Genesis 12 chronicles a terrible decision by the Father of our faith. When Abraham was following God's orders to move, he came to Egypt. Because his wife was beautiful, he devised a plan to save his life. Here he was, fresh off the incredible blessing and covenant that God had made with him,
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
...and yet he feared for his life. "Tell them you're my sister," Abram told Sarai. Sure enough, they enter Egypt and the big rock star (Pharoah) spots her in the second row and tells his body guards to bring her backstage. This guy made her one of his wives! Pharoah slept with her. I can imagine Abraham looking down from Heaven as I type and feeling ashamed that this costly mistake was recorded in Scripture for all to see.
It's only my imagination, though, because I doubt that anyone in Heaven feels regret. Someday we'll know.
What a humbling mistake to have to live through. Abraham went on to great things, he and Sarai had Isaac later. He was blessed. It would have been cool if Abram would have stood on the promise, "I will curse those who curse you," and depended on God to protect him and his wife. That would be another great heroic Bible story. Instead we get failure. And that is actually a good thing, because we get to see the warts and shortcomings of our heroes. Failure is the one thing we all have in common. God certainly didn't abandon Abram when this happened. He blessed him mightily.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at October 7, 2004 08:20 AM