To use a contemporary expression, he "pushed the panic button," and down to Egypt he went. Abram took counsel, not from God, but from his fears alone. There is not a word here about asking God's permission to go down to Egypt. As the scarcity of food grew, he felt driven to leave, even though God had called him to be there. He saw his immediate source of sustenance endangered, and it must have seemed increasingly impossible to remain where he was. Abram was a man with flocks and herds, and when the rains failed these were severely threatened. In a pastoral economy this is a dangerous time. But there are times when there is no rain and the land experiences a drought - the land becomes parched and dry and the grass withers. The land of Canaan was much like parts of California - wonderful land with a magnificent climate, but dependent upon the limited rainfall for water. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. The account begins in Chapter 12, Verse 10: What new Christian has not discovered what it is to lose his sense of joy and his awareness of the presence of Christ in his life? We shall find the reasons for this perplexing experience traced here in three movements: The famine in Canaan, the folly of Egypt, and the fullness of God in the land. And as so often happens at this stage of the Christian life, as we pick up the story of Abram in Genesis 12, we find it is the story of the failure of faith. He stands in the same place as any new Christian who is now "in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9), but has not yet learned to "walk in the Spirit," (Galatians 5:25 KJV). Though Abram is now in the land, he has not yet learned the conditions of life in the land. The land of Canaan is where God expects every Christian to dwell every day of his life, twenty-four hours a day! It is not a place to which only the great and the favored few can come. It is not a place of special privilege, as many think. The land of Canaan, as we have seen in our introductory study, is a picture for us of the Spirit-filled life. That is, he had no permanent home, but moved about from place to place. With his tent and his altar, Abram sojourned in the land of Canaan. It takes us back two thousand years to the other side of the cross but the spiritual history of this man is as up-to-date as if he were born in the 20th century (A. D.). The story of Abraham is the story of such a pilgrim. It is an awareness of the constant need of cleansing and a dependence upon a power greater than self. It means having a low opinion of one's own abilities and a high opinion of God's. The second characteristic is the altar, the place of self-judgment where true worship is found. There is a discontent with what the earth offers and a hunger for something more. They hold material things loosely, and are conscious of the fleeting, ephemeral values of what the world thinks important. Not that such people actually live in tents, but their whole outlook is that of one who lives in a tent. We can identify pilgrims by two invariable symbols: a tent and an altar. It is a refreshing experience to meet a pilgrim in the midst of our secular, security-loving age with its continual emphasis upon comfort, convenience, and compromise.
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