God is faithful to his promises. Abram messed up in Egypt, but his mess ups couldn’t retract the promise of God. As we see at the end of Genesis 12, God miraculously delivered Abram and Sarai out of Egypt. As Abram sat despondent, God was working. So it is in our life as well.

Genesis 12 showed us the beginning of God’s work in Abram’s life. He called him out of darkness to go to a land that he would show him later. God promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to the world. Abram believed God and went. By faith, he followed God’s call.

The next event we see, in Genesis 13, is faithful Abram making decisions of unfaith in Egypt. He lies to save himself, forgetting that God is in control of everything. His lies gain him wealth but put his wife in danger. Worried about the promises of God coming to pass, Abram exchanges God’s word for his own, and follows his heart into dangerous territory. Through all of this he learns—not for the last time—that there are no shortcuts with the promises of God. Though it may look like he’s absent, God is present in our waiting. Abram went down to Egypt a sojourner with a bright future. He came back humbled and exposed.

What would come of Abram now? Genesis 13 tells us God has more than one new beginning for his people. We see that God’s promises are not dependent upon our ability to make them come to pass; they are dependent on God alone. After Egypt, Abram saw that in a new way, and that new way led him to repentance and faith once again. That’s the path of the Christian life: faith, repentance, faith. The cycle of repentance and faith is what each of us can expect from now until the day we stand before the Lord in glory.

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