Bad Faith: Abram in Egypt (12:10-20)

Abram is faced with a critical choice soon after arriving in the Promised Land. A famine in Canaan causes him to depart for Egypt. Abram acts in fear rather than faith as he jeopardizes the promise of land through his actions. Likewise, his fear of losing his own life also leads him to endanger his wife. Abram passes off Sarai as his sister to ensure his own personal safety. She is then taken to the Pharaoh’s harem, which imperils the promise of seed.

Good Faith: Abram and Lot separate (13:1-18)

Back in the Land of Promise, Abram’s and Lot’s flocks have outgrown any common grazing space. In faith, Abram entrusts the solution to God’s sovereign providence, and Lot chooses the well-watered plain of the Jordan instead of the land of Canaan. After this decision, God announces to Abram that he will possess the land as far as he can see in all directions. It will be given to him and to his innumerable descendants. He is told to walk through the land—its length and breadth, for the land is to be given as God’s gift. In faith, Abram promptly builds another altar and calls on the name of the Lord.