Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12, and we'll begin reading at verse 10. Genesis chapter 12, we'll begin reading at verse 10. We'll go on down to verse 20 tonight as we continue on in our studies here in Genesis. Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. It happened as he drew near to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai, his wife, now behold, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. It will be when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is his wife and they will kill me. They will let you live. Please say, you are my sister. So that may go well with me because of you, that I may live on account of you." Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. Therefore he treated Abram well because of her, and sheep and oxen and donkeys, male and female servants, and female donkeys and camels came into his possession. But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for myself as a wife? So now here is your wife, take her and go. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife all that belonged to him. Title of my message tonight is on the subject at hand here at Abram and Sarai in Egypt. What we find here is that there's a famine in the land where Abram was, and this must have been quite the ordeal because Yahweh had called Abram to this land, and now there's a famine there. Yahweh had given him all these promises, but now there's a famine. Hard times. and looked as though the land would not be able to support him. And so down into Egypt he went. There's nothing here to say that he sought the will of Yahweh in this. There's nothing here to say that Yahweh told him to go there, but there's where he went. Doesn't say he was wrong in going. Obviously, he needed to care for his family, and Egypt was the place to go. And so, he went. He went there. Certainly, this is how it is in life, isn't it? We don't have a clear direction. We have God's Word. We know what God has given us, but sometimes we're not clear on some things in life, some details from Almighty God. God's Word doesn't tell us the job we should take, the place we should live, and so on and so forth. It doesn't give us details like that, but we know some principles as found in the Word of God. And so there are times that it makes sense We're in what might be a good place in one season of life, and then there's a famine. It makes sense to move on to another place, even if it's just for a time, just like Abram did, in order to care for our family. Well, some people, I don't understand that. Some people, they will starve to death trying to wait on a sign from God or trying to pray these things through and all of that when the answer is there. And we are to take care of our families. We are to do what needs to be done. And certainly, certainly Abram did that. In verses 11 and 12, it says that as it happened, as he drew near to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai's wife, now behold, I know that you're a beautiful woman. A woman beautiful in appearance. Every wife wants to hear her husband say that. But Abram wasn't so much, well, Abram was mostly thinking of himself with all of this. Abram was not so much complimenting his wife, although it was a compliment, but Abram says, it's gonna be when the Egyptians see you that they're gonna say, this is his wife and they're gonna kill me. They're gonna kill me, but they'll let you live. Abram knew that he was going in among some pretty rough people. Some folks who wouldn't think twice about killing Abram to get his beautiful wife. And so in order to preserve his life, this is the plan that he hatched. And in verse 13, he says, please say that you're my sister. so that it may go well with me because of you and that I may live on account of you." Now, this is the plan he had. This is what they would do in Egypt. You might think it's strange. Why in the world would Abram do this to say that his wife is his sister? But you know what? It's not a complete lie. If you go over to chapter 20 and verse 12, look there with me, chapter 20 and verse 12. says here, besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And so now here in chapter 20, verse 12, this is where Abraham actually lies to Abimelech. This is another lie that Abraham kind of gets caught up in, and we'll get to that a little bit later. But just remember that God in his word tells us not just the good things about people, he tells us the bad things, the character flaws, the things about men and women. that, well, if Abram were writing his own story, he probably would have left out. He probably wouldn't have told on himself about these things. But this is what happened in their life. We're reminded that though Abram is a great man of history, one that is looked up to in Christianity, in Judaism, and even in Islam. He's looked up to by millions of people. We're reminded he was just a man. And when he told Pharaoh that she was his sister, when he told his wife that this is what they were gonna do, encouraged her to do this sort of thing, it may not have been a complete lie because she was his half-sister, It was a dumb idea at best. It wasn't the smartest thing in the world, and it could have gotten them both killed. Certainly, certainly was not well thought out. While Abram's life would be spared, there was nothing in the plan to keep Sarai from being defiled. from the wicked men of the nation. His thought process was trying to preserve his own life, but he should have thought about trying to preserve the dignity of his wife and trying to protect her from wicked men who might get ahold of her and do terrible things to her, to put her in a terrible situation. Look there, verse 14 through 15 of Genesis chapter 12. It says, and now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw that the woman's very beautiful. So Abram knew that this was gonna happen. He did have a beautiful wife, and Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. So right away, the Egyptians did notice her. Were there beautiful women in Egypt? Yes. But, uh, uh, just like any other sin, just like any other kind of, uh, anything else in this world, there is no, there is, is no satisfaction in it. There is this thing. There's no contentment when you get into this sort of thing. Lust, is always never, never fulfilled. And so, a man who has a problem with this lust, they're going to want more and more. And so, no matter that they already had their own women, they want more and more. Well, They praised her to Pharaoh. In other words, they recommended her to him as a suitable wife and took her into Pharaoh's house. Therefore, verse 16 says, he treated Abram well because of her sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels came into his possession. So, Abram was treated well for her sake. So, here you go, and your sister is very lovely. Have all of these herds of animals, and have all these servants, and of course, now he's deep in this thing. He can't say, oh, that's really my wife. He's done got her. Now there's some other things going on here. According to Josephus, now keep in mind, Abram comes from the land of Ur, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians are now coming into contact with Abram. According to Josephus, Abram communicated to the Egyptians the arithmetic and delivered to them the science of astronomy. For before Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with these parts of learning, for that science came from the Chaldees into Egypt." And so, this has been kind of a mystery when people try to connect the dots. How did Egyptians get this from the Chaldees? Well, Josephus believed that they got it when Abram was in Egypt, that he brought this information to them. It's very possible that what Josephus says is true. And you have to be careful with Josephus because he does elaborate sometimes and seemingly exaggerate some things. The Bible does tell us to beware of Jewish fables, but the time that Abram was in Egypt was right during the reign of the Pharaoh known as King Khufu. and his pyramid had mathematical accuracy that was not seen before in the history of the Egyptians. I have a book called Unwrapping the Pharaohs, How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline, and in that book it says the construction of the pyramid was extraordinarily precise. It is precisely level and exactly square, with no more than eight inches difference in length between the sides of the pyramid. The sides are aligned true north, south, east, and west, indicating an advanced knowledge of astronomy and surveying. The dimensions and geometry of the pyramid are such that if a vertical circle is imagined whose center is at the top of the pyramid and radius is at the height of the pyramid, the circumference of that circle is exactly the circumference of the base of the pyramid. That is the sum of the length of the four sides at the base. This feature suggests knowledge of the value of pi centuries ahead of the Greeks. As men have studied this sort of thing and tried to figure it out, it's led to wild speculations that the pyramids were built by UFOs or some other way, but But all of that is science fiction. The reality is that even with our modern technologies and stuff, we are left to marvel at what was going on in Egypt. And as we read here in the scriptures and we see someone coming from the Chaldeans, to Egypt, and we see this technology popping up, this knowledge and understanding coming into play, it may very well have been Abram that brought it. Very interesting to think about, but also we're reminded that these were not primitive people that we're reading about in Genesis. They were highly intelligent, cultivated people men and women who were made in the image and likeness of Almighty God. And so, we're amazed at these things, and as we think about them and connect biblical history with archaeology, and certainly the things that we can still see today, and that is the great pyramids and so on and so forth. Well, so Sarai is in Pharaoh's house. Abram is conversing with the men and Pharaoh's officials, being treated well because of her. He's getting herds of donkeys and oxen. He's getting male and female servants. They're tripping over themselves to give him stuff. Verse 17 says, but Yahweh. I'm reminded that sometimes, oftentimes, we do some foolish things, some very foolish things. We make some foolish decisions. And if not straight out foolish decisions, we don't think things all the way through. But Yahweh, He's not surprised by anything. He's not in the throne room of heaven wringing His hands, wondering what in the world is going to happen. He knows And he's got it all sorted out long before, long before we ever even were born. Well, it says, but Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. Abram and Sarai had gotten themselves in deep with this deception. Humanly speaking, There was no way out. What could they have done? But Yahweh was not going to let them get stuck here. He had a plan for Abram and Sarai. I was part of it. So he plagued Pharaoh. Pharaoh for his part was, he was, someone might say, well, he was an innocent bystander. Well, maybe. He didn't know that that was Abram's wife, but at the same time, at the same time, God God has the final say of everything, and he needed to get Pharaoh's attention. And how else do you get a man's attention but with a plague? And so, here we go. In verses 18 and 19, Then Pharaoh called to Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for myself as a wife? So now here is your wife, take her and go. There's some things that we're not told here in the text. All we know is that Yahweh sent a plague to Pharaoh and his house with great plagues. That got his attention so much so that he comes out of the house and says, hey, you can have your wife. Yahweh spoke directly to Pharaoh. That may have happened. Or maybe in the midst of the plague, Sarai owned up to it. That may have been also. You know, I think of Jonah on the boat. And everybody's saying, hey, this ship is about to go down. This storm is terrible. What's going on here? And Jonah owned up to what was happening. Maybe it was something like that. But whatever the case may be, whatever the case may be, Pharaoh found out in the midst of that plague. Listen. the Lord will get your attention. He's gonna get your attention, and you better listen up. I'm just telling the people in this country, people in this world, one way or another, God gets people's attention. Well, Pharaoh, He didn't care so much that she was a beautiful woman anymore. He just wanted that plague gone. He wanted Abram to have his wife back. He wasn't afraid of Abram. He had a fear of Yahweh enough that he wanted this thing gone. This woman, this beautiful woman, is more trouble than she's worth. Out of my house. Verse 20, So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that belonged to him. Pharaoh feared to harm either one of them. Now, he did sharply rebuke Abram, and, well, he should have, I think. He lost. respect that he could have had for Abram in all of this. And as a result, he wasn't at all attracted to their God. You see how this all works? There's no indication that there was some great movement of following Yahweh in Egypt as a result of all this. And I think part of that is because of what happened there, this whole thing started with a lie. We go around the world, and I don't mean traveling around the world, but we're in the midst of the world, and so many people are turned off from Christianity because of hypocritical Christians. We've got to be careful that we're not a terrible testimony to the world around us. We think about this and consider Pharaoh recognized the power of God, but all he could do and all he would do is just tell them to leave the country. How terrible was that? How terrible was that? Well, as we think about this chapter, this final leg here of this part of their lives, this portion of scripture that's shared here in their time in Egypt, We can learn a lot from these things, and I trust that I've been able to bring some of that out. But let us always trust God. And while we live for Him in this world, let's be careful that we're not deceiving the lost folks around us so that we can, in the best way that we can, show forth the light of the Lord Jesus Christ to this dark world that we live in. May God add the blessing to the preaching of His word. Does anybody have any questions this evening? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's sad, though, to think that he didn't learn his lesson by the time he gets to Abimelech. Yeah, for sure. That's why I don't travel to Egypt around in people with my wife. They might not even ask if she's my wife.