Going Down to Egypt

Friday, 14th March 2008

OK, let's resume the revelations from Genesis.

In Gen 12, we read about God calling Abram at a ripe old age of seventy-five. His wife Sarai, was ten years his junior, which made her sixty-five years old then.

Somewhere along their travels, there was a famine in the land, so Abram decided to go down to Egypt. This was when he told his wife to say that she was his sister so that no harm would come to him.

We read in verses 11 through 13:
He said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 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."

Even at the age of 65, Sarai was described as "beautiful", and this meant physical beauty. After all, the Pharoah, being a man of the world, would not have appreciated any sort of "spiritual" beauty that Sarai may have possessed; he went purely by his physical senses.

We see here a case where Abram showed a lack of faith in God being able to protect him. Yet, not only did God not rebuke or punish him for his lack of trust, He instead inflicted serious diseases on Pharoah and his household on account of Sarai! That was how Pharoah discovered that Sarai was actually Abram's wife and he quickly sent them off, together with all their possessions that they had acquired.

And this is a reflection of the grace-based relationship that Abram had with the covenant-keeping God. Because He had promised Abram that He would be a father of many, He was faithful to and protected Abram all the way, even though on his part, Abram at times showed a lack of faith.

We are not told that it was God who had asked Abram to go down to Egypt to avoid the famine. Perhaps if he had stayed on where he was, God would still have provided for him, just like how He prospered Isaac in the midst of a subsequent famine as recorded in Gen 26 during Isaac's time. On that occasion, God told Isaac specifically not to go down to Egypt (Gen 26:2), probably hoping to prevent Isaac from making the same mistake his father did?

Anyway, by going down to Egypt, firstly, Abram was putting his wife (and the promised seed!) at risk, and God had to intervene to prevent Pharoah from violating Sarai.

Secondly, and of graver consequences, was what we read in verse 16: "Pharoah treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels." Well, amongst the maidservants that Abram acquired was one such by the name of Hagar, whose name will became more apparent when we read Gen 16 and 21.