Sister Wife: Genesis 12:10-16
All have fallen short of the glory of God. There is nobody outside the influence of sin. We all feel temptation. We all feel the struggle to hold the line in the sand. Continuously choosing to do right is a difficult proposition.
Abram takes his wife and his possessions to Egypt because a famine occurs in Canaan. This is one of the benefits of being nomadic. People with tents can uproot at moment’s notice and follow the resources. It’s hard to take a brick structure with you and find a new location.
This also helps Abram remember who is in charge and who is following. Because Abram could uproot and go, he has a constant reminder that the important things in life can come with him. Abram doesn’t get tied down with possessions and land ownership. He simply packs up when he needs to and follows God where God leads.
This doesn’t make one perfect, however. Living a nomadic lifestyle might give fewer opportunities for hording material wealth, but it is no cure-all for human sinfulness. Abram gets to Egypt and begins to slide into self-reliance. Abram forgets how to live a righteous life.
When Abram arrives in Egypt, he grows fearful the Egyptians will covet Sarai, his wife. He fears they will want to take Sarai from him. He fear they will kill him to accomplish this goal.
This is a reasonable fear, especially if Sarai was attractive. Abram didn’t live in a day of security cameras and wrought iron fences. Abram was a nomad. If a local killed him and did it secretively enough, there wouldn’t be many people who cared, much less who could discover the truth of what happened.
Abram tells Sarai to say she is Abram’s sister. Obviously, this is a lie and there’s a significant problem with that. Abram and Sarai are married, and marriage is a covenant God takes rather seriously. Marriage is a covenant with God as a participant. When Abram tells Sarai to pretend to be his sister, he is ignoring God’s role in the covenant of marriage completely!
Even worse, Abram’s fear proves right. The Egyptian people do find Sarai attractive. They find her so attractive word gets all the way to Pharaoh. Pharoah increase Abram’s wealth, a common gesture in those days as a means for procuring a wife. Pharoah gives Abram gifts to influence Abram’s decision to allow Pharoah to have Sarai as a wife.
Not only do we see Abram lie and break the marriage covenant, but the lie leads to economic gain. Abram profits from the lie and seems content doing so. He has fallen from righteousness. Even though he is called by called to be the father of God’s own people, he is not immune from the temptations of sin. All have fallen short of the glory of God.
