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His will is sovereign, and His Name will be glorified. Further, we see God has a greater purpose in all things, including suffering. God proved His strength is perfect and that He is the only One with the power to save. As Paul taught in Romans 8:28, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”Ībram unwisely trusted in his own cunning to preserve his life, and he was caught in a lie. God has a larger purpose behind everything that takes place in life (Jeremiah 29:11).
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We may not always know why bad things happen, but that does not mean they are without purpose.
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God used the affliction of Pharaoh’s household to bring about good for Abram. This incident is a good example of how God sometimes allows bad things to take place in someone’s life as part of a larger situation. God told Abraham to go, and didn’t tell him where he was going. Yes, there are obvious lessons we can learn from this story. Abram left Egypt with his wife Sarai, the protection of the king, and added prosperity. Now, here in Genesis chapter 12, we see that God singles out one man from a city named Ur, way out in the country of Chaldea, and blesses him. Despite Abram’s wrongdoing, God worked to fulfill His promise. In the end, Pharaoh returned Abram’s wife and provided protection for him: “Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had” (Genesis 12:20). Abram was wrong to lie, but God graciously intervened in order to keep His covenant with Abram. If Pharaoh had kept Sarai, Abram would not have had a son by Sarai in fulfillment of God’s promise to him (Genesis 12:2 17:19). The affliction led to the discovery that Sarai was Abram’s wife. If God had not caused the plagues to come upon Pharaoh and his household, he may not have known anything was wrong. When Pharaoh realized Sarai was Abram’s wife, he summoned 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 my wife? Now then, here is your wife take her, and go” (Genesis 12:18-19). All those blessings were gifts of God’s grace, not rewards for Abraham’s good works. He also gave him a privileged position (Genesis 20:7, 17-18). The result of this punishment reveals the reason for it. God blessed Abraham, He gave him wealth (Genesis 12:16,20 13:1-2, 20:14-16) and the son He had promised (Genesis 21:1ff). After all, the king was the victim of Abram and Sarai’s deceit. Genesis 12:17 says, “But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.” This seems puzzling. Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s house, and many gifts were given to Abram (Genesis 12:16). In Egypt, Sarai’s beauty attracted the attention of Pharaoh, the ruler of that country. The plan to pass her off as his sister would ensure that Abram would be well received by those he met. Because Sarai was so beautiful, Abram feared someone would kill him and take Sarai as his wife. Abram instructed his wife to tell people in Egypt that she was his sister instead of his wife. In Genesis 12, Abram and his wife Sarai (their names were later changed to Abraham and Sarah) traveled to Egypt due to a famine in Canaan.