Abraham's Big Lie - Genesis Part 21

You know, one of the greatest proofs of the Bible's integrity and of the Bible's authenticity is that it records the failures of its heroes with the same honesty as it records their successes. And nowhere is that more true than in our passage for today where we're going to see the great man of God, Abraham, do a really low-down, dirty, nasty, sinful thing. We want to go back and look and see what he did 4,000 years ago and then we want to bring all of that forward and talk about, okay, so what are the spiritual lessons in this for us as followers of Christ today in the 21st century?

That's our plan. Genesis chapter 12 is our passage and a tiny bit of review. Last week, we saw how Abraham obeyed God by faith and how he left his hometown, a very prosperous town, a very wealthy town where he was living in affluence and how he followed God to the land of Canaan and how God gave him the Abrahamic covenant. What we want to do today is now that Abraham has arrived in the promised land, the land of Canaan, we want to pick up and see what happens.

So here we go. Genesis chapter 12 verse 6. So Abraham passed through the land as far as Shechem. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel where he pitched his tent. Then Abraham continued on, journeying towards the Negev, that is the southern part of Israel. He started, obviously, this only made sense, in the northern part of the promised land because he was coming in from the north, from Haran, and then he was steadily moving southward, living in his tent as he went. As I told you a few weeks ago, in part 19 of this series, a message entitled The Historicity of the Patriarchs, archaeology confirms this picture of Canaan in 2000 B.C., the time of Abraham.

The picture that Genesis 12 presents to us confirms it as being an accurate picture. Archaeology tells us that reservoirs for storing water, we often call them cisterns, had not yet come into widespread use in the land of Canaan in 2000 B.C. And therefore, at the time of Abraham, there were very few cities as we think of them today in Canaan.

Most of Canaan was dry and arid and open country at this time where semi-nomads, a la Bedouin, simply wandered around and lived in tents. But this is exactly the way the Bible tells us that Abraham was living. Renowned archaeologist Dr. Edwin Yamauchi said, and I quote, he said, the picture in Genesis of the patriarchs moving about in the hill country of Palestine fits in perfectly with the population patterns of this time that we have discovered from archaeology, end of quote.

Or, as we love to say it here at McLean Bible Church, say it with me, the more they dig out of the ground, the more the Bible proves to be right. Verse 10, now there was a famine in the land of Canaan, so Abraham went down to Egypt to live for a while because the famine was severe in the land. There was a severe famine in the days of Isaac, and if you remember, in Genesis 42, the whole reason that Joseph's brothers came to Egypt and ran into him again years after they had sold him into slavery was because there was a famine going on in Canaan and they came to Egypt looking for food. Now, some commentators have suggested that Abraham's going to Egypt represents a lapse in his faith, a failure in his faith. They say these words, they say, well, you know, God called Abraham supernaturally to the land of Canaan, so Abraham should have stayed in the land and he should have trusted God by faith and God would have fed him famine or no famine. If God sent ravens, they say, to feed Elijah in the time of a famine that he went through, 1 Kings 17, then God would have done the very same thing for Abraham. Going to Egypt was a lack of faith on his part, they say.

You say, Lon, do you agree with that? Well, friends, I'm not convinced that his going to Egypt was a lapse in his faith. Number one, the Bible never says that anywhere, and number two, God never condemns Abraham anywhere in the Bible for having done this. The best I can tell you is maybe Abraham's going to Egypt was sin, and maybe it wasn't. I really don't know, but for sure, what Abraham did once he arrived in Egypt, man, there was no doubt that that was sin. Watch, verse 11, as Abraham was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarah, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

Isn't that sweet? I mean, you know, there's a softball, if I ever saw a softball, guys, man, toss that to your wife, but he wasn't kidding. Listen, he said, when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, and they will let you live. Now, we should remember that at the time of Genesis chapter 12, Sarah was 65 years old. You say, all right, Lon, so, I mean, no offense or anything, but how can a 65-year-old woman be so beautiful that people would kill for her?

No offense. Well, I don't know the answer to that. I've got three thoughts, three theories. Number one, life spans were longer in those days. For example, Sarah died at the age of 127. So, at 65, maybe Sarah looked like she was only really a 35-year-old woman in today's years. That's one possibility. A second possibility is that Sarah, to think about, is that Sarah had no children.

Think what that meant. That meant that Sarah got to sleep through the night, every night. That meant that Sarah got to eat every meal in peace and calm. That means that Sarah had unlimited time to put on her makeup. She could go to the gym every single day and stay as long as she wanted. And when she came home, she could take a hot bath with renewing salts in the bath and lay in the bath as long as she felt like it without somebody yelling, Mommy! So, maybe this is why Sarah looks so good. What do you think?

Might be. Or, my third theory is that God had blessed this woman and she was just drop-dead gorgeous. I mean, no reason, no explanation. She was just beautiful. Either way, whatever the explanation is for Sarah's beauty, Abraham had reason to be concerned. I mean, Pharaoh in this day was a powerful man and he could do whatever he wanted to do and there wasn't anybody to stop him. Abraham had good reason to be concerned. Verse 13, so Abraham said to Sarah, Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that my life will be spared on account of you. Now, what Abraham asked Sarah to tell the Egyptians was not completely a lie. Indeed, Sarah was his half-sister. Speaking to Abimelech in Genesis chapter 20 verse 12, Abraham said, Sarah really is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not of my mother. So she was his half-sister. But, folks, she was still his wife and to ask her to do this was despicable. I mean, yes, Abraham's life might get spared, but just think what might happen to Sarah.

You say, Solon, stop for just a second. How could a man like Abraham do this? I mean, this is a man of God, right? Yes. This man was a man of faith, right? Yes. This man appears in Hebrews chapter 11 in the hall of fame of the Bible, right? Yes. This man, God called him, my friend, right?

Yes. You say, well, how in the world could he do this? Well, he was scared and he was human. Verse 14, so when Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she, Sarah, was a beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into his house. Therefore, Pharaoh treated Abraham well for her sake and he gave Abraham sheep and cattle and donkeys and male and female servants and camels. Wow. But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with serious diseases because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Hey, how much do you love this, folks? How much do you love the fact that Almighty God himself stepped in and defended this godly woman, Sarah, before Pharaoh could take her as his wife? The Bible doesn't say exactly what kind of diseases these were that God sent on Pharaoh and his family, but whatever they were, Pharaoh figured out real quickly that something was clearly wrong. And he obviously went to Sarah and said, hey, well, you know, all of these bad diseases started the minute you joined my household. What's going on here? And she told him the truth.

Verse 18, then Pharaoh summoned Abraham and said, what is this you've done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her to be my wife?

Now take her and go away. Wow. A complete pagan rebuking the man of God, Abraham, for his sin.

Amazing. Verse 20, then Pharaoh gave orders to his men about Abraham and they sent him away along with his wife and all that belonged to him. Everything Pharaoh had given him, he carried out of Egypt with him. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our passage.

But just before we go to our most important question of the day, I have a second most important question, a secondary most important question. And that is, was Sarah right in agreeing to do what Abraham asked her to do, to saying that she was his sister? Well, my firm belief is that the answer was no.

She was wrong. You say, well, maybe it's that she felt as a godly woman that she needed to submit, you know, to her husband's authority on this. I mean, the Bible does teach the submission on the part of wives to their husband.

Yes, it does. But, friends, submission or no submission. What Abraham asked Sarah to do was sin and she should have said no. Listen, ladies, submission, biblical submission does not mean that you shut up, put your brain in neutral and accept every foolish idea that comes out of your husband's mouth. That is not biblical submission.

I noticed all the ladies clapping. That is not biblical submission and furthermore, biblical submission does not give a husband the right to make his wife an accomplice to sin. That is not what God is giving a husband the authority to do.

She should have said no, this is wrong, this is sin, Abraham, we're going to trust God, whatever happens, happens, but I'm not doing this because it's wrong. All right. So, that's the end of our passage. But now, why don't we ask our most important question of the day.

So, all of you out there at our campuses and all of us here at Tysons, are we ready? Yes. Okay. Come on, here we go now.

Limber up. One, two, three. So what? Oh, yes. You say, Lon, so what? Say, what difference does any of this make to my life in the 21st century as a follower of Christ? Well, when I was studying this passage this week, actually, there were two just unbelievable spiritual lessons that the Lord impressed upon me. And, you know, usually when we do a so what, I don't give you two so what's.

Hardly ever does that happen. But each of these was so, I thought, important that I'm going to give you two so what's. Both of which we see in this passage.

So, are you ready? Okay. Number one, the first great spiritual lesson that I think we see here is that as followers of Christ, this passage is a great reminder of God's undeserved grace, kindness, and mercy to us all.

Hey, think about it. Here in Genesis chapter 12, what Abraham did certainly did not qualify him to be blessed by God. He lied. He deceived. He sacrificed his wife in order to protect himself.

I mean, that was dastardly what he did. And yet, what did God do for Abraham in return? Genesis 12, 16. Therefore, Pharaoh treated Abraham well for Sarah's sake. And he gave Abraham sheep and cattle and donkeys and male and female service and camels. And even when Pharaoh threw him out of Egypt, God allowed Abraham to take all of this stuff with him. The result, Genesis 13, 2, is that Abraham became very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. You go, yeah, Lon, how do we explain this? Abraham went into Egypt.

He behaved shamelessly, horribly. And in spite of that, God blessed him and made him a wealthy man. How in the world do we explain that? I only have one answer.

The answer is the answer the Bible gives. And that is that we have a God who loves to dispense mercy and grace and blessing to his children even when we don't deserve it. You know, years ago when I first came to the Washington area, I attended a church in South Arlington. And there was a gentleman there named Jerry Phillips. And Jerry and I became acquaintances. And every time I would see him on Sunday or I'd pass him, I would go, hey, Jerry, how you doing? And he would always say the same thing to me. He would always say, better not deserve, better not deserve, better not deserve. And I thought, why don't you just say fine? Just say I'm fine. But he never, ever said that in all the years I knew him.

You ask Jerry Phillips, how are you doing? And you will always hear better than I deserve. Now, I was a very young Christian at the time and I didn't really get it. Now that I've been a believer 40 years, I get it.

And I understand how right he was. Folks, every single day, you and I as followers of Christ, we are always doing better than we deserve. Thank God for that. If God only dispensed blessings to you and me when our behavior deserved it, I got to tell you we'd all be in pretty bad shape, yeah?

Thank God he doesn't do that. Don't ever ask God to give you what you deserve. You don't want what you deserve. You won't like what you deserve. You want to be as far away from what you deserve as possible. You want grace. You want mercy.

You want God's benevolence and his goodness that you don't deserve and that I don't deserve. And that's why God treated Abraham like this, not because Abraham deserved this treatment. And that's why God treats you like this, friend. It's part of what God is and part of how he treats his children. And that's why maybe you should start answering people when they say to you, how are you doing?

Maybe you should start saying, better than I deserve. The other lesson that I see here in the events of Genesis 12 is that as followers of Christ, this passage is a great reminder that even our worst mistakes don't mess up God's sovereign plan for our lives. See, God had a sovereign plan for Abraham and Sarah's lives.

We talked about it last week. That plan was to start a new race of people, the Jewish people, through their son Isaac. And then to use the Jewish people to do three things. Number one, to give the world the written word of God. Number two, to give the world the true knowledge of the one and legitimate God of the universe.

And number three, to give the world the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Now, if Pharaoh had confiscated Sarah as his wife, not only would God's plan for Abraham and Sarah have been messed up, but far more seriously, God's plan for the redemption of all mankind would have been messed up. There would have been no Isaac, you understand? And with no Isaac, there would have been no Jacob. And with no Jacob, there would have been no Joseph. And with no Joseph, there would have been no King David.

And with no King David, there would have been no Messiah. Now, don't you believe, Satan didn't know this. And don't you believe that he didn't have a hand in orchestrating the events of Genesis chapter 12.

Don't you believe that? The famine, Abraham's fear, the lie that Abraham was tempted to tell, Pharaoh's lust for Sarah. Don't you believe Satan wasn't behind every single bit of that? Intending to mess up God's plan of salvation for the human race. And you know what's more? In their foolishness and in their human weakness, Abraham and Sarah played right into Satan's hand. Ah, but friends, would you please notice that God was bigger? Huh?

Would you notice that? He was bigger than Satan's schemes. He was bigger than Pharaoh's lust. He was bigger than Abraham's sin. And he was bigger than Sarah's mistake.

God was bigger. You make no mistake about it, my friend. The sovereign plans of Almighty God are always going to be worked out in this world. Doesn't matter about the schemes of Satan. Doesn't matter about the mistakes of people.

Doesn't matter about the sins of Christians. Nothing. Nothing. The lust of this world. Hey, God's plan is going to get worked out. And you know why?

I'll tell you why. It's because God's omnipotent. Which means He's powerful enough to make sure His plans get worked out. No matter what anyone says. No matter what anyone does. Even Satan himself. Daniel chapter 4, verse 35. King Nebuchadnezzar realized it. He said, all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.

And God does as He pleases. With the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. And say the next two words with me.

Say them. No one. No one can hold back his hand.

No one. Hey, Joseph's brothers. They tried to hold back God's plan. Didn't they? To exalt their brother Joseph by selling him into slavery and shipping him off to Egypt. But you know what, my friends? They failed.

Why? Because God is omnipotent and God is bigger. And then Pharaoh Amenhotep the second.

Yul-Brenner. Tried to hold back God's plan. To liberate the Israelites from the land of Egypt. He did everything he could to stop it. And by the way, he was the most powerful man on the face of the earth in Moses' day. But he failed.

You know why? Because God is omnipotent and God is bigger. And Jonah tried to hold back God's plan to spare the people of Nineveh. He headed off in another direction. God said, go to Nineveh. He said, all right, what's 180 degrees from Nineveh?

That's where I'm going. Complete disobedience to God. And you know what happened to him? He got turned around in a very unusual way. And when it was all said and done, he couldn't hold back God's plan.

Why? Because God was omnipotent and God was bigger. And the Jewish leaders in Jesus' day tried to stymie and hold back the plan of salvation for the human race in opposing the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hey, but you know what? They buried him in the tomb. They put a rock in front of the tomb. They sealed the tomb. They put a bunch of Roman officers in front of the tomb.

Did it work? Of course not. Why? Because God is omnipotent and God is bigger. And may I say to you, if you're a follower of Jesus here today, folks, none of this has changed. God is still omnipotent and God is still bigger than anyone who tries to stop the plan of God in your life. Than anyone who tries to hold back the plan of God for your life. And he's even bigger than you making stupid mistakes that might hold back the plan of God for your life. He's bigger than the whole thing.

You say, well, Lon, like how does this work out practically? Well, you know, I ran into somebody the other day that was telling me about a young couple who they couldn't pick out a name for their baby because every name means something. You know, some names mean just and some mean brave and some mean wise. And so they were so afraid that they're going to pick the wrong name and pick a name that didn't match up with God's plan for their baby that they couldn't pick any name at all.

Because they were so afraid if they picked the wrong name, they'd mess up God's plan for their baby's life. You say, Lon, come on, this is a little extreme, isn't it? Well, maybe, but there are people like this.

I meet Christians like this all the time who spiritually paralyze themselves out of fear. What if I buy the wrong car? What if I buy the wrong house? What if I choose the wrong career?

What if I marry the wrong person? What if I make the wrong decision about this or about that or about the other thing? I could totally mess up God's plan for my life. So they're afraid to make any decision.

They're afraid to do anything. Listen to me as a follower of Jesus Christ. When you act like this, you are making your God too little and you are making yourself way too big, my friend. You really think you're big enough to mess up the sovereign plan of God for your life? Hey, I got to tell you, if you could have, you would have already. And so would have I.

You say, but Lon, what if I make a mistake? Well, you mean like Abraham made? Abraham made a bad mistake. But do you see here in Genesis 12, God had already compensated for the mistake of Abraham. He knew it was coming. He already had planned for it and he already had compensated for it in the plan of God.

You say, how does that work? How do I know I'm not God? I don't have the foreknowledge of God. I don't have the omnipotence of God.

I don't have a slightest idea how God does that, but he does it. And what he wants to do is remove the fear we live in. And oh, my gosh, we're going to mess it up. Oh, my gosh, I can't make a mistake. God says, I'm so far ahead of you. Every mistake you make, I've already compensated for and still work my plan out for your life. Stop living in fear.

I'm bigger than that. You know, a few years ago, actually a long time ago, when I first came to McLean Bible Church, I was preaching through First Corinthians. Don't ever do that because everything in there is controversial, everything. And so I was a brand new pastor and too stupid to understand that. And so I just, you know, charged into the lion's den every single week. And one week I preached on a particular item in there and threw the church into a tizzy. I mean, absolutely upset the apple cart here at McLean Bible Church. And I remember after I did it, I was talking to one of our elders and I was really upset, you know, that everything was so that I'd gotten everybody all upset, stirred up. And I said to this elder, I said, you know, and I was sincere.

I said, I just hope I haven't destroyed the work of God here at McLean Bible Church. And he said to me, don't worry, Lon. You're not that big. Pretty good advice. You're not that big, Lon. And friends, when it comes to God's plan for your life, don't worry. You're not that big.

You're not that big. I was talking to a friend at the gym this week whose children are all grown up now. And he said, you know, he comes to church here. He says, you know, I look back 15 years and he said, if I'd only been walking with God 15 years ago, like I'm walking with God today, I think how different the lives of my children would be spiritually, how much better they'd be right now.

And I could tell by the look in his eyes, this was really weighing on his heart. And I said to him, hey, listen, don't you beat yourself up over this. God has already compensated for all of that.

He's already worked all of that into his perfect plan for your children's lives. And I said to him, you know, I had a horrible childhood. You know, you've heard me talk about my childhood and my parents and all the damage that I've got because of that.

But you know what? I said to him, all that damage God already compensated for and all of it fit perfectly into God's plan for my life. And he said, I don't understand how I said, well, let me tell you how if my parents had raised me normally, I am so arrogant and I am so self-sufficient that I would never have come to Christ.

The only reason I came to Christ is because my parents messed me up so bad and I was so broken that I didn't have any other options for survival. And God knew that. And so he already compensated for it. He said, if I'm going to bring this guy to Christ, I'm going to have to really mess him up first. And so that's what he did. And I praise God for that. That's not a bad thing.

I praise God that I came to Christ. And if it took messing me up, then mess me up. Friends, don't worry about this stuff. You know, some of us here are living in the shadow of mistakes we made years ago and sinful things we did years ago. And we're so certain that God's never going to bless our lives. And we're so certain that we've ruined God's plan for our life. And we're so certain that we're second class citizens in the eyes of Almighty God. Friends, that is a lie of the devil. And don't you believe it.

Now, a little bit of balance just before we close. Of course, God wants you and me to seek his face. And of course, God wants you and me to obey his word. And of course, God wants you and me to try to make godly biblical choices in life.

Of course he does. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't try with all of our heart to do that. But I'm just saying nobody gets it right all the time. And when we get it wrong, the great news of the Bible is that God's bigger than any mistake you and I will make. He already knew we were going to make it. And he's already compensated for it in the plan of God. So don't live in fear.

Do the best you can, yes. But then believe God is bigger. Like that elder told me, Lon, you're not that big. And friend, you're not that big. God will take care of his plan for your life.

You're not big enough to mess it up. God doesn't want us focusing on our mistakes. He wants us to learn from them. God wants us focusing on him and his power and his sovereignty and his omnipotence and his ability to take even our mistakes as he did with Abraham, compensate for them, turn them around and use them positively in the plan of God for our life. Only God could do that, folks.

But he did it for Abraham. He does it for you and me. And because of this, because of this, you and I are always doing better than we what? Deserve.

That's right. Let's walk out of here today praising God and saying, Lord Jesus, I don't know how you do it and you don't need to tell me how you do it, but wow, to be a child of God, what an amazing privilege how you lead my life. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about something that I believe is so important for us as followers of Christ, and that is the ability not to be paralyzed by our mistakes and our shortcomings and our sinful behavior.

Because we're just human and we do this stuff all the time. No matter how hard we try, we don't get it right. And Lord Jesus, if that's what we focused on, every one of us would go jump off a bridge. Thank you that you've given us in the Word of God something else to focus on. Not our mistakes, not our sins, not our shortcomings, but rather the omnipotence and sovereignty and power of Almighty God to work his perfect plan for our lives in spite of us.

How you do it is well beyond anything we could comprehend in our puny human minds. But that you do it is clear from the Word of God. So may we focus on that. And Lord, may you give us the courage to go out each and every day to live our day to the fullest we can do and the best we can to serve Christ without fear that if we make a mistake, all is lost.

Because it isn't. Encourage our hearts, Lord, today with your Word. And for those of us who've been in prison for years to mistakes and sins that we've committed, liberate us today.

Help us turn it loose. And help us to believe what that elder told me years ago. We're not big enough, nor is any mistake we make to mess up the plan of God. And so help us leave here rejoicing today. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What did God's people say? Do you mean it? Well, say it like you mean it. Amen. .