18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”
Sin will rise to the surface eventually. It is better to deal with it right away than to attempt to bury it in the back yard. Abram thought he knew best. He used his own wisdom and got kicked out of the country. When Abram entered Egypt he told his wife to pretend to be his sister. They were going there to survive, because there was a famine in their new home country of Canaan. Abram was afraid the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife because she was beautiful. If he said she was a sister, they would keep him alive and try to negotiate for her hand in marriage. But God had other plans. God saw what was about to happen and the ruler of the land who had taken Abram’s wife was struck with serious diseases. Even Pharaoh knew this was not normal. He knew God’s had was at work, so he called in Abram to get the truth. So Abram gets kicked out of the land that has sustained him during the famine. Perhaps Abram’s whole trip to Egypt was outside God’s will, and God used Pharaoh to accomplish His will for Abram. Abram used his wisdom, probably without consulting the Lord. The Lord had provision for Abram and that provision did not include lying and deception. It did not involve placing his wife in a possibly compromising position with another man. It did not involve a fear-based plan of action. It did involve God’s provision for their lives. When we substitute human wisdom for God’s plan we end up with a mess. And messes are usually hard to clean up! So, the better course of action is to seek God’s will before making decisions. Seek until you get clarity, or at least until you don’t sense God’s opposition. Sometimes God will allow us to choose among several options, all of which will bring Glory to Him, and all of which are in God’s will.
The Arnold Journey 