When fear is stronger than faith

And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you." – Genesis 12v11-13

For all of Abraam’s faith we learn quickly that he was not perfect. First, although we are not told that the action was wrong, I wonder about him leaving Canaan during a famine to head down to Egypt. God led him to Canaan, but when there was a problem he left. I wonder if this was not the first step in a series of events that could have proved disastrous.

As they approached Egypt, the proverbial land of plenty, Abram realised he had a possible problem on his hands. His wife Sarai was drop dead gorgeous. He was afraid that when the Egyptians saw her they would kill him and take her for themselves. Rather than exercise a little bit of faith he concocted a crazy plan. ‘Tell them you are my sister, so that if they take you they will not hurt me.’

What a crazy idea! He was not real concerned about her being taken, but how safe he would be if they did. He didn’t trust God about his fears, but used a lie to manipulate the situation to suit his own solution.

At first it looked like fear worked. Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s home, but not as his wife. Abram was given the best of everything. Everything was fine, apparently.

But then things started to go wrong in Egypt. ‘Great plagues’ came on Pharaoh’s house because Sarai was there. Somehow, and we are not told how, Pharaoh put two and two together and realised that all these problems were happening because Abram’s wife was living in his house.

‘Why did you do this to me?’ Pharaoh asked, ‘What if I had married her?’ Pharaoh had more character at this point than God’s man. It apparently didn’t matter to Abram what happened to Sarai as long as he was safe.

When fear overrides faith it leads to all kinds of problems. God does know best and the sooner we learn to ask Him before we act the better.

Another thing that has impressed me is how it must have felt to Abram when Pharaoh came to him. He, Abram, was God’s man. He was the one who should have shown character and Pharaoh was coming to him about his lie!

Anyway – let us be sure that faith takes control of fear and not vice versa.