A famine hits the land of Canaan and Abram goes down to Egypt where food was more plentiful. Many scholars believe he was out of the will of God when he did this. I tend to agree with them. The Lord had told him to go to Canaan, but when hard times came he left Canaan for Egypt. It's as if he doubted God's ability to take care of him in Canaan. If it's the case that he was out of the will of God when he went to Egypt, then it's easy to understand how he manages to get himself and his wife into trouble there.
"Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe." (Genesis 12:10) I started thinking about why Abram may have begun to doubt whether it was possible to survive in Canaan. I started wondering whether his doubt was a result of the doubt of his family and the other people with him. As conditions in Canaan began to look worse and worse, maybe the people with him began to doubt whether God had really spoken to him at all. His wife, his nephew Lot, the servants, and any others in Abram's care were looking to him for guidance and support. They had followed him this far, but now it looked like they were in danger of starving to death. I think the pressure got to him. As a man with a family and as the person responsible for bringing these people into Canaan, Abram could have begun to feel inadequate to fulfill his responsibilities to these people and to all the livestock. I wonder if perhaps it wasn't so much that he doubted God, but that he doubted himself. He could have begun to feel that their survival depended on him alone, and whenever we think a situation depends on us alone (and not on God) we are in danger of making a bad decision.
Abram makes a bad decision, and as so often happens, this leads to other bad decisions. "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me and let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.'" (Genesis 12:11-13) Abram already made the mistake of thinking God wasn't going to provide for him in the land He told him to inhabit. Now he doesn't trust the Lord to protect him in Egypt. This causes Abram to decide honesty isn't the best policy when dealing with the Egyptians. He's trusting in himself, and in a lie, for protection.
Later, when a child is born to Abram and Sarai, we will find out that Sarai is about ten years younger than her husband. We've been told that Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out for Canaan, which means Sarai was sixty-five years old at that time. We don't know how long they lived in Canaan before the famine hit, but we know Sarai was at least sixty-five. But she's only halfway through her life because the Bible will tell us she lived to be 127 years old. So she's middle aged when she accompanies her husband on his trip to Egypt. She's still so beautiful that Abram fears the men of Egypt will lust for her to the extent of killing him so they can have her. But if he tells them she is his sister, they will treat him with respect in hopes that he might give her hand in marriage to one of them. Though she is probably already past the age of childbearing, or close to it, having her be the mother of their children is not what's going to be in these men's minds. They are going to want to sleep with her, and if that means having to be nice to her supposed brother, they will be willing to do it in case he might agree to let her be the wife of one of them.
In Genesis 20 we will find out that Sarai actually is Abram's half-sister, but he's still a liar when he tells the Egyptians she's his sister. Their husband/wife relationship is their true relationship. A half truth is still a lie, just like half obedience is still disobedience.
Abram's mistakes are going to snowball into what could easily have been a disaster, not only for Abram's own family but for the entire Messianic line. In tomorrow's passage we find the Lord mercifully coming to the rescue, and we will discuss why the Lord has to intervene in this case even though Abram has brought his trouble upon himself.
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