Abraham's Lying Streak
Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18 (26:1-12)
Abraham's life was an adventure of faith. Throughout the New Testament, he is referenced as a man of extraordinary faith in God. Paul points to Abraham as the spiritual father of all believers. He is the Bible figure we look to as the example for how we should trust God today. In fact, by virtue of our faith in Christ, we become Abraham's spiritual descendants (Gal 3:7-9). What made his faith so exemplary? The writer of Hebrews highlights two key moments in his life that marked him as a man of faith.
The first is when God directed him to leave his family home and venture out on his own into Canaan. This would be the Promised Land for his physical descendants, the nation of Israel. How was this move a decision of faith? According to Hebrews, Abraham had no idea where he was going, but he showed his faith by his obedience (Heb 11:8). He simply followed God to direct him to the right place. In a pagan land filled with nations that did not know the Lord or his righteous ways, Abraham had no choice but to obey his leading in this venture.
The second decision of faith was to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. The writer of Hebrews refers to the story of Abraham going up the mountain to prepare an altar on which his only son, the son promised by God for 25 years, would be laid (Heb 11:17-18). In this test of faith, Abraham proved himself faithful, for it took the Angel of the Lord to keep him from making the final death stroke (Gen 22:11-12). Apparently, he believed that if he went through with this, God would be faithful to his promise still, so that perhaps he would even bring Isaac back to life from the dead (Heb 11:19). Thankfully, this was never needed, as God provided a ram in Isaac's place (Gen 22:13).
What an incredible example of faith! Any believer seeking a closer walk with the Lord should be desirous of such faith. At the same time, we marvel at the faithfulness of this man, we must also recognize his flaws and failings. This seems to be a popular trend today - identify a revered historical figure with significant flaws obvious to today's culture and destroy his reputation in the eyes of decent society. This trend has its merits in that it forces us to reckon with the reality of the past; the men and women we respect as examples of our values and morals were not perfect people. However, I am not convinced the people behind this trend have pure motives or ends. I also think they fundamentally misunderstand the privilege they have to stand on the shoulders of giants, people who lived out biblical values and morals, albeit imperfectly.
We can hide unbelief in many ways, but in the end it never pays.
Abraham was one such man. Because of his faith in God, the Messianic line of Jesus Christ was preserved. Still, he had his moments of weakness, frailty, and even unbelief throughout his journey of faith. I want to focus on two moments in particular that highlight this. Instead of discrediting this hero of faith through these examples, I hope to exalt the goodness and grace of God, as well as provide hope for believers today who desire to live by faith. In the two stories we will look at, found in Genesis 12:10-20 and Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham failed to tell the truth. As we will see, his deceit was only a cover for the deeper root problem: unbelief. Like Abraham, we can hide unbelief in many ways, but in the end it never pays.
Comparing the Stories
In the first account found in Genesis 12, we find Abraham (Abram) at an important crossroads in his life as a 75-year-old man (Gen 12:4). God had spoken to him on two important matters. In his sovereign grace, he chose Abraham to be the father of a great nation with innumerable descendants (Gen 12:2). He made a covenant with him that included a new homeland for him and his descendants. The only caveat was that Abraham must uproot his family to live in this new land called Canaan (Gen 12:1). He did this with every intention of making this land his new home (Gen 12:5).
However, a severe famine in the land forced Abraham to head further south toward Egypt (Gen 12:10). Before entering Egypt, he made a request to his wife Sarah (Sarai). He asked (compelled) her to treat him as her brother and not her husband while in a foreign land. He believed that because of her beauty, some love-crazed Egyptian might kill him in order to take advantage of her. Mind you, Sarah was only 10 years younger than Abraham, making her 65 at this time. No offense to elderly ladies, but it is hard to imagine that any man would be tempted by a woman in that stage of life. Nevertheless, we do have biblical warrant to believe that Sarah was preserved in old age. We read of Moses when he died at the age of 120 that his eyes did not dim, and he did not lose his vigor (Deut 34:7). Sarah died before Abraham at the age of 127 (Gen 23:1), after she gave birth to Isaac at 90. Considering all this, we have good reason to believe that even at 65, Sarah's beauty was captivating enough to cause worry in Abraham's mind.
Sarah agreed to this arrangement. They both enter Egypt and as soon as they present themselves in Pharaoh's court, the Egyptian princes absolutely swooned over Sarah. As a result, she was taken into Pharaoh's house without any protest from her husband, and he was given a litter of livestock and servants in return (Gen 12:16). For someone in Abraham's position as a wealthy man, no doubt this would have been considered a proper bargain. We are repulsed by this idea today, but this would have been normal negotiations in Abraham's time. Well, the Lord saw the moral wrong in this bargain, so he punished the house of Pharaoh with "great plagues" (Gen 12:17). What exactly this entailed, we are not told. This Hebrew word is the same word used to refer to the plague of the death of the firstborn in Egypt during the time of Moses (Ex 11:1). Whatever the plague was, it was serious enough to bring great distress in the house of Pharaoh. He discovered the truth of Sarah's marriage to Abraham and strongly scolds him for his deceit. As a result, she is returned to him without her purity being compromised, and they are asked to leave Egypt (Gen 12:18-20).
You would think that a married couple that endured such an ordeal would have learned their lesson. But Abraham was a glutton for punishment. We see a similar story reenacted 25 years later when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. The couple is much older, and still waiting for the promised son that God would give them. You may remember the events surrounding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham resided near that region in a place called Mamre (Gen 18:1). The next time we see him, he takes his family south near the Negev desert to a place called Gerar. It is here that Abraham presents his wife Sarah as his sister to the king of Gerar, a man named Abimelech. This name literally means "The king is my father", probably hinting that this is more of a title than a name. Again, we see a foreign leader taking advantage of Sarah being Abraham's sister and receiving her into his royal home. As a reminder, Sarah was 90 at this time. She would not have looked like a 90-year-old woman today, but I imagine she was less desirable than she was 65. In fact, we do not find any mention in the story that Abimelech took her for her beauty. More than likely, marrying her would have been a sign of friendship and trust between him and a wealthy man like Abraham.
In this account, we find a clear difference from the Egyptian episode: God spoke with Abimelech and warned him about Sarah. Abimelech apparently had some relationship with or knowledge of God. When God spoke to him in a dream, he responded with humility and submission to his words. In the dream, God warned the king that he would kill him if he took Sarah as his wife because she was already married. Abimelech in his innocence repeated what Abraham told him: he said Sarah was his sister. God acknowledged this and gave him directions for how to right the situation. In the morning, Abimelech confronted Abraham about his deception, which Abraham used to explain his reasoning behind the lie (Gen 20:9-13). We will note this later in our study. Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham, and then gave him a hefty restitution payment of money and animals with the added benefit that Abraham could live anywhere he wanted to in the land (Gen 20:14-16). We find at the end of the story that because of the king taking Sarah, God punished him by making the women in the royal house barren, including his wife (Gen 20:18). After Abraham prayed for Abimelech and his house, the women were able to give birth again (Gen 20:17). Those are the two stories in summary. Now, let's consider what is similar and different about them.
The similarities are obvious.
Abraham told the same lie about Sarah. Instead of treating her as his wife, he asked her to be his "sister" while they resided in foreign countries. The foreign leaders who saw Sarah, Pharaoh and Abimelech, took her under the premise that she was Abraham's sister. Both of these leaders and their royal houses were then punished by God for this deed, but strangely Abraham was not punished or confronted by God. The leaders quickly discovered Abraham's deception and returned Sarah to him. In both accounts, he was also greatly rewarded by these nations with livestock and servants. Finally, in neither account do we have any indication that Sarah's reputation as a married woman was compromised or sullied by the foreign leaders.
Notice the significant differences between the two accounts.
The ages and experiences of the couple have clearly changed - 25 years is a large time gap. In Egypt, we get an inside peak at the marriage conversations between Abraham and Sarah. Before entering Egypt, Abraham made his request to Sarah and she complied, though we do not know what she said about the request. In Gerar, no such conversation is recorded. Abraham tells us why in Genesis 20:13. The understanding between these two married people was that when they entered any new territory, Sarah would be considered his sister. The reason that Pharaoh and Abimelech took Sarah also appears to be different. They both were deceived by Abraham to believe that he and Sarah were not married. However, in Egypt, Sarah was taken for her beauty. We are not told this in Gerar, but we can assume that Abimelech had political reasons for wanting to marry the "sister" of a prominent individual like Abraham.
Other differences in these stories highlight the unique situation in Gerar. In Egypt, we are not told how Pharaoh discovered the truth about Sarah, but the plague on his house was all he needed to give her back to her husband. Abimelech had the privilege of direct communication from God, which is how he found out about Sarah. The consequences in both stories are also fascinating. After Abraham is exposed in Egypt, Sarah is returned to him and they are both forced to leave the country. In Gerar, Abimelech had enough trust in Abraham to at least give him a chance to explain himself, and even allowed both of them to stay in the country. Finally, we see Abraham interceding for Abimelech's royal house so that the barren women could give birth again. What exactly this means is unclear. We know that the ability to bear children was an important part of royal life, and the restoration of this to the royal women was a significant benefit to them.
Abraham's Unbelief Exposed
In our modern culture, it is difficult to resonate with these accounts in Abraham's life. If these stories involved anyone else but Abraham, we would discount such a person as an immoral scoundrel and a bad husband. With our modern sensitivities, that would be a perfectly appropriate observation. From Abraham's standpoint, however, what he did could have been culturally justified. Unfortunately, treating women as property and using them as means to ends was acceptable and even expected at this time. This fact does not make Abraham's behavior moral or excusable. It just helps us as 21st century believers to understand the circumstances and culture that our favorite Bible characters faced.
Speaking to men, we might be tempted to read these stories with high heads and clean hands. We might pride ourselves on believing that since no such opportunity would ever present itself to us today, we would never treat our wives, or women in general, in such a degrading way. There certainly is room here to talk about how the Bible upholds women and how men should treat them with love and respect. But the focus of this study is to pinpoint something that men and women struggle with. As we look at these stories, we find a weakness that every child of God can resonate with - men and women, young and old. That weakness is unbelief. This may not seem apparent at first, but the more we dive into the story, the more obvious this will become.
Let's unpack the conversation between Abraham and Abimelech.
Pharaoh does not give Abraham a chance to defend himself, and we find no further relationship between the two in Genesis. With Abimelech, however, there is a friendship that develops, so we can look at their conversation with a more careful eye. After Abimelech finds out what Abraham has done, he feels betrayed. After all, had he treated Sarah as his wife, God would have struck him down. The king confronts Abraham with a litany of questions - What have you done? What did I do to offend you that you would bring this great sin on me? What were you thinking? Before we get to Abraham's immediate answer, notice that he admits in Genesis 20:12 that Sarah was his half-sister; they had the same father, but not the same mother. Like many other odd practices, we have encountered, this would not have been something out of the ordinary in Abraham's day. We know their marriage was of the Lord and one he used to bring about his purposes.
The question then is, "Did Abraham lie?" If Sarah was his half-sister, was he really lying? From both stories, it seems obvious that he did. In fact, it seems that Abraham did not think that he deceived these foreign leaders because he was telling a half-truth. I think we are all well-aware that a half-truth is a whole lie. To misrepresent or twist the truth to our own ends is wrong, no matter how much of the truth is leftover. Lying is forbidden by the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:16) and the book of Proverbs calls it an abomination (Prov 12:22). God's hatred for lying is reiterated in the NT (Eph 4:25; Rev 21:8). In his sight, to conceal the truth from people who deserve to know is morally repugnant. As Christians, we must not fall into the trap of bending the truth for our own purposes. Let us be a people who always present the truth.
Deception is no doubt one of Abraham's chief flaws in this story, but it is not the only one. There is also the question of how he treated his wife. Some husbands might actually sympathize with Abraham's conundrum. He was entering new territory, and he wanted to protect his wife from prying eyes, so he asked her to be his "sister" for a time. Of course, we know this tact did not even work in either situation. In fact, his deception put her in greater danger. But can we assume that Abraham's motives were entirely pure, that he just wanted to defend his wife? The evidence from Genesis 20 says otherwise.
When Abimelech asks Abraham why he lied to him, he comes right out and tells him the reason why: "Because I thought, surely, the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife" (Gen 20:11). He could have said, "I wanted to protect my wife from you pagan people," but he did not say that. He knew this excuse was bogus. His reason for telling the lie was simple: self-preservation. He only cared about himself and protecting his own life from harm. In some way, I'm sure he thought his wife would benefit from this arrangement, but his chief concern was himself. Do you recognize his reasoning from anywhere else? In the first account when Abraham and Sarah were in Egypt, he told his wife to play his sister "that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you" (Gen 12:13). He was not hiding his motives. He was so bold as to tell his wife that he was making this odd request of her so he would be safe. At her husband's behest, Sarah complied, but only for the sake of Abraham's safety.
We see further evidence that his motives were not entirely pure when we look at what Abraham got in exchange for giving up Sarah. When Pharaoh took her into his house, he realized this was not a free gift. He offered sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and male and female servants to Abraham in return. When he is later exposed and forced to leave Egypt, Abraham does not give up any of these lavish gifts; he keeps them (Gen 12:20). Did sin pay for Abraham? In a way, it did. He received valuable material possessions, but at the cost of almost losing his wife and the possibility of having a child with her that would fulfill God's promise to him of fathering a great nation.
The evidence against Abraham in these two instances is haunting. We should look at these actions with shock and disdain. But we also must examine these stories with humble self-evaluation. Beneath the deception lies a deeper problem. What is it that drove Abraham to treat his wife and other people in these abhorrent ways? The common denominator is unbelief; he did not trust God to protect him or his family. When entering new territory, he should have trusted Yahweh to preserve his life and the well-being of his family and possessions. He did not have to resort to deception. His unbelief gave him the excuse to lie, which led to serious consequences, including his wife being put in jeopardy and foreign nations being punished for his actions. Oddly enough, we never see God directly punishing or confronting Abraham for his deception. We can only assume that the shame of being scolded by pagan kings and the horror of almost losing his wife was punishment enough.
The common denominator is unbelief; he did not trust God to protect him or his family.
We must also consider the long-term consequences of Abraham's unbelief. You recall that after giving up Sarah to Pharaoh, Abraham was richly rewarded with livestock and servants, both male and female. Not too long after Genesis 12, we find Abraham considering having a child with a woman named Hagar in Genesis 16. What was so special about Hagar? She was one of his servants, and she was Egyptian (Gen 16:1). It turned out that one of his spoils from Egypt became his great downfall as a man of faith, for it was with Hagar that he gave birth to Ishmael. Instead of waiting for God to fulfill his promise, he took matters into his own hands. His unbelief in Egypt was resulted to more unbelief in trusting God to preserve his family line.
Finally, one more consequence we do not see until many years later. After he has given birth to Isaac, after Isaac has married, and after Abraham has died, Isaac moves his family to Gerar because of a famine. In Genesis 26, we find that the apple does not fall far from the tree. When the men of Gerar inquired about his wife, Isaac told the same lie that his father told, that his wife Rebekah was his sister (Gen 26:7). He even gives the same reasoning as Abraham; he was sure the people would kill him in order to take his wife. Abraham's sin of unbelief became a recurring sinful habit for him, which turned into a family problem. Isaac was not even alive when Abraham went to Egypt or Gerar, but he showed the same tendency to unbelief.
Lessons for Believers Today
Abraham's life was indeed one of faith, but even he had his moments of weakness. We have looked extensively at two examples of this. In both examples, we find a man trying to protect himself and his family, but without faith in God. Indeed, how many Christians have been caught in the same trap? We think we are doing right, but our motives and actions betray us. Unbelief is a deadly sin with dreadful consequences. We are good at hiding our lack of faith with other sins. Like Abraham, we can misrepresent the truth to save our own skin. We can excuse bad behavior to justify positive results. The bad news for us is that God sees right through our pragmatism and deceit. He is not fooled or mocked, because whatever we sow, we will reap eventually, whether we see it in this life or not (Gal 6:7).
Still, from these accounts, we can salvage important lessons that Christians must take to heart. In the life of faith, challenges come our way that demand a response. How should we respond when our faith in God is tested? Let me propose three truths from this story that I think will benefit us as we seek to please God with faith rather than unbelief.
Do not lie by misconstruing the truth or presenting an alternate reality.
This is the surface problem we come across in both Genesis 12 and 20. Abraham lied in order to save his own skin. There is a time and place to conceal the truth from those who do not need to know; Scripture gives us examples of this in the Hebrew midwives (Ex 1:15-21) and Rahab (James 2:25). Abraham does not fit this category. He only told these lies because he did not trust God to preserve him and his family. Have you ever made decisions with your money or resources because you did not trust God to provide for you? Have you ever been tempted to withhold something from God because you were afraid, he would not come through? These are the subtle ways we manifest our unbelief, but we must resist these urges and trust God with what he has given us. He controls our treasure, time, and talents, so we must let him use them as he wishes.
Beware of "small" sins that can reappear in your life.
Lying to a foreign dignitary does not seem like a small sin to us, but it was a fleshly tendency in Abraham's life that he never dealt with. Unbelief may not seem like a small sin, yet it came back to bite Abraham where it hurt most. We are so quick to categorize sins as large and small, but we must beware that even the small sins can become strongholds in our lives. They anchor themselves in our hearts to the point that they become hard to resist. A small problem with watching a TV show that bothers our conscience can become a hard-core pornography problem. I am not saying these things will definitely happen, but we must realize the slippery slope is there and all too easy to entertain. Abraham experienced an avalanche of consequences, both in the short term and the long term. He put his wife and her reputation in jeopardy. He almost lost the chance to see God fulfill his promise to give him a son in his old age. Even his son as an adult was not free from his father's mistakes. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked!
Let God control the means by which his plans are accomplished in your life.
We already know Abraham had a problem with trying to do God's will his own way. He did this with Hagar and Ishmael. He wanted Ishmael to be the son of promise, but God would not have it. In these stories, Abraham tried to protect his family by deceiving foreign leaders. Not only did he fail to protect Sarah, but he failed to keep God's central promise to him in view. God had promised him a child through Sarah from which a whole nation would be born. But if Sarah were married off to a pagan king, how would God keep that promise? How would he ensure that he got the credit for the birth of Abraham and Sarah's baby? It was God who preserved the integrity of Abraham's line. As a husband, Abraham failed to do this because of his unbelief. His fear of being killed supplanted his responsibility to safeguard his family. At the end of the day, we must not excuse bad means with good ends. We think we know how to steer the ship of life, but God knows how to capsize us to wake us up to the reality that he is in control. Let him be in control.
Other lessons could be drawn, but these three represent critical truths from the accounts in Abraham's life of his failure to believe God. This does not mean we cast him out as a man of faith. Paul and the writer of Hebrews respect him as the premier example of faith in God. What does this mean for us? It means no person, no matter how spiritual, is perfect. It means even the most faithful among us can make poor decisions. It means we must always take heed lest we fall. It means we must always check our faith and its object. Are you making decisions in life because you trust God, or because you fear man? That is a good question to ask yourself the next time your faith is tested. We hide unbelief in many ways, but in the end it never pays. Let's remember that as we finish this week. Trust your faithful God to provide for you and your loved ones, and do not make choices out of fear.
