It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife…“Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
– Genesis 12:11,13
We may have an idealistic expectation regarding our Christian growth: God appears, we follow, and we live forevermore in the heavenly realm. No! Sometimes He allows us to fail, but once we return, we discover our failure brings us to another realm.
This is all God’s doing. He started the famine, and He spoke to Pharaoh. Abraham would not have gone down to Egypt if God hadn’t allowed such an environment. Abraham would not have left Egypt if God hadn’t spoken to Pharaoh, who then made him leave. All of this was so Abraham would know God and gain Him. As a result, Abraham was different. He had grown.
Adapted from A Sketch of Genesis,
by Titus Chu; page 95.
Tomorrow: “God’s Discipline” (12)