Title: THE JOURNEY OF FAITH

Focus: Learn from Abram and Sarai as you journey through life. For the life of faith is a journey filled with potholes of doubt to avoid and cliffs of sin to navigate.

Function: To encourage and assure God’s people that in our journey of life and faith God’s covenant promise, guidance, and protection will be with us until God’s purposes and work of salvation in Christ Jesus are fully realized.

Text: Genesis 12:1-20

            Life is a journey. It begins with conception and birth; it ends with death and entrance into eternity. On the journey of life there are many potholes of doubt to avoid and cliffs of sin to navigate. And periodically, you and I must stop and take note of the roadmap (if we have one), and figure out where we stand, where we are, and where we are going. Today is one of those days when we stop for a moment and reflect upon our journey of life and faith. For today, some young adults will make a public profession of faith, and each one of us will have the opportunity to renew our faith in God and our allegiance to his rule in our lives.

            The Bible reminds us that Christians, whether of Jewish or Gentile origins, are children of Abraham. Christians live by faith—a faith that is captured in the acclamation: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” In Romans 4: 16 and 17 the Apostle Paul reminds us that God’s promise of salvation comes to us by faith “…not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

            As a minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, I encourage all of us to learn from Abram and Sarai as we journey through life. For the story of Abram and Sarai—trying to avoid the potholes of doubt and navigating the cliffs of sin in their journey of life—is very instructive for us today.

            When you enter Abram’s story and accompany him and Sarai on their journey of faith, you’ll notice that the journey of faith often starts with an itch and comes with a voice.  It begins with Abram’s father, Terah. He has three sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran is the father of Lot. They all live in Ur of the Chaldeans—present day Irak. Then Haran dies. And Abram’s wife, Sarai, is childless.

What happens? Terah, the patriarch of the family, gets an “itch.” He takes his family and sets out for the land of Canaan. “But,” says Scripture, “when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.” In other words, Terah’s itch did not go very far. He remained among his people, and like a true pagan, Terah continued to worship other gods (cf. Joshua 24:2).

            After his father died, Abram gets the itch to move. Abram is restless among his own countrymen, among all those who worship idols. Abram is disillusioned with the rituals and prayers to sticks and stones and trees. Abram does not buy the pagan notion that life has no purpose other than “live and die and make the best of things.”

Abram does not buy the notion that by praying, for example, to Buddha or to a fatalistic god such as Allah you can win their favor. Fatalism is not Abram’s cup of tea. He wants a relationship with God; he wants direction and purpose and meaning for his life. Sticks and stone or man-made statues of gods do not have the power to improve the world or to speak hope and life into people. They do not have a voice.

            So Abram has an itch. And Abram hears a voice—the voice of Yahweh, the voice of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the voice of the Lord says to Abram: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”

            Do you have an “itch”? Are you restless—in search of meaning or purpose and direction? Do you, in the stillness of the night, hear a voice calling you? The journey of faith often starts with an itch. And when you listen carefully and reach out prayerfully to God, you may hear a voice saying, “leave, go there, start here, follow me and I will lead you.”

            As you follow God’s leading in your life, however, be aware that the journey of life and faith is part of something far greater than you or me or anything else. Learn from Abram and Sarai, and listen to the voice of God speaking to Abram: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name  great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Abram’s itch is NOT primarily about Abram and his future; it’s about God’s covenant promise and work of salvation. It’s about God’s blessing—restoring, saving his creation and reconciling to himself all peoples on earth. Abram’s itch is the restless itch of all people throughout history. God will give us peace and stop our itch in due time. He does it for Abram by “scratching” Abram’s itch and sending him off on a journey of faith. 

The journey of faith, then, is part of God’s grand scheme of salvation, which God fulfills in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and which God will fully realize when Christ comes again at the end of time. “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

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            Now from Abram’s story we observe at least two things: (a) when you have an itch and you hear the voice of God laying his claim and calling upon your heart, you need to act; and (b) you need to be aware that the journey of faith is paved with potholes of doubt to avoid and cliffs of sin to be navigated—lest you shipwreck your life.

            For example, youthful Abram packs up his belongings and his household and he sets out for the land of Canaan. Abram acts upon the itch; Abram tests the voice of the Lord. And thus Abram exercises faith or trust in God. His pagan neighbors and relatives in Haran, no doubt, thought that Abram was nuts. “He hears voices,” some may have said. “He has grand delusions,” others may have suggested. “He’s always been a bit peculiar,” his peers may have implied. But Abram acts upon his itch and upon the voice of the Lord. Such action is part of the journey of faith.

            So Abram goes to Canaan, and he claims the land (which God had promised to Abram). Abram travels to the northern part of Canaan, and there in Shechem, near the great tree of Moreh where the Canaanites worship and offer sacrifices to their Baals and Astoreths, Abram stops. I think he is looking at a “pothole of doubt.” I think that he was wondering and beginning to feel doubtful about his itch or journey. After all, how on earth would he and his barren wife Sarai populate this land with children? How on earth could this land become his while all these Canaanite peoples are roaming around in Abram’s Promised Land? Could it be that he had been pursuing a fantasy, an illusion?

            But just then, by this pothole of doubt near Shechem, God reveals himself on Abram’s journey of faith. And God said to Abram: “To your offspring I will give this land.”  And Abram believes. What does he do? He claims God’s promise of children by building an altar unto the Lord. And he claims God’s promise of the land.

            Then Abram travels to the middle of the land of Canaan. He pitches his tent east of Bethel and west of Ai. And there, Abram builds an altar to the Lord and worships him, claiming God’s promises of children and the land. Then Abram goes southward, toward the Negev to do the same there.

Clearly on the journey of faith, Abram acts and avoids the potholes of doubt by claiming God’s promises. We all struggle at times with doubt. We all wonder at times whether we heard the voice of the Lord correctly. Sometimes, we just can’t make sense out of the circumstances in life; Shall we then despair or give up our trust in the Lord?

No. We will turn to his Word and his Son, the Lord Jesus. And we will seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we patiently and prayerfully try to avoid our potholes of doubt. Yes, the journey of faith can be treacherous. There are also cliffs of sin to be navigated. But faith is what is required on the journey of life. That’s why we do well to learn from the story of Abram and Sarai in Egypt.

            Listen to this haunting statement in the text: “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.” Think about this: God says: “Go to Canaan.” Abram’s goes and he discovers there is not even enough food for him and his household to live on. Would not such a famine undermine your trust in God and his Word to you?

            Abram is worried; he is losing his grip on God’s voice or Word to him. Egypt is a place of idolaters filled with sophisticated pagan cultural practices. Abram is familiar with the ways of the nations around him. He looks at Sarai—his wife. She may not have given him children, but surely Sarai is a knock out, a beauty—fit for the harem of any king, including the Pharaoh of Egypt. Abram is getting worried. He is losing faith as he tries to navigate this cliff before him and Sarai.

            You see, Abram’s life is at stake. Sarai is likely to end up in Pharaoh’s harem. Abram worries that when Pharoah discovers that Sarai is Abram’s wife, he will kill Abram and take Sarai into his royal house.

“Sarai.” “Yes, Abram.” “In case the Egyptians should ask you if you are my wife, tell them that you are my sister, ‘…so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.’”

            Sarai is silent. What can she say in this patriarchal world, where the husband rules and where the woman “plays second fiddle”—if she has the nerve. Sarai is silent. She knows: if Pharaoh wants her to be part of his harem, she will be in it either as a widow or as Abram’s sister. That’s the way it is in Egypt. Thank God that with the coming and work of the Lord Jesus Christ such arrangements are no longer determinative in the kingdom of God today! For in Christ, there is no male or female. All are one in him!

            This episode of Abram fooling the king of Egypt, playing games and giving Sarai over to royal lust and passion—and thus bringing diseases on Pharaoh and his household—is a cliff of sin that Abram failed to navigate. It is only when God intervened and turned Pharaoh’s heart and mercy toward Abram, that barren Sarai is set free from the royal harem, and Abram can continue his marital relationship with Sarai. Surely, God intervened to secure his covenant promises to Abram and Sarai.

            Thus we see that on the journey of faith, God will intervene when people and sinners such as you and me thwart his work and plan of salvation. For it is through Abram and Sarai that God would bring about his eternal purposes—NOT only for them, but for all the nations of the world, you and I included. As Paul tells us in Romans 8:31ff. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword?”

            Learn from Abram and Sarai and their journey of faith. Their journey of faith and God’s way of dealing with them are written for our benefit today.

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            So where does this powerful story leave us today? Let’s begin with Paul’s assertion or teaching to the churches in Galatia, where he reminds us that Christians—whether Jewish or Gentile in origin—are connected with Abraham. In Galatians 3:6 Paul says: “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

Like Abraham and Sarah and their offspring, you and I who are made alive in Christ through faith in him, are on a journey. On our journey of faith let’s do these things:

(1) Let’s root our lives in Christ. All God’s blessings promised to Abraham and his offspring are found in Jesus (I want to talk about that in the afternoon service when we consider Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus) Jesus is the eternal Son of God who came to save us from our sins, to reconcile all of creation, all things to himself, and to bring his reign of peace to the earth. That’s why we anchor our trust in Jesus and declare with the church of all ages: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

(2) Let’s draw upon God’s grand story of salvation. The Bible is vast in scope and reveals God as Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer of all things. The Scriptures help us find our place in relationship to God and to one another and to the world at large. The story of God’s salvation gives us hope and encouragement to persevere in a world of idols and false hope. In the midst of voices of unbelief and despair, you and I may speak the language of faith and experience the joy of salvation.

            Therefore, draw upon, participate in, and engage your lives with the story of God’s salvation. After all, will we shape our lives by the lies and illusions and false hopes of the world, or will we form our lives and navigate our journey of faith in light of God’s mighty work in Christ?

(3) Let’s never lose sight of our place before God. Rather, live humbly and walk with God in deep trust. You see, like Abram and Sarai, we live under the umbrella of God’s covenant promises. Like them, we live by faith—not sight. Like them, we muddle on—falling and rising, tuning our antenna of prayer into the Spirit of Christ. Like the men and women of faith in the days of O.T. Israel, we persevere and work toward and long for the day when God finishes his work of re-creation. Then, together with Abraham and Sarah and all the men and women of faith, we shall inherit the new creation; then we shall live with God in our midst. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!