“And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.”
Sarai, caught up in the scheming of her husband, is now put in a place of severe testing. The Egyptians saw that she was a very attractive woman, and so did Pharaoh. Now the very scheme that Abraham and Sarai thought would preserve them from trouble, opened the way to dangers they had not thought of. Is it not ever so, when the believer leaves the place of dependence before God and resorts to his own planning to overcome problems? James tells us, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men literally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:55If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5).
In the divinely instituted marriage relationship God sees the husband and wife as a type of Christ and the Church. Those who are united thus have the wonderful privilege and the important responsibility to display this precious type. But Abram failed sadly here in his place of headship, and exposed his wife to dreadful hazards. Certainly it was not a noble place for a husband, nor a worthy use to make of his wife. But so it is, when one who ought to have been walking in faith falls back on the slippery paths of his own fears and the world’s favors.
Sarai permitted herself to be taken into Pharaoh’s house in the utterly false position as an unmarried woman. May we who are the Lord’s ever remember that the child of God is “married to another, even to Christ,” and may we never be ashamed before the world of that relationship or fail to confess it. In Pharaoh’s house there could not be a testimony to her true relationship with Abraham, nor could she speak of the wonderful God who had brought them through such varied experiences.
It is indeed a wonderful privilege for a wife to display herself as a type of the Church, the Bride of Christ. In doing so, it should ever be her desire and pleasure to adorn his home and his person with every act of faithfulness and devotion, and allow no contrary behavior on her part to bring dishonor to him. She will ever seek to display herself as the devoted companion of her loved one. But this delightful pattern is marred in the measure in which she fails in her husband’s claims on her. If outside interests detract from her faithfulness, or if she allows worldly activities to sap her energies, her testimony to that oneness with her husband is spoiled and her affections accordingly dimmed. The church today, in general, is far detached from Him who is its Head in glory, because of these very things.
Both Abram and Sarai must have been extremely unhappy under the conditions in which they had placed themselves, and we may be sure they longed to be back in their own land and free from these compromises. Yet how often Satan gains the victory over the believer, who finds himself powerless to escape, even though desiring to do so.
ML 03/07/1965