Genesis 12:10-20 and 20:1-18 record two very interesting events in the life of Abraham. In Genesis 12, right after recording the command for Abram to leave his father's house and travel to Canaan, we are told of a famine and of Abram's decision to travel to Egypt with his wife Sarai. Once he gets there, he tells his wife to tell everyone that she is his sister, because her beauty might get him killed if they knew he was her husband. It turns out she really is so beautiful that Pharaoh commands to have her taken to be a wife for him. Then God intervenes and Pharaoh becomes aware of the lie.
In Genesis 20 we see Abram, now named Abraham, travel to Gerar. While there he again asks his wife to deceive the people around him and claim to be his sister. And again, Sarah is taken to be the wife of the ruler of the land, this time of a man named Abimelech. However, this time the story doesn't end with Abraham leaving the land, but rather with Abimelech telling Abraham to settle where he will and paying Sarah with 1000 silver pieces in order to testify to her honor so that no one can say she acted improperly.
What's so interesting about this story is what we see in Genesis 20 and how that serves as a commentary on what we read in Genesis 12. The most common way we interpret this is that Abraham calling Sarah his sister, while having some truth to it, is also a show of the weakness of his faith. Abraham trusted God enough to travel where he called him to, but he was still afraid enough to think he needed to come up with a scheme to protect himself. But that isn't what Scripture says.
In fact Scripture does not say anything good or bad about Abraham's deception, at least not directly. Nowhere in Scripture do we find a condemnation of Abraham for calling Sarah his sister instead of his wife. Likewise nowhere do we find Abraham praised for his cunning in the matter. At best the remainder of Scripture is neutral on the matter, but in all reality it is simply silent. So our best attempt at ferreting out the truth of what Scripture wants us to learn from these passages is to try and delve into the context of these passages themselves.
If we look at the common themes between Genesis 12 and Genesis 20, we see that in both instances Abraham was rewarded and gained wealth. Also, we see that when Abraham gives his explanation for why he lied, there is no denial of the very real danger his life could have been in if he had not (either by editorial comment in chapter 12, or by Abimelech himself in chapter 20). Additionally, in both instances the revelation that Sarah is Abraham's wife seems to come from God. While we don't get that information specifically given to us in chapter 12, nonetheless Pharaoh somehow comes to this knowledge after God inflicts plagues upon him and his household, thus pointing to God as the one who revealed the secret to Pharaoh. Finally, we see that God brings about severe judgments upon both Pharaoh and Abimelech until Sarah is returned to Abraham.
There are differences in the accounts. Pharaoh sends Abraham away, while Abimelech allows Abraham to settle in the land. In Genesis 12 we are told that Sarai is taken because of her beauty, in Genesis 20 we aren't specifically told why she is taken. In Genesis 12, Abraham doesn't even have the chance to respond to Pharaoh, while in Genesis 20 we have a deeper conversation with Abimelech. Finally, in Genesis 20 we have more detail in general, from Abimelech and his men talking, to the specific conversation between God and Abimelech in his dream.
This conversation, I think, is enlightening. Notice what God says in Genesis 20:6-7. God says that he acted on Abimelech's behalf to keep him from sinning against God. This is informative because we realize that God could have simply stopped Abimelech from taking Sarah at all. If God was powerful enough to prevent Abimelech from actually consummating his marriage, though he had already taken Sarah to be his wife, then surely God could have prevented the whole situation. This indicates that God had intended the situation to occur, all the way to his acting in the situation to keep Abimelech innocent from wrong doing.
Further, God notes that Abimelech was kept from sinning against him, not against Abraham or Sarah. So God was acting to preserve Abimelech from sinning, and the sin God is concerned about is not toward man, but toward himself. The reason this is interesting is because if God had intended to prevent this from occurring, he could have simply told Abraham not to claim Sarah was his sister. In all the time from Egypt to the point where Abraham was speaking with Abimelech, God never told Abraham to stop claiming Sarah wasn't his wife.
The conclusion we come to from looking at Scripture seems to be that God is okay with Abraham's lie. In fact, God is not only okay with it, God endorses it. If we walk away with a neutral view in Genesis 12, by the time we get to Genesis 20, Scripture affirms that Abraham was in the right.
Consider the following: Abraham pulled this stunt before, so if God was displeased with what Abraham did he could have made that clear between Egypt and Gerar. God rewarded Abraham with material possessions after his lie. God could have acted to prevent the whole situation from occurring if he was concerned about Abimelech sinning. In neither situation is Abraham ever accused of sin or acting wrongly (except when Abimelech initially asks why Abraham would do such a thing). God affirms the status of Abraham as a prophet, hinting at the possibility that God had given this plan to Abraham as a way of fulfilling his purposes (I'm not going so far as to make that claim, only that it is possible). As far as sin goes, where God is concerned about Abimelech sinning against him, we have no such record of concern that Abraham was encouraging sin by his actions. Finally, we have no reason to assume that Abraham is lying from a lack of faith as Abraham's faith is recognized throughout the rest of Scripture.
The weight of Scripture seems to indicate that God approved of Abraham's actions. The reason seems to be that Abraham was right in his assessment of the people. God planned on using Abraham's scheme as the method of protecting him. If Abraham had not lied then it seems his prediction would have come true. Where it may make us uncomfortable, it seems that Scripture affirms that Abraham acted with wisdom and thus saved his life and protected the plan of God.
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