11 And
it came to pass, when Abraham was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his
wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore
it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his
wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please
say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I
may live because of you.”
14 So
it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she
was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and
commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female
donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. . . . 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that
he had. (Genesis 12:10-20 )
Abram (Abraham) was the patriarch of 3 major world religions
and the ethnic progenitor of Jews and of Arabs.
He and his wife are among the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11. Great people.
Also great liars.
In Genesis 12, there was a famine in Canaan, where Abram and
his family had settled. . Crops weren’t growing. People were starving to death. Things in the
so-called Promised Land didn’t look that promising. Seeking relief, Abram and Sarai entered Egypt as refugees (prophetic and
contemporary irony), but they lied on their entry paperwork. Just a small misstatement of their familial
relationship.
Saria was so fine that Abram was afraid the ancient Egyptian
Department of Homeland Security officials would literally kill (him) for the
chance to date her. So he asked her to “Please say you are my sister, . . . that I
may live because of you.”
They were starving and afraid and surely you can understand
why they told this lie this one time.
Except years later they got caught telling the same lies to Abimelech, king of Gerar (the Philistines),
and Abraham confessed that they’d been pulling the same con all over
Canaan.
And it came to pass,
when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This
is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
(Genesis 20:13).
It was a crime spree, and they always got away with it. Only, they didn’t get away with it.
In Genesis 16, frustrated with bareness, Sarah hatched a
(more than a little crazy) plan to get her husband to marry her Egyptian maid
and get the maid pregnant so that she, Sarah, could claim the maid’s child as
her own.
Oh, but maybe you haven’t asked yourself the question: Where did Sarah and Abraham get an Egyptian slave girl?
He [Pharaoh] treated Abram
well for her [Sarai’s] sake. He had
sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and
female servants, female donkeys, and camels. (Genesis 12: 16)
Hagar was part of the loot Abraham and Sarah collected the first
time they’d conned somebody.
We carry our own punishment packed in the baggage of our sin.
The worst episode in Abraham and Sarah's life, the rift that
nearly tore them apart, the situation that set them farthest outside of God’s
will and created the most severe and longest lasting negative consequences for
their family --- was the drama with Hagar and Ishmael.
Abraham and Sarah had carried Hagar with them from con to
con, unrepentantly and unknowingly making themselves despised in her eyes. The 2 wives hated each other and Abraham
caught Hell from both sides. Sarah threw
Hagar and Abraham’s son out into the desert to die --- twice. Ishmael,
Hagar’s son, became the patriarch of Arabs and Muslims. Isaac, Sarah’s son, became the patriarch of
Israel, Jews, and Christians. The
consequences of the drama created by the Hagar situation is still killing
people today.
From the very beginning, they'd carried their own punishment packed in the baggage of their unrepented sin.
We all do.
Or do you think this,
O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you
will escape the judgment of God? . . . But in accordance with your
hardness and your impenitent heart you
are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God (Romans 2: 3, 5)
We can be genuinely called, spiritually anointed, and
divinely destined for Kingdom greatness, but if we keep that sin --- that one
sin that’s been profitable and pleasurable and doesn’t really hurt anybody --- if
we keep that unrepented sin in our lives then we are carrying an interest
earning deposit of trouble, a knot burning a hole in the soul’s back pocket, a
check our sin has written that our as-pirations don’t have the funds to cover.
The solution is to repent.
To surrender the sin to God and throw yourself on His of His goodness, forbearance, and
longsuffering. You never “got away
with” you crimes. God was good to you
while you were being a douche so that His goodness would lead you to repentance
(Romans 2:4).
Don’t let your sin taint your legacy. Confess it to God. Turn from it in repentance. Give it up because you’re not really getting
away with it.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO);
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for
Human Development (NIHD).
Subscribe to my personal blog www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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