In Genesis 11:29-31 we are given a brief look at Sarai before Abram, her husband, is chosen by God for His special blessing.  The only things these verses reveal are that she and Abram are married, she is barren and they go with Terah, Abram’s father, out of Ur and intending to go to Canaan.  It is not said why they settle in Haran, before actually entering Canaan, but that is where they settled for a time.

After Terah dies, in Gen. 12:1-3 we have the first covenant promise God makes with Abram -
“Now the Lord said to Abram,Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram obeyed God and took his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot, and went to the land of Canaan.  The family lived a nomadic existence for  some time until a famine forced them to go to Egypt.  It is interesting that Egypt appears later in the life of the patriarchs as a haven from famine for Joseph’s brothers, and even as a haven for Joseph and Mary and their baby, Jesus.

To protect himself, Abram asks Sarai not to reveal that she is actually his wife, but rather his sister, in fact she was his half-sister.  In the commentary by Keil and Delitzsch we are told,  “But his (Abram’s) precaution did not spring from faith, He might possibly hope, that by means of the plan concerted, he should escape the danger of being put to death on account of his wife, if any one should wish to take her; but how he expected to save the honour and retain possession of his wife, we cannot understand, though we must assume, that he thought he should be able to protect and keep her as his sister more easily, than if he acknowledged her as his wife.” (p. 127)

It is this obedience to her husband I want to look at now.  Technically, he was not asking her to lie, just not tell the whole truth.  It was fear of the consequences that if a stronger man desired Sarai, who was still very beautiful even at 65 (ch 17:17 tells us she was 10 years younger than Abram and ch 12:4 tells us that Abram was 75 at the time they left Haran), all they had to do was kill Abram to have her.  Sarai does as he asks and the worse that Abram feared occurs, she is praised to Pharaoh and he takes her into his house.

Now put yourself in Sarai’s place, here she has basically been added to Pharaoh’s harem to be treated eventually as his bride it is assumed.  Abram even benefits from the transaction because the Pharaoh treats him well and gives him gifts.  But God was not pleased with the arrangement and sent a plague that led to the truth being told about Sarai’s relationship with Abram.  Pharaoh returns her and sends Abram and his people on their way back to Canaan.  Think of the trust Sarai had in her husband to willingly do what he asked.  We know that Abram has been promised by God that God would protect him and bless him, so it might be that Sarai was also trusting in Abram’s God to protect her as well?  It is not told, but the matter is clear, she obeyed her husband and did what he asked without question or fear.

Do we have that same faith to be obedient to our husbands? Or do we question their decisions and  argue our side of the matter to get our way?  Does this mean we never express our opinion, I don’t think so because as we see there are other occasions when Sarai does make her opinion known.  But as I Peter 3:6 points out “Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by fear.(Emphasis mine)”  As wives our obedience to God includes our submission to our husband.  We need to strive to follow the example Sarah gave of trusting our husbands to make the correct decisions, even if it might appear to us to be a wrong one.  After all, if God was going to bless those who blessed Abram, and curse those who cursed him, would he not have protected him from Pharaoh?