At this point, Abram has left Haran and traveled about 400 miles to Canaan, the land the Lord has called him to. Once he gets there, things will be easy because we know that Canaan is the land flowing with milk and honey, and Abram will be rewarded for trusting God.
Except things weren’t easy. There is severe famine in the land- no milk, no honey to be found. But Abram doesn’t curse God for leading him to this place to starve; he trusts him yet again and goes to Egypt, where the Nile River provides water for crops and there is food.
However, here, Abram lets his imagination get the better of him. He knows his wife, Sarai, is beautiful. Abram imagines that Pharaoh will want her for himself. He imagines that Pharaoh will kill him to take her. He concocts a plan to prevent this from happening- since Sarai is Abram’s half-sister, they’ll just say she is his sister, and Abram won’t have to be killed, and all will live happily ever after!
Except they didn’t live happily ever after. Pharoah takes Sarai to be his wife, and God sends plagues against him and his household. When Pharaoh finds out he was tricked, he confronts Abram and throws him and his family out of Egypt.
Why was it so easy for Abram to trust God when it came to moving hundreds of miles, and to trust him even when there was a famine in the land he was called to, but he didn’t think to ask God for protection from Pharaoh? Did he forget that God promised him that he would have many descendants? Did he forget that he would need to be alive to have many descendants?
Probably not. He may have just fallen into the trap of, “Oh, I’ve got this.” This is the same trap that we fall into today. We can trust God in situation X and situation Y, but we start imagining all kinds of possible scenarios and how we will handle them for situation Z. Then, when we act on our own plans without consulting God, we are surprised when things don’t always work out.
God, help me not to take matters into my own hands about imagined problems that could occur and “what if” scenarios. Instead, help me to trust you and follow your plan for my life and to remember to consult you first before I take action.
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