God Doesn’t Need Our Help – Genesis 12:10-20
Bethel Baptist Church, David Rising
Genesis 12:10-20; May 3, 2026 Sunday PM
God Doesn’t Need Our Help
Abram has followed the instruction of the LORD. He has gotten out of his country, from his family, and has gone to a land that God would show him. That land was Canaan.
Once Abram’s feet had touched and walked about for a while on the land of Canaan, the LORD appears to Abram and repeats the promise: “To your descendants I will give this land.”
The observation from Abram’s life so far is that he believes the words of the LORD and so orders his life. To move his family and all that he had was no small matter, and now he has the confirmation that it was all the right thing to do.
And so Abram and his wife, Sarai, and Lot his nephew, and all of his helpers were there in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12:9 indicates that he was moving about in the southern part of the land there in the place noted as the Negev. On the map, you know that the southern part of Canaan is near Egypt, and in our study tonight we will see how Egypt became part of this story. One can hardly think about the nation of Israel without thinking of Egypt. Pray.
As we think at this point about Abram’s life, we know he is now 75+ years old.
By the way, his father, Terah, was 70 when he began to have his sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
And so, the thought of children could have been on Abram’s mind from a couple different angles: his father’s chronology as well as the key promise of God.
As we consider this, notice now what takes place next:
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
When you are hungry, it is hard to do much at all except think about food and grow weaker. Without food, Abram and his family would die and so Abram looks for help.
God has moved Abram to Canaan and now there is no food. What are they to do? What would you do if you had nothing? You would seek help somewhere, and for Abram that somewhere was further south and west to Egypt.
And thus we begin our encounter with the land of Egypt. We all are familiar with Egypt in some ways, and this land became a key point of reference for Israel’s history as a nation. It began here.
If you study the history of Egypt, you discover it has a long history with much to comprehend. It is a land on the northeastern portion of Africa that touches the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
We think of the Nile River which spreads out into that Delta and then empties into the Mediterranean Sea. It is a land that in the biblical history is associated with many negatives, and especially here for Moses as he writes it has a personal history for many of the patriarchs in the OT.
Notice that Abram does not just go to Egypt for help; he moves there and dwells there. The famine in Canaan was very bad, and so Abram move again. He has to move.
God just expressed to Abram that he was standing on the land that He would give his descendants, and so why now does this famine come along? Why does God allow this?
It is interesting to note, per Hamilton:
Egyptian texts substantiate the possibility of such an itinerary in the 2nd millennium b.c. The famous painting in the tomb of Khnum-hotep III at Beni Hasan, about 150 miles north of Cairo, from the time of Sesostris II (1897–1878 b.c.), shows the arrival of thirty-seven Asiatics, men, women, and children, in Egypt. The story of the Egyptian courtier Sinuhe is also relevant.3 From Libya, where he was on an expedition for the Pharaoh, Sinuhe traveled across Egypt and up into Canaan but eventually returned to Egypt. Sinuhe’s odyssey is exactly the opposite of Abram’s: from Egypt to Canaan, back to Egypt. A later Egyptian text from the reign of Merneptah (1224–1214 b.c.) notes that the Egyptians had “finished letting the Bedouin tribes of Edom [the Shasu] pass the Fortress [of] Mer-ne-Ptah … to the pools of Per-Atum … to keep them alive and to keep their cattle alive”; this is approximately Abram’s itinerary in Gen. 12:10–20.[1]
Hamilton, V. P. (1990). The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17 (p. 380). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Notice how their entry to Egypt went:
11 And it came to pass, when he 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.”
We get this interesting window on a conversation that Abram had with his wife, Sarai, before they entered Egypt. He anticipated that the Egyptians would seek to take Sarai from him because he knew of Sarai’s beauty and feared for his life.
Sarai would be about 65 years old now, but for her that is just her mid-life (23:1 says she lived to be 127 years of age).
Abram seemed to know of the practice of the Egyptians in this regard, and so he made this plan ahead of time.
As we reflect on the man Abram, it appears that his faith has now been challenged by some fear. The Egyptians could do him harm, and so he huddles with Sarai with this plan so they can have the same alternative story.
She was to have the ready-answer if asked that she was not Abram’s wife but rather his sister.
This was partially true for Genesis 20:12 does say that Sarai was Abram’s half-sister (they both shared the same father, but not mother).
However, it clearly was Abram’s intent to deceive – to hide the fact that she was also his wife!
From our human perspective, we can identify with Abram here. He is fearing for his life and he is fearing the whole enterprise is in jeopardy. He also appears to be protecting his wife.
But is he worried that God’s promise will now be suspect?
Thinking about his scheming here gives us a window into how we think at times. Is he exercising faith when he and Sarai pre-arrange their half-truth story for the Egyptians?
Could God keep His promise unless Abram does this? Would not God’s promise of descendants also mean that God would not allow the Egyptians to kill him and take Sarai?
That is the preacher screaming in the ear of Abram, but he – as with us a times – is not listening. Or, at best, we know the truth, but just to be sure we make these contingency plans.
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.
Abram was right, or it would seem. You can imagine Abram looking at Sarai with the look that says “see, I told you so.”
He probably felt confident for that moment when his plans came to pass.
Indeed, the Egyptians noticed Sarai and she found herself brought into the house of the head of Egypt. She became part of the royal harem as we can surmise by the mention of being taken into Pharaoh’s house.
However, it becomes clear that we nor Abram really don’t know the future, and so it may be a bit more wise to heed God’s truth and live by faith:
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
Abram feared he would be killed. Instead, he is treated well and it would appear he was given all these things as a kind of payment for Sarai. We are not told here that Abram had lied about her status as his wife, but we will learn in verse 19 that in fact he did tell that story.
Abram seems to be getting away with his scheme, and yet he is building his house on the sand.
It is always unwise to build your life upon lies because at some point, the house will fall down.
But at verse 16, at this stage in their stay in Egypt, Abram must have been feeling pretty good. His wife is alive. He is alive, and he also has essentially become a rich man. All is well.
Deception truly works after all, right?
Not exactly. The LORD has not been absent, and now we hear from Him:
17 But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
Instinctively, when we think of Egypt in the biblical story, we think of the plagues that God sent to Egypt during the time of Moses and the Exodus. But sending plagues on Egypt was first noted in this narrative. God was fully aware of the situation, and he would not let it go.
God plagued Pharoah and his house with great plagues. God sent diseases to Pharoah and his family, and this is the same word we have in the 10 plagues in Exodus.
The term refers to skin disease in Mosaic legislation (Lev 13), and the verbal form describes the leprous judgment by the Lord against Uzziah (2 Kgs 15:5). “His house” probably refers to the members of his royal court, including his harem, as with King Abimelech (20:7, 17).[2]
Mathews, K. A. (2005). Genesis 11:27–50:26 (Vol. 1B, p. 129). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Practically speaking, this would curb their physical appetites with the harem, and this would present Sarai from being contaminated as it were. The reason given is on account of Abram’s wife, Sarai. God was protecting her.
Even though Abram had sinned by lying, by doubting God’s protective hand, God still was gracious and merciful to them.
Abram was God’s man to carry out His promise.
God’s promise required Abram and Sarai to stay alive and also eventually have children. The LORD had to protect them, and so he afflicted Pharaoh’s house.
Somehow Pharaoh found out about this and confronts Abram:
18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”
Here is a classic example of how God works and how He would have worked in the story without their scheme. It is as if we hear the voice of the LORD coming through in the voice of Pharoah.
Why did you do this? Why did you not tell she was your wife? Why did you lie, or veil the truth, and say she was a sister? I nearly took her as my wife, and it would appear to have done that would have been disastrous.
In other words, Pharaoh would have appreciated the truth.
But it was the truth that scared Abram into plotting the half-truth story.
Oh, that we would learn this most basic lesson. All of us could think of this scenario as we have faced it in our own lives. We may not have feared for our lives, but certainly we feared some personal loss. Why else would we lie but to save ourselves, to save our reputation, to save a potential loss of some kind.
We may tell the IRS a false story when we hide some income, or fudge the numbers here and there. After all, we need the money to feed our family and God is certainly incapable of making up the difference, right? We must do we must do.
Proverbs 10:2 says: “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.” It is always right to do the right thing because God is in control and can protect us. Abram no doubt would look back and scratch his head at his actions, as we may do so in our contexts as well.
To me, this is where our faith has to come through. It is easier to exercise our faith when there is no potential loss for ourselves, but it is in these times that we must exercise our faith.
This brief story about Abram going to Egypt when there was a famine was not just an extra story that Moses added to the Pentateuch for interest. It is a testament to the growth and learning process of Abram within this great promise God had made to him.
Here Abram is scolded by the very person or regime that he feared would take his life.
It is embarrassing when the world chides us for our lack of integrity, but it was a conversation Abram needed to hear. It is as if he was hearing the voice of the LORD here in the voice of Pharaoh. How embarrassing.
But how gracious of God.
And so Pharaoh gives Sarai back to Abram but then tells them to go their way. Get out of Egypt. Pharaoh is no saint here, but he is acting to preserve his own household and family as he too feared the LORD. The Egyptians had many gods, and so their “fear” of the gods were not the same kind of fear Abram should have had for the true God.
Pharaoh did not give Abram an open-ended time-frame for his departure. Notice:
20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
Bye-bye Abram. Please get thee out of yonder Egypt. Pharaoh ensured that they would leave by sending men to escort them out of town.
And that is that. We are not given any commentary about Abram’s thought on this. They had come to Egypt because of a famine. Was that past? Did they now have what they need? We will see that as we move into chapter 13 next time.
We have emphasized some lessons along the way, but let me summarize them as we think about this passage for our lives:
1. God will never promise us something that He cannot provide that something. God’s massive promise to Abram involved land, seed, and blessing. We see all three of these at work in this narrative.
They came to the land, but the land was lacking. And so they go elsewhere. God provided.
And yet, they lied about it because of concern over life. Abram feared for his life, and of course that would have ended the promise of family. But God provided. He spared Abram his life and his wife was protected.
God said that he would bless those who bless him. We see Pharaoh bless Abram with sheep, oxen, donkeys, servants, camels. And yet, this was within a context of Abram’s deceit. Still, God provided His grace and mercy and allowed them to be sustained even though they were booted out of town.
2. God does not need us to help him by coming up with schemes. God is completely capable of handling the worries of our lives, and so let us trust in Him completely.
3. Would Abram learn from this? Will we learn from those times in our lives when God provided Himself to us as a capable provider and protector?
This account teaches us the absolutely need to trust in our LORD with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding and ways. God grant us the grace to believe and so order our lives around His Word.