Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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recorded, not for our imitation, but for our admonition, that he who thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall. His conduct was culpable and inconsistent with his character as a servant of God: it showed a reliance on worldly policy more than a trust in the promise; and he not only sinned himself, but tempted Sarai to sin also. By this we learn not to use unlawful means nor to put others in danger to save ourselves, Ge 12:20. Though it may appear that Abram did not fear death, so much as dying without children, he acts as though God's promise had not taken place; in which appeared a weak faith.
1. His fault was dissembling his relation to Sarai, equivocating concerning it, and teaching his wife, and probably all his attendants, to do so too. What he said was, in a sense, true (Ge 20:12), but with a purpose to deceive; he so concealed a further truth as in effect to deny it, and to expose thereby both his wife and the Egyptians to sin.
2. That which was at the bottom of it was a jealous timorous fancy he had that some of the Egyptians would be so charmed with the beauty of Sarai (Egypt producing few such beauties) that, if they should know he was her husband, they would find some way or other to take him off, that they might marry her. He presumes they would rather be guilty of murder than adultery, such a heinous crime was it then accounted and such a sacred regard was paid to the marriage bond; hence he infers, without any good reason, They will kill me.
Note, The fear of man brings a snare, and many are driven to sin by the dread of death, Lu 12:4, 5. The grace Abram was most eminent for was faith; and yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the divine Providence, even after God had appeared to him twice. Alas! what will become of the willows, when the cedars are thus shaken?
13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for
thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the
Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
Here is, the danger Sarai was in of having her chastity violated by the king of Egypt: and without doubt the peril of sin is the greatest peril we can be in. Pharaoh's princes (his pimps rather) saw her, and,