deliver him from the consequences
of his sin.
Some time ago a story came out about a pharmacist who was
watering down chemo treatments to make money. It turned out that this
pharmacist was a Christian man who was trying to pay off taxes and a financial
commitment he made to his church. This Christian brother confessed his
faltering faith and the Lord has forgiven him, but the Lord did not deliver him
from the consequences of his sin—he served time in prison.
Faithful to Direct
The first four verses of Genesis 13 reveals a
final observation about God’s faithfulness when Abram’s faith faltered. “So
Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to
him, and Lot with him. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and
gold. He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place
where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place
of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the
name of the Lord.”
In these passages, God in his faithfulness, directed Abram
when his faith faltered. Abram went as far as Bethel, which means “house of
God.” He went back to where he started, that is, back to where he was before
his faith faltered. Compare this to verse 8 of chapter 12, “Then he proceeded
from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with
Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an alter to the Lord
and called upon the name of the Lord.” God was faithful to forgive Abram’s
faltering faith and direct him into full fellowship once again.
Abram came full circle. His faltering faith led him away
from the Lord, away from worshipping him, away from calling upon him and
listening to him, but the Lord led Abram back to the place he never should have
left, the presence of the Lord.
A pastor visited one of his church members who happened to
be a farmer. When he got out of his car he noticed an inscription on the
farmer’s windmill: “God is faithful.” The pastor asked the farmer, “Is that to
mean that depending on what direction the wind is blowing God is faithful?” The
farmer said, “Absolutely not! I put that there to remind me that no matter what
direction the wind blows or whether the wind blows, God is always faithful.”
The lesson for keeping our faith from faltering should not
be centered on the faithlessness of Abram. If we are truly going to keep our
faith from faltering, then we need to focus on the faithfulness of God that is
revealed in this passage. When fear comes our way, we don’t need more faith.
Instead we need a greater understanding of the object of our faith. We must
remember that the Lord is always faithful, in feast or in famine, whether the
wind blows or not. Because our God is absolutely faithful, when challenging
circumstances come our way, when fear is creeping at our door, we can be
assured that the Lord will take care of us.
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