There's a way back to God ...

"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" (Genesis 12:10).

There was a famine in the land - When we are walking with God, we don't always walk straight into favourable circumstances.

For Abram, going down to Egypt was the beginning of a downward slope. Egypt was a place of testing - and he failed the test. He lied, and he brought himself - and his God - into disrepute. 

Abram failed God, but God didn't fail Abram. The Lord brought him back to the place of worship -  back to the place where he had been before he had gone down to Egypt: "He went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord" (Genesis 13:3-4).

As we read about Abram in Egypt (sinning against the Lord) and Abram in Bethel (worshipping the Lord), we learn that our God is the God of new beginnings: "There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, There’s a door that is open that you may go in. At Calvary’s cross is where you begin, when you come as a sinner to Jesus" (E H Swinstead).