Old Llantrisant Hill
- Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans (modern day Iraq)
- Traveled 800 miles to Haran
- May have settled here for 5 years
- Travels a further 600 miles to Shechem
- Should Abraham have stopped at Haran?
- He did not set up any altars
- We do not read that God spoke to Him at Haran
- Abraham set up multiple altars in the promised land
- There was a famine (not usual) and Abraham chose to go to Egypt
- Sarai was taken into Pharoah's harem and her purity put at risk
- Abraham became very rich in livestock and gold
Why do we comprise?
- We do not take the word of God seriously
- Abraham did not go directly to Canaan
- He was told to leave his family
- Haran:
- No building of an altar
- No calling on the name of the Lord
- It is easy to call out Abraham and say that we wouldn't do this
- Compromise often occurs to new believers
- Abraham was a 'new believer'
Was it right for Abraham to go down into Egypt?
- A 'severe' famine meant a drastic situation
- He has a family
- He has many servants (12:5), maybe the 318 servants mentioned in 14:14
- Abraham does not seek counsel of the Lord
- God's last promise is that Abraham would inherit the land
- He has not fully obeyed God as he has not built an altar, he has not called upon the Lord
- He puts Sarai in a difficult situation
- He puts himself on a slippery path
What does compromise often lead to?
- Haran: A delay in the blessings of God
- Leads to stagnation in our growth
- Like a domino effect: compromise leads to further compromise
- One sin leads to another sin
- v10 - goes to Egypt, then becomes economical with the truth (a half-truth)
- Abraham understood his wife was beautiful, that they would try to take her, that they would kill him
- Chapter 20 - he was his half-sister
- He was reducing the risk to his life but putting his wife's purity at risk
- He was being selfish
- He was not trusting in miraculous provision as he wouldn't have gone into Egypt in the first place
- We should never try and do God's work for Him
- We must do what is right and what God calls us to do
- Abraham was putting the very fulfillment of God's promise at risk
- Being unequally yoked: non-Christian relationships, dodgy business relationships, overspending on credit cards
- He caused the consequences of his sin to affect the Egyptians
- Pharaoh was not an innocent man
- Pharaoh and Egypt were judged
- Pharaoh rebuked Abraham (the unbeliever rebuked the believer)
- We must understand 'common grace'
- Pharaoh makes a right judgement - he should not have taken Abraham's wife
- The man of God will fall and fail
- Abraham was greatly blessed by God (but where these material blessings just for him?)
- 'Desire gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death'
God's grace to compromised sinners
- God's amazing kindness to Abraham
- They did not stay in Egypt
- Abraham's wife was not taken from him
- It was not to do with Abraham pleasing God but God keeping Abraham
- God would fulfill His covenant promise
- Not even the rebellion and sin of man could prevent this
- God's sovereign will is always fulfilled
- Abraham becomes selfless in chapter 14 - he lets Lot choose which land to inhabit
- He has learned from this experience
- Abraham returned to the altar he had first made between Bethel and Ai (13:4)
- He returned to where he had met God at the beginning
- We must return to the Lord