DO ABRAHAM AND ISAAC PUT THEIR WIVES IN DANGER?

Genesis 12:10–20; 20:1–18; 26:1–11

Abraham is one of the great men of faith in the Bible.

Isaac is the promised son.

Yet both men do something that can be very difficult for a modern reader to understand.

When they become afraid for their own lives, they identify their wives as their sisters.

And in doing so, they apparently put the women they love in danger.

Worse yet—

Abraham does it twice.

Then his son Isaac does essentially the same thing.

A skeptical reader has every reason to ask:

Why are these supposed men of faith protecting themselves at the expense of their wives?

And perhaps an even more important question:

Does God approve of what they did?

Let's read the stories before trying to defend the men in them.

THE FIRST TIME: ABRAHAM AND SARAH IN EGYPT

A famine strikes Canaan, so Abram goes down into Egypt.

As they approach Egypt, Abram becomes frightened.

He tells Sarai:

“Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon.”
— Genesis 12:11

Then he explains his fear:

“they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.”
— Genesis 12:12

Abram believes Egyptian men may want Sarai badly enough to kill her husband.

So he proposes a solution:

“Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.”
— Genesis 12:13

Read that carefully.

Abram's stated concern is:

“MY SOUL SHALL LIVE.”

He is afraid that he will be killed.

And his solution places Sarah in a vulnerable position.

AND THE VERY THING ABRAHAM FEARED BEGINS TO HAPPEN

The Egyptians see Sarah.

Pharaoh's officials praise her beauty.

And:

“the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.”
— Genesis 12:15

Meanwhile Abram receives:

“sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants...”
— Genesis 12:16

This should make us uncomfortable.

Sarah has been taken into Pharaoh's household.

Abraham is alive.

And Abraham is prospering.

If we're expecting Genesis to tell us that its great patriarch always behaved heroically, this is not the story we would write.

WHO PROTECTS SARAH?

Not Abraham.

God does.

“And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.”
— Genesis 12:17

Pharaoh discovers what has happened.

And remarkably, it is the pagan Pharaoh who confronts Abraham:

“What is this that thou hast done unto me?”
— Genesis 12:18

That's worth noticing.

Genesis doesn't have God say:

“Well done, Abraham. That was clever.”

Instead, Abraham's scheme creates trouble, and an outsider asks God's chosen man:

What have you done?

THEN ABRAHAM DOES IT AGAIN

Years later Abraham travels to Gerar.

Genesis 20:2 says:

“Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister.”

King Abimelech takes Sarah.

Once again, God intervenes.

This time God comes to Abimelech in a dream and says:

“Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.”
— Genesis 20:3

Abimelech protests that he acted innocently because both Abraham and Sarah had said they were brother and sister.

God acknowledges that:

“I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart...”
— Genesis 20:6

Once again the foreign ruler ends up confronting Abraham.

“What hast thou done unto us?”
— Genesis 20:9

And again, that's important.

The Bible isn't afraid to let an outsider expose the failure of its central character.

BUT ABRAHAM SAYS SARAH REALLY WAS HIS SISTER

Abraham explains:

“And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”
— Genesis 20:12

So Abraham's statement wasn't completely fabricated.

Sarah really was his half-sister.

But that doesn't make the deception disappear.

Abraham deliberately withheld the most important fact:

SHE WAS HIS WIFE.

A statement can be technically true and still be used to deceive.

That is exactly what happened here.

THEN WE LEARN SOMETHING EVEN MORE TROUBLING

Abraham tells Abimelech:

“when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.”
— Genesis 20:13

This wasn't merely a panicked decision made once in Egypt.

It apparently had been Abraham's standing arrangement with Sarah.

If we are in danger, say you are my sister.

Why?

Because Abraham feared for his life.

WHAT ABOUT SARAH?

This is where a modern reader may ask an important question:

Did Sarah have much choice?

Genesis doesn't tell us everything we would like to know.

We should not invent conversations that aren't recorded.

But we should also refuse to make the problem disappear.

Sarah lived in a patriarchal ancient culture.

Abraham was her husband and head of the household.

And his plan exposed her to the possibility of being taken by another man.

Whatever else we say about these passages, we should be willing to say:

ABRAHAM'S FEAR PUT SARAH IN DANGER.

The Bible doesn't require us to pretend otherwise.

THEN ISAAC DOES THE SAME THING

Now comes perhaps the most surprising part.

Years later another famine occurs.

Isaac goes to Gerar.

God tells Isaac:

“Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee...”
— Genesis 26:3

God has just promised:

I will be with you.

Then the men of the place ask about Rebekah.

Isaac answers:

“She is my sister.”
— Genesis 26:7

Why?

Genesis tells us:

“for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah.”

It's almost the same fear.

Almost the same solution.

And almost the same failure.

ISAAC HAD LEARNED SOMETHING FROM HIS FATHER

Children sometimes repeat what they see.

Genesis doesn't explicitly say:

“Isaac learned this deception from Abraham.”

So we shouldn't say more than the text says.

But the parallel is impossible to miss.

Abraham feared being killed because of Sarah.

Isaac fears being killed because of Rebekah.

Abraham says Sarah is his sister.

Isaac says Rebekah is his sister.

A foreign ruler discovers the truth.

And once again the foreign ruler rebukes the man of promise.

Abimelech says:

“What is this thou hast done unto us?”
— Genesis 26:10

We've heard that question before.

AND NOTICE HOW THE TRUTH IS DISCOVERED

Abimelech looks through a window and sees Isaac with Rebekah.

Whatever exactly the Hebrew verb translated “sporting” means here, what Abimelech sees makes it obvious:

These two aren't brother and sister.

He summons Isaac:

“Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister?”
— Genesis 26:9

Isaac answers honestly about his dishonesty:

“Because I said, Lest I die for her.”

Again:

HE WAS AFRAID FOR HIMSELF.

DOES GOD APPROVE OF THIS?

Nothing in these stories says He does.

That's extremely important.

Sometimes readers assume:

Abraham did it + Abraham was God's chosen man = God approved it.

That equation doesn't work.

The Bible records many things God's people did that God never commanded them to do.

Abraham's behavior repeatedly creates danger.

God repeatedly intervenes.

Foreign rulers repeatedly rebuke the patriarchs.

That doesn't look like Genesis celebrating their cleverness.

It looks much more like:

GOD REMAINED FAITHFUL WHEN HIS PEOPLE ACTED FEARFULLY.

BUT WHY DOES GOD STILL BLESS THEM?

Now we reach the deeper problem.

Abraham fails.

God still keeps His promise.

Isaac fails.

God still keeps His promise.

Is that unfair?

Only if God's promises depend entirely upon human perfection.

But Genesis has already shown us otherwise.

Abraham's faith sometimes shines.

At other times Abraham becomes frightened.

Isaac trusts God in some circumstances.

In another circumstance Isaac lies because he's afraid.

God's faithfulness isn't a reward given only after Abraham and Isaac achieve flawless behavior.

That doesn't excuse their failures.

It shows us something about God.

THE BIBLE DOESN'T HIDE THE FAILURES OF ITS HEROES

This may be one reason these stories are so valuable.

If someone were inventing propaganda about the glorious founders of a nation, would these be the stories he would choose?

Abraham deceives.

Isaac repeats the pattern.

Jacob will deceive.

Judah will disgrace himself.

The family through which God intends to bless the nations is remarkably dysfunctional.

The Bible doesn't airbrush them.

Perhaps because:

THEY AREN'T THE HERO OF THE STORY.

God is.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN?

We shouldn't finish without returning to Sarah and Rebekah.

It would be easy to make these stories entirely about Abraham's faith and Isaac's fear.

But women are placed at risk by decisions their husbands make.

And God does not overlook them.

When Sarah is taken, God intervenes.

When Sarah is taken again, God intervenes.

When Isaac's lie threatens Rebekah's safety, the deception is exposed before she is taken.

The women aren't disposable pieces in God's plan.

Indeed, God's promise cannot continue without them.

Sarah matters.

Rebekah matters.

And God protects them even when their husbands fail to do so adequately.

MAYBE THE MOST SURPRISING QUESTION ISN'T ABOUT SARAH OR REBEKAH

We began by asking:

Why would Abraham and Isaac put their wives in danger?

Genesis gives us their answer.

FEAR.

Abraham says:

“they will kill me.”

Isaac says:

“lest I die for her.”

Fear made men of faith behave faithlessly.

And perhaps that's why these ancient stories remain uncomfortable.

Because fear can still make people do things they know they shouldn't do.

We protect ourselves.

We shade the truth.

We let someone else bear the consequences.

We justify it because the situation seems dangerous.

Abraham did.

Isaac did.

And Genesis doesn't tell us to imitate them.

DON'T CONFUSE GOD'S FAITHFULNESS WITH GOD'S APPROVAL

That may be the central lesson.

God continued to work through Abraham.

That doesn't mean every decision Abraham made was right.

God blessed Isaac.

That doesn't mean every action Isaac took pleased God.

The Bible can simultaneously say:

These were men through whom God worked.

and:

These men sometimes failed badly.

Those statements aren't contradictory.

They may actually be part of the point.

GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IS GREATER THAN THE FAILURES OF THE PEOPLE HE USES.

And Genesis is remarkably honest about both.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

I would use the title exactly as you gave it:

WHY DO ABRAHAM AND ISAAC PUT THEIR WIVES IN DANGER?

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