Epic FailsSample

Today we start with the father of Israel, Abraham. A man credited with incredible faith and revered for his place in our heritage. Even so, he was still a man who made mistakes.

What's interesting is that Abram didn’t start with the makings of being the great patriarch of Israel. In fact, Abram came from a godless home in a wicked nation. Not much to start with, which makes him a perfect candidate for many of us to relate to.

We first learn of him in Genesis 12 as God calls Abram to the faith. He is living in Haran with his family when God reveals Himself to Abram and commands him to go to a new land. Along the many years Abram follows God's instructions, usually never knowing what the next step would be, his faith grows leaps and bounds through the various trials. However, there were a few bumps in the road.

Not long after Abram steps out to follow God a famine hits and he decides to take his family to Egypt where food was plentiful. The Bible is pretty clear when God spoke to Abram, but this is not one of those moments. We never see God tell Abram to go, so it's gathered that Abram made that decision on his own. Out of fear and uncertainty Abram decides to move his family to a wicked nation. This is the first step down a dangerous path, showing us that when we decide to make decisions based off of what we think is best instead of what God says is best, we wander into risky territory.

Unfortunately, Abram's poor decisions didn't stop there. He was married to the very beautiful Sarai and he was afraid he would be killed by men in Egypt who wanted his wife. So he hatched a plan to go into Egypt as brother and sister instead of husband and wife. Abram was afraid of men so he took matters into his own hands and decided to live a lie. Can you imagine claiming your spouse as a sibling and allowing them to live in a harem?!

God judges the situation and creates an opportunity for Abram and Sarai to leave untouched, thankfully. But poor Abram, sometimes you have to wonder about him. Sadly he doesn't learn from his mistake, because in Genesis 20 he does the exact same thing in another country.

In between these two circumstances God promises Abram that he will have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky at a time Abram and Sarai have no children. Eventually, Sarai convinces Abram to take matters into their own hands and Abram sleeps with another woman to conceive a child.

Abram shows a pattern of taking matters into his own hands when things get tough. Perhaps this is why God rarely showed Abram the next step--to teach him faith. As a result, perhaps it's why Abram is now known as Abraham, full of faith. The man who was willing to lay his son on the altar because he believed in God's promise to provide heirs.

Most of the time we can't see the next step and we don't know what God is up to. Perhaps you've taken matters into your own hands before and it didn't work out. Thankfully we get to have this beautiful relationship with a kind and gracious God who redeems our past for a flourishing future.