HOMILETICS. Yer. 10.-T/u descent into Egypt. I. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S F.A.LL, 1. Experiencing disappoin:tment. Arrived in Canaan, the patriarch must have felt his heart sink as Le surveyed its famine-stricken fields and heathen population ; in respect of which it was so utterly unlike the fair realm of his imaginings. So God educates his children, destrcyir.g their hopes, blighting their expectations, breaking their ideals, "having provided some better thing for them," some loftier and more beautiful ideal than they have ever ventured to conceive. 2. Declining in fait/i. In presence of the famine the patriarch must have found himself transfixed upon the horns of a terrible dilemma. The promised land, to all appearance, was only fit to be his grave, like the wilderness, in later years, to his descendants. To return to Ur or Haran was impossible without abandoning his faith and renouncing Jehovah's promise. The only harbour of refuge that loomed before his anxious vision was the rich corn-1:md of Egypt, and yet going into Egypt was, if not exhibiting a want of trust in God, voluntarily running into danger. So situated, unless the spiritual vision of the patriarch bad su:ffered a temporary obscuration he would not have quitted Canaan. A calm, steady, unwavering faith would have perceived that the God who had brought him from Chaldrea could suppo1t him in Palestine, even should his flocks be unable to obtain pasture in its fields ; and, besides, would have remembered that God had promised Canaan only to himself, and not at all to his herds. 3. Going into danqer. The descent into Egypt was attended by special hazard, being cal- culated not only to endanger the life of Abram himself, but also to jeopardise the chastity of Sarai, and, as a consequence, to imperil the fulfilment of God's promise. Yet this ,ery course of action was adopted, notwithstanding its peculiar risks; another sign that Abram was going down the gradient of sin. Besides being in itself ,uong to court injury to our own persons, to expose to hurt those we should protect, or occupy positions that render the fulfilment of God's promises dubious, no one who acts in either of these ways need anticipate the Divine £avow· or protection. Saints who rush with r,pen eyes into peril need hardly look for God to lift them out. 4. Ra;orting to worldly poluy. Had Abram and Sarai felt persuaded in their own ruinds that the proposed journey southwards entirely met the Divine approval, they would simply have committed their way to God without so much as thinking of "crooked wnys." But instead they have recourse to a miserable little.subterfuge of their own, in the shape of a specious equivocation, forgetting that he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, and that only they whom God keeps are perfectly secure. 5. Pradising deception. Cunningly concocted, the little scheme was set in operation. Crossing into Egypt, the Mesopotamian sheik and his beautiful partner represented themselves as brother and sister. It is a melancholy indication of spiritual declen- sion wJ.1en a saint condescends to equivocate, and a deplorable proof of obliqc..,;ty of moral vision when he trusts to a lie for protection. 6. Looking after self. Anxious about !,is wife's chastity, the patriarch, it would appear, was much more solicitous aLc,ut Lis own safety. The tendency of sin is to render selfish; the spirit of religion ever l~ads men to prefer the interests of others to their own, and in particular to esteem a wife's happinP,Ss and comfort dearer than life. 7. Ga1tglit in ltis own toils. Ott ,m. 10--20,] 'l'HE BOOK OF GENESIS. 191
The thing wiiich Abrnm fcnred actually came upon him, Sarai'e l~auty wM :i,lmired and coveted and Snrai's person was conducten to the royal harem. So God fre- fJllently "di~nppoints the devices of the crafty," allo-:ve transgressors to be taken in their own net, and causes worlclly policy to outwit itself. II. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S PR0TF:C'rION. 1. God went down witli Abram into Egypt. Considering the patriarch's beh~vio~r, it would not have been surpris- ing hnd ho been suffered to go alone. But God 1s always better to his people than their deserts, and, in particular, does not abandon them even when they gri,:ve him by their sins and involve themselves in trouble by their folly. On the contrary, it is at such times they most require his presence, and so he never lerives them nor forsakes them. 2. God protected Sarai in Pliarctoh's house. Not perl,aps for Sarni's or Abram's sake, wbo scarcely deserved consideration for the plight into which they had fallen, but for his own nnme's sake. The fulfilment of his own promise and the credit, as it were, of his own character necessitated measures for securing Sinai's honour. Accordingly, the house of Pharaoh was subjected to heavy strokes of affliction. So God can protect his people in every time and place of danger, anrl always finds a reason in himself, when he is able to discover none in them, for inter- posing on their behalf. 3. God delivered botli in his own time and way. To all God's afflicted ones deliverance sooner or later comes. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations," and how to make a way of escape when his tim°' arrives. III. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S REPROOF. 1. By his own conscience. Pro- foundly ashamed must the patriarch have been when he reflected on Sarai's peril in the house of Pharaoh, and on his own craven spirit which had bartered her good name for the sake of saving his own skin. It is difficult to harmonise with conscien- tious qualms his acceptance of the monarch's gifts. But if Abram hau any manhood left after parting with Sarai, besides being humiliated before God for his wickednes,;, he must have been dishonoured in his own eyes for what looked like selling a wife'~ purity for flocks and herds. No doubt conscience exacted vengeance from the guilty soul of the patriarch, as it does from that of every sinner. 2. By his unbelieving neighbour. Though not entirely guiltless, Pharaoh was unquestionably less hlame- worthy than Abram. And yet Abram was a saint who had been favoured with Divine manifestations and enriched with Divine promises; whereas Pharaoh was a heathen, a consideration which must have added keenness to the pang of shame with which the patriarch listened to the monarch's righteous rebuke. So Christians by their worldly craft, mean duplicity, and gross selfishness, if not by their open wickedness, occasionally expose themselves to the merited censures of irreligious neighbours. Leam-1. That the best of men may fall into the greatest of sins. 2. That the worst of sins committed by a saint will not repel the grace of God. 3. That the severest of the world's censures are sometimes deserved by the Church.