In the past couple months; my wife has struggled greatly with some health issues. One of our biggest fears has been, “will insurance cover our costs?” Our decision to plant a church without any initial support has meant we have been without insurance since October 2005, and now companies seem unwilling to cover my wife since her condition is “pre-existing.” So with these fears in the back of my mind, the temptation has been to simply lie. Why not just lie to the insurance companies, tell them there are no pre-existing symptoms and then she will get coverage?
Then it struck me, my situation is a lot like that of Abraham as he took his wife into Egypt.
Genesis 12:7-13
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. 9 Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev. 10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. 13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.” (NET)
What a weak and pathetic man? How did he ever gain God’s confidence to become the Father of Israel? YHWH made Abraham an ironclad promise, “…to your descendants..” yet as he prepared to enter Egypt, he feared that he would be killed on account of the fact his wife was so hot. So rather than trust in the provision and protection of the Lord, he decides to have his wife lie. Abraham enters Egypt and exchanges his wife for some sheep and donkeys and a false sense of security that he won’t get killed.
Here I stand; ready to enter my own Egypt and I am afraid there is no way God can provide for my needs and fulfill all that He has promised. Here I stand in my own weakness, and for the first time in my life I understand what drove him to compromise the integrity of his marriage. Reading this story today gives me the strength to enter my Egypt with confidence and hope. I am confident because in this story God showed Himself faithful, even when Abraham was faithless. I am hopeful because in the end, Abraham becomes a great Patriarch of our Faith.
I am so excited that God used a man like Abraham, because in truth he was a man like me; frail and powerless to change his circumstances. What choice will I make? Finding hope through Abraham’s story, I will enter my Egypt without compromising my integrity. I will do what seems foolish and be honest when dealing with all the insurance people. Faced with lots of bills and little money, I know God will be faithful and His promise will not fail!
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