Life Lessons From Biblical Wives and Parents: Abram and Sarai

Here is the breakdown of today's passage (Gen. 12: 10-20).  Because of a widespread famine, Abram took his family down to Egypt to ride it out.  As they approached, Abram thought of how beautiful his wife was and how a Pharaoh, who could have whatever he wanted, might kill him in order to have Sarai.  Abram asked Sarai to say that she was his sister (a half truth) rather than saying that she was his wife in order to spare his life.

So what can we as wives take out of this passage?  Plenty!

First, we need to be careful when we face a "famine" in our own lives that we seek God's direction in how to face and survive that time.  Although famines seem like the end of the world, they always have an end.  We need to be faithful with the resources that God has blessed us with and ask for his continued wisdom in the use of those blessings. 

Abram took his family to Egypt to survive the famine there, but it was at the risk of his wife's safety.  In the book of Ruth we see a similar situation with Elimelech and Naomi.  Because of a severe famine in the land of Israel, they took their family to Moab.  While there, Elimelech and his two sons died.  The question we need to ask ourselves is is the risk worth the sacrifice?  Are the choices that we make as we work through the times of famine going to bless or burden the family that God has entrusted to us?

Secondly, as wives, we do have a voice and the ability to speak up.  If we feel that our husbands are asking us to do something that does not coinside with God's Word, we can speak up and appeal to our husbands to rethink their request.  Abram asked Sarai to lie about their relationship which might have led Sarai into a terrible situation had God not intervened.  There are times when as wives we must speak up, but how we speak up can make all the difference.

In the book of Esther we are introduced to Vashti the Queen of the Medes and Persians.  When her husband commanded her to attend his feast wearing her royal crown, she flat out refused.  Yes, she used a voice to stand up for herself but they method she used had her banished from the kingdom and later Esther replaced her.  Had she appealed to the king, the story may have been completely different. 

On the other hand, when Esther found out that the king had approved a law that would mean the death of the Hebrew nation, rather than give her husband the king the tongue lashing of his life, she chose to appeal to him and chose her timing well.  The result was that the tables were turned and the one who had come up the law lost his life instead.  We have been born into a time when as women our voices can be heard and we do not have to quietly go along with things we feel are morally wrong.

I know that the women of that day did not have the same human rights that we have today, but she did have some kind of voice of influence as we see later in her life (Genesis 16:1-2).  We need to speak up when we need to for our husband's sake, our children's sake, and, in some cases, our own sake.

Most importantly, we need to pray for our husbands.  We need to pray that they turn to the Lord at the first sign of famine so that they will make all of their decisions based on God's will for him and his family.