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All Scripture references are to the New International Version UK edition unless stated otherwise.
13 Say
you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will
be spared because of you.’
Answer: Yes, and he enlisted his wife Sarai in the deception. However, to
understand his actions, we should look at this question from at least two
standpoints. The first casts him in a somewhat favourable light; the second less
so.
First,
Abram feared
for his life when he entered Egypt with his beautiful Sarai, convinced the
Egyptians would kill him to get her, once they learned she was his wife. That
fear prompted him to give the impression that Sarai was his sister. Though
misleading, and intended to be so, the assertion was not entirely untrue. Abram
and Sarai shared the same father, but different mothers (see later in this
article). In those days it was customary to refer to close relatives such as
step-brothers, step-sisters and cousins, as one’s brothers and sisters. However,
Abram let the faulty impression stand and even accepted livestock from the
pharaoh’s officers in exchange for Sarai (verse
16).
Second,
although Abram did fear for his life, it’s not clear from the
Scriptures what he based his fears on. Perhaps he lacked the assurance of faith
that God would protect him from harm, especially in light of the promises that
God already gave him (Genesis 12: 2, 3). Unfortunately, Abram’s course produced several uncomplimentary
results: (1) The Egyptians accused him of deception; (2) in conveying the
impression Sarai was a free woman, he exposed her to mistreatment – she was
taken into Pharaoh’s house for sexual exploitation; and, (3) he put Pharaoh in
danger of sinning against God by his taking the wife of another
man.
God’s Word records the sins and faults of His people, as well as their
virtues and strengths. Many of God’s most faithful servants, such as David and
Peter, suffered failures, later proving to be
overcomers.
Abram is no exception. It is interesting to note from the lengthy
account in Genesis 20 that later, when Abram (Abraham) and Sarai
(Sarah), were living in Gerar, they made the same mistake, putting
the king, Abimelech, in a false position, with a similar outcome. Here again
Abram presents his wife as his step-sister, since they claimed the same father,
but were born of different mothers.
However, when Abraham was put under a most crucial test of his faith
when God commanded him to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac, he did not
compromise. God forestalled the sacrifice at the last minute, though Abraham had
been fully prepared to go through with it.
In a recurring theme, Isaac fell into the same temporizing trap as his
father, in the same place (Gerar), and with a royal successor of the same name
(Abimelech) (Genesis 26: 1-11). Here, too, Isaac claimed that his wife Rebekah
was really his sister, though in truth she was a cousin (Genesis 24: 15, 16;
compare 11: 29).
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