Genesis 12:10-20: A Hero of the Faith?

Genesis 12:10-20: A Hero of the Faith?

This morning, we’ll be returning to our passage-by-passage journey through the book of Genesis. And the next passage we come to is Genesis 12:10-20. It says,

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 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.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we’re told that there are different kinds of soils on which the seed of your Word falls—thorny soil, rocky soil, soil on a path, and good fertile soil. And it’s only when the seed falls on that last kind of soil that it actually produces fruit. So, please, help us to be that fertile soil this morning, so that the seed of your Word can take root and bear fruit in our lives. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.There’s something within us that’s drawn to the idea of a hero. This is especially true in childhood. Whether it’s a fictional character, like Superman or Batman, or someone who exists in real life, like a well-known athlete, children love having a hero. 

And, many times, children who grow up in church learn to start viewing various characters in the Old Testament essentially as heroes who are the epitome of what we should seek to become. That was definitely true for me. Throughout most of my childhood, I remember hearing stories in Sunday School about Old Testament characters like Moses and David and Gideon and Daniel. And the way these men were often presented is as larger-than-life heroes whose stories are recorded in the Bible so that we can be inspired by their faith and imitate what we see in their lives. For example, just like David heroically defeated Goliath, we too should seek to defeat the giants in our lives. Just as Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, we should likewise go wherever God leads us without letting any obstacle stand in our way. The heroism we find in the Old Testament should inspire us to live for God today.

Now, on the one hand, I do think that approach is at least partially legitimate. I believe the Old Testament records commendable features in the lives of certain men and women in order to inspire us to imitate them in those areas. However, there’s a lot more to it than that. As we’ll see this morning, these characters are in the Bible not just so we can imitate them in certain ways but so that we can see and understand something of critical importance. And I look forward to discussing what that is.

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at what’s recorded about Abram here in Genesis 12:10-20. By the way, Abram is the same guy who would later be called Abraham when God changes his name. But, for the time being, he’s just Abram. And, in the previous passage, God called Abram to leave the city he was living in and to leave his extended family and everything that was familiar to him and go to a distant land that he had never seen. God says to him in verse 1, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Verse 4 then tells us, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” So, in obedience to God’s call, Abram takes his nephew Lot and, even at age 75, sets out from Haran and starts going in the direction God leads him. Verses 5-9 then describe his journey through the land of Canaan and God’s promise to one day give Abram’s offspring that land. 

And that’s where we pick up the story this morning in verse 10. It says, “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.” So, God allows the land of Canaan to experience this severe famine, which results in Abram temporarily moving his family to Egypt, presumably with the intention of only staying there until the famine ended. Egypt, of course, had the Nile River flowing through it and therefore wasn’t as affected as other places were by the regional droughts that caused famines. 

We then read of Abram in verses 11-16: 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 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.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 

So Abram’s wife Sarai was apparently quite a looker. It seems that Abram had apparently done pretty well for himself in that regard.  And, if you remember, verse 4 told us that Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran, making Sarai at least 65 years old at this point. Yet, even at age 65, she was apparently so stunningly beautiful that there was a danger that other men would desire so badly to have her as a wife that they’d kill Abram to get her for themselves. And Abram’s concern about that happening wasn’t just some sort of irrational fear or jealousy either. As we can see in these verses, it turns out to be a very justified concern. Sarai was indeed so beautiful that even the king of Egypt himself, called Pharaoh, takes her to be his wife. 

Yet, the main thing for us to take note of here is the lie that Abram told in an effort to preserve his life. Now, this lie of Sarai being his sister actually had some truth mixed in with it. You see, as we’ll learn in Genesis 20:12, that Sarai was indeed the biological half-sister of Abram, the daughter of his father though not of his mother. So, yeah, that’s pretty messed up. And that kind of thing would later be clearly prohibited in the book of Leviticus. So, Abram’s lie did have a measure of truth mixed in with it. However, as J. I. Packer has written, “A half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” And that’s certainly the case here. Even though Abram might have tried to justify this lie in his mind by telling himself that it was at least partially true, that doesn’t make it any less of a lie. 

So, Abram really seems to have taken a turn for the worse since the beginning of the chapter. Back in verse 4, we read about Abram boldly venturing out in faith in response to God’s call without even knowing where he was going. God had simply told him “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Think about what a monumental act of faith it was for Abram to obey that call. We have every indication that Abram was very comfortable where he was. He had lived there for a long time and was quite settled there, he was surrounded by his family and the support he could expect from them, and he was quite prosperous. 

Not only that, the only thing Abram had to go on for this major life decision was the rather general promise of blessing in verses 1-3. God doesn’t give him any details about where he’s supposed to go. Imagine that God told you, “Hey, I want you to put all your stuff in a moving truck and leave your home here in Pittsburgh, leave your job, leave everything that’s familiar to you, and start going that way to a land I’ll show you.” That’s essentially what God says to Abram, meaning that Abram had to trust God even more than he otherwise would have had to. For all practical purposes, Abram might as well have been blindfolded as he went where God led him to go. He exhibited extraordinary faith. 

However, here in our main passage, Abram doesn’t seem to have much faith in God at all. Instead of trusting God to protect him and his family, Abram takes things into his own hands by lying about who Sarai is to him. 

Now, it’s important to understand that Abram never intended for some other man to be able to take Sarai as his wife. Rather, Abram’s plan would be for this ruse to simply buy him and Sarai enough time to escape. You see, back in that culture, if a woman didn’t have a father, her brother would negotiate for her marriage. Therefore, if some guy in Egypt wanted to have Sarai as his wife, he would naturally negotiate with her “brother” Abram, and that negotiation would give Abram and Sarai the time they needed to flee the country. 

So, you can see how it must have seemed like a brilliant plan to Abram. I imagine Abram probably congratulated himself for being so clever. However, what Abram failed to anticipate was that Pharaoh himself would take an interest in Sarai. And whereas other men would have probably negotiated for Sarai, Pharaoh doesn’t negotiate. Instead, Pharaoh just takes Sarai for his wife and gives Abram a ridiculous amount of material possessions as compensation. So Abram’s “brilliant” plan ends up backfiring. 

Yet, of course, what’s being highlighted in this passage isn’t Abram’s lack of cleverness but rather his lack of faith and the way his lack of faith manifests itself as he takes things into his own hands and lies about Sarai’s identity. By the way, how often to do we exhibit faithlessness in our lives by laying aside what we know God would have us do and instead taking things into our own hands? Maybe we’re anxious about having enough money to pay our bills, so we fail to report some of our income to the IRS. Or maybe we’re so desperate to get married that we end up marrying someone who isn’t very devoted to the Lord. There are plenty of ways in which we can take things into our own hands instead of trusting God to take care of us. 

Yet, as we’ll see in Genesis 12, the God whom Abram apparently doesn’t think is able to take care of him is the very same God who will end up rescuing Abram after Abram’s plan backfires. So, it turns out, God actually is able to take care of Abram—even to the point of getting him out of messes of his own making. 

And we can see how God does that in verses 17-20: 17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. 

So, Abram’s lie is eventually revealed for what it is, and he’s publicly humiliated before Pharaoh and probably the entire nation of Egypt and is sent away in disgrace. And that’s a good reminder for us that lies always seem to have a way of being exposed for what they are. Somehow, the truth always comes to light. One particularly notable example of this that comes to mind even from these past few weeks is George Santos. For those not familiar with the story, George Santos apparently managed to somehow lie his way right into Congress. He totally fabricated almost his entire resume, including the schools he attended, the jobs he held, and almost everything else about himself. And he somehow got elected to Congress this past November before his lies were exposed. It’s kind of stunning when you think about it. Yet, as we see with him, no matter how slick you are or think you are with your lies, the truth always ultimately has a way of coming to light. And I say “ultimately” because, even in the minority of cases where the truth doesn’t come to light during your earthly lifetime, Jesus will make sure it comes to light on the Day of Judgment. 

But, going back to the story of Abram, you’d think that, after the humiliating ordeal of his lie being exposed and him being sent away from Egypt in disgrace, he’d learn his lesson, right? You’d think that he’d never again do anything remotely similar to what he did in Egypt that caused so much trouble. Yet, actually, that’s not the case at all. Looking ahead to Genesis 20, Abram—for some mysterious reason—gets the brilliant idea of telling the same exact same lie about his wife all over again, only this time to Abimelech, the king of Gerar. I mean, the lie clearly worked so well in Egypt—so why not try it in Gerar, right? Like, what in the world was Abram thinking? 

Yet, we read in Genesis 20:1-2, 1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. So, Abram tells the same lie, and, of course, what happens? Sure enough, the king, Abimelech, takes Sarai for his wife. Didn’t see that coming, right? And, sure enough, God has to get Abram out of the mess he’s made again. Verse 3: But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 

We then read about Abimelech’s response in verses 8-9: 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 

So, note the irony both here and back in our main passage of Genesis 12. Both of these pagan kings, Abimelech and Pharaoh, are portrayed as acting with greater integrity than Abram, who was supposedly a follower of God. Now, these kings undoubtedly lived lives of significant corruption and depravity in general. Yet, in these stories, they actually assume the moral high ground, whereas Abram is the one who’s acting deceitfully. They’re the “saints,” while Abram’s the sinner. And don’t doubt for a minute that that contrast is very deliberate in both stories. These narratives are intended to make Abram’s sin stick out like a sore thumb. And we’ll discuss the reason for that in a few moments. 

But before we do that, I think it’s worth saying something about how easy it is for patterns of sin to be established in our lives. Why was it that Abram told the exact same lie to Abimelech that he had previously told to Pharaoh? Could at least part of the reason be that Abram was becoming desensitized to that particular sin? You see, the more you commit a certain sin, the less sensitive you are to it and the easier you find committing that sin to be in the future. I’m reminded of what the Apostle Paul says about false teachers in 1 Timothy 4:2. He describes them as “liars whose consciences are seared.”

You might also compare it to a boulder rolling down a hill. The more that boulder rolls down the hill, the more speed and momentum it picks up. Likewise, sin also can easily pick up momentum in our lives. The more we do it, the less guilty we feel and the more inclined we are to do it in the future. Before we know it, it’s become a way of life. And I’d imagine that’s the way it was for Abram. Abram’s second recorded lie probably came much easier than his first recorded lie. And both of these lies were probably just two parts of a much larger pattern of lying in his life.

Not only that, as we continue in the book of Genesis, it actually gets worse. Abram appears to have passed down this habit of lying to his children and grandchildren. In Genesis 26, for example, we read about Abram’s son Isaac. It says, in verses 6-7, 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. So, isn’t that interesting? Isaac tries to protect himself by claiming that his wife Rebekah is his sister. Now, where do you think he got that idea from? And the rest of that story goes about like you’d think. This lie doesn’t work any better for Isaac than it did for his father Abram. 

Not only that, it seems that this habit of lying was passed down to Isaac’s son Jacob as well. Although there’s no record of Jacob falsely claiming that his wife was his sister—maybe, by that point, he’d finally figured out that that’s not a very effective lie—Jacob still lied his way through much of his life. He lies—or, at least, acts in a deceptive manner—to just about everyone he meets. In fact, the very name “Jacob” means “deceiver.” So Abram’s habit of lying had some significant consequences that he probably didn’t foresee, including the passing down of that habit to his children and grandchildren. 

So, perhaps we should ask ourselves, “What kind of a legacy are we leaving?” And that’s a good question especially for those who are parents. When your kids look at you, what kind of an example do they see? Do they see a life that you’d want them imitating? Don’t expect them to rise above the example you set for them. If your devotion to the Lord is halfhearted, why would their devotion to him be anything more than halfhearted? Or, to get more specific, if you, let’s say, consistently prioritize your kids’ sports leagues or extracurricular activities above church, why would they be meaningfully involved in a church when they grow up—if they’re even involved at all? Or if you compromise your moral integrity in a certain area, why would they not feel the freedom to compromise their moral integrity as well? So, there’s no question that you’ll have an impact on your children. The only question is, what kind of an impact will you have? 

So, with Abram way back in Genesis 12 as he’s with Sarai in Egypt, we see that his sin of falsely claiming that Sarai was his sister helped establish a pattern of sin in his life and even led future generations into that same sin. And, from that, we see that Abram was a deeply flawed man in desperate need of God’s grace. That’s the main idea that emerges from this passage. Abram was a deeply flawed man in desperate need of God’s grace.

And that actually points us to a larger truth that becomes clearer and clearer as we read through the Old Testament. The Old Testament is filled with men and women whose stories are incredibly well-known and who often act in very commendable ways. Yet, the closer we look at these “heroes” of the faith, the more we see how terribly flawed all of them are. Noah, for example, was more righteous than anyone else in his generation and was therefore rescued from the flood. Yet, as we’ve already seen in our journey through Genesis, he had a bit of a drinking problem that left him passed out and naked on at least one occasion. 

Moses courageously led God’s people out of their Egyptian captivity, yet he had a significant problem with his temper that, toward the beginning of his life, led him to murder someone and, toward the end of his life, led him to lash out in anger in a way that resulted in God prohibiting him from entering the Promised Land. Gideon was famously used by God to defeat Israel’s enemies even though they had armies much larger than his own, yet he would later lead the Israelites into idolatry. Hezekiah was a generally godly king who spearheaded some major religious reforms in Judah and cleansed the temple of Jerusalem from everything idolatrous, yet he later become prideful and arrogant and flaunted his possessions before foreign dignitaries, which eventually resulted in Jerusalem being plundered and destroyed. 

Elijah was a prophet who courageously confronted the prophets of a pagan deity called “Baal” and demonstrated God’s supremacy in a dramatic way. Yet, no sooner did that dramatic demonstration take place than Elijah became overcome with fear at the threats of the wicked queen Jezebel and ran off into the wilderness with his tail tucked between his legs and struggled with a prolonged season of depression, even asking God at one point to end his life. 

And, then the example that’s probably the most well-known of them all is King David—described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart.” The godly qualities of David are almost too numerous to mention. Yet, what did he do when he looked out over the city of Jerusalem and saw a woman named Bathsheba bathing on her roof? Since her husband was deployed as a soldier, David took Bathsheba into his palace and committed adultery with her. Then, when he discovered she was pregnant, he had her husband killed and quickly married Bathsheba himself so that the child would appear to be legitimate. 

The point is that all of these supposed “heroes” of the Old Testament were actually terribly flawed. In fact, to put it in a modern context, at least half of them probably wouldn’t be morally qualified to be elders here at our church—certainly during particular seasons of their lives and, for many of them, not ever. But...that’s actually the point. Even the best people in the Bible are still sinners in need of a Savior. You could probably add that to the main idea as an addendum. Even the best people in the Bible are still sinners in need of a Savior.

And God would one day send that Savior in the person of Jesus. You see, neither Abram nor any of the other Old Testament characters I just mentioned are heroes. They may have done some commendable things at various points in their lives, but they’re not heroes. Jesus is the Hero. Jesus came to this earth and lived a life of sinless perfection. 

You know, as we look at Abram’s life, we see him exhibiting faith at several key moments. Yet, as a commentator named Kent Hughes writes, “[Jesus] is the man of faith par excellence. Jesus did not stumble when trials came. His faith never wavered. He did not look to his own devices but only to God. Abram was a great man of faith, but Christ is the perfect man of faith. Abram left his home and family…to go to an unknown land, but Christ left heaven in obedience to the Father’s call. Abram is known for both his great faith and great failure. Jesus’ life was one of [perfect] faith [without failure]. His life was all in faith and by faith from beginning to end.”

Then, after Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life in our place, he died on the cross in our place. In other words, Jesus took our sins on himself and suffered the punishment we deserved—not just physical death but the full undiluted wrath of God against sin. In reality, we should have been the ones to face that wrath, but Jesus faced it in our place and thereby made atonement for our sins. Then, after Jesus died, he rose victoriously from the dead three days later and is therefore now able to do for us what we could never do for ourselves and rescue us from our sins. 

So, that’s the way in which Jesus is the Hero that none of these characters from the Old Testament could ever be. They were generally faithful in many ways but fatally flawed in other ways—as we see all too clearly with Abram and the way he conducts himself in Egypt. Yet, Jesus was faithful in every way and is therefore able to rescue us from our sins and impart to us the gift of eternal life. However, the Bible’s very clear that, in order to receive that gift, we have to renounce our sinful way of living and put our trust in Jesus alone for forgiveness and rescue. It’s only when we do that that we experience the benefits of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf. 

Think of it this way. In order to get to heaven, you need a perfect score on God’s test. You need a grade of A+, 100%. That perfection is what’s required in order to dwell in the presence of a perfectly holy God in heaven. Now, obviously, every single one of us has failed that test. And not only have we failed the test, we’ve actually failed miserably with a grade of 0%. You see, the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 that even the most righteous things we do are nothing but “filthy rags” in the eyes of God—because they all flow out of a sinful heart and are therefore tainted. So, our grade isn’t just barely shy of a passing grade, which is 100%. Our grade is 0%. Yet, when Jesus came to this earth and lived as one of us, guess what grade he earned? 100%. He answered every question on this “test” correctly and earned a perfect grade and therefore passed the test. 

Now, here’s the beauty of the gospel: as we put our trust in Jesus, we get to swap test scores with him. Jesus takes our 0% on himself and suffers the penalty for our failure on the cross. But…we still need a 100% test score to get into heaven, don’t we? So, not only does Jesus take our 0%, he also gives us his 100%. His perfect test score is applied to our record. The theological word is “imputed.” His perfect righteousness is imputed—or transferred over—to us, so that we’re clothed with his righteousness, as it were. But, again, that only happens when we put our trust in him and cry out to him for rescue. He’s the Hero who provides the rescue we need. Not Abraham, not Moses, not even David. Jesus is the Hero who rescues us from our sin.