Based on Genesis chapter 12
Abram Goes Down to Egypt
'Hello, my name's Abram, and I'm married to Sara.'
'I want to tell you how God gave us something we'd longed for, for many years. We thought we’d get it very quickly, but that wasn't God's plan. Yet as we waited, we learnt so many lessons, and especially how we ought to keep trusting God!'
'I remember it all so well, we thought we were happy in the city of Haran, with lots to do and see. We were near our family and content enough, although my father had died recently. But looking back now, I can see how much we were missing.' (PAUSE)
'Sara still gets cross with me when she remembers how she found out that something was happening. One day she heard a commotion outside her room. And as she looked out, there I was rushing around and telling the servants to start packing, saying we were going to leave! It was the first she'd heard about it! I can still remember her voice! 'Abram! ABRAM! What's going on? Why are you telling everyone to start packing?'
'Sara, you'll never believe it!' I said.
'Try me,' she replied.
'God spoke with me Sara! He told me that we have to leave this place and go to another country that He’ll show us.’
'But we're happy here Abram, why would God want us to leave?
'Sara, it’s so wonderful. He made me a promise, something we've wanted for a very very long time. (P) He promised us - a son.'
Then she got all upset. 'Oh Abram, please don't. You know I can't talk about it anymore. He hasn't given us any children in all the years we've been married. (PAUSE) Did He really promise?'
'Sara, He promised me that I’ll become the father of a great nation. - - - - - - -He promised to bless me and make me famous, and that I’d be a blessing to others. If anyone curses me, He’s going to curse them, and if anyone blesses me, He’ll bless them. He promised that one day every family on earth would be blessed through me. (PAUSE) But (PAUSE) we have to leave this country and our family and go to the place He's gonna show us. (P) I can't be that father if we don't go.'
Sara couldn't believe it. 'All our married life we've wanted children Abram, but God hasn't let us have any. He's given us wealth, but what good is wealth when you don't have any children to leave it to? But now, God really has promised?' I nodded. - 'Time to start packing!'
'We both thought we’d have the child very soon, but that wasn't God's plan. I think what was most important to God was that we loved and obeyed Him. Because over the following years we learnt so much about God, and that even when we couldn't see the answer, we had to trust Him that He would keep His promise.'
‘So we left Haran with our servants, cattle, sheep and shepherds. Oh, and with my nephew Lot who came with us with all his - family, servants, cattle, sheep and shepherds. And we travelled to a beautiful and fertile land called Canaan, which was the place God wanted us to go to!' (P)
'Not long after we’d arrived, God appeared to me again and promised that He would give this land to 'our descendants’. There it was again, His special promise to 'our descendants’! But I was getting to be an old man now, and Sara, even though she was so beautiful, was also getting older. And we couldn't have ‘descendants’ to inherit the land if we didn't have a child. We just had to keep trusting that God would keep His promise and we would have a son.'(P+)
'I wish I could say that I did always keep trusting God, but Sara often reminds me that when things started to get a little difficult - I failed. You see there was a famine in Canaan- nowhere near enough food and water for us all. And so we made a little – err - 'trip' down to Egypt!
You see, God had told us to go to Canaan. But what was I supposed to do when things started to go wrong in Canaan? There was a famine! The sheep were dying...
