Page 33 - The Divine Quest

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Abraham, the father of faith, did not manifest faith in this deed. Instead, he
manifested fear and unbelief. The result was that his wife was taken from him and
actually given to Pharaoh to be Pharaoh’s wife. What a terrible thing this was.
Abraham allowed his wife to be given to another man to have relations with her. He
allowed this in order to save his own skin. In His mercy, Yahweh kept Pharaoh from
touching Sarah, though when Abraham’s deceit was made known to Pharaoh, shame
and reproach were brought upon Abraham and his wife.

Genesis 12:18-20
Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did
you not tell me that she was your wife? 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." Pharaoh
commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and
all that belonged to him.

Abraham was escorted out of Egypt in shame. His purpose for going to Egypt was to
escape the famine in his own land, but he found that he was not able to escape it.
What is glaringly absent in this account is any mention of Abraham hearing from
God. We are not told that Abraham was instructed by God to go to Egypt. If Abraham
had heard Yahweh tell him to go to Egypt, and if Yahweh had told him that He would
protect him and keep him while in that land, then Abraham would have had
something for faith to arise out of. Yet no such word was given. Abraham went to
Egypt of his own initiative, and because he had no command from God, he lacked
confidence in the situation.

Later Abraham repeated this same error when he went to Gerar with all of his
possessions. Again, we have no word that God had sent him there. He once more lied
about Sarah being his wife, and once more he suffered reproach. Without a word
from God there is nothing for faith to arise from, and we will suffer terribly as the
flesh and Satan fills our hearts and minds with visions of fear and calamity. To stave
off this assault of fear, we must have a word from God to stand on. Before choosing
a course to follow, we should press in to hear from God. We must refuse to move
without receiving instruction from God, knowing that His word is our strength and
security. What He has said, He will surely accomplish. He has not promised to
accomplish the things we have imagined, or the plans we have chosen for ourselves.

The Father has done some tremendous things in our family. He has performed
miraculous things for which only He can get the credit. Our son was born with a
hereditary bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and by the time he was
seven years old he had already broken thirteen bones and had two surgeries to
correct fractures. We had some years earlier applied for government SSI benefits on