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world thinks important. There is a discontent with what the earth offers and a hunger for something more. This is the tent. The second characteristic is the altar, the place of self-judgment where true worship is found. It means having a low opinion of ones own abilities and a high opinion of Gods. It is an awareness of the constant need of cleansing and a dependence upon a power greater than self. The story of Abraham is the story of the tent and the altar. The life of a pilgrim of faith. What he wasnt was perfect. Came to Bethel. House of god. Granted the landscape has changed. Centuries of warfare and neglect. Climate differences. Hard to tell what it was like. But today it isnt much. Certainly not as lush as Haran. In fact none of the land is. Bethel in particular. Got the name from Abrams grandson Jacob. At the time of Abram the place was Luz. Moses writing after used the name the readers would know. Bethel. House of God. 12 miles north of Jerusalem. One writer said this of Bethel. A dreary place described as a bleak moorland with large, bare rocks exposed. . . 1200 feet above sea level. Pictures look like the deserts of New Mexico or California. Called upon the name of the lord. Not prayer but preaching. Luther used the German word for preach. Abram became an evangelist. Verse 9. Went on to the Negev. This is even more desertous. What do you think Sarah was thinking? This area is much worse than Haran. Haran was lush by comparison. Then notice verse 10. There was a famine. We gloss over that. God led his man right into the teeth of a famine. Tough lick. But it says something about the nature of God. Sometimes he leads us down difficult pathways to test our faith. Gods way seems to be wilderness then promise. And in the wilderness we tend to fail.
I.
Lets examine some of the factors that produced Abrahams lack of faith.
A. Unexpected Difficulties.
Abraham is a pilgrim with a tent and an altar. Powerful picture of the Christian life. And Canaan is the Biblical equivalent of the life in the
spirit. Come into the promised land, figuratively speaking when we come into the relationship with Christ. But notice, and I think this is so important, there was a famine, even in the promised land. Imagine. Famine in the promised land. Sounds like an oxymoron. Cant be. A promised land and famine. We want the promised land to be only blessing. Never testing. Has that happened in your life. God Ill follow and then it turns out harder than you expected. Ill. . . Going to Autumn Creek. Looking for a pastorate. Full year after they visit. What a wonderful thing. Then the news. Church is broke. OK we will go and close it down. Then the ice storm of 1989. the day before Christmas eve. Saturday night December 23. Sunday was Christmas eve. We lost half the church. I was so discouraged. Ready to quit. Amy and I were living in a rent house and right across the street they had a drug raid. I was in my bathrobe. Amy locked the door. God why are you doing this. The church grew in fact it doubled. But it didnt do what I expected. And as we limped along I learned the power of God and more importantly, I learned my own limitations. In the same way there will be times of spiritual famine in your new life in the spirit. Expect it.
practice in Redondo Beach, CA. Told a colleague, If you could only see the need, you wouldnt be able to swallow your sandwich. He left his practice and moved to the Congo. Salary dropped to $3,230 a year. Money no longer mattered. Two years later, a bloody battle broke out between rival revolutionary factions. Dr. Carlson was caught in the middle. Held captive. Opportunity to escape by scaling a wall and dropping to the ground on the other side. Dr. Carlson reached the top and was a split second from freedom when he was hit. Fell back into the courtyard and died. Senseless. Time Magazine: Dr. Carlsons murder, along with the massacre of perhaps another hundred whites and thousands of blacks, had a special, tragic meaning. (He) symbolized all the white men and there are manywho want nothing from Africa but a chance to help. He was no saint and no deliberate martyr. He was a highly skilled physician who, out of a strong Christians faith and sense of common humanity, had 1 gone to the Congo to treat the sick. Dobson said, And we are left to ask, Why, Lord? Why couldnt you have distracted the gunner for another instance? Even a butterfly in front of his nose or some sweat in his eyes could have changed the tragic outcome. No such distraction occurred. And so ended the earthly 2 days of a good man who left a loving wife and two children behind. The agony of dealing with Dr. Carlson is the senselessness of it. Why? We thought certain things would happen and they havent and now we want to know why. Dobson showed me something in Job that I hadnt seen. He said Jobs basic struggle was at the point of unmet expectations. Abrahams failure was the same. He had expectations about living in the promised land that were not met because of a famine. To add to the frustration of famine he probably felt forsaken. How many times had he prayed for relief before he decided to leave? When heaven is silent and expectations are unmet your faith will be challenged.
B. Unrealized Expectations
God promised that he would take care of him. Now there is a famine. How can this be. Abraham expected better. Dobson says that difficulties and even death are more easily accepted when they make sense. For example. Jim Elliot was one of five missionaries who died serving the Lord in the Ecuadorian jungle. Jim wrote in his journal, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That basic understanding turned his death into a victory. But what about Dr. Carlson? Dobson tells another story about Dr. Paul Carlson. 1961 joined a relief agency to serve as a medical missionary in the Belgian Congo. Only six months but he was changed forever. Came back to a thriving medical
II.
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Abraham left the promised land and there were immediate repercussions. Fallout that came with losing his faith.
Abram was trying to survive without God. Just like we do. And God let him sweat. I love it.
D. He Endangered Others.
We do not exist in a vacuum. Your failure effects your family. Out of the will of God. Out of his care. Fortunately for Sarai, God stepped in. Verse 17. God took charge. Verse 18 great danger. Verse 20 kicked out of Egypt.