Abram in Sarai in Egypt

Story: Abram and Sarai in Egypt

Passage: Genesis 12:10-20

Characters: Abram, Sarai, Pharaoh, God

Summary: Abram went to Egypt during a famine. He was worried they would find his wife beautiful and kill him to get her. His solution was to lie and tell Pharaoh she was his sister. He effectively gave his wife to Pharaoh. God sent plagues on Pharaoh and so he gave Sarai back and sent Abram and his people away.

Notes: Abram was a coward, plain and simple. He gave his wife to another man because he was afraid of being harmed. It is possible that he was concerned that if he died, God’s promise about his offspring would not come true, but even then his decision was based out of fear. When you think about it though, what standard did Abram have for marriage? Other than a direct revelation from God hich is not mentioned, Abram’s approach to marriage would have been based on the cultural norms. 2000 years into a broken world and the culture would have been extremely selfish. So Abram’s behavior is actually sort of understandable. I find it funny that the princes of Egypt praised Sarai’s beauty. Apparently men have always been obsessed with women and talked about which ones were the best looking. I could easily see this scene happening today so I enjoy reading about it happening back in Abram’s time. God blessed Abram through Pharaoh and then He punished Pharaoh even though he had no idea that Sarai was married. Was it unjust for God to punish Pharaoh who did not know he was taking someone’s wife? Was it unjust for God to reward Abram? No. Pharaoh deserved every plague that happened to him, as did Abram, as do we! God is allowed to do what He wants. As God told Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” He extends mercy to who He wants! Ironically, I suspect that if Pharaoh ever had thoughts of killing Abram, it was because Abram had deceived him. Pharaoh gave orders to kick Abram and his family out of Egypt along with all of their possessions. Apparently, he didn’t want his stuff back. One more interesting note is that when there was famine in the land, Egypt was the place to go to! Egypt must have been nothing like it is today!

Questions: How lush was Egypt? What did Sarai think of Abram’s plan? Was she on board? Why did God punish Pharaoh? What was Pharaoh’s reaction when He discovered the truth? Did Pharaoh believe in God as a result of this story?

Lessons: Lessons: God is not fair by human standards. But He is also not fair by His own standard! If He were, we would all be destroyed the instant we sinned! Also, this is an example of how not to treat your wife! No matter what Abram’s reasons were, I suspect that God was not consulted in Abram’s decision process. Abram acted out of fear. We have not been given a spirit of fear! Our decisions are to based in the power of the Spirit!