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We mentioned last time that our repeated failure does not de-value the promises of God, but failure does have consequences. We shall look at those consequence this time.

Hebrews chapter 12 for example says that God sometimes chooses to discipline us. One of the most surprising parts of the story is that even though Abraham is seen to have failed, yet God still refers to him as a Prophet. In this passage Abraham’s failure did not erase the gifting that God had given him to be a Prophet. When Abimelech learned the truth about Sarah he must have thought of Abraham as a cowardly hypocritical charlatan or worse. But God spoke to Abimelech about  Abraham God said, I quote, “return the man's wife for to him for he is a Prophet, and he will pray for you”. God will not be seen to ignore Abraham’s sin but he would deal with it later in His way.

Abraham’s sin did not change Gods view of Abraham, he still called him a Prophet, he was still Gods man for the purpose he had chosen him for. Moreover, in all the references to Abraham in the New Testament, never once does anyone refer to these incidents. Nothing to highlight Abraham’s failure, not in Romans not in Galatian’s not even in Hebrews Chapter 11. Maybe that is why a lot of Christians don’t even know this sin occurred even once, never mind twice. This tells me God remains gracious even when we sin.

I have one more observation and I think there's a truth here that is not often understood. I pointed out earlier in the series that Abraham was a man of faith and that his life story recorded in Genesis was going to tell us how that faith his tested over and over again. The events described here are a test of Abraham’s faith.

1st Peter says that God tests our faith as if it were gold refined by fire. This is what's not often understood. God often tests our faith, and he does so to refines it. Take that imagery of refining gold, the gold doesn't change it's just that the gold is refined by having the dross and other impurities removed. What the fire does is it burns off the dross so that all that's left is the gold. The whole point made throughout this whole chapter is although Abraham was a man of faith on one hand, yet he disobeyed God on the other, but through his life God burns off the dross, leaving him better in the process. Which is why the New Testament writer use him as an example of faith.

We will see later in this book of Genesis he become a man who really has matured in faith. But he didn't start out like that. God told him to leave Ur and leave his family and he promptly leaves but takes his father and brother with him. In the beginning he had faith that was mixed with doubt and disobedience, and on some occasions even deception. God lets him suffer the consequences of his actions to burn off the dross so that what's left is pure.

I think that's what's often going on in our lives right when we are struggling or suffering.   God is trying to burn out the dross until he brings us to a point where we walk away from a situation saying, I'll never do that again. Which means we have become more spiritually mature.

Remember this account of things was written by Abraham himself. Why did Abraham write such a negative view of himself and record it here? The lesson is the man who trusts in God is refined and blessed. I lied, he says, I deceived people, but I want you to know that I learned from this, and you will too if you trust the Lord.

To sum this up Abraham is saying, learn from my mistakes, don’t try, and deceive people or the Lord. I think that's what Abraham learned, and I think that's what we all learn as we go through the fire. God uses the fire to burn off the dross so that our faith can grows stronger and reach a greater level of spiritual maturity.