July 12, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men. They sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.” (Genesis 12.20)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

If we read today’s verse and saw it only at face value with a literal understanding, we might easily say “Abram went to Egypt with no more and no less than he already had.” And from a tangible and fiscal perspective that would be true. But things are not always as they seem. If that sounds familiar to your experience, then you share something in common with Pharaoh. It was not Pharaoh who came out to meet Abram and his entourage of family, goods and livestock. It would have been emissaries of Pharaoh perhaps alerted by watchmen on the border of the Negev and Egypt in the Arabah. The watchmen may have seen the opportunity for their own advancement by “procuring” for Pharaoh another bride. Sarai was a most beautiful woman in the eyes of her husband; apparently in the eyes of Pharaoh’s men. Abram was bound by a fear and a custom in that situation. His fear was that the men would see with Pharaoh’s eyes a prize for the taking and keeping all to himself. Abram feared the loss of all he had if Pharaoh knew Sarai was his wife. It was better to Abram that Sarai live in the house of Pharaoh while Abram survived and prospered. What was the alternative? It was that Sarai live in the house of Pharaoh and Abram did not survive but his possessions would in the treasury of Pharoah. What Abram surrendered that day by convincing Sarai to live a lie, was the truth about God and his faith in Him. We are not privileged to the persuasive dialogue between Abram and Sarah. Maybe Abram said to Sarai, God will make a way as I have his promise. I would think if he had said this, it would have been remembered and recorded. It was not, so I believe it was not!

What did Abram surrender that day but his faith and trust in God. He put his hope in a lie instead of in the truth. He feared man more than God. Worse he put faith in his intellect instead of his spirit. In other words, Abram lost faith in himself and in God. Abram was compromised going into Egypt because of it. What was the truth is that God had not abandoned His promise to Abram. The journey to the fulfillment of the promise had to go through Egypt. Abram had to learn a lesson. It would not be his last. What did Abram learn?

Look first at what Abram’s condition was leaving Egypt. Scripture says he left with Sarai and everything he had. Pharaoh did not take anything that belonged to Abram. Abram did not have anything which God had not provided. Regardless of the work which Abram did, the compensation of goods, property and livestock all belonged to God. God had shared them not in return for Abram’s work ethic but that Abram worked knowing that God was blessing him to be a blessing. Even if it was a blessing as small as a mustard seed, the blessing would become great. Yes, I have aligned it with the teaching of Jesus who said to His disciples, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can command the mountain ‘Move from here to there!‘ and it would move; nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17.20) Abram’s obedience to continue the journey to Canaan would be like such faith. While he had family, property and livestock in abundance, taking that step of obedience planted the seed which would unlock the fullness of what God had promised. However, we must understand that, as even in our own lives, all we have first belonged to God. When Abram left Egypt at Pharaoh’s command, he did indeed take “every worldly thing” he brought into Egypt. Pharaoh feared, as a later Pharaoh would not, the power of man even though he thought of himself as a god. Pharaoh’s religion was man-made, man versus man, and so he saw the sickness as a power of affliction and dismissed Abram and all he had. Was that all that Abram had? Did Abram think for one minute that the sickness came upon Pharaoh was because of his own power?

Look then at when Abram left Egypt. Was it not also with a confirmation of his wrong and God’s right? Did Abram leave with a confirmation that he was called to live by a different rubric: trust in God for all things and be righteous and all that is needed would be provided. Again, Jesus would say the same thing to all those who listened to Him as He preached on the hillside above Capernaum. Those people did not have all that Abram had but they still received the confirmation of God’s word to provide. The Feeding of the 5000 (more like 20,000) was a confirmation of that. Having a little faith put in God would result in the blessing to be a blessing. It wasn’t merely a blessing to have more. Abram first responded to the severe drought and famine and moved upon his own volition. We do not read that God said, “Go to Egypt.” God had said, “Go to the land that I will show you.” God showed Abram Canaan, Shechem, a resting place between Bethel and Ai and the Negev. There was no call to look beyond the horizon. God was showing him a great thing. It was no small thing that God was doing. It would be like a seed of faith planted again in Abram that had the promise of more to be more of a blessing to the world beyond. Abram was in the already but not yet. Still, the thought of a seed planted to bring a blessing would become a part of the rest of the story when Abram “settled.”

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.