For he has not despised or abhorred

the affliction of the afflicted,

and he has not hidden his face from him,

but has heard, when he cried to him.

And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

The Bible is totally candid about the failings of those whom the Lord chose to be his servants. Abraham, the great man of faith, knew what it was to desert the way of faith, and experienced fear and fell into temptation. The Pharaoh, to Abram’s shame, administered a stern rebuke, so revealing that his code of ethics was higher than Abram had supposed. He would not wittingly have stolen another man’s wife. Now Abram must take his wife and be gone. Still in possession of the bride-price the Pharaoh had paid in flocks and herds, Abram left the country. He never ventured to Egypt again. The danger of shortage in Canaan was to be preferred to the moral and spiritual dangers he had hardly been aware of when he went to Egypt. Indeed it was a sin of omission in the first instance which had ultimately involved him in cowardice and betrayal of his wife: he had failed to draw near to the Lord, and had failed therefore to trust him, when trouble struck. The source of his danger was confidence in his own judgment. Like Abram, we have to learn that it is all too easy to find ourselves off the track, simply because we have trusted our own reasoning instead of consulting our guide. All kinds of dangers follow.

Marvellously there was a way back, for the Lord had not given up on Abram, despite his lapse, any more than he abandons his defeated servants today. Abram was allowed to leave Egypt without suffering any recriminations; unaccountably, the Pharaoh allowed him to keep all his sheep, oxen, he-asses, menservants, maidservants, she-asses, and camels (12:16), and take them back to Canaan. The only explanation was that the Lord had spoken to the Pharaoh, forbidding him to touch his ‘anointed ones’ (Ps. 105:15). The return journey brought Abram into the south of Canaan, but he was not content to stay there, for he had a mind to head for Bethel and Ai, ‘where he had made an altar at the first’ (13:4). Instinctively Abram sensed his need of forgiveness, cleansing and renewal, and he sought them at the place where he had already owned and worshipped the Lord. It is important to notice that he came back, that the way was open for him to come back, and that the Lord received him back, as the continuing story proves.