Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. (Gen 12,10)

It was Abram's experience that since he had followed his new God, the things only got better. But this all ended when the famine arrived in the land.

So far, God has led him (by voice, vision, or strong consciousness — whatever we call it, it was a form of "revelation") where to go. But now when Abram experienced that following God's guidance did not necessarily mean that he would not have problems, he decided to react to the unfavorable situation himself. He did not ask God what to do, and if so, he received no answer. If he had already been a man of faith, whom he later became, he would have waited and not acted hastily. But he was gripped by inner restlessness, and so were the other members of the caravan, who insisted that something be done now.

Abram did not yet understand that the land God had given him had significance in God´s sovereign plan for the world, and that God wanted to lead him to a special way of grasping his gift. It is the same with his gifts up to this day. Abram's faith had not yet reached the necessary level to be able to face difficulties of this scope, let alone others. In response to a critical situation, a person usually descends a level lower and reacts with shortcuts (the people around wonder: what has only happened to him that he is like that?). Which, of course, is the beginning of a fall on the path of following God.

And so the caravan began to pack up to leave the place where God had brought them.

 Now there was a famine in the land. (Gen 12,10)

Abram was confused. So far his pursuit of a new God has been much more successful for him than he thought before. This God accompanied him and brought him here - we do not know how, but we know that he showed him the way ("go to the land which I will show you". 12,3) Awareness of the special protection, the knowledge that there is a supernatural power which benefits him, protects him on his journey - all this has not completely disappeared but it was difficult for him to understand the contradiction between what he was feeling inside and how things looked from the outside.

Of course, Abram asked himself whether he could not be wrong and if he did not make a mistake - is he really in the right place? But no matter from which point of view he looked at it, he could only say there was no doubt. He only went where this God led him, he was not mistaken. After all, he testified it to him again when he appeared to him recently.

So it was no mistake. But some mistake is here anyway, and a big one - things don't work anymore. If Abram was not mistaken, that means only one thing - this God is not as powerful, perhaps even not omnipotent, as Abram nearly believed. He had witnessed that people from the surrounding tribes had changed their idol for another one when they discovered that it did not bring them the protection, success, and victory in the struggles they expected. Or if they did not change, then at least added to the existing god a new one, from which they expected more. Apparently that's the way it is with gods. Everyone worships something, but there are times when you have to help yourself alone.

So there seems to be no choice than to leave the country and go somewhere where there is still abundance. If there is a certainty in this world in this respect, it is for no reason called the "granary of the world" - Egypt.

He looked at one of the last altars he had built in the country. He knew that he would build no altar of the Lord in Egypt, and he felt a little strange at the thought of leaving. It was as if he - by means of the altars - anounced to the inhabitants of Kannan something he himself did not quite believe any more.

Now there was a famine in the land. (Gen 12,10)

The turning point came, and the magic God used to help him with had apparently ceased to work.

Of course, Abram noticed the connection between obeying God and how he grew more and more prosperous. He first entered an uncertain ground when he and his family left Ur for ever. But things got better and better, until Haran. There, where he grew economically, he made a big decision between the early and the eternal. For the first time, he "wrote off" what he had received from God and went to a less civilized country, to greater uncertainty. So far, following God has paid off, he got rich and he did well. If that had been all he cared about, he would not have left Haran. What moved him to leave? Was it obedience to God or rather the fact that he still did not reach the fullness of the promise - he did not have the promised land and the descendant? In the light of how we see his character so far and the changes to which he matured only later on, we cannot not have much illusions. For now, Abram was able to lose his earthly things - because he expected to find (earthly) things even better.

Although it is not easy to accept, on our path of pursuit of God we are sometimes unexpectedly derailed, in other words: God uses "hunger" for our growth. If there is something we really miss in life, where our needs are pushing us, it may be the place where God wants to bless us. But he wants to do it in his own special way, leading us to inner transformation. As A. W. Tozer once said: "If God is to bless a man, he must first overcome him." However, Abram did not yet know these strange ways of God - so far everything went smoothly, simply and from Abram's point of view it was heading towards the goal. It couldn't last long, and the offspring God had promised would come, he told himself.

The crisis therefore shook him deeply. What will he do now that everything he has received from God seems to run away from him? Things have stopped working, the promised land is becoming uninhabitable... Abram did not yet fully know the faith of which he was to become a father. He therefore responded with a shortcut. It was the crises, this one and many others that will follow, that would lead him to the knowledge and acquisition of real wealth that he can still pass on to us even today, four thousand years later.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. (Jam 2,23)

At the first level of his relationship with God, a man is in the position of a child. The child enjoys the fact that it is loved, it does not return anything to the parents for their care - except for a smile, a nice look - it is enough that it is theirs and simply exists, and it should be so. In the same way, one expects from God help, support and comfort in difficult moments, so that he can feel and experience his love.

But just as in life, one is to grow in his relationship to God. The next level is the one of a friend. Friendship must not be based on what the other one can bring me. It is an intimate relationship, primarily a matter of mutual understanding, even if it does not bring any immediate advantage: "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." (Pr 17:17) As soon as other elements insinuate into it (such as efforts to sell household cleaners or insurance), it brings about a damage, because it is clear that one party wants to use it for its own profit.

He who is in the position of a friend in relation to God no longer comes to him because he expects to gain something. But that doesn't mean he doesn't get anything! As Abram grew in his relationship, he received much, more and more, but this gradually ceased to be the reason why he followed God. (In current jargon, we could say that the more he prospered, the more he abandoned the prosperity teaching.) In the beginning, however, the fulfillment of his needs was a strong impetus, and as everyone else he expected it from his idols first. Would he have not chosen them if they could have given him more than this invisible God?

Another level of relationship is a co-worker relationship. Most people who are still struggling in their relationship with God at the level of a child want to become co-workers in order to earn God's friendship and experience the level of reciprocity. Man wants to present God his commitment, success, his deeds, so as to receive praise and acceptance. It leads to an endless cycle: unfulfillment - efforts - the expected fulfillment has not come - unfulfillment - even greater effort - again emptiness - unfulfillment - effort - ...

One must become a friend of God before a servant of His.
 

Abram could have had a pretty clear idea of ​​what a blessing was until he arrived in Kannan. Since leaving Uru, he had prospered better and more economically, and his family had become a "marching farm" that had recruited more and more workers (at that time, it practically meant buying slaves). This shows that they had a surplus of income at their disposal, which Abram reinvested. However, he also grew mature immensely from a human point of view. He was obviously changing, his relationship with God opened up a new world for him, he dealt with thoughts and questions he certainly did not have while he worshiped idols. Now being a leader in their new religion, he practically took over the spiritual leadership of the family from his father and became the head of the tribe.

Meanwhile, Abram knew the relationship with God on the first level, the level of the child. At this level, one expects God to help him, to prevent him, to solve his problems, to care, to bless, which all in all means in his understanding "to do me well as I now understand it and expect."

It's so natural - in today's jargon, we would say that it was a relationship that Abram could enjoy with full satisfaction until a certain moment. But as much as "enjoyment" is for many the pinnacle of their faith, Abram should not have remained at this point. He was to grow from a child and become a friend of God (James 2:23). This is a relationship of another level, in which there is mutual knowledge, understanding and trust in each other. The child counts on his father's help, but cannot understand him as a man; on the other hand, friends share their intentions, secrets, understanding of things.

Character and faith grow in trials, and Abram therefore had to enter them if he was to be further transformed.