In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was forced to wear the letter A on her dress as a shaming symbol of adultery. But what about her partner in immorality, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale? He kept his sin secret. Daily he played the “holy man” in his church, but his life was a lie that caught up with him by the end of the novel.

In Genesis 12, Abram was hiding his guilt. When he and his family fled to Egypt to escape famine, he told his wife Sarai to lie and say she was his sister (v. 13). Why? He was afraid some powerful Egyptian would see her beauty and take her for himself, probably killing him in the process. He wasn’t mistaken: Powerful people can be like that. And socially vulnerable people are often mistreated by those in control.

Abram’s problem wasn’t that he misunderstood the situation, but that he failed to trust the Lord for protection. He yielded to temptation and to protect himself, pretended Sarai was his sister (vv. 11–13). As predicted, a powerful Egyptian—Pharaoh, in fact—saw her, wanted her, and took her (vv. 14–16). This resulted in riches for Abram, which he may have also known.

What he didn’t predict was that God would not let him get away with it. No matter how well we try to hide our actions, sin always comes to light (Num. 32:23). The Lord intervened to protect Sarai (from adultery) and His covenant (vv. 1–8). God revealed the truth to Pharaoh, whose anger was righteous and who probably spared Abram’s life only due to fear of the Lord (vv. 17–20). Furthermore, commentators note that Egyptian ethics highly valued truthfulness, so Abram’s sin was a very poor witness. Did he repent? Apparently not at this time, since he did it again and rationalized it in Genesis 20.

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