Abram and Sarai in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20)

Have you ever heard the expression, “Don’t meet your heroes”? It comes from the idea that we tend to idolize those people whom we greatly admire. If someone is successful in one area, then we assume that they are great at everything: we turn famous athletes into role models, computer programmers and entrepreneurs into political experts, great musicians into climatologists, and more. For whatever reason, we assume that someone’s greatness in one area extends to all areas of their lives.

Dangerous things happen when we assume.

On the rare occasion that we get to meet our heroes, we are often disappointed. They aren’t the role models we expected. They have different views on issues that are important to us. They have failures and foibles. They’re human!

Abraham is no different. He may be our spiritual father, but he was just as human as anyone else. A great example of this is found in today’s Scripture reading. Please read Genesis 12:10-20.

You’ll remember from yesterday that God told Abram to travel “to the land that I will show you” (12:1). God then took Abram and showed him the Promised Land, which was inhabited by the Canaanites, but Abram kept going. He journeyed toward the Negeb (12:9), and then, due to a famine, went on to Egypt, where there was apparently still plenty of food (12:10). Why didn’t Abram stop in the Promised Land? God appeared to Abram there. He knew that God would give him this land. Why did he keep moving?

It’s possible that God told Abram to continue moving because he wasn’t ready to possess the land yet. After all, he hadn’t yet amassed his wealth or accumulated his huge raiding parties of servants. But, a more likely scenario is that God told Abram to leave his country and move to a new land that He will show him. Since God didn’t directly tell Abram to stop in the Promised land, but simply promised that one day his descendants would live there, Abram assumed that he should keep moving on.

Dangerous things happen when we assume.

Abram then assumed in Egypt that the Egyptians will take advantage of his wife and murder him, so he came up with this lie that led to great plagues afflicting Pharaoh and his house.

Dangerous things happen when we assume.

Abram lied. Abram either prostituted his wife to Pharaoh for livestock and servants, or at least intended to do so. Abram is not a hero whose example should be emulated. But God works all things out for the good of those who love Him. God blessed Abram and kept him and Sarai safe throughout this whole affair.

One day, in heaven, I believe that we will get to meet the great heroes of the faith. Men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Mary, and Paul. I so look forward to hearing their stories of faith in God. It will be a wonderful time, filled with many testimonies about how great God is, even in spite of our human failures.

Yet, even on that day, if we are just focused on meeting the great heroes of the faith, we will be disappointed. They were sinful men and women just like us. Instead, God is the one who will be getting all the praise, because He alone is worthy. He alone is perfect. He alone is the true hero.