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Sermon preached on Genesis 12:10-13:4 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 07/30/2023 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Last passage was so wonderful with God promising Abraham a people and a place in what we now refer to as the Abrahamic Covenant. Abraham responded in faith, leaving his homeland and going to the Promised Land, where he lived by faith as a sojourner since the land at that time was still controlled by the wicked Canaanites. And yet, from the heights of God’s promise and Abram’s faithful obedience, we come to this passage. What we see here, we will see again many times to come in Genesis. We’ll see God being faithful to his promises. We’ll also see how so often God’s people try to secure God’s promises by their own efforts, too often in sinful or foolish ways. In that, we’ll see time and again that God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants is so dependent on his grace.
Let us begin in our first point for today by considering Abraham and his sin and folly here. I do want to take care here to point out that our text is pretty reserved here on this point. I will help us to see how we see it here. But it’s not really the main point of this passage. It’s more of a secondary point that we are to recognize. That’s why I’m dealing with it first, and I think the more central point will come out later in our sermon.
So then, we begin in verse 10 and recognize that Abraham and house encounter a famine. Realize this is a famine in the Promised Land. But at that time, it was still that wicked land of Canaan. Despite all the altar building and consecration efforts we saw Abraham begin to do in Canaan last passage, the land is still full of wicked people. We would probably not be wrong to wonder if this famine was not in part due to God’s curse upon a wicked people in a wicked land. Abraham then is in the unfortunate situation of being someone who is a follower of the one, true God, in the middle of land really feeling the effects of the curse. And it is affecting him and his household. So, what does he do? He leaves the Promised Land. He leaves the land that God had told him to go to. The text doesn’t explicitly tell us what God thought of this. But it does seem to be the wrong direction for Abraham to be going. As an example by his own words later in his life, Abraham will tell his servant that under no circumstance should his son Isaac ever leave the Promised Land, even to find a godly wife, Genesis 24:6. So, it seems the first problem to note here is with Abraham leaving the Promised Land.
The second problem with Abraham’s actions here is found in verse 11. As they approach Egypt, he instructs Sarah to lie. He wants her to lie and say that she is his brother, implying that they are not married. He tells us his motivation in verse 12, that he believes the Egyptians will kill him to take Sarah. So, assessing this action, Abraham is telling Sarah to do this out of fear of man and out of self-preservation. Far worse, however, is that this likely would result in Sarah being taken. I think back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and remember how Adam failed there to protect his wife. Surely, what Abraham is proposing has a similar end.
Indeed, that is what happens according to verse 15. After the Egyptians observe the great beauty of Sarah, word ultimately comes to Pharoah, and he takes her into his house, that she would ultimately become his wife. I would note that to say that he is taking her into his house is likely to be understood that he is bringing him into his royal harem where he probably had various women as his wives. That, of course, is not spelled out here, but given our knowledge of history, that was the norm for ancient Egyptian Pharaohs.
So then, we see the great sin and folly of Abraham’s lie. The sin and folly is that it worked. Not only did he preserve his life, but his wife was taken, effectively stolen from him. And then he profits greatly from this, per verse 16. Because Pharoah thinks Abraham is just Sarah’s brother consenting to them getting married, he richly blesses Abraham. When the dust clears, it describes all the livestock and servants he had acquired through it all. Realize, up to this point, we might mistakenly think that Abraham and his “wisdom” paid off. He escaped the famine of the land and now is sitting full in Egypt and being honored by the Pharoah. Yet, at what terrible cost?
What I think we see here is man’s wisdom to try to save himself. Given their circumstances, these were foolish and sinful actions taken to try to do what they needed God to do. Let me give an illustration to help. Later in Genesis, they will try to fulfill God’s promise of a son through having Abraham have a son through Sarah’s maidservant named Hagar. That would be man’s efforts through natural means to bring about God’s plans. But God wouldn’t have that. God intended to work his promises directly and supernaturally, through Abraham and Sarah, so to show that it was God’s grace at work, not man’s efforts. I think there is something of a similar sort here with them fleeing to Egypt and lying about Sarah. In fact, I suggest there is good reason to even see a connection between today’s passage and Hagar. That’s because later in Genesis 16:1, when we are first introduced to Sarah’s maidservant Hagar, we are told that Hagar was an Egyptian maidservant. It is very possible that today’s passage is when they acquired Hagar. And it would all certainly fit the theme.
So then, while the text doesn’t come out and directly condemn Abraham for his actions, I think we are supposed to read this with biblical wisdom and in light of other teachings from Scripture and see Abraham’s sinful failings here. To further make this point, we see the pagan Egyptian Pharoah even admonish Abraham in verse 18. The Pharoah chides Abraham, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister.’” This admonishment by a pagan reminds me of how there was that person in the church in 1 Corinthians 5 that engaged in an act of immorality that Paul says that even the pagans don’t do such horrible things. Here, while Abraham had feared the evil of the Egyptians, their leader admonishes Abraham for not doing the righteous thing. So, while the text doesn’t narratively speak against Abram’s sin, I think we are to infer Abraham’s failings here.
So then, in this first point, I’ve explained some of the sin and folly we can infer here. But given the reserved nature of this passage, I do also want to consider this from the perspective of Abraham and Sarah’s sense of affliction and tribulation. Abraham surely did what he did here out of a sense of great desperation. That does not excuse what he did in any way. But I think we should recognize that both are going on here. So think of the troubles that came upon them both.
Begin with the famine. I mean, what are you going to do when you are faced with the real issue of no food being available? It is easy for me to give a simple religious answer, that said God told you to go to the Land of Canaan, so you should stay there until you hear otherwise. Yet, this promise of a place, was not looking very promising of a place at that time. So, when the real trial of a famine hits you, maybe you decide God would have you to find a way to stay alive. It says in verse 10 that Abraham was intending to sojourn there, in other words, not stay there permanently. So, we should realize that this famine was indeed very severe and did cause great trouble upon Abraham and his household. Add then to that point, that Abraham thought things were so desperate that he would go to Egypt where he had a real fear that he could be killed and his wife taken. Abraham felt their situation was that desperate, that he thought they had to take that chance and he was trying to do whatever he could think of to try to mitigate the risk.
Add to all this the what all this meant for Sarah. She is treated here as a pawn to be traded. This is no story of a fairy tale romance. Abraham is no knight in shiny armor to protect her. Sadly, in contrast, I think of how in two chapters, Abraham will go on a daring rescue mission to save his nephew Lot when he is captured, but no rescue attempt here is made for Sarah by Abraham. She is frankly abandoned by her husband who should be protecting her, by having her life serve to protect him instead. It’s all backwards and wrong and so very sad. Frankly, this screams of the maltreatment of women that our culture has for some time spoken loudly against. While yes these were different times, yet in this incident, I would heartily share the concern. This was a terrible thing to ask Sarai to bear. Not to mention, how it threatened the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham of a people. God will make it more clear later, but God’s promise to Abram of a people is specific to Sarai as well. God will make clear that the promised line would come not through Abraham and just any woman, but specifically through Abraham and Sarah. What Sarah had to endure here threatened all of that.
So then, on the one hand I think we should infer the sin and folly of Abraham here. But we should also not miss the great and sad troubles that had fallen upon Abraham here and especially Sarah. But try as they may, they couldn’t really find solutions to these things on their own. So, we come to the important turning point in verse 17. There, God goes into action. There, God shows himself to be a promise keeper. Verse 17, “But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”
Remember back to God’s promises to Abraham at the start of this chapter. Specifically, look at the portion in Genesis 12:3. There, God promises to bless those who bless Abraham, and to curse those who curse Abraham. According to man’s wisdom, it might have looked like the Egyptians were blessing Abraham per verse 16 when it says they dealt well with him for Sarah’s sake.” You might think that would mean God should bless the Egyptians. But instead, God curses the Egyptians. And of course, we know why. Because the Pharoah had actually cursed Abram by stealing his wife. Pharoah didn’t realize it. But he had. And so, God keeps his promise and curses the one who curses Abraham. We should recognize these plagues upon Pharoah is God fulfilling his promise to Abraham to curse those who curse you. In other words, God shows himself a promise keeper to Abraham by graciously coming to his aid in this terrible situation.
Furthermore, the final result is that Pharoah drives them out of the country, verse 20. When it says there that Pharoah gave orders concerning him, it’s basically that Pharoah doesn’t just ask them to leave Egypt, it’s that he has his men escort them out of the country. And notice the end of verse 20 says that Abraham leaves with all that he had. In other words, remember how Abraham had received various material blessings from the Egyptians on account of Sarah. In other words, Abraham got to keep all that even as the Pharoah sends Abraham and house on their way. So they leave, essentially plundering the Egyptians, so to speak.
In our third point for today, I’d like us look ahead to that hope that this passage brings to God’s people. In the immediate, look at the hope restored that comes to Abram and Sarai. Look where they end up at the end of this section. Chapter 13 records that when the dust clears, they are back in the Promised Land. Abram and Sarah are there and again calling upon the name of the LORD, where Abram had at first built an altar to God in the Promised Land. So, Sarah is restored to Abraham, restoring hope yet of a promised people to come from Abraham and Sarah. And they are back in the land of Canaan, with all the more material provisions to sustain them in the land, restoring the hope yet of the Promised Land. God is faithful and he will keep his promises to Abraham. And so here hope ends up restored to Abraham and Sarah, and not because of Abraham’s efforts but frankly in spite of them.
To be clear, when this passage ends, hope is restored that God’s promises to them would be fulfilled, but the promises were not yet fulfilled. They still had no child. They were still living in tents as sojourners in the land of promise. They still have to live by faith.
And so fast forward to the original readers of Genesis when this book was compiled by Moses. Today’s descent into Egypt and back prefigures how Abraham’s descendants would experience a much longer version of something similar. What Abraham and Sarah experience here foreshadows what Israel would later experience in a grander scale at the Exodus. Israel ends up in Egypt because of a famine. At first, they are welcomed with blessing, and not only do they survive the famine in Egypt, but they grow and multiply into a great people. But eventually Egypt turns against them, and they find themselves enslaved by the Pharoah of that day. But God sends plagues against the Egyptians and that ultimately causes the Pharoah to send them away in haste. The Israelites even effectively plunder the Egyptians on the way out because the Egyptians give them various riches as they leave. God ultimately has them head back to the Promised Land with the hope of finally being able to possess it. I hope you can see the parallels between the later experience of Israel in the Exodus and this passage. Israel was supposed to read this passage in Genesis and see how God worked similarly among Abraham and Sarah. It was supposed to give them hope that God is a promise keeper. It was supposed to encourage them that God would finish the work.
And in fact, as the Bible continues to record the sacred history, God did keep all his promises to Abraham. His descendants did grow into a people and a place. And yet as we keep learning in the Bible, that was not the full fulfillment of the promises. For God’s promises included what he said here in 12:3, that all the families on the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s seed. But God the promise keeper is faithful to that promise as well.
I speak of course of how the final fulfillment of all God’s promises to Abraham are found in Jesus. Jesus, of the seed of Abraham, is the true Israel, and the yes and amen to all God’s promises to Abraham. I’ve said that God is a promise keeper, well, Jesus is the promise kept. This is signaled in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus’ parents flee to Egypt at his birth to preserve his life from the evil Herod. There, God tells Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt. And there, God tells Mary and Joseph when it is safe to return. This, Matthew’s gospel records, is so that we could recognize Jesus as the true Israel, in other words, the fulfillment of all that God promised to Abraham.
But realize how Jesus would really bring all this fulfillment. It wasn’t so much his reliving Israel’s descent to Egypt and back as a child. It’s his descent to hell and back on the cross. Jesus suffered hell on the cross in our place, to save us from our sins. He endured divine curse in our place unto death, so we could receive blessing unto eternal life. He did this so we could be a part of God’s redeemed people in a future place of glory.
As you know, I’ve not had a lot of good to say about Abraham’s works here today. I’ve tried to highlight God’s works in spite of Abraham’s works. But there is someone’s works here that should be highlighted. That’s Sarah’s. Sarah is a type of Christ here. She is sinned against. She suffers horrible humiliation so that God’s people could be saved and blessed. I’m not glorifying what Abraham asked her to do. I’m not advocating for it, or apologizing for it. But if we stop and think of the great way she is humbled here, we see a picture of Christ, with suffering then glory. Abraham is no Christ-figure in this passage. But Sarah really is. But God redeems them both. And he ultimately does it through their greater son, Jesus. And Jesus is our hope too.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
