10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”

14 It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.” 20 Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Genesis 12:10-20 (NASB) 

Faith fails

Yesterday, we saw Abram’s (Abraham’s) great faith to pick up and leave to go to a new place when God called him. Today we see what appears to be quite the opposite. He fears for his life and trusts in his wife! Why did he fail? Is there some relation to the fact of the famine? Did that cause Abram to start to fear? Fear, we know, is the opposite of faith. The main issue: Abram looked for protection and safety from his wife (“that I may live on account of you”) rather than from God. “Abram was wrong in thinking God would not provide for his needs in the place where God called him to live.” (enduringword.com)

Blessing?

Why did God allow the Egyptians to bless Abram? Why didn’t He cause them to put him in jail regardless of whether Sarai was his wife or not? Then Abram would know for sure that what he did was wrong. He may have thought he was getting off scot free. But surely his conscience was guilty.

One reason could be that God has the bigger picture in mind. His desire was to bless Abram so he could bless others. Having a lot of possessions is a good way to start a nation. We’ll see later that these (especially the servants) were necessary for some upcoming battles.

Curse consequences

God struck Egypt with “great plagues” for taking Sarai. One might respond and say, “But they didn’t know Sarai was Abram’s wife.” True, but should they even have taken his sister, like she was automatically their property? In response, one might say, “But Pharaoh blessed Abram.” True, but maybe that was to cover the guilt of their sin against him. God judged Pharaoh for the sin of taking another man’s wife, full stop.

One thing to note is that Abraham’s descendents would return to Egypt (also during a famine) and live there a few hundred years. They would be taken advantage of and made slaves. Then God would deliver them through “great plagues” and lead them to the Promised Land. 

RЯeflection

• Who are we trusting? Another way to ask that is, Who is your god? Even as faithful followers of Christ, we can still have false gods. Is it our wealth, position, personality, education, job or our own abilities that we trust in? Let’s do a spiritual inventory together.