Sarah: forced movement

Week 2: Tuesday

Reading

Genesis 12.10-20

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife”; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.’ When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.
But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, “She is my sister”, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and be gone.’ And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.

Reflection

These ancestral stories are not only about men. They are also centrally about women, named and unnamed. Sarai (later called Sarah) moves to Egypt with her husband Abram to escape famine. This is a story of survival. But there is another dimension. Sarai is beautiful and Abram fears that he would be killed by the Pharaoh should it be found out that Sarai is his spouse. He puts his wife in danger by lying, saying that she is his sister. God preserves Sarai from this political game among men.

Tragically, forced migration remains a reality of our world as it was in these early stories of Genesis. Women – very often Black women – have too often borne the brunt of the pain and loss incurred during forced migration. It is often their faith that preserves not only themselves, but their partners and their children.

Watch

Are there other women of the Bible, like Sarai, whose stories deserve more attention?

...and pray

for justice for women and children caught up in human trafficking.

Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.