Faithless Prosperity and the Pagan's Rebuke Text: Genesis 12:10-20
Introduction: The Pragmatic Heresy
We live in an age that worships at the altar of pragmatism. What matters is what works. We are told to be practical, to be realistic, to make the smart play. And this mindset has crept into the church like a fog. We have Christians who believe that the best way to advance the kingdom of God is to adopt the world's methods of marketing, compromise, and clever maneuvering. We justify our little lies, our ethical shortcuts, and our cowardice by telling ourselves that the ends justify the means. We think we can help God out, that His grand, cosmic plan needs our shrewd little schemes to keep it from running into a ditch.
This is the pragmatic heresy. It is the quiet assumption that walking by sight is more reliable than walking by faith. It is a profound insult to the sovereignty of God. And if we want to see the father of this particular kind of foolishness, we need look no further than to our father in the faith, Abram. In the verses immediately preceding our text, Abram has just received the most staggering promises ever made to a man. God has called him, promised him a great name, a great nation, and that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Abram responded in faith and built an altar. He was on the mountain top.
But faith is not tested on the mountain tops. It is tested in the valleys. It is tested when the pantry is bare. And here, in our text, the first test comes, a famine in the land of promise. And Abram, the great man of faith, immediately resorts to a faithless, pragmatic, and cowardly scheme that endangers his wife, dishonors his God, and earns him a blistering rebuke from a pagan king. This story is in the Bible to warn us. It shows us that God's covenant faithfulness is not dependent on our faithfulness, and it demonstrates that the path of worldly wisdom and self-preservation is a path of deep spiritual shame.
The Text
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it happened as he drew near to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Now behold, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and it will be when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Therefore he treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels came into his possession. But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “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,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? So now, here is your wife, take her and go.” So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away with his wife and all that belonged to him.
(Genesis 12:10-20 LSB)
The Logic of Fear (vv. 10-13)
The first test of Abram's faith comes swiftly.
"Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land." (Genesis 12:10)
A famine in the land of promise. This is a direct challenge to the word God had spoken. Is God able to provide, even here? Abram's response is to go "down to Egypt." Biblically, Egypt is almost always a picture of the world, of bondage, of reliance on human power instead of divine provision. Abram leaves the place of promise for the place of worldly abundance. He is walking by sight. His stomach is growling louder than the promises of God.
As he approaches this place of compromise, his fear gives birth to a sinful strategy.
"Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you." (Genesis 12:13)
This is a staggering failure of headship. The fundamental calling of a husband is to protect his wife, to interpose himself between her and any danger, to lay down his life for her as Christ did for the church. Abram does the precise opposite. He uses his wife as a human shield. He is willing to have her taken into a pagan's harem in order to save his own skin and, as he says, so that "it may go well with me." He wants to prosper from this arrangement. This is not just a lie; it is an abdication of his masculine, covenantal duty. He is functioning as an anti-Christ, sacrificing his bride for his own well being.
The plan is based on a half truth, which is a whole lie. Sarai was his half sister. But a half truth told with the intent to deceive is a lie, full stop. He is trying to manage the situation, to be clever. But faith is not clever; faith is obedient trust. Abram here is a strategist, not a sojourner. He has taken his eyes off God and placed them squarely on his own fears and his own schemes.
The Wages of Sin is... Camels? (vv. 14-16)
The terrible thing is that, from a worldly perspective, Abram's plan works perfectly.
"And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Therefore he treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels came into his possession." (Genesis 12:15-16 LSB)
Abram's fears are realized. Sarai's beauty is noticed, and she is taken for the king. And what is the result of Abram's cowardly compromise? He gets rich. He is showered with livestock and servants. This is a direct refutation of every form of the health and wealth gospel. Abram is living in blatant disobedience and fear, and the material blessings are pouring in. This should be a terrifying thought for us. Worldly success is no indicator of spiritual health. You can be prospering mightily in the world's eyes while standing on the precipice of divine judgment. Abram got his camels, but he lost his integrity. He traded his wife's honor for a flock of sheep.
Notice that Sarai is entirely passive in this narrative. She is acted upon. She is seen, praised, taken. She is a victim of her husband's sin. The covenant promise, the promised seed, now resides in the harem of a pagan king because of the faithlessness of the covenant man. If the fulfillment of God's plan depended on Abram, the whole project would have ended right here in abject failure.
The Covenant Keeper (v. 17)
But the covenant does not depend on Abram. It depends on God. When man fails, God acts.
"But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife." (Genesis 12:17 LSB)
This is the turning point. Yahweh, the covenant Lord, intervenes. He does not strike Abram, the guilty party. He does not strike Sarai, the victim. He strikes Pharaoh. Why? Because God is protecting His promise. Sarai is the mother of the promised seed, and God will not allow that line to be corrupted. He is the great husband who protects the bride when her earthly husband will not. This is grace, pure and simple.
These plagues are a miniature preview of the Exodus. Once again, God will strike Egypt with plagues to rescue His people from a situation they got themselves into. God's faithfulness is not a response to our goodness; it is the foundation of it. He is faithful even when we are faithless, for He cannot deny Himself. Abram failed to protect his wife, but God, the keeper of the covenant, did not fail to protect His plan.
The Righteous Pagan (vv. 18-20)
What follows is one of the most humiliating scenes in the life of any patriarch. Abram is summoned by Pharaoh and is rebuked for his lack of integrity.
"Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, '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,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife?'" (Genesis 12:18-19 LSB)
The pagan king has to lecture the prophet of God on the basics of marital ethics. Pharaoh, who was acting in ignorance, is more righteous in this moment than Abram, who was acting in full knowledge. Pharaoh is rightly indignant. He has been deceived, his house has been plagued, all because of Abram's lie. Abram has brought reproach upon the name of his God among the heathen. This is what our sin does. When the church compromises, it gives the world a righteous reason to mock us. And in this moment, the world's mockery is entirely justified.
Abram says nothing in response. What could he say? He is caught, exposed, and shamed. He is then unceremoniously kicked out of the country.
Pharaoh sends him away with his wife, and with all the livestock he had acquired through his deception. He leaves Egypt a richer man, but he leaves in disgrace. Those camels and donkeys were not trophies of God's blessing; they were monuments to his shame, a constant, clattering reminder of his failure in faith and his rebuke at the hands of a pagan.
The Greater Abram
This story is a black mark on Abram's record, but it is a bright display of God's grace. And like all these Old Testament narratives, it is designed to make us long for a better man, a better husband, a better covenant head.
Abram, in fear for his life, went down to Egypt and was willing to sacrifice his bride to save himself. But Jesus Christ, the greater Abram, left the glory of heaven and came down into the world, our Egypt. And He did not come to sacrifice His bride, the Church, to save Himself. He came to sacrifice Himself to save His bride. He stood between us and all danger, and He did not flinch. He took the plague of God's wrath, which we deserved, upon Himself.
Abram used a deceitful word to endanger his wife. Christ is the true Word who spoke the truth to save His wife. Abram left Egypt with the shameful wages of sin. Christ leads us out of our bondage in Egypt not with ill-gotten camels, but with the true riches of His own righteousness, imputed to us by faith.
This story is in the Bible to show us that our standing with God depends entirely on His faithfulness and not our own. We are all, like Abram, prone to wander, prone to fear, prone to foolish and pragmatic schemes. We are all tempted to trade glory for camels. But our hope is not in our grip on Him, but in His grip on us. He is the faithful husband who will guard His bride, who will rescue her even from her own folly, and who will, despite our many failures, bring us safely home.