Setting: Genesis 12:11-13
Each day our provisions grew lighter until we were certainly not drinking enough water. The animals became gaunt, the slaves became gaunt, the men became gaunt, and eventually even the women and children among us must suffer thirst.
We passed between Gerar and Beersheba, knowing that surely their wells and wadis must be as dry as bone, and continued on our way to Egypt.
We had come to know the Egyptians in Shechem, who told us many things of their homeland and their Pharaoh. They told us of Pharaoh's harem, composed of women from every corner of the world, and of his habit of lavishing extravagant gifts upon the families of beautiful young maidens from distant lands, in exchange for their hand in marriage.
What woman is there who is not pleased to think of herself as exceedingly beautiful? If such a woman exists I think it is because she esteems herself unbeautiful and spurns the vanity of outward appearance in spite.
We delight to be praised as fair. Those who would pity me for my “abandonment” by my husband into the harem of Pharaoh should ask themselves in earnest if they would not blush with secret joy to have a husband who esteemed them so beautiful that he feared for his life lest another man kill him to steal such a prize. Indeed, Abram’s fears were genuine, for his estimation of my beauty knew no rational bounds. And who am I to say if these fears were valid? If I say yes, I am being prideful. If I say no, I am disagreeing with my master.
But know this much, he is a man of sweeping, mountainous, monumental faith, and this above all is why I did not pity myself nor consider myself abandoned by his suggestion that I be introduced only as his sister.
It was in love that my husband esteemed my beauty of great value, and it was by faith that he knew what great riches this arrangement would transfer from a clan of Senusret to the clan of Abram. But most importantly of all - for you must know that he is a man who sees the image of God even in woman - by faith my master knew that no harm would come to me, and that El would get the glory.
The man who knows that God owns all things cannot ‘abandon’ anything, for to him all things are always entrusted to God’s care. Such a man knows that nothing which is dedicated to Adonai is ever truly lost, for He keeps it and sustains it always. And so Abram allowed me to be taken into Pharaoh’s household not because he did not care if I belonged to another man, but because he knew that I never would. I am called “my princess” not because of Abram’s jealousy, but because of his confidence. Not because he is possessive, but because the world and all its glory is indeed His inasmuch as the cosmos is God’s gift to mankind, and I in his eyes the crowning jewel.
I confess, I was not always as confident as my husband in this regard. I feared lest some attendant of Pharaoh should secretly have his way with me, or lest Pharaoh himself might find the time and energy necessary to consummate the marriage and I be forced to lie with the Egyptian. He is a man of demonic energy and I feared lest my body ever come into contact with his.
But God protected me.