This is part 19 of a series exploring how the Bible teaches that Jesus was greater than all who came before him.  This series is not intended to be exhaustive.  The topic of Jesus as “greater than” or “better” than those who came before him is inexhaustible.  Libraries could and should be written on this subject.  But we have attempted in these pages to explore what such a rich subject would look like. (Each entry is excerpted from There Is No Greater Love)

Christ Greater than Abraham

Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there because the famine was severe in the land. So it came about that, when he came near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman of a beautiful appearance.  When the Egyptians will see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’  Then they will kill me, but you they will let live.  Please say that you are my sister in order that it may go well with me because of you—that my life might be spared because of you” (Gen 12:10-13).

Abraham was given a promise that he would have a fertile land and a fertile wife. But when Abraham left Mesopotamia, his wife Sarah was barren, and when he came to the land of promise, it was suffering a great famine.  Circumstances that are contradictory to God’s promises are the foundry in which faith is forged.

Abraham’s faith failed him, though, during his sojourn in Egypt.  He endangered the promise of a holy seed when he instructed his wife to tell the Egyptians she was his sister. This falsehood placed her in jeopardy of being taken into pharaoh’s harem.  Abraham’s deception was a great sin (Gen 12:11-13), and it resulted in the father of our faith being justly reproved by the king of Egypt (Gen 12:18-20).

How different is the love of Jesus toward us as His spouse!  Abraham risked his bride’s purity to save his own life.  In contrast, Jesus Himself suffered death in order to restore the purity of His bride.  Abraham’s treachery brought the plagues of the judgment of God’s wrath upon Egypt (Gen 12:17). In contrast, Jesus suffered by taking the wrath of God upon Himself in order to bring God’s blessing upon the Gentiles.  Abraham’s faith lapsed during the period of his sin in Egypt.  But Jesus’ faith endured and provided atonement for our sin.  Faithful Abraham failed.  But Jesus’ faith never will!