Genesis 12:11-20

2007.Jan.14 15:53

Abusing the Blessing

Read Genesis 12:11-20 | Full Chapter

Now comes the story that makes me question the faith, common sense and human decency of Abram.

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; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 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.”
(Genesis 12:11-13, NASB)

The story is told matter-of-factly and pretty quick, but I’ll summarize anyways. Abram, Sarai, Lot, and slaves made it to Canaan. Then, poof, hey, what’s up, there’s a famine in the land. So, they go to Egypt. Abram then has an idea. His wife is beautiful and he’s afraid the Egyptians will kill him and take Sarai as a wife or concubine for some fine, upstanding Egyptian. Or, whatever. Anyway, he asks her to say that they’re siblings. She agrees. Sarai is "taken into Pharaoh’s house" (Genesis 12:15) . God makes stuff bad for Pharoah, whilst Abram enjoys financial blessings. Pharoah figures it out, sends them away, Abram the richer for it.

I’m not a big fan of Abram in this story. The Bible doesn’t seem to offer an judgement on this action, just tells the story as it is. Abram even does this again later. So, I may be completely off on my reaction to this story, but hopefully it’s useful regardless.

Abram is under God’s blessing. Even when he decieves the Pharoah and puts his wife in danger, he is blessed abundantly. But instead of letting the blessings of God strengthen his faith, at this point, he takes those blessings and does things his own way, anyway. I contend that he gains nothing from his deception, and indeed subjects his wife to a bad situation. After all, because Abram is letting his fear control him, he puts Sarai into a situation in which, had Jehovah not intervened, she would likely be given the choice between being raped (even if she consents for her husband’s sake, is that not rape, and her husband responsible?) or her husband being killed (or, most likely, both). Added to that, Abram has been promised blessing and protection by Jehovah; he has no reason to fear!

God’s blessings are not just a ‘yay for me’ gift. They are part of Jehovah’s developing my faith and relationship with him, as well as teaching me the value of obedience. Abram, in this story, has accepted the blessing but does not exhibit any faith from it. Indeed, God desired to bless others through Abram, but Abram instead brings a curse against the Egyptians who blessed him.

Like I said, the Biblical account does not explicitly comment on the morality of Abram and Sarai’s actions. Obviously, I feel comfortable applying other Biblical principals to Abram’s activities (to which I should probably have added some references). Sarai is more difficult. To simply say she should have beat sense into her husband would be blaming one of the victims of this charade; it is after all clear that the idea is Abram’s. But I have to wonder about the connection between this lack of faith and Sarai’s later lack of faith regarding the child God had promised them?

How a leader can cause pain when he or she does not walk in faith and obedience to Jehovah.