I mentioned a similar incident there in chapter 20, that occasion was not in Egypt but with Abimelech in the land of Canaan. However, that was the second time that he tried that. It says there that Sarah was a woman of beautiful countenance. I believe the King James has fair. Years ago when I was studying into this, the word translated in my New King James, “beautiful” and the word translated “fair” could indicate a couple of things. The New King James has taken the approach that she was beautiful, and I have no doubt about that at all. There is an alternative though that is interesting: it could mean fair in the sense of complexion. Meaning that she would be light complexion, possibly a blonde.
That would have interesting ramifications if you know anything about the Egyptians. The Egyptians were a brown race. They were swarthy in comparison to Abraham and Sarah, dark haired. And I am sure, if Sarah indeed was blonde, that would have been something very interesting to Egyptian men.
Abraham had a lesson to learn. That is, cleverness is no substitute for faith. Now he contrived this deceit, which was half true, but it may as well been all untrue, but it was half true, indeed she was his sister. But he did this in order to save his own life. He had not learned yet the type of faith that he would trust in God to the extent of actually giving up his life. He had to learn a lesson that sin does not solve problems, it only produces more problems. That is the lesson of unleavened bread, how that sin spreads. This deceit that he pulled not only began to affect him, but also began to affect the Egyptians as well because God plagued the Egyptians because of the sin that was being committed here.
It is interesting here. I do not know if you picked up on it but twice, Moses, the writer of this book, clarifies that Hagar, Sarah's maid, is the Egyptian, the sojourner. Now, this situation is actually a bit reversed from a situation that happened a few years back. She is a sojourner in a foreign land. But I want to call attention here to the first instance of this underlying Hebrew word translated Egyptian four chapters earlier. Turn back there with me.
We know this story pretty well. After Abram, the sojourner in Egypt, lies about Sarai not being his wife, the Pharaoh takes her in to be part of his harem. But we read in verses 17 and 18 that the Lord plagued him with a great plague, his whole house was plagued, and so Pharaoh calls Abram immediately and says, "Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?" And he quickly sends them on their way with all their possessions.
Now we are going back to Genesis 16 and we see this time it is Abram taking Hagar, the Egyptian who is the sojourner in the land of Canaan. And I think it is basically God saying, "Abram, you knew better. You saw the same thing, you saw what happened when Pharaoh tried to do this to you, and here you are, you did it to Hagar! Don't you see how I punished him?" Now, it is clear that Sarah was a bit desperate here and she wanted to take matters into her own hands, but Abram could have refused. And I think it is part of becoming at-one with our spouses by the way, right? It is not just blindly listening, it is having a conversation. "What does God really want from this situation? What should we do?" And it is that level of reciprocity and relationship that allows us to be better together and to get to a better answer.
God Almighty had to lead through many forked roads our forefather Abraham, in many of which he took the wrong fork. In Genesis 12:11-20 (before the Pharaoh in Egypt) and also in Genesis 20:1-2 (before King Abimelech), events in Abraham's formative years (lessons placed there for our contemplation and admonition), Abraham compromised with God's law—at least that part dealing with bearing false witness. God Almighty allowed Abraham to take the wrong fork in both situations, and then in His mercy bailed him out of a bad situation, but not before Abram stewed in his predicament for awhile, learning some hard lessons about taking the expedient, faithless way out.
Now I'm going to throw one in here. This was the second time that it happened! Look back at Genesis 12:10-20 and the same thing happened between Abraham and Pharaoh fifteen or twenty years before. How long was God's forbearance now? Fifteen or twenty years.
But He had given Abraham time to repent of this sin, but he never did it. Eventually I'm sure that he did, but here we have a fifteen or twenty-year period of time where God tested him on the same problem in order to help him grow in character. I thought that was kind of interesting.
