Genesis 12:18 – 19 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. What have you done to me? He said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?  Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’, so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.”

Abram’s next stop was at a place called Bethel and there he built another altar and called on the name of the Lord. Then he went on from there toward the Negev.  There was a severe famine in the land and so he went down to Egypt to live there for a while.  As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” (See Genesis 12: 10 – 13). [Editor’s note: Sarai’s name was later changed by God to Sarah].

What an argument for self-preservation! On the face of it, it is hard to poke any holes in Abram’s reasoning. And Sarai went along with it. Why? It seemed plausible enough. Didn’t she see the danger of compromise for her own dignity or was she willing to sacrifice herself for the safety of her husband? This is all about human reasoning and we are all vulnerable, even as believers.

Dependence on Almighty God is a lesson that every child of his has to learn. Sometimes it takes repeated failure on our part but we have to go through that process. We cannot, practice deceit or place the prospect of personal gain above the call of God on our lives. Abram was supposed to turn to God with this challenge when he came face to face with it. Instead he devised what he thought was a workable solution all by himself. That is a prescription for failure.

Fortunately, God sees our weaknesses and extends his loving-kindness over and over again.  Once you become a child of God, he takes responsibility for you and he begins to teach you things. God in mercy intervened just in time and let Pharaoh know through diseases which he inflicted on him and his family that Abram belonged to him.  God is your defender and he wants you to recognize him as such whenever you are faced with challenges, large or small.