“Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, ‘Look. We both know that you’re a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they’re going to say, ‘Aha! That’s his wife!’ and kill me. But they’ll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you’re my sister. Because of you, they’ll welcome me and let me live.’

When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh’s princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was taken to live with Pharaoh. Because of her, Abram got along very well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, men and women servants, and camels. But God hit Pharaoh hard because of Abram’s wife Sarai; everybody in the palace got seriously sick.

Pharaoh called for Abram, ‘What’s this that you’ve done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she’s your wife? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister’ so that I’d take her as my wife? Here’s your wife back—take her and get out! Pharaoh ordered his men to get Abram out of the country. They sent him and his wife and everything he owned on their way.” Genesis 12:10-20 (MSG)’

Perspective: 

When Abram was 75 years old, God instructed him to move his family to a new place. He gave Abram, later known as Abraham, a promise that He would make him into a great nation. On his journey south, they experienced a famine, so Abram traveled to Egypt. As he approached this foreign land, he became concerned. He looked at his wife who was traveling with him and became worried that the Egyptians would kill him because of her. Instead of trusting God to protect them, he told his wife to say that she was his sister. Instead of asking God for wisdom, fear took control, and it caused him to make a bad decision. Additionally, he had forgotten the promise of God that He was going to bless Abram. In that moment, it became more about what Abram could control and less about what God could do. As a result of Abram taking matters into his own hands, his wife and the Egyptians were negatively impacted. Although God did intervene on behalf of Abram and Sarai, Abram forgot that it is better to trust God in a foreign place rather than take matters into your own hands.

When we are in a new season of life, we can have some feelings similar to Abram. We don’t know how people will accept us or how God is working in the situation. Those moments can cause us to take matters into our own hands. Instead of trusting God to bring us through, we can start meddling in the details. Fear can cause us to make decisions that are not wise. We can forget the promises that He has given us. Maybe you are starting something new or moving to a new city. Although new things can be exciting, sometimes we can get so caught up in worrying about the details that we leave God out of the equation. What if Abram had stopped and asked God how he should move forward? His wife might have been spared from being taken into Pharoh’s family, and the Egyptians could have avoided the severe illness.  God might still be leading you in the same direction, but how you get there might be different than you would have planned. The reality is that God sees what you can’t see. He is able to bring favor into your situation even if the odds are stacked against you. It’s in trusting God that we not only experience his favor, protection, and blessing, but those around us can experience it in their lives, as well.