Heavy with What We Carry

Or the weight of wealth

There are some difficult stories in the Bible. There’s no point denying that.

Recently, I got to sit with one of them. In Genesis 12, Abraham receives this famous call from God and then, almost immediately, turns around and sells out his own wife to save his own skin (Gen 12:10–20). What makes the story especially difficult is what follows. In the next chapter, it looks like Abraham gets off scot-free. Not only that, he comes out ahead financially (Gen 13:2).

How is that not addressed?

Part of the problem isn’t that the Bible ignores bad behaviour. It’s that sometimes our translations miss the cues the writers are giving us.

If you remember the story, Abraham goes down to Egypt because there is a severe famine in the land (Gen 12:10). Once there, he passes off Sarah as his sister, putting her at risk in order to protect himself. Then we read that he leaves Egypt “very wealthy” (Gen 13:2).

And that phrase is doing a lot of work…

continue reading on Substack.