Abraham - Faith Tested - Part 1

You see faith means living without scheming. Faith means obeying without trying to second guess God. Faith means obeying God in spite of feelings, in spite of consequences, and in spite of circumstances.

A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. Don't ever forget that statement. A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. God called Abraham to walk by faith. Faith brought him out, that's Genesis 12:1-4. And faith brought him in, Genesis 12:5-9. And now in Genesis 12:10, we'll discover that faith can bring him back. You see, Abraham's faith was tested, and Abraham failed the test. Let's not be too hard on him. To begin with, this was at the early stage in his life of faith. And furthermore, you and I have failed many times as well. Let's not be too hard on this great man of God. God does test our faith.

Now you're going to discover as you read Genesis 12, Genesis 13, and Genesis 14 that Abraham's faith was tested by three different furnaces. He went through three different furnaces to test his faith. First, he was tested by circumstances, Genesis 12:10-13:4. Genesis 12:10 says, "Now there was a famine in the land." Notice that. A famine in the place of God's choosing. A famine in the land that Abraham had been guided to and the land that he was going to inherit through his descendants. We don't read about any famines in Ur of the Chaldees, but there was a famine in the land. He was tested by circumstances. Now, a famine would be a difficult thing for a man who had flocks and herds because these animals have to eat. Have you ever been tested by circumstances? Has the economy ever affected you? I'm sure it has. 

Then in Genesis 13:5, he was tested by people. There was a strife, a family quarrel. Of all problems, family problems are the worst. And I'm sure you may be saying to yourself, "Oh, I know that. I've got some relatives who make life difficult for us." Well, there was a strife between Lot's workers and Abraham's workers because the famine and their wealth had increased, and here we have faith being tested by people. I have a suspicion that a famine is a lot easier to handle than people and their arguing and their striving together. 

Then in Genesis 14:1, Abraham is tested by things. We'll get to that in a future study. Abraham won a war and all of the loot, all of the spoils were offered to him and he said, "I won't take it. I do not want any wealth that comes from the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah." So, Abraham was tested by circumstances, by people, and by things. By the way, these are the three causes of most of our problems. You just think about the problems you're going through, the things you're worrying about now, and they are caused by circumstances, people, and things. One or the other, perhaps all three. And yet Abraham had to have his faith tested. Now, you will have your faith tested and so will I, because the only way faith can grow is through testing. 

You'll want to mark in your Bible 1 Peter 1:6. "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials." Now, God's people do get grieved. Trials come. What kind of trials? Trials of our faith. 1 Peter 1:7: "That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love."

Now, what is he telling us here about the tests of faith? Why does God test us? Number one: to verify our faith. "That the genuineness of your faith." Here's a man who comes into the assaying office with ore. He's been working in the mine and he comes with what he thinks is gold ore. And the assayer tests the ore and discovers it's not pure gold at all. It's not gold at all. It's something counterfeit. However, if he discovers that that ore is true gold, that man becomes rich. He knows he has a whole mine full of gold. Well, God tests our faith to verify it. Is our faith true? Oh, you say, "Are there people with a false faith?" Yes, there are. 

Jesus said not everybody who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Saying the right words is not faith. In that day he says, "Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, in your name we've cast out demons.'" Helping other people is not necessarily faith. "In your name we've done many wonderful works." Doing miracles is not necessarily faith. He's going to say to them, "Depart from me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you." There is a counterfeit faith. I have a feeling that there are many people in our churches today who think they have true faith, but they don't. This is why God allows our faith to be tested. It permits us in the furnace of affliction to verify the fact that we're truly born again. 

The second reason, of course, that he puts us through the furnace is to purify our faith. To take away the dross. The jeweler puts the gold into the furnace and he watches it, and as the dross comes to the top, he skims it off. God wants to purify our faith. Thirdly, God wants to magnify himself through our faith. "That it might be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Now, Abraham in Canaan was confronted with a famine. And what did he do? He went down to Egypt to sojourn there. That word "sojourn" means a temporary visit. Because the famine was so severe in the land. 

Well, God puts us through the furnace to verify our faith, and to purify our faith, and to magnify our Lord that we might be a testimony now. The Canaanites were watching him. And when he left Canaan and went down to Egypt, they were saying, "Well, his God probably can't take care of him. His God is not strong enough to take care of all of the problems and needs that he has." And of course, God tests our faith that he might edify us. He wants to build us up. The only way faith grows is by exercise. You have to exercise your faith. Not just study it, not just memorize things, but exercise it. Just as muscles grow and become strong through exercise, so faith grows and becomes strong through exercise. And the only way God can get us to exercise our faith sometimes is to put us through some time of storm and difficulty and trial.

Well, we've learned that faith brings us out and that faith brings us in. Now, we're going to learn that faith brings us back. Let's read the record. Genesis 12:10: "Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, 'Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, 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, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.' So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, and male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And 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"? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.' So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South 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 at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord."

Now, there are three aspects of this event, this experience, that we want to study to help us in our own walk of faith. First of all, the reason for his failure. Secondly, the results of his failure. And thirdly, the remedy for his failure. Let's look at the reasons for his failure. Why did Abraham fail? Here he was in the land of Canaan. Here he was in the very place of God's leading. Keep this in mind, my friend. God tests you where he put you. God's testings come as the result of God's leadings. Now, I could understand if Abraham were in Ur of the Chaldees, or back at Haran where he had tarried for a while, that some testing would come. No, God's testings come when we are in the will of God. Now, God's disciplines come when we're out of the will of God. God tests us to bring out the best in us. The devil turns these testings into temptations to bring out the worst in us. What is a temptation? A temptation is an opportunity to achieve a good thing in a bad way. Is it a good thing to feed your flocks and your herds? Of course it is. Is it a good thing to go out of the will of God to do this? No, it isn't. And so when the devil comes and sees that we are going through testing, he wants to turn that testing into temptation. Remember, the Father tests us to bring out the best in us and to verify and purify and edify our faith. The devil tempts us to bring out the worst in us that he might destroy our faith.

Well, the reason for Abraham's failure was simply unbelief. Number one: he was living by sight and not by faith. He looked around and saw the famine and said, "We have to go some place else." He should have looked up. He should have said, "O God, here we are in the place of your choosing. You led us here. Now, the grace of God will always keep me where the will of God has led me. Therefore, I'm going to trust you to take care of us." And he should have stayed there. He could have prayed like this: "O Lord, the Canaanites are in the land. They're watching. They know that I worship you, the true and living God of glory. Therefore, I pray magnify yourself by taking care of us." And he would have been a great testimony, but he was walking by sight and not by faith. Did you notice in Genesis 12:12, he says to his wife, "They will say." Now contrast verse 12 with Genesis 12:1-3. God had given to Abraham some promises. "I will show you the land. I will make you. I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you. I will care for you." Here is "I will," "I will" five times. But Abraham has moved from "I will" to "they will." He's looking at the enemy, he's looking at the Egyptians, he's walking by sight and not by faith. 

Now, he didn't have any word from God. You find the word of God says, "And the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying," or "God appeared to Abraham and said." He had no word from God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. He goes down to Egypt. Now, Egypt in the Bible is always down. Whenever you go to Jerusalem, you go up. Whenever you go to Egypt, you go down. Egypt is a picture of this present world system. It's a place of bondage. Deuteronomy 11:10 describes the contrast between Canaan and Egypt. Deuteronomy 11:10: "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys—ah, there are high times and low times in the Christian land—which drinks water from the rain of heaven; we depend upon God to send the rain. In Egypt they dug channels and they irrigated from the Nile River. But the land of Canaan gets the rain from heaven. A land for which the Lord your God cares." Oh, God cares for his land. Surely he'll care for his people. "The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year." Now here is Egypt, a flat land, a monotonous land, a land that depends upon its own labors. Here is Canaan, a land of hills and valleys, a beautiful land, a land of varied experiences and great opportunities, a land that God watches over, a land that God cares for by the rain from heaven. Can you imagine Abraham forsaking the land that God gave to him and going down to Egypt? 

Well, Isaac tried the same thing, Genesis 26:1-2. When things were hard on him, he headed for Egypt. God stopped him. The Jews always wanted to go back to Egypt all during their wilderness wanderings. "Let's appoint a captain. Let's go back to Egypt." The book of Hebrews was written to tell us don't go to Egypt. Don't go back. Let us go on unto maturity. In Isaiah 31:1, God says, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 31:1. 

Well, when you and I are having a rough time, we're tempted to go back to the world, aren't we? You see, Abraham not only is walking by sight, not by faith, but he's living by scheming, not by trusting. He and his wife had this arrangement, Genesis 20:13. When they left Ur of the Chaldees and began to travel, Genesis 20:13, that they had this arrangement: "This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, 'He is my brother.'" They dragged in something from the old life. They had a scheme. Faith is living without scheming. Now, she was his sister, his half-sister. And a half-truth is worse than a whole lie. Here's a man living by sight, not by faith; by scheming, not by obeying; and for himself, not for others. How selfish can you get? "They're going to take you, but they might kill me." 

Now the Egyptians had a very high view of marriage. They wouldn't say to Abraham, "Well, you divorce your wife so Pharaoh can have her." They'd kill him. and then she'd be a widow and he could take her into his harem. Well, he did take her, and while she was being prepared for becoming one of his wives, God smote them and God brought judgment to protect you and me. Why do I say that? Because if Sarai had become the wife of Pharaoh, Isaac could not have been born. Isaac then could not have given us Jacob. Jacob could not have given us Israel. Israel could not have given us the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a critical time in the history of God's plan of redemption, because a man got selfish. He said, "I can't trust God up in Canaan, but I can trust him down in Egypt." Why do you and I fail in our faith? Because we don't obey the word of God. You see, faith means living without scheming. Faith means obeying without trying to second guess God. Faith means obeying God in spite of feelings, in spite of consequences, and in spite of circumstances. And Abraham failed in his strongest point, his faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Well, next time we'll look at the results of his sin and then the remedy—how God brought him back.

[Interview]

Thanks for joining us. Now, let's drop in on a conversation with Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole and Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe.

Warren, in your book "Be Obedient," you write that as you progress in the school of faith, you will face three special tests. What are those tests?

Well, test number one can be circumstances. It's a difficult thing with circumstances and people and things to see them as tools that God uses to make us what we ought to be. Abraham had to learn to wait. He waited 25 years for his son to be born. Abraham had conflict with people. Twice he went down to Egypt and lied about his wife and he had some neighbor problems. And then things. He no sooner got to the land that God gave him than they had a famine. Isn't that wonderful? I'm obeying God and now we've got a famine. And yet he was able to handle it except he made the big mistake of running off to Egypt. Now all of us are going to be tested by things. "I need a new car" or "I need a better this or that" or my body is not what it ought to be. I once heard a very famous preacher say, "Churches are churches and people are people, but God is God." and that encouraged me. So he was obedient to God in spite of famines (circumstances), people (people down in Egypt especially), and things. By the way, I should say this lest somebody misunderstand me: Abraham made mistakes. So did Peter. So did David. That's right. The only person in the Bible who never made a mistake was Jesus. And yet the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. You trip and fall? Get up and start again. You say the wrong thing? Apologize, get up and get started again. A series of new beginnings.