The Blessing of Abraham

Genesis 12:1But the LORD had said unto Abram, Depart out of thy country and from thy nature and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee; 2and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. 3And I will bless those that bless thee and curse those that curse thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In Genesis the 12 chapter we see the great call of God to Abram to continue on from Haran to the land of Canaan.  Abram believed God and obeyed the Word of the Lord and entered into the land of Canaan.  His wife Sarai was barren.  When a woman was barren this was seen as a sign from the LORD that you were not blessed.  There was great stigma in not being able to bare children.  Later on she said to Abraham, "give me children lest I die!" 

When our lives are unproductive and do not pan out to be all that we thought they would be it can leave us with the feeling that we are under a cloud of defeat all the time.  I know people that as soon as they start something they expect things to go wrong.  I know people that expect failure more than they expect success.  There are those today that feel like God is not for them, but is against them.  Sarai had every reason to believe that she was cursed, and that God had no good thing for her in life.  She was barren, unproductive, unfruitful and it was a disgrace for her to be this way in their culture.

  17But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19Why didst thou say, She is my sister? I might have taken her to me to wife; now, therefore, behold thy wife, take her, and go away. 20Then Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away and his wife with all that he had.

She was a beautiful woman, and Abram was concerned that Pharaoh would want her for his palace.  So he said to Sarai, "if they ask who you are, say you are my sister."  She complied and was taken off to the palace of Pharaoh.  Did her experience change there?  NO!  After she came to the house of Pharaoh the WHOLE house of Pharaoh also became barren.  How would you feel if you brought barrenness and unproductiveness?  What would it be like for the whole house to go from fruitful to barren just because you arrived in it?   This had to be a terrible experience for Sarai.  

Yet, we know that in the end even after she had gotten past being able to bare children, she bore a son and named him Isaac.   Maybe you are getting older and you look back at your life and it looks like one failure after another, one set back after another, one heart ache after another, one broken promise after another.  Even so, stick close to God.  He can and will turn your life around if you will patiently wait upon Him.