Gen 12:13 Are Abram's pants are on fire?

Gen 12:13   Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake."


Abraham is clearly trying to save his own skin. He has to go into Egypt in order to survive the famine but he fears that the Egyptians will want to take his beautiful wife, which turns out to be true. Abram reasons that they will want him out of the way if he is known as her husband but they might tolerate or even bless him if they think he is Sara's brother. Again, he turns out to be right, and when Pharaoh takes Sara he gives Abram loads of animals and servants.

So was it a lie? Well, when he plays the same card again we learn that Sara is, in fact, his half sister (Gen 20:12) so while it's not an outright lie, it’s certainly a bit deception. As we get to know more of Abram and his family it becomes clear that we should not necessarily make them role models in every aspect of their lives. It is very instructive though to keep our eyes on God and see how he deals with these very human characters.

Amazingly heaven is silent about Abrams little distortion of the truth and God continues to work out his plans thorough the good and bad in his life. The same is not true for Pharaoh however. Although he has been deceived and has unwittingly taken another man's wife, God gives him and his family some serious diseases.

Before looking at the judgment of Pharaoh, I want to think about how God treats Abram. The favor of God is on him such that God does not punish him for every little thing he does wrong. Even when he bends the truth God's favor remains on him. He doesn't get "told off" or punished, or "taught a lesson" or even disciplined. I'm so glad God treats me like that. Of course he disciplines me and corrects me at times, but not all the time for everything I do wrong. He loves me and changes me over time. That is good because I am not expecting to be perfect this side of eternity and if God majored on what I did wrong my life would be pretty miserable. You see it sometimes in parents who continuality pick their kids up on every little thing they do wrong. Instead, my life is filled with God's grace and kindness. A lot of the time God must choose to silently cover my sin and bless me despite my failings. I have done much worse than Abram in my life and yet it is overflowing with God's blessing.  

            Good sense makes one slow to anger,

            and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

            Prov 19:11 

           

But what about Pharaoh? First it seems that God does in fact give sickness under some circumstances. It’s not therefore quite right to say that "sickness is always from the devil". Here, at least, it is described as being from God. The second thing is that while Abram did something dubious and got rich, Pharaoh unwittingly did something wrong and got hammered. Why?

Simply put, not everyone is a recipient of God's grace. In the bible, knowing you are doing something wrong does indeed increase your guilt, but not knowing you are doing something wrong does not absolve you of all responsibility. Pleading ignorance will get you some leniency but not totally let off. The law distinguished between sins done unwittingly and sins done intentionally "with a high hand" (Numbers 15:22-41). A sacrifice could be made for the former but for the later a person was to be cut off from his people.

Jesus tells a parable where a servant who knows his master's will but does not do it is beaten with many blows while another servant who does something deserving punishment without knowing it was wrong gets beaten with few blows. Luke 12:48

 

I am so glad I am a child of God with his favor resting upon me every moment of every day.  It doesn't mean I am careless or presumptuous in my thoughts and actions though. Far from it. David prayed "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;" (Psalm 19:13). We see his soft heart towards God again in Psalm 139:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!" Psalm 139:23-24

Rules can simply harden a heart or break it in pieces while love can melt it and mold it. Knowing God's favor is a powerful motivation to live according to his wonderful ways. One of my favorite verses is Titus 2:12 which says that God's grace teaches us to say no to unrighteousness and I have found that to be true.