Genesis Deeper ㊸ Because of Sarai · Abram Told the Lie, So Why Did the Plagues Fall on Pharaoh’s House? (Genesis 12:10~20)
This series takes one Bible passage at a time and looks at it a little more closely. The images are free to use in worship, in class, and on social media.
There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he had come near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at. It will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will save you alive. Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.” When Abram had come into Egypt, Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way.” Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had.
Genesis 12:10~20 (World English Bible)
1. A Famine, and the First Words Abram Spoke
In the last post, Abram followed God’s word into the land of Canaan. God appeared to him there and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” Abram built an altar in that place, and then he kept moving south (12:7~9).
Today’s passage is what happened right after that. A famine comes over the land. A famine is a time when the rain fails or the crops are ruined, and there is not enough food. In one verse the text uses the word ‘famine’ twice and adds that it was severe. Abram goes down to Egypt, where there is food. He does not go there to settle for good. He goes to stay for a while, to ‘live as a foreigner’ there.
As they come near Egypt, Abram speaks to his wife Sarai. These words are special. Of all the words the Bible records from Abram, these are the first. As we saw last time, the Bible did not record a single word from Abram when he heard God’s promise, when he set out on the road, or when he built the altars. Now, for the first time, Abram opens his mouth.
Those first words were a plan born of fear. His worry was this: his wife is beautiful, so the Egyptians will want her, and they will kill him, her husband, to take her. So Abram asks her: “Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you” (12:13). If she called herself his sister, people would not kill him. They might even treat him well. That was his calculation.
Things go exactly as Abram said they would. The Egyptians see that Sarai is beautiful, and the king’s officials (the princes of Pharaoh) praise her to the king. Sarai is taken into Pharaoh’s house. And because of Sarai, Pharaoh treats Abram well. Abram gains sheep and cattle, servants, donkeys, and camels (12:16).
Then God acts. “Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (12:17). Pharaoh calls Abram and confronts him, sends Sarai back to him, and sends Abram’s whole company out of Egypt.
2. Abram Told the Lie, So Why Did the Plagues Fall on Pharaoh?
Most people reading this story for the first time stop at one place. We think it is fair for the person who did wrong to pay the price. If one child at school told a lie, and the teacher scolded a different child who had been fooled by that lie, anyone would say something was off.
Read the passage that way, and it really does look strange. The one who passed off his wife as his sister was Abram. Pharaoh simply believed him and took Sarai. Pharaoh himself later protests, “…Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?” (12:18). Yet the great plagues fall on Pharaoh and his house. Abram, who told the lie, leaves with plenty of livestock and servants.
So this passage easily leaves us with a question: ‘Does God take the side of his own people even when they do wrong?’ But the text itself tells us, in one short phrase, why the plagues came. When we look closely at that phrase, the question looks different.
3. A Little Deeper · The Reason the Text Gives: ‘Because of Sarai’
Here is the answer first. The text does not say the plagues came because God weighed how wrong Pharaoh had been. The one reason it gives is ‘because of Sarai.’ When Abram’s scheme sent Sarai into Pharaoh’s house, God acted to bring her back to her husband’s side. In this story, the one who kept the promise to give this land to ‘your offspring’ (12:7) was not Abram’s scheme. It was God.
We can see this in three ways. The first two are about what the text calls Sarai. The last is about what the plagues led to.
First, in the lines that tell the story, as opposed to the words the characters speak, the text never once calls Sarai ‘sister.’ The word ‘sister’ comes up twice: once in Abram’s plan (12:13), and once when Pharaoh throws that plan back at him (12:19). Where the story shows her through the Egyptians’ eyes, the text calls her ‘the woman’ (12:14~15). Everywhere else, it calls her ‘his wife.’ When Abram first speaks, she is ‘Sarai his wife’ (12:11). When God sends the plagues, she is ‘Sarai, Abram’s wife’ (12:17). When they leave Egypt, she is ‘his wife’ (12:20). Abram called his wife his sister, but the text never once takes up that word.
Second, in 12:17, the verse that tells us God acted, the text firmly calls her ‘Abram’s wife’ again. “Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (12:17). Both the reason for the plagues and their target are in this one verse. The reason is ‘Sarai,’ and the plagues fell on ‘Pharaoh and his house,’ the house that had taken her in.
Third, what the plagues led to shows what they were for. When the plagues come, Pharaoh calls Abram. And he says, “…see your wife, take her, and go your way” (12:19). In this story God does not say a single word. He does not appear in a dream, and no words of rebuke to Abram are written down. God does just one thing: he strikes the house that took Sarai. And at the end of it, Sarai comes back as Abram’s wife.
Just because no words of God rebuking Abram are written down does not mean the text approves of Abram’s scheme. Pharaoh asks Abram three questions: What is this you have done? Why didn’t you say she was your wife? Why did you say she was your sister? (12:18~19). But not one line of an answer from Abram is written down. Abram, who first opened his mouth to make a plan, leaves no word at all in the text when that plan is questioned.
Then why did God go as far as sending plagues to protect Sarai? The text does not say directly. But a little earlier in the story, God promised Abram that he would give this land ‘to your offspring’ (12:7). Abram could not make that promise come true by his own effort. Later, God says plainly that this offspring would come from Sarai herself: “I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her…” (17:16). The person Abram gave up to save his own life was, in God’s eyes, the person with whom the promise would be fulfilled.
So the question we began with finds its answer. The plagues did not fall on Pharaoh’s house because God took the side of the one who lied. They fell so that God could bring Sarai out of a house she had been sent into because of that lie. Abram’s scheme succeeded just as he hoped, but that success nearly brought the promise down. The one who kept that promise was God.
4. Word Notes · Famine · Be Well · Because of · Plagues
The Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Let’s look at four Hebrew words from today’s passage.
① Famine · ra’av (רָעָב). This is the ‘famine’ in ‘There was a famine in the land,’ a word for hunger. This verse is the first place in the Bible where a famine appears. Later, when another famine comes in Isaac’s day, the Bible looks back on this one as “…the first famine that was in the days of Abraham…” (26:1). (Later in the story, God gives Abram the new name Abraham, and Sarai the new name Sarah: 17:5, 17:15.) Today’s story begins with the first hunger Abram faced after entering the land God had promised. And in the face of that first trouble, the first words Abram spoke were a scheme to save his own life.
② Be well · yitav (יִיטַב). In this English translation you can see something that is easy to miss when the two verses are put into different words. Abram says, “…that it may be well with me for your sake…” (12:13). Three verses later the text says, “He dealt well with Abram for her sake…” (12:16). ‘Be well’ and ‘dealt well’ come from the same Hebrew word, and ‘for your sake’ and ‘for her sake’ are the same Hebrew expression too. What Abram hoped for in verse 13 came true, word for word, in verse 16. Abram’s plan did not fail. It worked exactly. But that success was the good treatment Abram received while Sarai was inside Pharaoh’s house.
③ Because of · al devar (עַל־דְּבַר). This is the ‘because of’ in ‘because of Sarai.’ Word for word, it means ‘on account of the matter of Sarai,’ ‘over Sarai.’ It tells us why God acted. In Genesis, this phrase is used with Sarai’s name in only two places: today’s passage (12:17), and later in chapter 20, when the same thing happens once more. There, too, the text says, “…because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife” (20:18). Both times the text names her as her husband’s wife, and both times God acts on her account.
④ Plagues · nega’im (נְגָעִים). This is the ‘plagues’ in ‘great plagues.’ Its basic form is nega. It comes from a word meaning ‘to touch’ or ‘to strike,’ so it points to a blow that God dealt. In the Hebrew sentence, ‘afflicted’ and ‘plagues’ are built from that same word and stand side by side. Word for word, it reads, ‘Yahweh struck Pharaoh with great strikes.’ The text does not say what those plagues were. In Genesis, this verse is the only place this word is used to mean a plague. Briefly and clearly, the text tells us only this: God laid his hand on the house that had taken Sarai.
5. One More Thing · What Would Happen Again to Abram’s Descendants
When we set today’s passage next to later parts of the Bible, we see the same words come back.
Long afterward, the sons of Abram’s grandson Jacob also go down to Egypt to escape a famine. They say to Pharaoh, “…We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan…” (47:4). Compare it with 12:10. ‘Live as a foreigner’ and ‘the famine is severe’ are the same words in Hebrew, and even in English they are almost word for word the same. In Hebrew, the word for ‘to live as a foreigner’ appears in exactly this form only three times in Genesis. Two of those three are these two scenes, where Abram and then Jacob’s sons go down to Egypt to escape a famine.
And when those descendants leave Egypt, something similar happens. The book that tells that story is Exodus, whose name means ‘going out.’ There God says to Moses, the man who would lead the people out: “…Yet one plague more will I bring on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go…” (Exodus 11:1). The ‘plague’ there is the same Hebrew word as the ‘plagues’ in 12:17. And ‘let you go’ is the same Hebrew word as the one behind ‘they escorted him away’ in 12:20.
They go down to Egypt because of a famine, God strikes Pharaoh with plagues, and Pharaoh sends them away with all they have. What happened to one man, Abram, happens again later to all his descendants. For a long time, some readers have read this scene as a preview of the Exodus story.
This overlap supports the answer we found. In today’s passage, the one who brought Sarai out of Pharaoh’s house was God. Later, the one who brought Sarai’s descendants out of Pharaoh’s land is the same God. Neither time did people get out by their own schemes. When those who had received the promise were held in someone else’s land, God himself acted and led them out.
6. For Us Today
This passage leaves us one thing. When Abram’s scheme sent Sarai into a dangerous place, God acted ‘because of Sarai.’
Look at the text again, and Sarai does not say a single word in this story. The text does not tell us how she answered her husband’s plan or what she felt inside Pharaoh’s house. She appears only as someone moved here and there by other people’s words and decisions. Yet in the very place where the text explains why God acted, her name is written.
When we are afraid, we also start calculating, just as Abram did. At work, we may keep quiet about our own mistake because we fear it will come to light, and in the end it starts to look like a coworker’s fault. At home, we may put off a task because we are worn out, and someone in the family quietly picks it up. In a hard moment, we may say ‘I don’t really know anything about it’ and slip away, and the person left behind carries the weight alone. At times like that, a voice in the back of our mind says, ‘As long as I’m okay, that’s what matters.’
Abram was like that too. He wanted it to ‘be well with me for your sake,’ and it was. His livestock and servants grew. But Sarai was paying the price for how well things went. The text does not say when Abram realized this. It simply lists what Abram gained in verse 16, and then, in verse 17, says that God acted because of Sarai.
We can draw one more comfort from this passage. When God stepped in, Sarai was not left alone. As they leave Pharaoh’s house, the text says, “…they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had” (12:20). Sarai, who had been inside the palace, left that land again as ‘his wife,’ together with her husband. Even on days when our own scheme has made a mess, God may already be looking after the person who ended up carrying the load because of it. Of course, there are days when we cannot yet see any way to make it right, and days when we do not yet have the courage to say we are sorry. On those days, too, we can remember that God did not leave Sarai alone.
As you end today, if someone comes to mind who picked up a load you passed on to protect yourself, it may be good to say that person’s name once before God. You do not need many words. ‘This person is carrying a load I passed on because I was afraid. Please look after them.’ Just as God acted ‘because of Sarai,’ the name we speak is not forgotten before God. And tomorrow, we may be able to come a little closer to the person whose name we spoke.
“God, you acted because of Sarai. You know how, when we are afraid, we count up only our own way of escape. If someone beside us is carrying a heavy load because of our schemes, please look after them before anyone else. Help us not to forget their name, and give us the courage to go back to their side. Amen.”
🕊 How to Use This in Ministry
Opening Question
Ask, “When it looked like something scary was about to happen, what did you do to avoid it?” Listen to the children’s answers (for example, they hid, they pretended not to know, they blamed another friend). Then say, “In the Bible today, there is a man who got scared and came up with a trick. Let’s find out together who had a hard time because of that trick, and who God acted for,” and move into the passage.
Activity
Read 12:10~20 slowly, and have the children listen for every name or title used for Sarai (not ‘she’ or ‘her’). Draw three columns on the board and sort the places where she is called ‘wife,’ ‘sister,’ and ‘the woman.’ Check together that ‘sister’ comes up only when Abram or Pharaoh is speaking, and sum it up: “People called Sarai a sister, but the Bible, when it tells the story, never once calls her that. When the Egyptians are looking at her, it says ‘the woman.’ When God acts, it says ‘Abram’s wife,’ and when they leave Egypt, it says ‘his wife.’” Next, show the picture ‘See your wife, take her, and go your way’ from today’s images. Ask, “Who did God act for?” and read ‘because of Sarai’ in verse 17 together.
Application
Hand each child a small card. Have them write the name of one person they think they may have made things hard for lately (for example, a little brother or sister, a seatmate, Mom). Tell them they do not have to show the name to anyone. Below it, write together, “God, please protect this person.” Sum up by saying, “God did not forget Sarai. God does not forget the people who had a hard time because of us, either,” and let each child take the card home.
🖼️ Today’s Four Images · Press and hold or right-click to save
Abram went down into Egypt |
He said to Sarai his wife |
See your wife, take her, and go your way |
With his wife and all that he had |
📄 Image license CC0 (public domain) · Free to use, modify, and redistribute without attribution.
🤖 These images were created with AI (Grok).
📖 Genesis Deeper ㊶ You Will Be a Blessing · the promise of offspring and blessing Abram heard in Haran
Origin Bible · Mission Zedero
Contact joypej@gmail.com
✍️ This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by a person.
The text is CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to use it for noncommercial purposes with attribution.
Comments
Post a Comment