Sins of Believers

ABRAM “went down.” When we do not trust God, we also go down. As a result of Abram’s failure to trust God, he does one of the lowest, most despicable, meanest things we find recorded anywhere in the Bible. One sin always leads to another. We’ve mentioned this incident from Genesis chapter 12, earlier:

And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” – Genesis 12:11-13.

Here we have an incident that is tremendous in its lesson. A believer who is out of fellowship with God can do meaner and lower things than the sinner who has never been saved. That happens to be the experience of many of us, and we know that it is absolutely true. When we become saved we are new creatures, but God does not repair the “old man,” or do a thing to it. He does not even try to repair it, because that which is “born of the flesh is flesh” and will never be any different. He lets others try it. We have the evidence here that Abram in a moment of doubt showed that the old nature and the old doubts were still present within him: he went down into Egypt. Other Biblical characters had similar experiences. We have but to recall the case of Noah and his drunkenness, David and his sin, Solomon and his wives, Peter and his denial of our Lord. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

All these things were written for our admonition and for our instruction. The record of Abram is placed here in order that we may profit by his experience. May the Lord bless to our hearts the lessons from the life of this saint of God. May we profit by his experiences, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not make the same mistakes that Abram or the other saints of God have made.

Only trust Him.

Adapted and modified excerpts from Studies in the Life of Abraham by M. R. De Haan (1891-1964)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.