Before you let commentators of low character disparage Abraham, a man of high character, as a lying scoundrel, hear the truth about him.
Love, Justice, and Idealism
Idealism: Self-righteousness vs. God's righteousness
Love, Justice, and Idealism: Self-righteousness vs. God's Righteousness
A lecture by Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Abraham's Journey
Let us turn now to the twelfth chapter of Genesis."12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."[...]Abraham had to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go from this area that had modern conveniences out into an area that was an outpost of civilization. That had a reputation not only of being, for the most part, a primitive area but as well a decadent and a degenerate area! Where there was the most flagrant kind of contempt for law and order, and God said: this is the appointed place. Abraham therefore had to leave civilization for a barbaric, immoral, lawless situation.[...]
The Famine and Egypt
"10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee."[...]The result was that some of the princes saw her and commended her as a potential wife or member of the haram to Pharaoh, who took her in. Otherwise Abraham would have been killed and she would have been taken. The same thing would have been accomplished. God immediately smote Pharaoh's house with plagues, and we're not told how but revealed to Pharaoh the reason was. And Pharaoh, filled with terror at what had taken place and fear of Abraham for whom God had done such things, restored Sarah to Abraham. He had not touched her, we are told, and he makes a point of saying that to Abraham, and he loaded him with wealth! So that Abraham came into the situation a poor man and left rich in livestock and rich in (plates?).
Idealism vs. Biblical Realism
Now the attitude of the manichaeans was that at this point Abraham had sinned fearfully. This is the attitude also of the Scofield bible, by the way, it speaks of Abraham's lapse into sin. Augustine in the City of God in book 16, chapter 19, he wrote: "Now he did not deny that she was his wife but held his peace about it. Committing to God the defence of his wife's chastity and providing as a man against human wiles. Because if he had not provided against the danger as much as he could he would have been tempting God rather than trusting him. We have said enough about this matter against the (colonies?) of (fascist?) manichaeans."[...]The Bible is anti-idealistic, it is a realistic book. It begins with the greek reality God as absolute and utter sovereign, then it faces the fact of what man is and describes that realistically, without ideals. There's no idealisation in the bible, is there.[...]We're not saved because we are good and in fact if we think we are that's the biggest roadblock to our salvation according to scripture. We are saved when we come, as the old hymn says: nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. When we come to God and say indeed Oh Lord thy word is truth, in us there is no good thing for we have sinned in word, thought, and deed. And we accept the sentence of death {?} passed upon us in the person of Jesus Christ, and we accept him as our sin bearer who died for us. And we accept him as our federal head who rose again from the dead for us. So that in him we accept the sentence of death and in him we accept the gift of eternal life and righteousness.
God's Approval of Abraham
God did not condemn Abraham. Now we may not like the God who put Abraham in that kind of a position because it means if he could do this to Abraham he can do it to us! And that's the basic objection to the God of Abraham. But there is nothing in the scriptures that inferred for a moment that God condemns Abraham. Instead, he protected him in his course.[...]God let's Abrahams realism, he did not let Josiah's idealism... King Josiah, who was a Godly man was going to do something and expect God to help him where it was impossible. He charged in against Pharaoh when he was warned do not go against Pharaoh, God will deal with him. Stay out, save your neck. But no! He was going to be noble, he was going to make a stand, a heroic stand! And he lost his life and sealed the fate of the nation. WIth foolish idealism.
Conclusion
As Christians therefore we must stand in terms of faith and courage and realism, but we must also know that the issues of fate do not depend upon us. They depend on God, the duties are ours and the results are God's.[...]This chapter is a dividing line in scripture. As people read it their idealism comes to the fore. Or else their willingness to live in terms of the hard realities of this world under God. Let us conclude now with prayer and we'll have time for questions thereafter as well as some other date I'd like to bring to your attention.