Abram in Egypt

Friday July 2, 2021

Abram in Egypt

As he (Abram) was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai : Listen to me ! I know you are a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife, and they will kill me, while they will leave you alive. Present yourself therefore as my sister so that I am treated well because of you and that I stay alive thanks to you. Genesis 12: 11-13

Abram (not yet called Abraham) heard God's call to travel far from his native land and relatives to an unknown land that God promised to give him. Obedient, he went and arrived in Canaan, where the Lord renewed his promise to him. We see this man of faith coming and going in the land, contenting himself with a tent for his dwelling and building altars to that God who had revealed himself to him.

But here comes a famine. What to do ? Abram decides to go to Egypt. God had not formally forbidden him to take refuge there ; his fault is, above all, not to have consulted the Lord and to have tried to find a solution on his own.

Moreover, this first misstep quickly leads to another. Abram imposes a dishonest plan on his wife : he will use a half-truth (Genesis 20:12) and pass off Sarai as his sister in order to protect himself. This shows us that no one, not even a giant of the faith like Abraham, is immune to dirty tricks. While a husband's role is to protect his wife, Abram doesn't hesitate to compromise his for his own sake.

The rest is to Abram's shame: God intervenes to chastise Pharaoh who kidnapped Sarai ; the latter sharply rebukes the patriarch before driving him away : Now here is your wife. Take it and go ! (v. 19). These words are a lesson for him. It is as if God was saying to Abram through Pharaoh : "See Sarai as she really is, not a shield, but a person who is your wife whose life is associated with yours."

Any couple can sometimes go through difficult circumstances, morally comparable to this famine. Satan can take advantage of this to try to weaken our union by suggesting unworthy solutions. Let's face the problems together and seek the solution with faith in our God.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)