Genesis 12:10-20 ‘What not to do when you are afraid of people’

It was an embarrassing moment of failure.  I had just started college.  I had decided that I was going to take my faith seriously.  I had joined the Christian Union.  I was now walking across the front square with two of my new Christian friends going to the CU when a guy from my geography class bounded up to us.  ‘Where are you going?’  I froze!  He did not know I was a Christian.  I was scared to be seen as a religious freak.  So, I let God down.  I pointed to some buildings and said, ‘that way’.

Why do we let God down?  Why do we keep our mouths shut when we should be telling the world we belong to Him?  Why do we avoid conversations about those issues where the Bible offends the world?  Often, it’s because we’re scared of people.  Not because they are going to cut our heads off—like happens our courageous brothers and sisters in some parts of the world.  It’s just that we are like the pharisees, who loved the approval of people more than the praise of God (John 12:43).

This morning Abram sets us an example of what not to do when we are afraid of people.

Being afraid of people makes us self-centred

There a was a famine in the land.  So, Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while (10a).  Was Abram right to go to Egypt?  We are not told.  However, there is no sign that he enquired of God before making his decision.  It’s not always easy to know where God is directing us, but we make too many decisions with little prayer or the advice of wise Christian friends.

As they enter Egypt Abram explains to Sarai that her beauty puts him at risk.  ‘If the Egyptians see how beautiful you are and realise that you are my wife they will kill me, but they will let you live’ (12b).  ‘Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake’ (13).

Being afraid of people makes Abram self-centred.  He doesn’t say, ‘that it might go well with us’ but ‘that it might go well with me.’  We are often afraid of what people think of us because we are concerned about our image or our comfort.  Fear of people isn’t centred around the reputation of Jesus.  It is centred around our reputation.  It doesn’t show concern for others—like when we give the impression that something was someone else’s fault not ours. 

Being afraid of people comes from not trusting God’s promises

God had said that He was going to give Abram descendants.  At this stage Abram has no children.  So, if God is going to be true to His word then Abram is not going to be killed during this stay in Egypt.  The promise of God also implied protection for Abram: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse’ (3a).  Abram is simply not trusting the promises of God.

Sometimes we keep our mouths shut about Jesus because we are not taking His promises seriously.  We are afraid of making a fool of ourselves.  Didn’t Jesus promise His disciples that He would give them the words to say?  Doesn’t that promise apply to us?  I don’t fully know how it works in my life because I often feel that I have not explained myself clearly, but Jesus can take our words and make them clear in the minds of those we talk to.

I don’t know if John Piper still jogs.  He has recently turned eighty.  But when he was jogging he would carry booklets or copies of John’s Gospel in his pockets.  He would pray for guidance for someone to talk to about Jesus and for the help of the Holy Spirit to know what to say.  If he saw a man standing on his own he would approach them and say, ‘Good morning!  My name is John.  I run through the neighbourhood and pray for people.  Is there something I can pray for you?’  Sometimes these conversations would give John the opportunity to speak about the hope he has in Jesus.  He often came away from those encounters frustrated that he had not said things better.  But he knew that the Holy Spirit had awakened compassion in him for the lost, that he had been given courage to overcome his anxiety and that Jesus had fulfilled His promise to teach Him what to say.

Being afraid of people causes us to keep secrets

Abram instructs Sarai to say that she is his sister.  There is some truth in that, as they share the same father.  But while it may be true, it is not the whole truth.  He hides the important detail that she is his wife.  Being afraid of people causes us to keep secrets.

Maybe you are protecting your image.  Maybe you fear what people would think if they knew what you are really like.  You are happy to talk about your successes but you never admit your failures.  You have never told anyone about those sins that so regularly get the better of you.  It leaves you feeling empty.  There is a part of us that needs to be known.

One of the blessings of gospel community is that we get to confess our sins to each other.  Confessing our sins gives us the opportunity to have someone remind us that we are forgiven people.  Confessing our sins is a great way to tackle our pride.  Confessing our sins keeps us accountable and allows people tell us that Christ really can change us.

Being afraid of people damages our witness

In that culture a woman without her father was under the protection of her brother.  If anyone was interested in marrying Sarai they would have to seek Abram’s permission first.  He can turn them away.  Although Abram had not counted on the pharaoh’s interest in her.  Pharaoh needs no one’s permission to take any woman!

Abram can’t protect Sarai, but Yahweh can.  He afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife (17).  Abram had been called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.  He only brought misery to these Egyptians.  Abram’s deceit damaged his witness.  He leaves Egypt in disgrace.  We won’t be able to bless people with the good news about Jesus if we are crippled by the fear of what they might think of us.

But God was not finished with Abram.  At the beginning of the next chapter, Abram builds an alter and calls on the name of Yahweh (13:4).  Yahweh won’t give up on his fearful servants.  

Conclusion:  What does Jesus feel about me when I am afraid of people?

One of the greatest examples of someone caving in to the fear of people is when the apostle Peter denies knowing Jesus.  Luke’s gospel records that at that moment Jesus turned and looked at Peter (Luke 22:61).  How we understand that look will determine what we believe Jesus thinks of us when we are too afraid to speak up for Jesus.

Spurgeon says, ‘I think that it was a heart-piercing look and a heart-healing look all in one—a look which revealed to Peter the blackness of his sin, and also the tenderness of his Master’s heart towards him.’  ‘Despite Peter’s sin, Christ would not abandon him.  In Peter’s darkest hour, the eyes of mercy peered out Caiaphas’s window and looked on him.  For Peter, and every other Christian, all God’s acts are mediated through him in love.  His love was meant to pierce and heal the apostle’ (Erik Raymond).   

It’s appropriate to be sad when we find ourselves letting Jesus down.  But we must not stop at this godly sorrow.  Indeed, we must make sure we’re not just nursing wounded pride.  The look in Jesus’ eyes says, ‘I still love you.  You have denied me, but I still look at you as mine.  I love you with an everlasting love, and even though you have deserted me, I am looking for you, and I am expecting to receive you back.  I have not turned my back of you’ (adapted from Surgeon).  

Remember that there is always more mercy in Jesus than sin in us!