A Way In The WildernessSample

A Test Of Trust

Abram was supposed to set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan together with his father Terah. For some reason they settled half-way at Harran. Maybe he was ill. Maybe it was the climate. Or maybe he was fearful. We do not know.

But at the beginning of Genesis 12, the LORD called Abram to leave his father’s household to a place that God would later reveal to him. He obeyed and promptly left. This is where it gets interesting. Abram reached Canaan where the great tree of Moreh at Shechem was, but he did not settle there even though the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). Abram continued his journey till he reached the hills east of Bethel, in between Bethel and Ai.

Abram continued his journey yet again toward the Negev. When famine struck, to save his family and livestock, Abram went to Egypt. It seemed logical and also the responsible thing to do given the severity of the famine, but going to Egypt was not what God had intended for him. 

Abram took matters into his own hands when he thought that God could not provide for him in the famine. God called Abram to Canaan, not Egypt. In Egypt, Abram failed the test of integrity when he told Pharaoh that his wife Sarai was his sister, thinking that the only way to survive was to lie.

Egypt became Abram’s wilderness when he decided to live there for a while. It cost him his integrity. Had it not been for the LORD’s intervention by inflicting serious disease on Pharaoh and his household, Abram could have been stuck in this wilderness for a long time.

In life we may experience our own “Egypt” if we take matters into our own hands. Instead, we should choose to be obedient to God’s guidance and instructions because He will make a way!     

• Describe a situation in your life you consider your “Egypt”. What did you learn?  
• Why do you think it is difficult to trust God rather than our own instincts?

Never allow your present adverse situation to undermine your future destination.