So thankful we have a God who is merciful, especially in light of our sins, and especially in light of the places that we find ourselves, and even this morning in the place that we find a man named Abraham. I would advise you to take your Bibles, if you would, turn to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 12. Early Christianity really did not have the term Christians, especially early on as much as it had a term or a title that was entitled the way. When it comes to walking with God, over and over throughout scripture, we're reminded of this task of following. We are following the Lord. And one of the first great followings that takes place actually takes place here with this not so young man named Abram, who we also will know as Abraham. Following the Lord is quite a task. Following the Lord often means that I'm going to follow, but I don't exactly know where this is going to end up except for the eternal aspect. In fact, as we read already at the beginning of our scripture reading, we find that Abraham, Abram and Abraham, who is following the Lord, never actually gets to experience what maybe early on he might have thought he would experience. He was looking towards an eternity. He has a view towards the eternal. This morning, we're going to have an opportunity to step into really the opening part of the passages concerning Abraham. In fact, the remainder of our time in Genesis is going to be through the story of Abraham. Our series here in Genesis is not going to go all the way through the entire book of Genesis. You guys all took really great notes three years ago when I went through the life of Joseph. So we're not going to re-go through that again. We're going to kind of really get to through the life of Abraham and just the very tail end of his life here in the book of Genesis. I believe what we could definitely make the point that except for Christ himself, Abraham may be arguably the most important person in the Word of God. Some of that is true. We might even notice because of the amount of space in the Bible and even the amount of times in the New Testament that Abraham is referred to. Up to this point, we're on chapter 12, there have been 11 chapters of Genesis devoted to what we could at least rightly estimate about 2,000 years of world history. And yet we are going to find now early in chapters 12 all the way to chapter 36 actually is now going to be Abram, Abraham and his descendants. Fourteen chapters, more than has already been put in place, are dedicated to the life of Abraham and his immediate descendants. If we would have an opportunity to talk to the patriarchs that would have followed Abraham, they would have all confessed probably almost instantaneously that Abram slash Abraham was the father of their faith. We read in the book of Galatians and there are references also with Stephen in the book of Acts, Paul probably would himself acknowledge if we were to press him on it that Abraham was one of the greatest examples that there would have been in terms of justification by faith to live by faith. We cannot understand the Old Testament and even the whole of the Bible If we don't have a good understanding of at least the aspects of what is taking place in the life of Abraham. In many senses, this redemption aspect and truth starts to really come forth through Abraham. It really will begin with the call that Abraham receives here in chapter 12. Paul, when he wants to support the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, takes an entire chapter in the book of Romans basically talking about God's dealing with Abram. He will also use two chapters in Galatians, working through, referring to Abram and his life, proving that salvation is given completely outside of good works. And when it comes to the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, one of the longest paragraphs about someone in the Hall of Faith is devoted to Abraham. He is called a friend. of God. He is a man whose life stands out really within what we would call monotheism when it comes to Jewish religion, Islamic religion, and even Christianity itself. Abraham has this tie and connection. As we even mentioned a number of weeks back, kind of ending up in chapter 11, Abraham actually provides for us, we should recognize, a great opportunity for evangelism for any person that has some type of religious background because Abraham is one that is at least acknowledged and seen and looked at with respect. And Abraham has been called. I invite you to kind of back up a couple of verses in Genesis chapter Genesis 11, verse 27, as we are reminded of this moving that was taking place in the life of Abraham, and as we consider what it means to be moved by God as well. Again, Genesis 11, verse 27. This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father and Terah in his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, and the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren, and she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his son Abram's wife. And they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. And they came to Haran and dwelt there." So the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we thank you for these heroes of the faith that are contained within your word. And Lord, may we this morning learn through your word by the example that is set forth by you and your interaction with Abram. And Lord, even by Abram and his faith and his following. And Lord, even in the places that he falters here, Lord, and does not trust and rely on you. And Lord, I pray we would also be reminded within this beautiful passage, the reminder that you are a God who has blessed all nations. through your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. At the end of this genealogy, really the second table of nations as we have talked about before, there is something that does happen here, interesting. The decease of Haran is the first recorded instance of a natural death of a son before his father. And we talked about how in the timeline, people are living shorter and shorter and shorter lives. And just because there has been the dispersion and just because people are now going about and God has basically pushed them out to the different directions around the world, it doesn't mean that sin has stopped. There are still civilizations that grow and start to develop. In fact, Ur of the Chaldeans is referred to as one of the great cities and one of the great civilizations civilizations that comes generationally after Babel. This is really where we find Terah, Abram, Nahor, Haran, Lot, The names that are used there, many commentators have pointed out, are names that actually refer to either lunar gods or other gods. And we have here this next story. Each time we have another person that the seed and the line is being maintained through. As we've seen over and over, one of the main themes of the book of Genesis is the continuation of the seed that would crush the head of the serpent. So we're going to see here God and his working with Abraham. And the first thing that we're going to see I think this morning is really leading, God's leading, and Abram's leaving. We see this in the first five verses. Look with me there. At first it's verses one through three. It says, now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." We have here now God's call on the life of Abraham. It says here, the Lord had said. Now there's a little bit of debate about whether or not this is a referring backwards, even in terms of the Hebrew there. Whether or not the word had is something that necessarily needs to be there. One thing that it appears to be leaning towards, and I think the New Testament helps fill in a little bit, is when exactly was Abram? Was he called when it was in Haran? Or was it called when he was in Ur? Now in the New Testament, it refers to a calling happening when he's in Mesopotamia and he was to come out. And if that truly is the case, then it appears here, even at the beginning, we start to recognize that Abram didn't exactly, if it's true that he was called in Mesopotamia, he didn't exactly follow God's leading to the letter of the leading. Because there's some important things here within this call. There is get out of your country from your family and from your father's house. But we know from the verses ahead there, and we also know from basically the traveling of Abram as he had gone from Ur of Chaldeas and went up north into Canaan, he still was with his family. Now the call here says to get apart from your father's house and from your family. But in some way there, Abram is at least still with his father, Terah. Terah, whose word is actually, it's interesting, his name means to delay. There's a delay aspect there. And Abram, at least if he did not follow this exactly, it appears that may have at least a little bit been the case where he still stays with the family and he is still connected there. We have this rightfully huge high view of Abram. But it is very clear from Scripture that he had an idolatrous background. In fact, when we went through the book of Joshua, at the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua, as he is giving a charge to the nation of Israel, and let's not forget, Israel is the one who would be reading and hearing this as Moses has written it and put this out in the Pentateuch. Joshua, this would have been after this had been written, but Joshua says this, he says, But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the river and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. And then Joshua, this is Joshua chapter four, then says at the end of that section, he says, fear the Lord your God and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. Even Joshua is pointing out your forefathers served pagan gods. And we even recognize that later on, when we get later on into Genesis, even in Genesis chapter 31, in the episode of Laban and Rachel, there is still Abram's extended family still worshiping idols, gathering idols, and keeping idols, even after God had called them out. There are some important things to learn about this call to Abram. And these are important things that are very true when it comes to God's calling even within our own lives. One is there is a separation from the past. We might even say the sinful past that would have taken place here. There is a really a leave your past in responding to this call. As I said, Ur was one of the most cultured, civilized cities. It was loaded with idolatry, materialism, sinfulness, and all of those things. And God commands Abram, you need to leave. Get out of, he's not saying that you aren't connected here. Get out of your country. You need to get out. Imagine what that would have felt like. This is all that he would have known. That's all his generations would have known. This is all Abram would have ever known and his whole family's there. Get out from your country. Well, what does that mean? From your family and your father's house to a land that I will show you. It's a command to leave his people, to leave his family, his unbelieving pagan family. This must have been very difficult Anyone who has been transplanted from home, family, and even transplanted in terms of culture would be able to testify to this, I am sure. And also, because at that time, every person that knew him, every person that he would have been accepted by, all of his prosperity, and we would even connect here, which would have been very true at that time, is all of his security. Families were the ones that kept each other secure. In fact, we're going to find in the story of Abram leaving later on, Abram is going to one that is going to secure and save his own family. And here God is calling Abram to leave, to go out pretty much alone into a world that would have been full of those who would have been his enemies. And God says, you need to leave. God was not being harsh. God was not trying to say, all right, I'm going to make Abram suffer here. He was demanding that Abram do something that was going to be that he would go to a place and God would bring him to a place that God would be able to truly bless him and his family and his descendants. I've been struck over and over going through this passage and even just working forward in anticipation of the chapters ahead, the amount of connections that there are so much to what it means to be called to salvation. Being called to salvation means that you are trusting Christ your Savior, receiving the gift of eternal life, but then to follow the Lord means that there are going to be things that are no longer a part of who we are. It is going to be different. We are putting ourselves in submission to the Lord. We are to yield to him. We are to follow his way. He is now our Lord and Savior, and he is our master. He is our sovereign. He is the one who has redeemed us. He is the one who has purchased us. And that means that there are going to be things that we have to be willing to give up, and maybe even people that we have to give up. Does this mean that every call to salvation means we must leave our family and leave our home? No, because that means if you get saved, we'd have to send you away. So that's not the way it is here. We have to understand we're in a historical context and God is doing something and is going to continue to do something through Abraham, through the promised land, through the promised seed. But God's call always means that there is going to be something that is going to have to be left behind, especially in terms of sin. And even in terms of lifestyle. Whether or not, we can't say this is a definitive thing, but we do know this. It was going to be different for Abram to try to just be blessed by God in that sinful pagan society. God says you're going here to a place that is going to be promised as we shall see. God's call, Christ's call is to follow. I'm reminded of Luke chapter 9 where Christ says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self? And we see here the initial promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. This will be expanded upon when we get to chapter 15, and it will be expanded upon in a number of ways and even given more detail. But we get the first revelation of it in verses 2 and 3, seven I will promises. I will, he had already said, I'm gonna show you a great nation. I will show you where to go. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I would say there is probably one more I will, we'll get to in verse seven. To your descendants, I will give this land once Abram gets there. This is over, this repetition. And the first great purpose of what is happening here is this reminder again that God is going to continue to bless. There's almost a missionary aspect to this, which is God saying, I'm going to bless you, but more importantly, I'm making you a blessing. It is through you that all these blessings are gonna take place. Paul will later on say that blessing, that seed is Christ. And so there's this reminder of this going forward and we see these reminders of all the aspects of the promise to Abraham, to Abram, and to his descendants. A great nation. A great name. I saw one commentator who said this. He said, it would be interesting to add up the numbers of people in the long history of the world who have been called by any of the various names. Elizabeth's, George's, Mary's, Heinrich's, Isabel's, John's, Pierre's, Victoria's, and so on. Many of these names are quite common, and there may have been maybe mostly George's. But possibly, I wonder if the name that has been used the most because of Jewish, Muslim, and Christians would be the name Abraham. It would be interesting. Even his name, the amount of children that have been named Abraham, even throughout the three great religions all throughout history. He talks about the name being blessed. He talks about the blessings that come on those who bless and those who curse. Donald Barnhouse says this about this promise, he says, When a man dies or a physician has to write on the death certificate the cause of death, when a nation dies, more often than not, the cause of death throughout history has been the mistreatment of the Jewish people. When Ham rebelled against Shem, one by one the tribes of Ham were destroyed or reduced to a minor state, Egypt. Canaan, the Hittites. When the Greeks overran Palestine and desecrated the altar of the Jewish people, they were soon conquered by Rome. When Rome killed Paul and many others and destroyed Jerusalem under Titus, Rome fell. Spain was reduced to a fifth-rate nation after the Inquisition against the Jews. Poland fell after the pogroms. Hitler's Germany went down after its anti-Semitism. Even Britain, you could make the case, lost her empire when she broke her faith with Israel. What a history of what has happened to nations who have tried to hurt, harm, or destroy the nation of Israel. We also get here what we might call the first great revealing that takes place. The revealing of, again, there is all this blessing that will take place. And what did Abraham do? The New Testament gives us the term that there is faith, but we see this connection of faith and obedience. Verses four or five. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Even though Abram had been introduced in chapter 11, verse 26, it's not here until verse 4 that we're told that Abram really did anything. There's no following through on what God had said. Again, it appears there's a possibility Abram's obedience was partial and maybe even delayed a little bit. He had not gone necessarily to the land. He had gone, as verse 31 had told us, he had only gone to the land of Canaan. And then eventually he would have to do this leaving again. But there is the obedience. Abram has been a spectator up to this point. Now we learn of this response. Abram left as God had spoken to him. He responds by believing. He believes what God has said here. Lot goes with him. He's 75 years old. That's important. That's actually even important in light of what's going to happen here towards the back half of this chapter. He's not believing in some abstract kind of intellectual thing. He is obeying and believing and acting out in faith in a positive, practical, and even directional way. God calls. He responds. His life is rightfully altered. As we read in Hebrews 11, 8, by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. And he becomes this immigrant. He becomes one who is journeying from this idolatrous place by really an unknown path to a better, yet at this point, unknown country. I want to invite you. Go to Hebrews 11 quickly. Hebrews 11, in this large passage that we referred to, really one of the largest paragraphs in Hebrews, gives us kind of the overview of all of Abram's faith. It really happens in verses 8, starting in verse 8, working its way through the chapter. It gives a survey, of course, the chapter of Hebrews gives this great survey of the hall of faith, but Abram is this one that a lot is focused in on. It talks about the different, I would even say, stages of faith. There are different stages of faith for Abram here. First, it says that he obeyed and went, as we read. He obeyed and went, not knowing where he was going. That's one step. Later on, we'll see verses 9 and 10. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country. dwelling in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him. He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That's a second step of faith that took place, which was he was really a wanderer. He was really just a pilgrim, a sojourner. The next stages of faith is verses 11 and 12. By faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. And then even verse 12. There was this faith that we also know that even later on it comes back to him in verses 17 through 19. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Abram over and over, as scripture tells us, is acting out in faith. He is following the Lord. I wonder if someone were to observe your life or my life and ask this question, what would the answer be? Who are they following? Who are you following? It's been rebooted a little bit in this modern internet era, which is, well, I follow this person. or I follow this person, which means you clicked on a button that says you're following them, which is really a big step of following someone. Click. But there is some truth to those you keep clicking on that you're following. What happens? Well, you keep getting fed those things. Who is Dave Berman following? Who are you following? Abraham followed God. And following God is what makes all the difference. You may say you're following God, but if we were to walk through, well, how are you living your life? How are you obedient to his word? Are you even one who has sought the forgiveness and salvation that is available through him? Who are you following? God had called. Abraham obeyed by faith and believed and he followed the Lord. We also see here now a lot of time kind of packed into just a few verses here. Look at this, for lack of better terms, wandering and worshiping. We start to get a feel for the rhythm of Abraham and Abram. I keep saying Abraham, I've been reading too far ahead. Still Abram. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Morah. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants, I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abraham journeyed going still toward the south. There is a direction that is taking place here in the life of Abram, but we also see that there is this place that he stops at in terms of Shechem. Shechem. is historically, in terms of even overall biblical and even world history, but especially within the history of the Old Testament. Shechem would have been an ancient biblical city in Israel. Now again, who are the recipients of this writing? It is the children of Israel. So for them to hear the term, the Canaanites were then in the land. They're thinking back and they're recognizing those stinking Canaanites. They're always here. We still got to get rid of the Canaanites. That's what they're thinking is they're even in the time of Joshua is like these Canaanites. They know what that reference to the Canaanites means. It will refer to those that were giants, that those who were warring, that those who were pagan, that those who were awful. And for an Israelite hearing the story of Abraham, he gets it. Oh, shechem. Yes, I know Shechem. Well, what would Shechem have been? Today, Shechem is a place really, there's an archaeological site there in the West Bank. Not much happens historically in the West Bank though. This town is located between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It's just southeast of Samaria. The name Shechem is the word for shoulder. It's actually a reference to probably geographically where it is and that it was a pass between two mountains. Some of the most important events in the history of Israel in the New Testament and even beyond the New Testament happen right here. They all happen here. For the Israelites, they would even have known this. Abram here, this is his first campsite, for lack of a better term, in the promised land. Jacob will later purchase this land. The defilement of Dinah and the slaughter in the city by Jacob's sons happens here. Joseph comes here first, searching for his brothers. Joseph will eventually be buried here, and we're going to find later on even more that are buried in terms of the family here. This was the place we preached through the book of Joshua. This was the place, if you remember, after the conquest of Ai, that the children of Israel sat between the mountains and they put people on both sides of the mountains and they repeated the covenant out loud. That's here. That's this place that this is taking place, this renewal of the covenant. Joshua will make his farewell speech here. The Israelites wouldn't have known this that are reading this. We know this. There are, in the Judges, there are incidents with Gideon's sons that happen here. This will be the center of the northern kingdom versus the southern kingdom of Israel in terms of a political center, Mount Gerizim, which is really the chief rival with Jerusalem as a religious center. It appears that it is even at least nearby here or here that Jesus meets the woman at the well and she talks about her forefathers worshiping on a certain mountain. The first place that the gospel is received by those that are not Jewish people is here. Think about that. The place where God promises through your seed all the nations will be blessed is the place where Jesus preaches to a Samaritan woman who goes and tells her city that it's full of Gentiles and they trust Christ here. For those who would be reading those, and even for us as we read this now, we recognize this is an important place. For Abraham, this looks like a good place to set up a tent, and I almost would wonder if God would be like, if you only knew everything that's gonna happen here. There's more beyond that. I love what one author put, it was too many words, I wasn't gonna try to cut it down. This place of the Canaanites, to Abraham's altar, to Jacob's purses, to Joshua's two visits, to the half-Canaanite Abimelech, to the armies of Sargon II and the exile, to the erection of the Samaritan temple, to the destruction soon after, to Pilate's massacres of the Samaritans, to Roman war veterans, to the shrine of Hadrian, to the arrival of the Muslims, to the construction of the Crusaders on Byzantine remains, To the present political tensions, Mount Gerizim and Shechem is a microcosm of the entire history of the Middle East. It is not just the navel or shoulder of the land. It is the navel or the shoulder of all of Middle East history. Right here. And this is where Abram is setting up a tent. But it is important to note that there's a connection that is taking place here. Abram is a person who, even though Abram keeps roaming, and he has almost no permanence in his life, he's always constructing these things of permanence, altars. It says that he put in place an altar. It talks about him calling on the name of the Lord. In verse eight, Abraham worshiped. There was a connection that was taking place. And I think most importantly, verse 7, then the Lord appeared to Abram. This is, outside of whatever took place in the Garden of Eden, the first time God appears to man in the Bible. We have no reference of God appearing to Noah. And here we have a theophany. We have the appearance of God. It says that he appeared. In fact, even when Stephen is talking about this, he says, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. So he had appeared in Mesopotamia and now we have this reference to God appearing to him here in his glory. He is the one who appears, and we know he's not his whole glory revealed, but we have the appearance of God here, and this connection takes place, and God has been appointing Abraham and calling Abraham, and Abraham comes to this place, and God appears, and God is gonna allow trials to happen, but God is there. God is with him. I will give your descendants this land. There are always wanderings. when it comes to following the Lord. We live on this earth. There are times it feels like we are wandering, and it's rightfully so, because we are called in the word of God sojourners. We are pilgrims. This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up in my 401k. How about you? No, somewhere beyond the blue. And we do not belong here. Yeah, let's face it. I'm as guilty as anyone. We really want to belong here. We love here. We love everything about here. We love all of that. And Abram never really is a guy that's ever going to settle down. The only things of permanence he seems to do are his kids. And he's building these altars. Let me ask. How do you Now this is what I mean by that. Abraham purposely did something to worship God and to remember God. What are you building into your life to make sure that you acknowledge God, know God, worship God, and remember God? What are the things that you're building into your life? There's an importance of making sure that we are building into the rhythms of our life. And even I would say part of this is coming to church, being a part of the church family. What are the rhythms of your life? What are the things in your life that are building God into your life and help you remember God, especially at the times when you need to remember God in your life? We can spend a lot of time on this, spend a lot of time on a lot of passages. I think it's important to be reminded that this doesn't mean that Abraham was perfect. It's almost like, it's like I have a chapter 12 is something that's like, listen, Abraham is following God, he's building an altar, God is gonna use him, and for Israelites reading this, they know all about it, but there has to be a reminder. But I think this reminder is an important reminder, because this would have been a very familiar story to the Israelites, especially those who are of the generation of, or the generation after the ones who came out of Egypt. What happens in verses 10 to 15? That's a smart married man. Come on guys, keep up with me here a little bit. We all right? 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 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 princess of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. For those of you who are, I wouldn't even say biblical scholars, you know your Old Testament, you know your Exodus. Why was the nation of Israel in Egypt going into the Exodus? It was because of a famine, right? So they went into there. Also, what happened? At least you have one of the tribe or of the nation of Israel who is brought into the house of Pharaoh. So you have one that is at least in the home of Pharaoh. There's a lot of connecting points that are taking place here. There are some things here that make us very much say, what exactly is Abram doing here? Does Abram understand the ramifications of saying, you know what? In order to spare my life, let's make you available to Pharaoh. Now there are those who would say maybe Moses, sorry, maybe, I was just writing it, maybe Abram thought, well, this would delay it a little bit and that would at least let them, you know, they would allow her to be part of my entourage and she wouldn't actually be taken. Other commentators pointed out, The Word of God, there's very few times the Word of God talks about someone being very beautiful. And here we have Sarai, going to be eventually named Sarah, at the age of, it appears, somewhere between 65 and 75 years old, still being called this most beautiful woman. Her name itself, by the way, Sar, which is the word that you get a lot of different prince royal words, Caesar, Kaiser, Tsar. That's the S-A-R. The A is the my. It would have been, she would have been my princess is a term that is being used there a little bit. She was a beautiful woman. She was one that Abram had taken as his wife and he recognizes knowing the times, knowing the seasons, knowing the sin, very possibly this is the way things went when it came back to Ur. In fact, You might find some interesting things even talked about about who exactly Sarai was. And later on we'll see that in a sense it appears that she was at least a stepsister of Abram, also one that he married. And the sin that they are coming out of, but here there's this weakness that takes place. Abraham is afraid. It's an unwarranted fear. God has just said, I'm going to give you this land, I'm going to give your descendants this land, I'm going to make you great. Abraham was a guy that seemed to be able to see the long view, but failed often on the short self-preservation view. He'll do this multiple times, a couple of times. Where Abram, although he trusts God and he believes God and he follows God, in the day-to-day and in the troubling aspect, at least especially early on here, he fears him. He is relying on his statesmanship. We know that Abraham is going to be one who is a great king. We would even say a great ruler, whether he politically or philosophically and all those things, how he was able to handle it. So maybe he's thinking, I can manipulate this situation to make sure that I can get what I get out of this and I don't get in trouble and I don't have any problems. And in a sense, he's kind of deferring to his own self-interest and even to the welfare of his wife and family. And he lies or tells a half truth. And he experiences this loss. She's taken away. But we serve a God that even when we mess up, provides. Verse 16, he treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels, but the Lord plagued Pharaoh. Is there another time in the Old Testament when there are great plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt? Imagine the Israelites like, wait a minute, our forefather because of famine went into Egypt and one of his household went into the house of Pharaoh and there were great plagues upon Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, will you please get out of here and take all this stuff with you? That's exactly what happened to us in Exodus. History is, in a sense, repeating itself. The Lord plagues Pharaoh and his house with great plagues. Same word that's used there in Exodus, same root word coming out of that, because of Sarah, 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? Boy, it's always something, isn't it, when the world has to say to a follower of God, why are you lying? Why are you deceiving? Why are you sinning? He has to get a morality lesson from Pharaoh. Verse 19, why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. See God's protection? 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. Here, even in the midst of Abraham being fearful and Abraham faltering and doing something that is wrong and lying and deceptive, God still provides. So Pastor Dave, you're saying as long as I, as long as I'm following God, I can do all this bad stuff and God's still going to provide? No, that is not what I'm saying. That is not even close to what I'm saying. Although Ecclesiastes has a lot to say about good things happening to bad people. You should come back tonight. But we are reminded that God always keeps his promises. What God says he will do, he will do. Abraham did not understand the potential consequences yet God still protected him. God provides. God was with Abram into Egypt. God protects Abram's wife in Pharaoh's house. God delivers them both in his way, in his time, with his even overabundance of provision. The connections are significant. Let me ask you, what has God promised us? What are the promises of God to his children? So often there are things that happen in our lives and we're afraid we're not going to get something or afraid something's going to happen to us and fear or want or self-preservation or selfishness causes us to walk away from God's ways. God is still faithful. He will chide and discipline his children, but God is still always a God who is there, who we can turn to and who is watching over his children, even when we don't do a very good job of watching over ourselves. Abraham was a person of faith. So as we kind of come to a conclusion, and as we move into a time of communion, importantly to a time of communion, in fact, Paul is gonna give us a great connection of communion and even this section of Hebrews. I think it's right at least to stop when we're going through a narrative here. We're really coming to an end of a time. You had Abraham went down in verse 10, and then really Abraham went up from Egypt will happen at the very beginning of chapter 13. We're kind of closing a book on these two little sections here. But a couple of things that I think that are important to be reminded that are true all throughout God's word. One is that faith, trust, and obedience are always connected. Oh yeah, I've put my faith in Jesus Christ alone. I don't do anything he says and I don't follow him. That's not a right connection. Faith and trust and obedience are always connected. But also we have these other questions that pop up and we've mentioned a couple. What or who am I following? What am I building? What are you building into your life in terms of worship? What are you fearing? And what has God promised? But I don't want to miss one thing that happened right at the beginning. Look again at verse 2. It says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. As I was reading through different commentators and things like that, there was something that jumped out at me. One of the commentators said this, he said this, too often people who follow God want to be blessed, but they don't really think about how they're supposed to be a blessing. I want what God can provide for me. But we don't think about the fact that God, as he provides for us, he does that, that he might provide through us and bless others. You shall be a blessing. We are blessed only to be a blessing, to bless the Lord and to bless others. Abraham, it's the definition of his life. He never gets to see his own, he barely gets to see any descendants. He's never gonna set foot down. He's never gonna land. Yet he looks forward. That's where this is. I will bless them who bless you. I'll curse them who curse you. And you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So let me ask. Are you trying to be blessed without being a blessing? What does your walk with God look like? Is God just a great Pez dispenser? Oh, man, I need to get the blessings. Oh, I'm in a really rough time. I really need something out of God. But you see, God over and over His Word is saying, I'm going to bless you. Even your salvation is to bring glory to myself. But the gifting that is referred to over and over in the New Testament is all about blessing others. Are you just looking to be blessed by God? Or are you going to bless others? Heavenly Father, I thank you for your Word. Lord, as we come to a time of communion, as we come to a time of acknowledging the seed of Abram, as we come to this time of recognizing that Christ died on the cross for our sins, Lord, I pray that you would help us. Help us to recognize that you have sent your Son. Lord, your word over and over is calling us. Come. Receive the gift of salvation. Receive the gift of eternal life. All that we need when it comes to eternity, Lord, even all that we need when it comes to this life is through your Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you so much for the example that Abraham sets here in this passage. So Lord, I would pray as we consider what it means to have a Savior, as we consider what it means to be called out of sin into salvation, into blessing, into being a blessing. And Lord, into following you wherever you lead. And Lord, we would submit to you. We would obey you. And Lord, we would thank you for the great, great gift of eternal life. Lord, I pray you would help us to make sure that we are following hard after you, not following ourself or following the ways of others, but that we would be able to, before you, Lord, to say, Lord, I'm gonna follow you. Lord, I pray you would help us to build into our lives ways of worshiping you, growing in our knowledge of you and remembering you. And Lord, please forgive us. Lord, even in a time of communion, we are to examine our lives. And Lord, there are so many ways that I and we because of fear, because of selfishness, because of pride, are not following after you. And Lord, we stumble, we fall, we fail you. Lord, thank you that you are a forgiving God. Lord, may we seek to follow after you. Lord, thank you for the salvation that came and was promised here and came through Jesus Christ. And as we consider these things this morning, may we see your son. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ.