You are out on a date. It is maybe the second or third date, nothing serious is occurring yet. Your date gets up to go to the bathroom and then the most beautiful person approaches you and begins to flirt. The question comes, “So, who are you with?” “Oh, I’m here with my sister (or brother, cousin, whatever).” He/she then gives you her number and departs, asking you to call her sometime. Come on, has anyone ever done this? It is not exactly the most honest thing to do is it? In fact, it is a lie. You have misrepresented the nature of your relationship to another for whatever reason.
What kind of person would do this sort of thing? Probably not the kind of person you would want to stay with once you find out what happened. Mainly this kind of situation is rooted in selfishness. The person is not taking into account the feelings of the other person and is only interested in themselves. Does this make them a bad person?
In Genesis 12:11-20, this type of thing occurred. It occurred with one of the patriarchs of the Bible, the father of God’s chosen people, Abraham. Because of a famine ion the land Abraham decides to go to Egypt, where there is food and water a plenty. Before entering Egypt, a thought comes across his mind. He looks at his beautiful wife Sarai. He sees that she is totally hot. He reasons in his head that when they get to Egypt, someone might kill him so that they can have his wife for his own. He comes up with a plan, when they get to Egypt, he will say that Sarai is his sister, not his wife.
Abraham was not concerned with the feelings of Sarai, he was more concerned with his own well being. He feared he would be killed over her. Fear can make one do some pretty stupid things. Somehow, he convinced his wife to go along with the goofy scheme. I suppose seeing the fear and concern in his eyes, she relented.
They get down into Egypt and sure enough, the Egyptians are like, “Dang, She’s a hottie.” Pharaoh sons happen to see her one day and thinks to themselves, “Holy Cow! She’s hot!” and go and tell their dad, the Pharaoh, about her. “And she’s SINGLE!” So he sends for her to be one of his concubines.
Now Abraham, he made out pretty good on this deal. Pharaoh gives him all kinds of cattle and riches for his ‘sister’ and treats him very well. Abraham’s wife has now been taken by Pharaoh, and yet he is still willing to let some other man have his way with her because of his selfishness. He’s still alive and being lavished with wealth and honor. Can you believe this? What kind of man lets his wife be taken by another for his pleasure? A man driven by fear.
God does take care of things though. As long as Sarai was in Pharaoh’s house, Pharaoh’s luck turns bad and plagues and curses begin to befall. The wheel on the chariot breaks, roaches begin coming out of the walls, the cook burns the meatloaf, the toilet gets plugged up, (just conjecture. Could have been worse but you get the point). God sees that Abraham’s wife is not defiled.
Finally, Pharaoh figures out what has happened and calls Abraham. “What the heck were you thinking, dude? Why didn’t you tell me that Sarai was your wife? Look at all the crazy garbage going on here, get your stuff and get out of here…. and take your wife too.”
Even Godly people mess up. Because of Abraham’s fear and selfishness, he nearly lost his wife and really put his entire family in jeopardy as Pharaoh could have easily killed them all for this indignity. Often times it is fear and selfishness that cause us to lie in a relationship when actually all it does is make matters worse, even to the point of losing the relationship.
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