PILGRIM AND POTENTATE

After the amazing promises God gives Abraham in the beginning of chapter 12, this incident comes as a shock. It certainly prevents us from turning the patriarchs into idealized figures of faith by highlighting their human frailty and weakness. It also underlines the fact that the fulfillment of the promise cannot depend, in the final analysis, upon human beings, but requires the intervention of God at critical points in the story.

Two comments may help our understanding of this difficult text. First, we have to keep in mind the contrast between our modern culture and that of the ancient world, especially with regard to family structures and relationships. Archaeological research has revealed the existence of what we may call ‘wife-sistership’, by which a married woman might have the legal status of ‘sister’ to another man, a position which enhanced her privileges and protection. The Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna comments that the Genesis narratives ‘have faithfully recorded the unique institution of wife-sistership’ (Nahum Sarna, Understanding Genesis: The Heritage of Biblical Israel, Shocken Books, 1966, p103)

Second, without absolving Abram of guilt in relation to his deception and his willingness to put his wife at great risk, we see that this incident records the first clash between the bearer of the promise of God and the overwhelming power and glory of the empire of Egypt. Consider the plight of refugees who arrive in Europe today, penniless and vulnerable, not least to sexual exploitation. Abram and Sarai are in flight from famine, so that the utterly powerless are exposed to the absolute potentate. The imperial context (which will appear repeatedly in the following chapters) places the patriarch’s failure in a rather different light, even as it underlines the crucial importance of God’s gracious intervention.

Think about migrants in the modern world and pray for them, especially for Christians who believe their long and hard journeys are part of God’s purpose for the world.