Abram and Sarai: Are We There Yet?

5th in a series on Men and Women in the Bible dealing with waiting, disappointment and unemployment.

Abram and Sarai: Are We There Yet?

What excuses have you made today?  “I can’t get my foot in the door.”  “Ageism is alive and well.”  “They keep hiring people with higher degrees than me.”  “Their vision is short-sighted and distorted.”  Those have been my excuses as to why I haven’t gotten the job that I wanted.  What they amount to are examples of blame, whining and pride.  Also, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I am completely forgetting that God is sovereign and He is working out His plan in my life.  

In Genesis 12 we read the story of Abram(his name means ‘high father’) and God speaking to him out of the blue, telling him to move to an undesignated location.  At 75 years old, he had many legitimate excuses for not going.  And there were some in-congruencies in the revelation that, as a neighbor, I might have raised:  “You’re old”, “How can you be a great nation? You don’t have any children, despite the meaning of your name.” “It’s inconsiderate of your father and your aging wife.”

Somehow, Abram saw beyond the excuses and objections and according to the writer of Hebrews, he says, "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”  He took the first step and left the land of his fathers and  enters ‘the promised land’ only to find it occupied.  And God reiterates His promise “I will give this land to your children.”  So much faith is required.  A land that is already occupied and children to a man and wife well beyond child-bearing years.  

In the world of unemployment and waiting our faith is often tested in similar ways.  We wonder if our age is a factor.  We second-guess our skills and knowledge.  We may think that we’re the only one going through this and we engage in a pity party.  For Abram, the testing had only just begun.  He certainly wasn’t fully prepared for what he would experience and he made a lot of mistakes.  

I am encouraged, in a strange sort of way, that the writer of Genesis doesn’t hide the fact that Abram and Sarai consorted to deceive Pharaoh by lying about their relationship.   Isn’t it encouraging that who we now know as a great man of faith, made some stupid mistakes?  But also know that there are always consequences to our decisions.  Their choices affected Pharaoh’s kingdom… “everybody in the palace got seriously sick.”  

What lessons can be gleaned from a story 4,000 years old?  What principles can we apply to our current situations?

1. Just as God tested Abram’s loyalty by giving him a bodacious mission, there comes a time when an employer will test our loyalty by giving us more and more responsibility.
2. Abram was called to leave his home for a new adventure.  When is the right time to leave a job?  Following a layoff I’ve often heard, “That was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
3. Do we use age as an excuse or see it used as a barrier?
4. Have you ever stayed in a job which failed the integrity test, but  were afraid of your own financial security to leave? 
5. Have you envisioned your job as not just about yourself but so that you might be a blessing to others?  
6. How have your choices affected others?
7. How have you and other followers of Christ integrated your faith into your work life? 
8. No job is permanent.  Upon what is your security based?  
9. Do we fear people more than God?  Do we compromise out of fear rather than trusting God? 
10. When rebuked for doing something wrong, how do you handle it?

Abram learned from his mistakes, was forgiven and went on to be remembered as a man of God.  May we do the same.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:8-10