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[Jake]

Disturbed by Story of Abram and Sarai Going to Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20)

Quick background: for years I've struggled with disbelief after being raised Christian. I've recently accepted whole heatedly that God has to exist. I don't want to return to the "Christian" I was, but want a new true faith. My first step in this act is to read the entire bible (following a plan I found online) as if it were the first time reading it. This way of reading the Bible with fresh eyes has helped this early part of my journey quite a bit. Especially with not overlooking popular familiar stories, but diving deep into them. Which bring us to...

On their journey, Abram and Sarai go to Egypt for a little (Genesis 12:10-20 NRSV). Abram tells everyone that Sarai is his sister so that no one kills him because she is "beautiful in appearance." The Pharaoh took her as his wife. Eventually Sarai is given back to Abram, but this just didn't sit well with me. As a husband, I can't imagine any circumstances where I'd be okay with someone 'taking' my wife as theirs (we know what this means). I realize that times were different and their situation was dire given the famine, but I am disturbed by the story and am not sure what I am supposed to glean from it. I picture my own wife being put into that situation and I'm horrified. My wife would protest even to the idea! Sarai said nothing?

I'm just a bit disturbed and confused.

[jimwalton]

Since the historic narrative of Abraham is a story of the covenant (God revealing Himself) and faith (Abraham learning what God is like and how to live in His presence), this story shows Abe's weakness and mistakes, but God's faithfulness to him anyway. Instead of being a blessing to all nations (Gn. 12.3), he becomes instead the paradigm of a curse (a negative example). Instead of truth he brings lies. Instead of healing, he brings disease.

Faced with the danger of drought and famine, and his vulnerability in the new land, Abe assumes (falsely) that he must fend for himself, do what is expedient, use trickery (common in the region and era), resolve his own conflict, and preserve his own life. He's mistaken in all five counts. As we'll see often in Abraham's life, it's a test, and he fails this one. Abe is still getting to know God.

J.I. Packer comments: Abraham was capable of repeated shabby deceptions, and in the process endangered himself and his wife. Plainly, then, he was by nature a man of little moral courage, altogether too anxious about his own personal security. He was also vulnerable to pressure and expediency. He was not by nature a man of strong principle, and his sense of responsibility was somewhat deficient. But God in wisdom dealt with this easy-going unheroic figure to such a good effect that not merely did he faithfully fulfill his appointed role on the stage of church history, as pioneer occupant of Canaan, first recipient of God’s covenant, and father of Isaac, the miracle-child; he also became a new man.

Packer, continuing: "What Abraham needed most of all was to learn the practice of living in God’s presence, seeing all life in relation to Him, and looking to Him, and Him alone, as commander, defender, and rewarder. This was a great lesson which God in wisdom concentrated on teaching him (Gn. 15.1; 17.1). Again and again God confronted Abraham with Himself, and so led Abraham to the point where his heart could say, with the Psalmist, 'Whom do I have in heaven but You?' (Ps. 73.25ff.). And as the story proceeds, we see in Abraham's life the results of his learning this lesson. The old weaknesses still sometimes reappear, but alongside it there emerges a new nobility and independence, the outworking of Abraham’s developed habit of walking with God, resting in His revealed will, relying on Him, waiting for Him, bowing to His providence, and obeying Him even when he commands something odd and unconventional. From being a man of the world, Abraham becomes a man of God."