Why Miley Cyrus is "Bad" and Why Genesis 12:10-13:1 is Important

Last week I preached on Genesis 12:10-13:1. Admittedly, it’s an odd passage. In fact if ever there was a time where I would say, “I’m only preaching on this passage because I believe in the whole counsel of Scripture; otherwise I would skip it,” this was it. And yet as I continue to reflect upon these verses I am concluding more and more that they recount for us a narrative which is not only bizarre, but extremely important and relevant to us.


You may remember the narrative: Abram, the guy who will soon become Abraham, that great patriarch, father of the faith and ancestor to the faithful makes a horrible blunder. He leaves Canaan, the land promised to his descendents and heads down to Egypt with a deceitful plan. He’s going to tell everyone that his wife is his sister (apparently Abram liked sleeping on the couch.) No mention is made of the LORD God (you know, the one who created matter) from verses 10-16, apparently Abram thought he had this one under control. And so it comes as no surprise to us when things ultimately go wrong for Abram and he leaves Egypt with his tail tucked between his legs. As I said, bizarre. And yet also relevant, extremely relevant, and the lesson it teaches us, worth repeating a thousand times.


What Abram did was wrong, there’s no getting around that. And so we shake our heads and wag our fingers and say, “Bad Abram, very bad, don’t try to pawn your wife off as your sister.” But the real problem here, the real issue (and the focus of my sermon) was that what Abram does here, what is so truly detrimental is that he trusts and relies upon himself and not upon the LORD. And so rather than prayerfully seek the LORD he assumes he can lie his way out of any potential danger. He assumes that he has the strength, he has the ability and the wisdom and the good old fashioned chutzpah to care for himself and he learns that he doesn’t. We all learn that we don’t. Apart from the LORD we can accomplish nothing and furthermore we shouldn’t even try. We get very hung up on morality; good or bad, right or wrong and this can distract us from the question of worship. Are we seeking to worship God with our actions? Is the LORD’s strength working through me or am I relying on myself?


So why is this so relevant? Because it’s exactly what we read in the news everyday. We turn on the news or browse the web and we read that Miley Cyrus was twerking around on stage. Another politician had another affair. There was a shooting, a stabbing, a mugging. And we Christians respond the same way as the world, the same way we responded to Abram’s deceit, “That’s bad.” But here is where a large chasm should open up between the morality of the world and the morality of Christ followers. Because the devil’s advocate speaks up, as he is so wont to do, and asks, “Why? Why is that bad?” And it is a question to which the world has no answer. And so they hem and haw and finally decide that well, maybe Miley had her reasons, or maybe she was misunderstood, or maybe we just need to be more open-minded, and maybe twerking isn’t that big of a deal.


And it is to this that Genesis 12:10-13:1 responds. It is to this foolishness that Genesis 12:10-13:1 speaks and says there is a right and there is a wrong. There is a good and there is a bad. Good and right is living for the LORD. It is worshipping the LORD with all we are, living for him, trusting in his leading and guiding and strength in our lives. And wrong and bad is caring for ourselves. It is trusting that we know best, we can take care of ourselves and if we want to go down to Egypt with deceit on our lips or take off our clothes and dance around on stage we can because we are self sufficient. In the coming days and weeks as I am faced with decisions; what should I do, how should I act, what should I say, I will have Genesis 12:10-13:1 in mind. And I will seek to ask myself the question, “How can I here and now worship God and fully rely upon him?”

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M'Cheyne's Bible Calendar Week 32