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Genesis Chapter 12-13
Abraham, his calling, his trip to Egypt, and his splitting with Lot
Leadership Lessons: Decision Making, Being a good team mate, Following a strong leader
The first part of these chapters talks about the calling of Abram by the Lord. Can you imagine what it would be like to be recruited by GOD! In reality, we all are, but I can imagine that this occasion was probably slightly more obvious than when we are recruited. The key is that Abram listened and decided to follow.
Many great leaders would be successful no matter what their situation, but MOST have had an opportunity present itself to them that they took advantage of. Abram was one of those leaders. He was told that if he believed in the Lord, and followed him, his people would be numbered as many as the sand in the desert. What a great offering.
Abram gathers his family and begins to follow the Lord. The next leg of the journey is a conversation about future plans. You could almost call it a Biblical Mission Statement. The Lord shows Abram the land of Caanan and explains that it will belong to his descendants. What a great gifts, but the key still remained, that Abram needed to remain loyal to his leader and carry out his vision.
There is an interesting story in these chapters about a trip to Egypt that Abram took during a famine. There is a decision that is made that I bet, if given the benefit of hindsight, Abram would have played differently. He has a beautiful wife, Sahri, who he is sure the Egyptians will find attractive. He figures that they will kill him if they think she is her husband, so he decides to tell them that she is his sister. Lying is never a good idea, especially when you are the leader. Your followers will see that you use deceit in order to try to gain an advantage. In this case, the pharaoh, who thought that Abram was the brother of a woman he was going to take for his wife, gave him significant material wealth.
All was going along just fine, until the Lord, being the supreme leader that he is, decided to make things right. First, he punished Pharaoh for taking Sahri for his wife. He put a plague over all of Egypt. He made it clear to the Egyptians why the plague had befallen them, which led them to confront Abram. This resulted in Abram and his family getting kicked out of Egypt in the middle of a famine.
So now, Abram has angered the Lord, by lying to the Pharaoh, He has angered the Pharaoh, because he deceived him, which resulted in Pharaoh making a bad decision that impacted his relationship with God. Most importantly, Abram jeopardized his relationship with his followers, most significantly his wife, by making them go along with the lie.
I think there is a magnified penalty that leaders pay when they lie. The reason is that all true leadership power relies on the trust between the leader and the follower. When a follower is asked to lie to help a leader gain a position, there is always a thought in the back of their head that if they could lie to someone else and use me to do it, they could lie to me as well.
The leadership lesson here is that if you are not good enough to lead by being yourself, then no matter how long you mask your weaknesses or shortcomings, you will eventually be found out, and the consequences could be drastic.
In this case, the Lord was looking out for his follower and had a back up plan. However, there were additional penalties that had to be paid. The partnership of Abram and Lot had to separate in order for there to be the possibility of both of their families prospering.
Any time partners have to split, there is tension on how the property will be split. In this case, Abram took an opportunity to take a leadership “jump”. He allowed Lot to pick the path he wanted to take. One-way was fertile and civilized; the other was more of a wilderness. Lot took the easy path for himself and left Abram with the wilderness. I believe that this exemplifies the confidence that Abram had in his relationship with the Lord. It also showed compassion for his brother, by allowing him to take an easier path.
The Lord rewarded Abram for this decision by promising to give him all of the land that he could see in every direction. Abram was a strong leader, and it is quite possible that Lot would not have been able to lead his clan in the wilderness and sustain growth. Abram should be applauded for seeing an opportunity to really stretch and take a risk, by choosing a harder path, and have it really pay off.
What opportunities do you have that might be a risk? Do you have a strong leader you can trust to help direct you through the risk? Have you built the trust necessary with your people to be sure that they will follow you when the going gets tough (wait till we get to Moses). Opportunity and Risk is like the wilderness, but true leaders aren’t invigorated by the easy, tame, and civilized, they thrive on discovery, exploration, and innovation. Take a lesson from Abram and if you can answer yes to the above questions….Choose the wilderness.
