Abraham's Big Blunder Didn't Stop God's Plan for His Life

As we move through human history in Genesis, we come to God’s course-altering promise to Abraham in chapter 12. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing (Gen. 12:1-2).

What a grand way to start the chapter. But in the 18 verses that follow, we go from A) God’s amazing call and promise to Abraham to B) Abraham ending up in the promised land and building alters to God to (C) Abraham moving away from the promised land into Egypt because of a famine to D) Abraham assuming Pharoah will “want” his wife, and to spare his own skin, he makes a plan to allow Pharoah to peacefully take her from him. “So long, sweetie.”

How quickly he spirals into absurdity!

But my purpose here is not to drag Abraham through the mud. I want to point out a few things:

While Abraham was in charge of directing the affairs of their married life as the man of the household through whom God directs, Sarah was in charge of her responses. God doesn’t share her response or attitude here in Genesis. We like to imagine what our response would be. But we DO get her attitude in 1 Pet 3:1-6. She handled it like a champ, becoming one of our great role models.

But here’s the “rest of the story” from Gen. 12. It doesn’t end with Sarah becoming part of Pharoah’s haram. It ends with a “but God” moment. Read Gen. 12:17-20. God plagued Pharoah’s household because he took Sarah. Pharoah got to the bottom of it and discovered that Sarah was actually Abraham’s wife. The situation knocked some sense into Pharoah and he gave her back unharmed and sent them away after rebuking Abraham for allowing this situation to happen in the first place.

Here are the things I see from this chapter:

• No matter what the situation, God is in control. He can change bad circumstances around.
• When the husband makes seriously stupid choices, the wife’s correct response is to repeat these 2 verses: The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Ps. 118:6&8) And then, actually trust the Lord! It takes practice, but there’s victory to be had.
• God had a plan for Abraham and Sarah’s life. He already stated it earlier in the chapter. God will see to it that His plans and purposes are fulfilled. Nothing can stop it. Not even the forks in the road where we take the “wrong” turn.
• God can use unsaved people to help steer our lives into God’s paths. They don’t realize they are tools in God’s hands.

You probably already know all this, but look at it from a different perspective in the poem below.

Jody

Follow Your Heart (?)

It’s advice we hear all the time… and maybe even give. The question on the table today is, should I follow my heart when I get a great idea or face a big decision?

Every sermon I’ve ever heard regarding this advice has centered on one verse: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer. 17:9)

The wicked-heart factor is why we shouldn’t follow our heart. But there’s another Biblical view to consider. I’ll call it the God’s-providence factor.

Look in the Old Testament at 1 Chron. 17:1-4. King David sat in his gorgeous house thinking outloud in the presence of Nathan the prophet, “I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains.” This was the hatching of his idea to build a house for God… a temple. What an amazing, noble idea. Nathan thought so. “Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.” In essence, Nathan told David to follow his heart on that. David’s temple-building notion was truly brilliant and spiritual. No need to even pray about that one.

But wait. Next 2 verses. “And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in.”

Why not? The rest of chapter 17 explains how at the moment, God was happy with the current tent dwelling. But there would be a temple, and David’s son would build it, “and I will establish his throne forever.” (vs 12)

Oh. David and Nathan forgot that God has a will and a plan, and we have a need to follow that will and plan. We don’t call the shots. Not even noble shots. God has a master plan for the tapestry of our lives for His beautiful glory, and all we see are the threads that surround us right now. Let’s not presume to know what God wants and rush ahead with our brilliant ideas—or advise others to do so.

So here’s a prayer we can pray when we get a great idea or stand on the edge of a choice. It comes from David’s mouth. Let’s pray Scripture back to God: “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” (Psa. 19:13a) And here’s another, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5)

Jody