Abram's call and strange mis-step

In Genesis 12:1–20, we have two starkly contrasting incidents in the life of Abram (who later is renamed Abraham). First, the story of his faith, and God's covenant with him; second, a story of his total lack of faith, in which he fears for his life, lies to save his own neck at Sarai, his wife's expense, and lets a foreign ruler take her into his harem! (She is later renamed Sarah.)

There is a certain sense in which this is a comforting story. Abraham, often spoken of as the father of the faithful, and recognized almost universally as the symbol of faith, was as human as we are. He believed, but he experienced a major blip in his faith. Nevertheless, God honored His promise and protected him. God had promised that Abraham would have offspring, despite the fact that until this point he and his wife were childless, and Abraham was already 75 years old. Sarai was certainly necessary for the fulfillment of the promise of descendents, so Abram was putting the promise at risk.

There is also a psychological lesson here. Abram apparently thought that if he showed up with Sarai as his wife, the Pharaoh, desiring to have her, would have Abram killed. But when Pharaoh realizes what has happened, he does not execute Abram—which, at this point after such a deception, he might have felt justified in doing; instead, he says, "Take her and go," and lets Abram leave with all his belongings. I suspect that if he had not been so suspicious, everything would have worked out without a problem. As A Course in Miracles notes: "…analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if he had actually done so, having made his error real to you" (T-12.I.1:6-7).

But to me, the really interesting interpretation here is the metaphysical one. Abram represents the faith faculty and the intellect; Sarai represents the soul—the loves, affections, and emotions. Egypt represents sense or material consciousness, and the Pharaoh is the ruler of that consciousness. So, metaphysically, this story depicts a time when my intellect allows my emotional feelings to be dominated by sense consciousness. How often that occurs! Some external event transpires, and I allow my feelings to be controlled by the appearances, rather than by faith, which sees things that are not as though they were. Faith looks beyond appearances. It does not allow the emotions to be controlled by external influences.