Faith during Famine

Genesis 12:10-20 (ESV)
10 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.
11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,
12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
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.”
14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18 So 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,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

So what's going on in this text?

Well, famine hits Canaan, the land that God has just promised to give to Abraham and to his descendants. And so to find food, Abraham goes down to Egypt, which would ultimately become both the sign of Israel's capture and slavery, but also their ancient nemesis in those days.

And so there's this tension between this promise that God had just made in the covenant with Abraham. You know, I'll give you land. I'll give you a great nation. I'll make you into a great nation. And I will bless all the nations because of you. And the current reality of Abraham's life—there's famine, there's no food, there's nothing for him and his wife to eat. And so they have to essentially flee to a place where there is food.

Additionally, even though Abram did obey God and in faith trusted him when God called him out of Ur of the land of the Chaldeans to move into the place that God was going to show him, he nevertheless here lies about the identity of his wife. Abram appears to fear Egypt's power more than he trusts in God's protection.

And so there's this covenant and this promise of these three great things. And yet it seems like almost immediately that covenant is in danger.

So does God abandon Abram and Sarai for their failure in this moment? Well, no, because God is faithful even when his people is not. God's covenant faithfulness shows us that God is going to be the one who makes sure that this agreement, this promise, finds its fulfillment. It is the Lord, not Abram, who holds the promise, who fulfills and ultimately will enact God's rescue plan.

Now, there are these plagues that happened to Pharaoh because he has Abram's wife. This points us to the plagues that would ultimately deliver Israel—the children of Abram and Sarai—from Egypt. God strikes Pharaoh to deliver his people. Even here, it's almost like a preview, a trailer, if you like, of the salvation story that God was playing out or will play out in the nation of Israel.

What This Means for Us

Now, why do these sorts of things matter to us? What are we to learn from this passage? How does this passage teach us to live?

Well, I think one of the first things that this passage shows us is that fear will often push out our obedience and our faith in God. Humans are pretty quick to default to self-preservation mode. When we are afraid of what might happen to us, we are quite easily susceptible to falling into sin.

But also our sins have collateral damage. Here, Sarai is objectified. Abram was supposed to probably protect his wife and his household. And instead, Sarai is offered up and she ultimately ends up in Pharaoh's household and she suffers. God's plan, his promises are threatened in a sense, at least in a human sense, because of the lack of faithfulness on Abram's part.

And yet, even though these things are true, even though these fears kind of put God's redemption plan in danger, God nevertheless protects his purposes. He does so despite our failings. God's rescue plan is more robust than our failures. It's not fragile. Every believer will misstep, will sin and will ultimately fall because we are people that are in need of redemption. And yet, despite our sin, despite us, God carries his redemptive plan forward.

I think this passage has perhaps a particular application for us living here in 2025. We live in a world where there is increasing economic scarcity, if you like. We live in a cost of living crisis. House prices have gone up. Inflation has been up post-COVID. These are kinds of modern famines that we live through today.

I guess the question for us becomes here is, will we faithfully trust that God will provide? Will we rest in his provision? Or will we through fear turn to sin, just like Abram did here?

The reality is that after Abram's fall into this lie before Pharaoh, he actually ends up leaving Egypt richer and better off. This—you know, crime doesn't pay. We shouldn't look at this and think, oh, well, his deception paid off and that's great. No, this is because God is gracious to his chosen people. He will bring about his rescue plan through Abram and his descendants. God's grace to Abram has abounded in this case. The riches with which he lives is really God's preparation for Abram and for the future of Israel as well.

How This Points to Jesus

Now, ultimately, we need to think about how does this passage point us to Jesus?

Well, in some ways, this shows us that Jesus is quite unlike Abram. Abram here offered up his wife to Pharaoh to save his own skin. But that's the exact opposite of what Jesus does. Jesus is quite unlike Abram. He never sacrifices his bride, that is the church. He never sacrifices his bride's safety for his own. In fact, he lays down his life for the church, for his bride, as we read in Ephesians chapter 5.

But also there's a greater Exodus pattern here. The plagues on Egypt really foreshadow the ultimate wrath of God being poured out on Christ so that his people might walk free. We see this in proto-form here where Pharaoh is plagued and he lets Abram go. Later on we will see this in Israel as a nation where all of Egypt is plagued and so Israel gets to walk out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

But ultimately, Christ is plagued for us, for our sins, so that we are set free, not from Egypt, but from the greater tragedy, the greater threat to who we are—our own sin. So Jesus takes the plagues that are meant for us, he takes them on his shoulders, and he takes our place, and so we are set free.

Lets Pray.

Dear Lord, we recognize that sometimes the seeming lack in our lives can frighten us. Frighten us to such an extent where we become disobedient and unfaithful to you. We want control. We forget your promises. Thank you that you guard us and that your plans will come to fruition even when we wobble in our faith. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. In whose name we pray. Amen.