a watering can

Photo credit:Jozsef Molnar

“And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” Genesis 20:13

The story line is this: Sarah is so beautiful that Abraham fears for his life in his wanderings.  In a self-protective manner, he lies about his relationship with her.  He zeros in on a partial truth and makes that the whole truth: she is my sister. He did it to Pharaoh when he went down to Egypt because of a famine in Canaan and he does it again to King Abimelech of Gerar.  In the context of the above testimony, Abraham is being confronted by this angry king who demands to know why the deception?

Humanly speaking, you can understand Abraham’s fear…and his reasoning; both are legit.  BUT, the journey Abraham is on is not a human one…it is divine.  He said it himself: “…when God caused me to wander….” It isn’t wanderlust that motivated Abraham to pilgrimage.  It is God who put His hand on Abraham’s shoulder and said ‘You are Mine.’ It is God who called him to something new…a call that would impact his location, his family loyalties, his sphere of influence, his scope of name.  Yes, it is God who initiated the wanderings…because He is calling out a people for Himself through this one man, Abraham. Genesis 12.

In view of that, King Abimelech’s demand is also legit.  Why, indeed, Abraham did you resort to human deception when it is God who called you to wander? If God is the genesis of your wanderings, is He not the process as well?  If the beginning was Divine, why use human means to accomplish its ends?  Why start in the spirit then move into the flesh?

Though the circumstances are certainly different, I think we can all identify with the struggle.  God puts His hand on our shoulder and says “I want a relationship with you.  You are Mine.”  He offers us Jesus and we take Him…because we need Him. And in that heartbeat, faith starts us on a journey into the call of God on our lives.

But as we walk the journey, we find struggle seems to characterize that walk; and because of that struggle, we begin to resort to the ‘human’.  Human reasonings… human responses…human ‘outs’…human manipulations…human deceptions.  It isn’t long before faith no longer characterizes our relational walk with Father God.

If our initial response to the ‘call of God’ was one of faith, then our journeying into that call must be one of faith as well.  The ‘call of God’ will always demand from us a capacity larger than our human resources; faith is the only commodity adequate for that demand. 

When we find our faith much too small for the demands of our walk, we need to do what the Hebrew Christians were exhorted to do in the midst of their insurmountable struggles: “…Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1, 2.

“Looking unto Jesus”…seeing Him.  He alone keeps us in the way of faith as we journey our walk with God. 

Marcia