Abram in the clinch

How does a man of God live under God’s bles­sing in ever­y­day life? And what if he sud­den­ly gets into a clinch and fear spreads? What we can learn from an Old Tes­ta­ment bles­sing bea­rer in 2020.

Abram is about 70 years old when he lea­ves Ur in Chal­dea with his father Terah and his wife Sarai, who is bar­ren. His nephew Lot is also with him, his father having died young. The desti­na­ti­on of the jour­ney is Haran; eit­her along the Euphra­tes or the Tigris, over 1000 km! (Gen 11:31) The­re father Terah dies and is buried (v 32). In Haran, God appears to Abram and tells him to lea­ve with all his pos­ses­si­ons to a land that God will show him. For this he recei­ves some pro­mi­ses of bles­sings: «I will make thee a gre­at nati­on; I will bless thee, and make thee a gre­at name; thou shalt be a bles­sing; I will bless them that bless thee; all gene­ra­ti­ons yet to come upon the earth shall be bles­sed through thee»(Gene­sis 12:2ff Lut). Abram goes out (75 years old), with his wife Sarai, with Lot, with the who­le cara­van, with ser­vants and maids. Their desti­na­ti­on: the land of Cana­an! After a jour­ney of 600 km, they reach She­chem. The­re Abra­ham recei­ves ano­ther pro­mi­se: God tells him that the land of Cana­an, whe­re they are now, he will give to his des­cen­dants. Here Abram builds an altar to God and wor­ships and sacri­fices to him. But Abram is drawn to the hill coun­try, whe­re he can look out over the who­le land. About 30 km fur­ther south, in the moun­tain coun­try bet­ween Bethel and Ai, Abram and his peo­p­le set up their tents for a long time. Abram builds an altar again and wor­ships his God there.

Now let us ask our­sel­ves: How has God’s bles­sing shown its­elf in Abram’s life so far? Ans­wer: God cho­se and cal­led Abram. He loves him. He is valued by God and is given the gre­at task of beco­ming the pro­ge­ni­tor of a gre­at nati­on. God speaks to him. His des­cen­dants will one day pos­sess this gre­at land. Abram will not live to see it, but he can look at it now. God accom­pa­nied him and gave him grace for his long jour­ney. He has pro­tec­ted the who­le cara­van. Abram knows God is near him. He main­ta­ins a rela­ti­onship with God and he has a place of wor­ship and sacri­fice. Like Abram, we too are bles­sed in faith in Jesus Christ. If we now ask our­sel­ves how we expe­ri­ence bles­sing from God, we dis­co­ver simi­lar things to Abram. Paul sums it up like this in Ephe­si­ans: «Bles­sed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Bles­sed be He for the abun­dance of spi­ri­tu­al bles­sings in which we have been made par­ta­kers in the hea­ven­ly world through Christ.» (Ephe­si­ans 1:3 NGÜ).

Paul descri­bes what this means in this first chap­ter of Ephe­si­ans: «We are bles­sed by our rela­ti­onship with God; we have access to him; we pray to him and he hears us! God speaks to us. He is with us at all times and in all places. He accom­pa­nies us on our jour­ney through life. We expe­ri­ence his love, his for­gi­ve­ness, his redemp­ti­on; he gives us all kinds of gifts, hope, pres­ti­ge; we are child­ren of God; we live in the riches of his grace. We are infor­med of our far­thest future.» As I wro­te the­se lines, I rea­li­sed with hor­ror that one can get used to all the good we have in Jesus Christ and go through the day thoughtlessly.

We pay atten­ti­on to our out­fit; take a French show­er with an eau de toi­let­te becau­se time is short; check if ever­y­thing is in the back­pack, bag or brief­ca­se… and then off we go! Who still thinks that we can enter each new day rich­ly bles­sed. Bles­sed for our­sel­ves for others. If God tells you «You are bles­sed and shall be a bles­sing to others, then it is so. His word is true and appli­es. Bles­sed peo­p­le are direc­ted by God to do what God wants to bless. The bles­sing per­son is always God. Fried­rich von Bodel­schwingh even once said, «No one recei­ves a bles­sing just for hims­elf.» It always goes on, whe­ther we rea­li­se it or not. That is why it is my pray­er, «Lord keep me from a sleep­wal­king rut under God’s bles­sing. I want to be awa­ke to your bles­sings and be the­re for you when you want to bless others through me!»

Half truth and half lie

And now the Abrams sto­ry sud­den­ly beco­mes exci­ting! A drought breaks out in the land. Drought, hun­ger… Is this a bles­sing now? Haven’t you expe­ri­en­ced some­thing simi­lar? You were so clo­se to God. You have expe­ri­en­ced his clo­sen­ess, his bles­sing – and now?! You no lon­ger under­stand God and the world! How would you, as Abram, take such a dis­ap­point­ment Abram does not ask long, but deci­des to go to Egypt with his clan. He tar­gets a place whe­re the­re is no drought, but fer­ti­le land – in Egypt in the area of the Nile Del­ta. It is also a bles­sing that he expe­ri­en­ced this at all! In the Nile Del­ta, the land was floo­ded again and again over the cen­tu­ries, crea­ting a fer­ti­le mud­dy soil. The agri­cul­tu­ral yields were enorm­ous in that area! Wheat and bar­ley, orchards and viney­ards, fig trees, were in abun­dance. This area also offe­red pas­tu­re for catt­le. The Pha­raohs also lik­ed to sett­le in this almost para­di­sia­cal regi­on. But Abram has only one pro­blem: he has a very beau­tiful wife! (!) It could be that Sarai arou­ses desi­res among the Egyp­ti­ans and then they will kill him and take his wife away from him. He says to Sarai:«Say, then, that you are my sis­ter, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live for your sake.» (Gene­sis 12:13 Lut). Why don’t you say you are my sis­ter, then it will be bet­ter for me and for you… How does that go down with you as a wife? Does­n’t that sound ungod­ly sel­fi­sh of Abram? Abram wants to enter Egypt with half a truth and half a lie. Abram and Sarai had the same father, but not the same mother.

It hap­pen­ed as it had to: Pha­raoh noti­ced the beau­ty of Sarai and spon­ta­neous­ly orde­red his peo­p­le to «Bring Abram’s sis­ter to me! In return, Abram recei­ved sheep, oxen, don­keys, camels and ser­vants and maids. But Pharaoh’s joy at Sarai’s beau­ty lasts only a moment. He hims­elf and his enti­re court staff fall serious­ly ill. Pha­raoh rea­li­ses that this must be a super­na­tu­ral sign. This woman must be pro­tec­ted by an almigh­ty God! He calls Abram to him and reproa­ches him sever­ely: «Why did you do this to me? Why did­n’t you tell me that she was your wife and not your sis­ter? The­re you have your wife again, take her and get out!» Embar­ras­sing when a world­ly sta­tes­man has to embarrass a man of God like that. It is striking that God says not­hing at all about the ques­tionable beha­viour of the tri­bal father of God’s peo­p­le. Per­haps he thought: Abram and Sarai have alre­a­dy lear­ned their les­son. At the good end, Pha­raoh sends his peo­p­le with Abram to pro­tect him and his belon­gings and to bring him safe­ly across the bor­der. With Abram and his cara­van, the sick­ness in Pharaoh’s court also dis­ap­pears. They walk back to Bethel, whe­re they had alre­a­dy pit­ched their tents on the way the­re. The­re at the altar he had built at that time. And again he prays to God, his Lord.

The Abram expe­ri­ence in Egypt chal­lenges us. Are we not often in dan­ger, just like Abram, to deal with half-truths in dicey situa­tions. So that we don’t lose the job; or half-truth in a let­ter of appli­ca­ti­on so that we get the job; so that we don’t lose fri­ends we com­pro­mi­se; so that we as Chris­ti­ans don’t look stu­pid in front of others we fudge our opi­ni­on into half a lie… etc. That’s a bit like Abram – like you and me – isn’t it! What don’t we do wrong when fear takes hold of us? Fear is the worst advi­sor! Dou­ble cau­ti­on is cal­led for. Someone once said: Fear is a rela­ti­onship dis­or­der! That was the case with Abram in his rela­ti­onship with God at that moment. This dis­tur­ban­ce could also exist with us! The fear of not being suf­fi­ci­ent for God or the fear of chal­len­ging steps of faith, that scrat­ches at our rela­ti­onship with God. This also hap­pens in our rela­ti­onships with non-Chris­ti­ans when we are afraid of loo­king foo­lish or being laug­hed at. Fear can come up when you have rela­tio­nal dys­func­tion with yours­elf. We are bles­sed in the love of God. That is why Paul is jus­ti­fied in asking: «What can still sepa­ra­te us from Christ and his love? Need? Fear? Per­se­cu­ti­on? Hun­ger? Depri­va­ti­on? Dan­ger to life?» (Romans 8:35 NGÜ)

I summarise

How does it work to live as peo­p­le bles­sed by God? It’s not about what you do, it’s about who you are. God said to Abram: You shall be a bles­sing. its! And being is ever­y­thing else than achie­ving, working etc., but being sim­ply means being – let­ting God do it! You can be a bles­sing for others wit­hout even rea­li­sing it!

There’s an old say­ing that’s com­ple­te­ly off the mark: To stir brings bles­sings! That is 100%ig not true. To stir appli­es when God gives you a com­mand becau­se he wants to do some­thing with; like with Abram. God gave Abram the com­mand, «Go!» And Abram goes, wit­hout hesi­ta­ti­on or doubt. How many times in the Old Tes­ta­ment did God give the pro­phe­ts and priests the direc­tion: Go! Also to indi­vi­du­al peo­p­le. How many times in the New Tes­ta­ment did Jesus mouth the­se words «Go» or «Go»: Go and be recon­ci­led to your brot­her… Go with your brot­her a second mile… Go into your clo­set when you pray… Go through the nar­row gate… Go and sell what you have and give to the poor… Go to all nati­ons and make disci­ples of them. Bap­ti­se them… Teach them…

I do not know whe­re and when the Lord will tell you in the coming week: Go! I don’t know whe­re and when God will make you a bles­sing to others. You don’t have to know, just be and stay the­re for Him!

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Gene­sis 12:1–20

1. How can the gift of bles­sing from God remain befo­re us?

2. Being a bles­sing to others – does that put pres­su­re on you? If yes – why? If no – why not?

3. How can I remain «flowing through» as a bles­sing bearer?

4. Can you tell each other about simi­lar embar­ras­sing flops in front of non-Chris­ti­ans, as Abram expe­ri­en­ced in front of Pharaoh.

5. Why did Abram get off scot-free after his faux pas befo­re God?

6. Who can tell of a wal­king experience?

7. Quiz ques­ti­on: Which man in the Bible was kil­led becau­se of his beau­tiful wife?