Fearful Liars (Genesis 12)

 Fearful Liars

Abram had great courage and faith when he moved from his own country to another country he did not know off. 
He came to Canaan and then went to Egypt because of a famine. 
But fear came to Abram and soon this brought him to a lie:


[Gen 12:10-13 NKJV] 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine [was] severe in the land. 11 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. 12 "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. 13 "Please say you [are] my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you."


Abram was not directly threatened by someone. He assumed that the Egyptians would do this and he went into Egypt with a lie.

His fear was that Sarai would be taken and he would be killed. This was not an understandable precaution, but it was based on blatant fear. 

But this fear also went against God's own promise to him. God had promised Abram would be blessed and would get a son. Abram’s fear that he might get killed came from unbelief.

A living fear can often be caused by unbelief in God. And fear can cause us to lie.

The solution in this case, as in many other cases, was to believe God in spite of fears. 

Oftentimes fear may move us to lie to others. We are scared of what others may do if they knew the truth. 

But let us see how this went for Abram and the people around him:


[Gen 12:14-20 NKJV] 14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she [was] very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 And 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'? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take [her] and go your way." 20 So Pharaoh commanded [his] men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.


Because Abram lied, his wife was taken, he got himself into a dilemma where telling the truth became even harder and Pharaoh received plagues. Finally he was sent away from Egypt.

He did get riches out of it and he did come out alive because of God, but the lie did not seem to do him well.

He had fears, lied because of it and now part of his fears came true because of the lie. And telling the truth became much harder when Pharaoh had given him all of these riches and wanted to take Sarai to himself.

And here we find a general principle for humanity itself. When we fear, in this case because of unbelief, we may lie. But these blatant lies do not help us. They may leave us in a deep pit from which it will be hard to get out from. They may have consequences which our fears did not foresee. 

The courageous and better thing to do sometimes is just telling the truth. It may be hard because we are shortsighted and fearful, but this is how it is with many of our lies.

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