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Studies in Genesis, Abraham Eyes Egypt, Lesson XXIX, Genesis 12:14-20
In our study of the life of Abraham we last left him in the Promised Land of God in the midst of a famine.
Abraham, having many, many responsibilities and many souls and many animals to provide for chose to go to Egypt, a so called famineless land for its water needs were provided by the vast river Nile.
Abraham, in leaving the Promised Land is simply walking in the way of the world and seeking the world’s help for he has not yet learned that this God who directed him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and to leave his family is the God of helps.
For walking in faith puts your eyes on God for help, thus taking them off of this world.
We know this from our New Testament which tells those of faith, Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.
All your cares, not just some of them, leaving the world to care for you in the major things, the things you can hardly imagine God tending to.
And so Abraham is to learn to seek God’s care for his wife and his servants and his animals especially in the midst of famine, and to not look to the world for help.
This is another important lesson on the walk of faith.
God had brought him to a place wherein dependence upon God, and not on the things of this world, was in the very nature of the place.
It was not a place like Egypt where the work of the hands and the natural assets such as abundant water supply satisfied so easily the needs of the people.
We read in our last lesson of God’s mind concerning this in Deuteronomy 11:10-12:
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: 11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12 A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
What a wonderful lesson this is on the walk of faith for in a land as God describes herein, needs depend on God’s supply.
God does not place Abraham in the land of plenty but in a land of want and He expects that want to be supplied by Him through faith.
God had brought Abram to a land whereby God was the husbandman who cared for it and that care was accessed by faith.
What a lesson this is where we learn that God places you in situations whereby your problems are to be solved by calling upon the hand of God for your hand will only reach so far.
So Abram’s decision to go to Egypt did not stem from faith in God’s hand of provision.
Isn’t it good thinking that if God calls you to a land that He will provide in that land?
Where did Abram build his altars?
All were in Canaan and none were in Egypt.
God will not get in your way when you choose to depart from the walk of faith but remember you are trading the provision of God for the provision of the world and the world will not endure.
So Abram chooses to depart from the walk of faith for it seems to him there is no provision upon this walk as he looks longingly at the caravans coming from the south.
For the world always entices along the walk of faith and shows its glittering, sparkling and dazzling things with the intention of luring the eyes away from the straight walk.
But again this choice argues against the consequences.
The allure is too much for Abram as he sees the easy way in Egypt in contrast to the hard way by staying in the land wherein God has directed.
For Abram surmises, certainly there are no consequences and this choice will bring all the needed goods into my storehouse!
But another lesson is hereby given for in all departures from the walk of faith there are consequences for it was near to the entering into Egypt that Abram began to consider the dangers he and his troop faced.
For God had given him to wed a very beautiful woman at this time named Sarai, whom we later learn in:
Chapter 20:12, And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
So we learn that Sarai is indeed his sister, half-sister at best.
Later in chapter 17 we are told that she was ten years younger than Abram who left Haran at age 75 thus making her in her mid-sixties.
Sarai died at age 127 so in that day she was simply at the early stages of middle age so her beauty was probably at its peak at this venture.
And perhaps she did not look her age at least this is what Abram told her if he was a good husband!
So faith being departed from, the natural visitor to knock on Abram’s door is fear.
For without faith, fear always has its sway.
So fear whispers in Abram’s ear, Better make a deal with your wife, who is also conveniently your sister for her to pose only as your sister, and not your wife so the Egyptians will not kill you.
Abram’s thinking comes from the fact that Sarai is a very beautiful woman.
Had she been a plain woman no such fear would have taken place but it was a well-known fact that the powerful, the mighty, assembled around them harems of beautiful women and disposing of their husband in order for them to have the woman was a common act.
So Abram comes up with this scheme for he fears of his life.
He has fled the famine fearing for his life, his wife’s life, his servant’s lives and his animal’s lives.
The scriptures are plain in showing us that Abram is motivated by fear and not moved by faith.
Now we do not know Abram’s mind concerning what he expected the consequences of this deal to be.
Was he willing to see his wife married off to an Egyptian thus receiving a large dowry for her?
Or was it simply a calculation that such an arrangement would give him more time to work something out such as stalling in giving approval to those who would ask for her hand or some other maneuver or scheme.
It was common that during the time of engagement the woman would remain at her home and Abram could insist on a long engagement, long enough for the famine to end and then to make some excuse for the marriage not to come about.
In this scheme God reveals to us an evil plan for in everything that Abram did he ignored the presence and the power of God in his life.
He left the road of faith and proceeded to walk the road of unbelief, the road of fear.
Hadn’t God promised a land, a seed, and a blessing?
Abram like so many of us read of God’s promises and then go about trying to figure out how to realize those promises by our own efforts.
We must remember on the walk of faith that if God promises we are to rest in those promises and then watch Him work to bring them about.
And Abram’s plan was also evil because it put to risk the life of his wife and God’s promise to make of Abram a great nation, a nation to bless all nations, and the nation from which would come the Messiah.
If Abram was willing to run the risk of another man taking Sarai as his wife, how then could she be the mother of Abram’s seed?
And also faith does not bring a man to look to his wife for protection for faith believes God’s word which appoints the man to lead the home and to be the protector of all in the home.
Abram put his wife on the front lines in order for him to remain in the place of safety ignoring the promises of God which told him of things to come in which he would be a major player.
His immediate death was not in the plan of God.
God says Give us this day our daily bread.
This not only concerns bread and the necessity to daily seek bread from God’s hand but it concerns the daily seeking of God’s hand on the walk of faith.
Abram wanted more on the walk of faith then what was to come that day for he saw a famine stretching far out into the future and therefore fear came to lead him instead of faith.
We are to walk each day by faith and not worry about the next day nor the next for we know whose hand holds our hand.
Abram’s fears were of imagined future things.
He imagined situations so difficult that unless he intervened all would be lost but where is God in this?
How normal this is, how natural this is but remember walking by faith is supernatural for it always includes God in the future things.
And this Abram did not do, thus his sinful deception announced loudly “Be sure your sins will find you out.“
Sins are like that for sin always has a backup plan but one thing to learn from Abram’s experience is his backup plan went afoul.
For Abram had not included in his thinking that Sarai was so extremely attractive and beautiful her presence came not only to the attention of many of the men of Egypt but to the Pharoah himself.
That came out of left field, a jaw dropper, and stopped Abram dead in his tracks.
Abram prior to entering Egypt thought he had it all figured out but never had it entered his mind that Pharaoh would take notice of his wife Sarai.
Certainly he could have pulled off this deception on lower men but Pharaoh would not take no for an answer.
For we read in Genesis 12:14,15, 14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
So tradition be gone, engagement period be no more, Sarai is taken to the palace awaiting the consummation of the marriage.
There is no evidence of any physical relationship between Pharaoh and Sarai for most likely Sarai would have undergone, much like Esther to come, a long period of preparation for her presentation to Pharaoh.
A long period in which the God of Abraham would intervene for his promises are not yet accomplished.
I’m sure it seemed to Abram that all was lost.
Pharoah had given him a great dowry:
Genesis 12:16, And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
In his mind the deed was done, the deception was complete, his wife was lost but again where is God in this thinking?
For with God all things are possible!
Think hard where Abram’s mind was taking him.Abram had asked his wife to lie so things would go well with him and it did go well with him in an unexpected way for Pharoah sent him many gifts.His deception was working well except for his ability to deceive further and leave Egypt with his wife and goods intact.
He had prosperity but without blessing for it came from deception.
Notice that God is not in this account until verse 17.
Abram, not on the road of faith was given to suffer until his situation appeared hopeless.
God will indeed let you get to the end of your rope so that you have only to call upon him for help.
That is how important faith is to God for He says without wavering, the just shall live by faith and he will allow conditions to come to a place where living by faith will be so.
So we read in Genesis 12:17, And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
There is nothing here that tells us that Abram cried to the Lord for help.
But God’s will does not require the call of men for God had determined that in Abram there would come a land, a seed and a blessing.
So God simply calls into being a plague to carry out his will and this plaque brought all truth to the forefront.
Somehow the plague is connected to Sarai’s presence in the palace and Abram’s deception is found out.
It was such an event that no punishment is exercised against Abram and perhaps it can be concluded that in the Pharaoh’s mind Abram had powers to bring curses upon the palace because of what was happening to Sarai, now found out to be his wife.
Genesis 12:18-20, And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. 20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. |