Until the famine struck, we see Abraham talking to God and building altars to memorialize his relationship with the Almighty.Ģ. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Abraham asked God’s permission to go to Egypt, but based on how things played out in Egypt, it does not appear that Abraham was following God by faith.ġ. When food became scarce in Canaan, Abraham became fearful, and even though God had called him to the land of Canaan, he felt the need to leave and head to Egypt.ī. For those, like Abraham, whose livelihood depended on pasturing flocks, the dry years were difficult.Ĭ. In good years, when there was rain, the land produced an abundant harvest, but in drought years, the land could become parched and dry, and the grass would wither.ī. The land of Canaan where Abraham was living had a moderate climate much like parts of California.Ī. Here we watch Abraham face his first challenge when a severe famine swept the area.ģ. Verse 10 says: Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.Ģ. This is where we pick up and continue our story today in Genesis 12.ġ. So in many ways, Abraham’s first steps of faith are nothing short of admirable and praiseworthy.Ī. How many older adults like change? Most of us prefer the familiar over the unfamiliar, especially as we age!Ĩ. On top of that, add to it the fact that he was a man in his mid-seventies!ħ. That was amazing enough by itself, but then add to it the fact that he did it not knowing where he was going.Ħ. Having heard God’s call, Abraham picked up and left, abandoning his lifelong home, leaving friends and most of his family.ĥ. While it is true that complete obedience came gradually for him, we need to tip our hat to him.Ĥ. For the most part, what we looked at last week about Abraham’s first steps of faith portray him as a hero.ģ. Did he make mistakes and commit sins? Yes he did.Ģ. And since we are studying the life of Abraham, can you guess what we will discover about him?ġ. Peter had that cowardly, denial episode.Ĭ. David had that adulterous and murderous episode.ĭ. Scripture tells the truth about our biblical heroes and all of them had their moments of mistakes, failures and sins.Ĭ. Any person, other than Jesus, whom we think is perfect, is someone we don’t know completely, because there is no way they are perfect!ĥ. So, no one should be put on a pedestal, whether they are the people we admire in our lives today or the people we admire in Scripture.Ī. Second, pedestals come with expectations that no mere human can meet and we don’t do the people we admire any favors by placing unrealistic burdens on their shoulders.Ĥ. First, we set ourselves up for disillusionment because we will inevitably see flaws in our heroes at some point.ī. There are at least two good reasons we should avoid putting people on a pedestal.Ī. Indeed, failure is a part of life – even in T-Ball!ġ. With exasperation the little boy said, “Mom, it’s T-Ball!”ī. Trying to console her son, his mom said, “That’s okay, it’s all part of the game, honey.”Ĥ. The little boy growled, “Terrible! I struck out three times!”ģ. Cheerfully, his mom asked him, “How did Little League go?”Ģ. The story is told of a young boy who came home from practice all decked out in his baseball outfit.ġ.
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