A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

SEVEN
ABRAHAM:
Lapse of Faith: Reasoning with God
(Genesis 12:10-13:4)
When God called Abram to separate himself from his family and country, He did so with
the purpose of producing from Abram a great nation. As the founder of the Jewish nation, Abram
was appointed by God to be a witness to the rest of mankind concerning God (Isa. 44:8). Further,
that race was to be a depository of divine revelation (Rom. 3:2) and a channel of blessing to the
world (15:8-12). The ultimate objective in God’s choice of Abram was to prepare the world for a
coming Messiah and Savior of that world (Isa. 53). Such was the tremendous responsibility
associated with the privilege of being called “the friend of God.”
If the Old Testament were nothing more than the patriotic history of Jewish scribes, the
story of Abram would be an account of a never-failing patriarch who excelled in every challenge
he faced. But because the Old Testament is part of the Scriptures identified as “the Word of
Truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), it records an accurate account of his growth in faith. That growth not only
included the continual process of trusting God for bigger and better things, it also included times
when Abram failed to trust God completely only to learn of God’s unfailing faithfulness.
The man of faith was also at times a man of failures. Perhaps it is in the record of his
failures that we can best identify with Abraham. That being the case, we can take heart in the fact
that every mention of Abram in the New Testament is positive. Just because there is a time in the
past, or even the present, when you found it difficult to trust God does not eliminate the
possibility of becoming a great man or woman of faith in the days to come. Perhaps
understanding why Abram fell and how he came back to the place of communion with God will
help us in our own struggle of faith.
ABRAM AND THE FAMINE
(Gen. 12:9-13)
After worshiping God in the land his descendants would inherit, Abram continued to
travel south. The verb translated “journeyed” (Gen. 12:9) is a form of the verb nasa’ literally
meaning to break up a tent or to remove. Used in this context with Abram, it vividly describes
the nature of a nomadic lifestyle in the Near East with repeated “breaking camps” to travel. Because
of the significance of the tent and the altar in the life of Abram, this act of taking down his
tent and removing himself from his altar may be the first hint of the problems to come. More
than one commentator has noted that God never directed Abram to make the journey to Egypt
nor is there any evidence of Abram having communion with God while in Egypt.
As his camp traveled south in the land of promise toward the Negev (desert), Abram
encountered a famine, the first of thirteen famines recorded in Scripture. This famine is described
as “severe in the land” (v. 10). The Hebrew word kaved here translated “severe” literally has the
idea of being heavy, or that of being multiplied, lengthened, or extended. It was apparently not
just the famine but the severity of the famine that moved Abram to make the journey to Egypt. It
was customary for Egyptian border officials to grant refuge to those seeking to escape from
famines (cf. 26:1; 43:1). When confronted with a severe problem and finding circumstances