Righteous Pharaoh

Talk about being selfish...

And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife' then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account." When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 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? 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 be gone." And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. - Gen. 12:9-13:1

Abram wanted to save himself, so he told his wife to pretend to be his sister.

Who did he think he was fooling?

Now it is interesting that God intervenes here, before Abram knew who God was.  The story says that The Lord sent plagues.  But perhaps that is just the way the people who told this story interpreted what happened.

Everything, they believed, was brought about by God, so God must have sent the plagues, or illnesses that caused Pharaoh to question Abram.

You would think Pharaoh would have killed Abram for his lies and troubles, and kept Sarai as his wife, but that didn't happen either.

So, is Pharaoh a more righteous person than Abram?

I think so.  Go, he told him, and take all that is yours.

Pharaoh took nothing from Abram, but just let him go free.

Why would God look with favor on this man, Abram, who had deceived Pharaoh and subjected his own wife to being taken as a bride?

We might look at this and interpret God's actions as forgiving and loving, but there are so many examples of God's judgment to compare this to that I wonder what God was thinking.

Maybe that is the true message of this story.  We never know.

More to come...