Abraham in Egypt (Part 1)

Sermon by Mark Johnson of Steiger Minneapolis

Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.  It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.  Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.  Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.  Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.
But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.  Then 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 go.”  Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
-Genesis 12:10-20

            This is a well-known, but weird, story, so let’s set the stage before diving into it. 
           
Abraham has just arrived in the land God promised him, but things aren’t going quite as he expected.  There are other people in the land, which complicates matters, since they don’t hand it over to him or recognize him as special in any way.  Then—to top it off—a severe famine strikes.  I think that it would probably be pretty easy to get frustrated at this point.  The “Promised Land” must not have seemed so great.  He has left his home and all his belongings; and now he has nothing and can’t even eat.  So he decides to go to Egypt, where there is food. 

Unfortunately, that isn’t an ideal situation either, because Sarah is such a beautiful woman that Abraham figures he will be killed so that Pharaoh can take her as his wife.  I tried to put myself in Abraham’s shoes as I read this, because it’s easy to get angry at him for how he treated Sarah.  But I think that he must have thought he only had three options: he could stay in the Promised Land and starve; he could go to Egypt, lose his wife, and be killed; or he could go to Egypt, lose his wife, and live.  And I don’t think most of us know what it is like to be faced with the prospect of death.  So I don’t want to condemn him too much for selling out his wife when I can’t really understand what he was going through. 
In fact, I think it was probably a hard decision for Abraham.  I think he and Sarah really loved each other.  See, at this point, Abraham and Sarah are around 75 and 65 years old, respectively, which means they have most likely been married at least 35 years.  Remember, now, that in that culture, having kids was a sign of God’s blessing and favor.  That means that if you did not have kids, it was easy and logical to marry someone else so you could have kids.  But Abraham didn’t do that; he stayed with Sarah, even though she was barren.  I think that says something about how he felt about her, and it makes me think that he didn’t propose this plan flippantly.  Nevertheless, the result is that his wife gets taken by another man, and God sends plagues on Egypt so that Pharaoh sends Abraham and Sarah away.

            I think there are a lot of things we can learn from this story.  I’m going to cover a couple of the main ones now and then discuss this story again next month.

            First, I want to speak to the men specifically about something I think this story reveals.  It is never God’s plan for a man to live a self-protective, passive life that uses women.  This is true for humans in general—it is never God’s intent for us to be self-protective at the expense of others—but I think it is especially true for us men.
            There are women in all of our lives who know all too well the feeling of being abandoned and betrayed.  Maybe it was when they were children, and they had passive or abusive fathers, so that the one who was supposed to protect them was self-centered and hurtful instead.  And some women are experiencing that betrayal now; the men in their lives are acting like little boys, meeting their own needs at the women’s expense, allowing them to feel exposed, vulnerable, and alone. 
            I want to call us not to be like Abraham.  This is Abraham’s first real chance to prove his faith, and instead, he goes belly up and doesn’t trust God. 
God is calling us men to be men.  That doesn’t mean we all have to grow beards and learn to hunt or something.  But men are wired differently from women, and we need to offer our strength to them in the way God made us to be strong.  The apostle Paul wrote that husbands are supposed to love their wives the way that Christ loves the church.  And Jesus is not passive about his church.  We are also called to love our wives like our own bodies.  And let’s face it, even if we hate our body, we love our body.  I mean, we still feed it, and we’re thinking about ourselves all the time.  We love our bodies.
You know, there are women around us who are amazing and strong and beautiful, and who need you to be men.  We most fully reflect God’s image when men are being men and women are being women.  So if we men go passive and protect ourselves at the expense of the women around us, we mar the image of God; and both men and women lose.  It is time to engage with real women in the real world, rather than selfishly look only to yourselves.
I need you to know that I am committed to strong women in leadership and in ministry.  There are amazing women in leadership at our church.  But I want to say, too, that it’s okay to treat women like women.  They’re not men, and we don’t have to pretend they are.  For example, my wife Kirsty can carry heavy things.  I know she can… I work out at the gym with her!  I know she can lift stuff.  But if I have a chance to carry her suitcase for her, I’m going to do that whenever I can.  I’m not trying to be condescending; I want to honor her.
See, we live in a culture that objectifies women (just like Abraham’s culture, by the way).  And it makes women vulnerable.  I want the women in our church to feel safe and free, not vulnerable because of the men around them.  I’m sure you want the same in your church.  So let’s honor them.  And, you know, I have to say this: You can’t honor women when you are objectifying them on the computer.  That doesn’t make them safe.  It does the opposite.  So don’t leave the women in your lives hanging out to dry in order to protect yourselves.  It’s time to be men, to be strong with the strength God meant us to have, to engage with real women in the real world, and honor them the way God desires.  Let’s step up to that call.

Now, I think this story also has something to say to women.  I really believe that women need to know, and remember, that God is your ultimate source of life.  If you feel abandoned, you need to know that God is what you need.  I know that God seems to show up late for Sarah, and I don’t understand why, but I do know that God enters into the pain and vulnerability with Sarah.  God is your protector.  He wants to give you good things through other people, but he is your source of life.
I know that in the history of the world, and the history of the church, men have let women down, and I am sorry.  Women in the church have been pushed down and marginalized.  I wish that hadn’t happened.  And now, in an effort to be “enlightened,” we men have often gone passive, because we’re scared and just don’t know what to do.  But you need to know that even on our best day, men will still let you down.  Even when we are full of strength and passion, we will still let you down.  You cannot find life in created things; only God can fill that ache.  Even when men are the best they can be, they will not satisfy.  If you look to your husband, or your boyfriend, or some other guy you are hoping for, you will be disappointed.
Women, pray for us.  We need your prayers.  We live in a world filled that makes it hard for us to honor you like we should, and like we want to.  So pray for us.
And men, pray for the women.  They need our prayers, too.
Let’s all pray for each other until we come into the fullness of what it means to be men and women.

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