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8/23 Reading Portions: 1 Samuel 15; Romans 13; Jeremiah 52; Psalm 31
Genesis 12:11-13
When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
TRANSPARENCY
At probably 66 or 67 years old at this point, Sarai was a beautiful woman. I’ve preached this for years, that I have been bothered by our children’s Sunday school coloring pages often presenting Sarai as a frail, wrinkled, and bent-over gal who only had a few good years left. Born in Ur of the Chaldees, Sarai was a Babe-ylonian. The request Abram made of Sarai was a half-truth, as we find out from his confession to Abimelech years later:
“Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.” Genesis 20:12
Nevertheless, a half-truth is a whole lie. And though we know that it will work out for Abram and Sarai before they leave Egypt, it comes at a cost that will have repercussions for them later, Hagar being just one issue. But Abram’s failure also provides a blessed lesson for you and me. Abram asked this favor of Sarai either before they set out from Ur or from Haran, which Abram also confessed to Abimelech years later:
“And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’” Genesis 20:13
Having already set his mind upon this half-truth, Abram established a schism in his own soul to bruise his faith, to injure his godly integrity, and to cripple his trust upon God in Christ. I love the transparency of God’s Word; that though it exalts the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost, it reveals to us who and what we are apart from Christ. It is brutally honest about every boil, booger, and blemish remaining in the depths of our dubious flesh. Abram is the man of faith (Gal 3:9; Heb 11:8-10), as well as the friend of God (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). Yet he was not impervious to imperfections. Here in Egypt, Abram deceived himself, being a hearer only of God’s promises and not a doer; failing to trust in the sovereignty of God Almighty to bring His promise of Messiah to pass in his life. James says,
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:22-25
If Abram, the man of faith, can falter so easily, we will most certainly encounter the same. May we, by God’s grace, act as if we trust our sovereign Christ. For when we see Christ in Scripture, fulfilling all that is faithful, good, and just, it should provoke us unto steadfast faith in Him, certain of His gospel promises. Hallelujah! What a Savior!