Genesis in Biblical Perspective:
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
Abraham in Egypt

Genesis 12:10–13:1

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

This is the word of God. Genesis 12:10–13:1

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake." 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go." 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. 13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

May God bless this His Word to the heart of His people.

You probably noticed the title. Somebody who may remain nameless said to me "Hey, that title doesn't have much sizzle, Abraham in Egypt." I am not good with sizzle titles. I'm just not there. Now there were some commentators that had some interesting titles and all would have been wonderful for this. One was, The Frailty of Faith, because boy does Abraham stumble right here. You can't explain this one away. He surely stumbles. Another was Sinful Saints or there was The Fragile Saints. There are a lot of things that could go here. One of the ones I liked was didn't have a lot of sizzle either but I really liked it. It was The Impeachable Integrity of God's Word.

Because this is God's Word to man, this is not man's word about God or man's word about how man found God but this is God's Word to man and because of that its amazingly honest all the time, isn't it? The Bible doesn't cover up anybody. You get to see the saints, warts, pimples, and all. Moses is a murderer. David is an adulterer and a murderer. Paul was a religious terrorist. He was the Osama Bin Laden of his day. The Bible is just honest about these people because the Bible gives a message of salvation by grace. Therefore it tells you that we're saved by grace and even those who have been saved by grace when God is involved in transforming their life, and moving them forward, they are not perfect on their way to heaven. They slip, falter, fail, sin, but God stays faithful even when we are faithless and when you know you're saved by grace that gives you a wonderful opportunity in your life to be honest.

See, if you think you get to heaven because of your religion or how well you do then you never can be honest about your sins. We'll always cover up instead of fess up. But when you know you're saved by grace through what Jesus has done, then you're free to confess your sins and begin to deal with your sins in light of Christ who has saved you. Thus the Bible will include the saints who are sinners saved by grace, not only how God called them and saved them, but how God deals with them and we get a good picture. The Bible doesn't whitewash it. You get to see them warts, pimples, blemishes, everything. No airbrush photography here. You get to see the whole thing in their life and I don't know about you but being one of those faltering, frail sinners saved by grace, I need to know how to deal with my life when I do falter and that God doesn't give up on me. Even though I will give up many times in my life He doesn't and that's why I think this passage is so wonderfully challenging and encouraging for us.

I wanted to unfold a few things from it for you but remember this. Starting in Genesis 12, the guy we're looking at is the most talked about person in the Bible other than Jesus. No other person in the Bible has more written about him than Abram. He is the most commented upon in all of the Bible. Whole sections in the New Testament are devoted to understanding him as the father of the faithful, as the father of the Israel of God. It's interesting that with such an important person, you get to see him go all the way from the heights of faith all the way down to the depths of disobedience right here.

I mean, we have been up in the heights of faith, remember? Remember the call to Abraham back in Genesis 12:1-3? God called him out of Ur the land of the Chaldeans. There he was in all of that luxury and all of that culture and all of the things that it had. God called him out. He said "Leave your country, leave your kindred, leave your father's household and go to a land that I'll show to you. And as you follow me I will make some promises. I'll help protect you. I'll give you a seed, I'll give you land. Those who bless you, I'll bless them. Those who dishonor you, I will curse them. And I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing to others." Abraham hears that call and steps out.

Now he stops off in Horan until his father, Terah, dies. Then he moves on and he moves in to the land of promise and in Genesis 12:7 when he gets there God says "You're here. This is the land I promised you." He arrives and he gets to Shechem. He builds an altar and he worships the Lord. He gets to Bethel. The house of God is what Bethel means – beth means house and el means God. He builds another altar and he worships, then he goes off to the Negev.

Now we're in Genesis 12:10 where all of the sudden we're confronted with something. This promise land has got a famine in the land. In fact in verses 10 and 11 it says it twice. In fact it makes it such a point that it says severe famine in the land and now the test comes. What will Abram do? He's followed him, he's in the land, God's given the promises and now there's a famine in that land of promise. What will he do now? Well, Abram sins and he multiplies his sin. The first thing he does is he leaves the land of promise and I love the language of the Scripture. He goes down in to Egypt. He leaves the land of promise and as he goes down in to Egypt he stops at the border. There's a famine in the land, so to deal with the famine he leaves the land and he goes down to Egypt.

When he gets to Egypt in order to get relief from the famine he realizes that he has just stepped in to a difficult situation. I'm going down here where they get a lot of wives and anybody they see that's a wife that they want they'll pick her up and use her and they'll take her in to their house. My wife is beautiful. Sarai is beautiful. Notice right when they get to the border he stops and he brings her over to the side and he says

"Sarai, you are a beautiful woman." Now what he just said is good. Men, you might want to take a note there. You are a beautiful woman, but now it goes downhill from here. He says "Because you're a beautiful woman I may get killed. In other words, this is your fault. This isn't my fault, it's your fault. You're a beautiful woman. When they see you they may want you and when they want you they'll kill me to get to you because I'm your husband and you're my wife. See, you're beautiful and you're my wife. You're going to cause me to get killed. I've got a plan though. I've got a way to get you out of this Sarai. Here's how I'm going to get you out of this. I'm going to get you out of being the cause of these people killing me. What we'll do is we'll tell them that you're my sister."

I'm sure they had a little discussion right there but we won't take the time but if you go to Genesis 20:12, you'll find out that actually he's telling a half truth. She is his half sister. They have the same father but different mothers. By the way, jot this down. Half truths are whole lies. So here he gives a half truth and he says "Here's a half truth and Sarai, that will be okay. We'll just get by. We'll say enough and it will be okay. Tell them that I'm your brother." Now by the way, he selects brother very pointedly because when you're a brother and the father's not there, you're in control. So he can see himself negotiating, fending off all the suitors, and at the same time not putting himself in a position as a husband because they'd kill him to get to her. But as a brother he'd be able to control all the stuff that would go on. So he tells her that, then he says "I'll be able to live if you'll do this. See, I'll be put to death for your sake or I'll live for your sake if you'll do this plan of deception."

Then they get there and it's more than he bargained for. Not only did the Egyptians see that she's beautiful. I've got two things I've got to answer in this sermon that came from the last sermon. One of them is everybody comes up to me and says "Harry, the woman is 65 years old, for Pete's sakes." Listen, 65 year old women are beautiful. The prettiest woman I know is in her 50s. I can tell you that right now. Please remember how long ago these people are living. The patriarchs lived what? They lived 100 plus years. So her 65 is like a 35. There may be a few men dumb enough to say a 35 year old woman is not pretty. That's an appropriate age to say that she's beautiful. She's just middle aged. Of course that's where I got in trouble in the first service when I said that 35 was middle aged. 35, I think I actually said 40 or 45 was middle aged. And I was told "No, that's not middle aged. That's still young." I said "Well what's middle aged?" to the person who came to correct me. "50, 55 is middle aged." How many 110 year old people do you all know?

Sarai is a beautiful woman. Aging is different then. She's a stately woman. He realizes what's going to happen and sure enough it happens. The Egyptian courtiers see her and they tell Pharaoh. Here is Abram, afraid of a famine. So he goes and by the way, please look at Genesis 12:10. It says he went to settle there, to sojourn. He's not going down to pick up some groceries and come back up to the land of promise. He is immigrating to Egypt. As he's going to Egypt he begins to realize "I can lose my life because my wife is attractive. Therefore here's the next plan. Not only am I going to leave the land of promise because of the famine, I'm going to lie about my wife. I'll call her my sister and that will be able to protect me because I'm fearful for my life." So he comes up with a plan and sure enough the Egyptian courtiers see her. They go tell Pharaoh.

Pharaoh who has a large harem and one of the things he does is he brings women in to his harem, he goes and he takes her. Thinking that Abram is the brother, he does what you're supposed to do to the father, or if there's not a father, the brother. He gives to Abram a dowry. Notice, it is a large dowry that he gives to him. It includes donkeys, servants, male and female servants and all kinds of things, and amazingly Abraham takes it. Amazingly Sarai ends up in Pharaoh's house.

I cannot say this for certain. It is my opinion that Pharaoh adds her to the ownership of his harem. It is not my opinion that he actually got to sexual intimacy with her. My reasoning is a couple of reasons, although I can't state it dogmatically but my reason is because the bugle blows. Hey, what do you mean the bugle blows? Well, I love John Wayne. My favorite John Wayne movie is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. My favorite moment is when he rescues his recalcitrant superior, his obnoxious superior, and he comes over the hill, (blowing the bugle) do do do do do do do. I love that bugle because the cavalry is coming and all these people that have done stupid things are about to get rescued. The cavalry comes and John Wayne's right at the front, right there. You see, I love the bugle when it blows in the Bible and it usually blows with this phrase, "But God."

In Genesis 10:17 the bugle blows. Here is Sarai. As she gets taken in to the harem she gets taken in to Pharaoh's house and then God intervenes. God intervenes by bringing sickness in to the life of Pharaoh and his household. This sickness is of such a degree. By the way the term that's used there are boils, or tumors, cancers. It takes hold of Pharaoh to the point that his attention is totally captivated and somehow again the Bible is silent here. So I'm going to have to give a little bit of speculation and I acknowledge it as speculation. His attention is riveted on the fact that these boils have struck. My guess is he immediately goes to Sarai. It looks as if that the boils and the tumors arrive when she arrives and he may be a pagan but he's got enough sense to say "She's in my house, this has hit my house." I believe he went to her and I believe she told him the truth after he came to her because by this time at least I do know some and maybe God just divinely revealed it to him with a vision or a dream, but I believe the boils got his attention. It was associated with Sarai's arrival in the house. He goes to her. I believe, speculation, she tells him and then he immediately makes a beeline for Abram.

When he gets to Abraham he asks him three questions, one what and two whys. The 'what' question was this? What have you done to me? Tuck that away in your mind. Abram what have you done to me? Then he asks him a why question. The key is the negative in the next question. Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you withhold from me the information that she was your wife? Then came the third question and the third question was this. Why did you tell me she was your sister so that I took her for my wife? He could have said, and you even acted like you were her brother by taking the dowry. Why did you do that? That's the question that begs to be answered.

It seems as if Abram is under such conviction there's nothing but silence for he doesn't reply. At least we don't have the record of his reply, but we do have the record of what Pharaoh did. Pharaoh got his men together and he said "You get this guy out of here." He said "Your wife is coming back to you. She's now put back with you. She's now in your house and you are leaving here." So Abram left Egypt and went up back to the land of promise because Pharaoh, don't miss this, sent him away. Abraham went down in to Egypt, God intervened, Pharaoh sent him away, then Abraham went up.

In Genesis 12:1-9, how did we get from the great encouragement that I hope we all got in the last couple of Sundays from this marvelous work of grace and this man who makes the hall of faith. The hall of faith in your Bible is in Hebrews 11. Let's look at Hebrews 11. How did we get here? We've already covered three people that have made the hall of faith, Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Now we've got the fourth guy that makes the hall of faith and his name is Abram. His record is found in Hebrews 11:8 and it's what we covered in Genesis 12:1-9. Hebrews 11:8 starts out "By faith Abraham obeyed..." How is faith always evident? It is through obedience, not perfect obedience, but obedience. Hebrews 11:8-10 says

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Here is Abram. He's in this marvelous culture. Remember indoor plumbing, three story houses, all kinds of things and he leaves that and takes on the life of a nomad. He comes to a land of promise and he now pitches a tent and when he comes to that land of promise he's in that land of promise. Now comes a famine. Here's the first test that comes upon him. He descends from the heights of faithful obedience to the depths of unbelief and disobedience willing to jeopardize the promise of the land. He left it. He was willing to jeopardize the promise of a seed. The seed was to come through whom? It was to come through him and Sarai. He's willing to jeopardize that by his wife being taken in to the harem of a Pharaoh. He's willing to jeopardize his land, the promise of a seed, the promise of a nation and he is willing to jeopardize his wife's honor. He is willing to jeopardize the sanctity of marriage.

How is it from the heights of being willing to leave all to follow God to the depths of disobedience and walking away from obedience to the Lord? There are a couple of things. I went back through this and the dimensions of God's providence are so extraordinary in this text. I want to share with you a couple of thoughts here. The first one is this. I want to share with you what I think the key is here in just a minute, in God's providence. What is God providently showing us in Abram's life? But before I do that there are some secondary things that I don't think we should miss.

When Abraham landed in the land of promise the first place he landed was where? It was Shechem and what was the first thing he did when he got to Shechem? He did exactly what Noah did as soon as he got off the arc and what was that? He built an altar and what did he do? He worshiped. Then when he left Shechem he went to the house of God, Bethel and what did he do when he got to Bethel? He built an altar and he worshiped and called out the name of the Lord. Then you'll see in Genesis 12:9 he left Shechem and went to the Negev. No altar. No worship. I believe the abandonment of the heart and life of worship is the first step of walking away from the Lord. When we begin to abandon the call of God to worship Him in the glory of His Name, it's the first step that makes us ready to descend in to the depths of disobedience.

The second thought is when the famine hit he never called out and consulted with God. He immediately went to his own schemes to handle the test and in his schemes Egypt looked a whole lot better than the land that God had given him.

A third thing is he clearly abandoned his confidence in God and His Word. What had God told him? I will give you a land, I will give you a seed and I will give you a family. I will make you a nation. It doesn't take any great steps of logical consistency to say if God is giving me a land where He's going to give me a seed and give me a nation, then that must mean God isn't going to let me die till that happens. So I will not fear the famine. I will trust the Lord. But his answer to the famine was sought in Egypt instead of God's answer.

I also want you to see something else. Sin is never isolated. In the dimensions of God's providence of this text, He's showing us that sin is never isolated. See, here's what Satan tries to sell you. You're at the computer, the doors are shut, nobody else is watching, and you're alone. What I'm thinking in my mind is that sinful thoughts won't hurt anybody. Consenting adults, it won't matter. We always try to put sin in the category of personal choice and isolated effects and it is never true. Just look at this sin. Abram goes to Egypt in disbelief of God. He then concocts a plan of deception and notice how those sins begin to multiply. Is his sin a matter of isolation? He jeopardizes his wife. He jeopardizes the promises of God. Now God, we'll get to that. God will get His promises fulfilled but as far as Abram is concerned, he's willing to jeopardize them just to preserve himself. Here is this self-preservation by his self-reliance, his self- affirmations, and his self-focus and in all of that he is willing to jeopardize everything. His sin is affecting his wife, and it's affecting his witness.

Here we are trying to deal with it 4,100 years later and trying to understand it. Here is not only his sin that's jeopardizing that, his sin jeopardizes who? Listen, sin always has affects. Pharaoh was right. Why did you do this to me? His sin positioned Pharaoh for his sin and when Pharaoh committed his sin God brings judgment on him. Why did God bring judgment on him? It was because he sinned. Why did he sin? He was operating on the information of the lie of Abram. He brought sin, he brought jeopardy to his wife, he brought sin in the Pharaoh's life, and he brought judgment. There are people in Pharaoh's household that have cancer and you can trace it right back to the disobedience of Abram. Our sin never stops at the act of commission.

Notice how sin always begins. First of all Abram says "We'll go to Egypt." Then it's "Well, to go to Egypt I'm going to have to lie. By the way, I'm not going to just lie; I'm going to draw Sarai in my lie. And by the way Sarai, I'm going to put a guilt trip on you. If you don't lie then you hate me and you're trying to kill me. And then the way I will lie is first of all by the sin of omission. I won't tell him she's my wife. Remember when he said "Why did you not tell me she was your wife?" This is the sin of omission. Then after the sin of omission comes the sin of commission. She's my sister. So I omit this, then I commit that. Sin just keeps multiplying, its size, its effect, its ramifications, while it's personally engaged it's never personally limited or isolated. In fact it's not even going to stop here.

Sin, even when we get delivered from it once, sometimes we go right back to it. Does this text in Genesis 12 sound familiar to you? It ought to. Abram is going to do it again in Genesis 20, this time with a man by the name of Abimelech and when his wife is 90-something years old. By the way, does that sound familiar? It's going to happen again in Genesis 26. This time another man is going to lie about his wife and call her his sister and it's not even a half sister. Do you want to know who that is? Who's going to do that? It is Isaac, his son, as the sins go to the next generation, as the son picks up on the sins of his father. Sin is never isolated.

There's something else I'd love for you to see here. When God by His grace begins to take hold of us when we falter, God has so many means at His disposal. Isn't it interesting? Who does God use to correct Abram? He uses a pagan, Pharaoh. By the way, the pagan Pharaoh seems to have the higher view of marriage than Abram. In God's common grace, Pharaoh is at a position where he would do something about this. Then God got his attention with the plagues that came upon Pharaoh's household, and when God got his attention with the plagues and what it built in to him in some sense of honor, then he turns around and it's not some preacher in a revival service that gets hold of Abram, it's a pagan king who speaks the truth. Saying, "Why did you do this to me? Why did you lie to me? Why did you omit and why did you commit?" It's amazing all the things that God has at His disposal to take hold and bring us back to where we need to be in repentance.

I think the key is this. How did he fall from the heights of faith and obedience to the depths of unbelief and disobedience? It was because of fear. It's why Jesus hammers at it saying, "Be anxious for nothing." That's why Paul hammers at it saying "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer supplications make your requests..." That's why God will come back in to Abram's life in Genesis 15 and He'll say to Abram "Do not fear." Now fill in the blank. Do not fear people, famine, circumstances, death, hell, judgment. If you are in Me, do not fear. Brothers and sisters, let me try to share this with you. I believe this is so true for the Christian life. Never, never, never make plans in life out of fear, because your fears will come upon you.

First of all there's only one fear that you and I as a Christian are allowed to embrace and that is the majestic awe of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Everything else, get rid of. You might be thinking, "Harry, as a pastor, can you tell me what the answer is to getting rid of the fears in my life?" I can. The answer, the antidote to fear is not courage, bravado. The antidote to fear is not carelessness in life except a holy carelessness when we cast all our cares upon Him. The antidote to fear in our life is love for perfect love casts out all fear. The book of 1 John tells it so powerfully; perfect love casts out all fear. All the fear in my life can be cast out by perfect love.

Is it the grave? The perfect love of Christ, oh, He's overcome the grave. Is it the judgment Seat? The perfect love of Christ, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Is it a famine? The Lord my God has promised to meet my needs according to Christ Jesus riches. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I need to have as my vision for life not fear, but my Savior and the love of Christ. I can cast all my cares upon Him.

The second takeaway is this one. Ladies, I would be remiss if I did not go to the one passage in the New Testament that relates back to this text. It's interesting. Who is shouting the loudest in Genesis 12:10 through Genesis 13:1? As I look at it I would think Abram or I might get very spiritual and say God's shouting out pretty loud when He blows the bugle and intervenes. Or I could say Pharaoh; look at the questions he asked. But actually the person who never spoke was the person according to the New Testament that was shouting the loudest. I'd like to look at 1 Peter 3. That person is Sarai. In reference to this and one other occasion in their life, Peter writes this:

1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

In other words here is this woman who never speaks according to the record but powerfully speaks in the text. Now let me be very clear. Submission does not mean that you go beyond God's authority in submitting to human authority. It does not mean that a Sarai has to submit to adultery. That's not what it means and it's not the reason that text is there. The reason that text is there is to make the point of contrast with Abram. Why has Abram descended in to the depths? It is because of fear. What about Sarai? She did not fear and her wordless behavior shouted. God used this in the life of Abram. God used this in the life of Abram by bringing out Pharaoh. God used this in the life of Abram by showing her, here she is. If there's any moment of frightening her husband is willing to give up her honor. Her husband is willing to give all of this up, but instead of putting her trust in her husband, she puts her trust in the Lord, and as she puts her trust in the Lord she turns her husband over to the Lord.

Again, that doesn't mean that a woman doesn't communicate to her husband. That doesn't mean that a woman submits to any disobedience of God's Word. That's not what it says. Notice the last phrase I read says "If you do what's good." So it's not calling for a woman in the name of submission to sin. That's clear in the text. It is calling to women to let you know the greatest arsenal you have in your life and ministry, the greatest weapon in your arsenal is your behavior of security and stability in the Lord that when your husband is disobedient to the Word, even being motivated by the fears of this world, your security and stability in the Lord, gentle and quietness, moving ahead with the Lord yourself, that shouts in to his life.

That's the reason today I'm a believer because that shouted to me. In the midst of all my activity and my sin there was one in my life who could not be shaken and it's surely impacted my life. Daughters of Sarah are not frightened by fear and the proof is in their conduct of life and even without a word it shouts in to the life of a disobedient husband and that would be the Word that the Scripture has to encourage you here. That doesn't mean you don't have people pray, it doesn't mean you don't talk about issues, it doesn't mean that you submit. It does not mean any of that. It means a stable, secure daughter of Sarah, not frightened by any fear. The Lord will protect her just as he did Sarah and stepped in to protect his one even by reclaiming Abram.

This is the last takeaway. There is a constant refrain that happens throughout the Scripture. Here comes the rescue of grace to the redeemed, the rescue of grace. Here's Abram descending in to Egypt, here's Pharaoh challenging him, sending him out and we end with Abram coming up. I don't know about you but many times in my life, and I'm so glad you don't know all the times, but my Lord knows all the times that I have descended to Egypt, and God through a wife or through a Pharaoh or through a preacher or through a book or through a moment or through a recall reaches out and says "Whoa son, I'm going to send you back this way. You're ready to go down. I'm going to take you back up, not because you deserve it but because even though you're faithless I am faithful. Didn't I tell you the people that dishonor you I would bring judgment upon them? What happened to Pharaoh? Didn't I tell you? Now I brought you back."

Oh for grace, and can't you see how important that is in the lives of people of Israel? Where are they? They're in the wilderness. Where have they been? Now when this book was written for them, where are the people of Israel? They're in the wilderness. Where have they been? They have been in Egypt. How did they come out? God brought plagues upon Pharaoh's house. Does that sound familiar? Can't you hear them? Oh my goodness. This is déjà vu all over again. God did it to our father Abraham. He brought plagues and brought him out and back up and now we through the famine, Genesis 41, through a famine went in to Egypt for 400 something years. Then God brings plagues. We're out and going back to the Promise Land. Abram got there. We'll get there. Our God is faithful.

Dear friends, don't stop there, Israel of God, we have One greater than Abram and greater than Moses. It's Jesus who will take us out of Egypt even when we would descend back out of fear and bring us to repentance even if He has to use a Pharaoh and then know this. He who began a good work in you will complete unto the day of Christ Jesus. He'll bring you to that land of promise, glory, in a new heavens, in a new earth and you can absolutely depend upon Him.

I want to finish with this illustration. I was in Miami Florida. I had been the pastor of a church that God allowed me to serve that had been on the verge of death and God began to bring it back to life in amazing ways, in spite of me in so many ways, and it's so exciting to see that. I remember visitors starting to come to the church and I remember shaking hands with this guy and when he got up to leave he said "Well, I've enjoyed being with you preacher." And I said "How did you happen to visit?" I thought he was going to say "I heard about this great preacher and I wanted to come visit." And he said "Well, I was riding around looking for a church and you're the only one that was having a service at the time I was riding by." Well, okay, we'll take you any way you come buddy, come on in.

Then on Thursday I got a phone call. It was that same guy. He called me up and he said "May I speak to Pastor Reader." And I said "Speaking." And he said "Pastor Reader, I am" and he gave his name. And I said "Yes, I remember you." He said "I need to ask you to do me a favor." Of course I figured the sermon's taken hold of his life and he's ready to get saved. He says "I'm across the street. There's a guy on crack and he's got his ex-wife and his daughter as a hostage. And he says 'I won't give them up until I talk with the preacher.' Would you come?" I said "How did you get my phone number?" Again, he called on me. I said "Why did you call me?" He said "I called 10 others and they won't come." Oh, I'm number 11. I can't even make the top 10 list. Of course in Miami we've had all kinds of situations of shootings and everything that filled the paper at that time.

I remember praying about it, literally getting on my knees and saying "God, why did you bring this to me? Now what am I going to do?" I've got to tell you, I was ready to run. When I got on my knees I looked up on my desk and there I saw a text of Scripture that God in His providence had ready. It said, "Fear not, I am with you always." So I got in the car and I went home. I saw my three kids. I hugged them, kissed them, and told them I loved them. I didn't know what would happen. I remember getting there. God is so gracious. He knows how weak I am. I got there and the man was walking out the door. Praise the Lord. I didn't even have to go in, but I remember that moment having to deal with at least one more fear in my life. I've got them all over the place in my life. I have to keep fleeing back to Jesus. Would you go with me? You help me and I'll help you. Let's stay fixed with our eyes on Jesus Christ. Perfect love casts out all fear.

Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the moments we can be together, the privilege to be in Your Word, to study it and share it with each other in life. Father, I think of wives that are in such challenging situations. I pray for them that the fearlessness of Sarah would be manifested by Your grace and mercy. I think of all of us who face this uncertain broken world and it seems as if marriages are falling apart, economies, war, terrorism, everything that's out there. Satan is constantly like a roaring lion seeking to provoke fear upon fear knowing that it paralyzes. Oh God, give us the grace, mercy and kindness to put our trust in Jesus Christ who will deliver us not only from our sins but all of our fears. His love cast out all fear. May You be praised. Lord, anyone here who has never come to the Savior, may this day they turn and put their trust in Him. May those of us who so easily turn to ourselves and descend to Egypt, may this day we be brought back to our trust in a living God who will never leave us, nor forsake us. Oh God, You are our God. We are Your people, and though we falter and are faithless, You are faithful to Your own. Praise be to Your Name, Amen.