Now there was a famine in the land… the famine was severe in the land.
Guess when this happened. We read about this instance of famine immediately after the account of Abraham’s call and subsequent arrival in the land of Canaan.
You will remember that God had called Abraham to leave his homeland and relatives and move to the land of Canaan, promising Abraham that He would bless him mightily. So Abraham obeyed God’s call and moved. Considering the distance involved and the logistics of moving all his possessions, servants and flocks, it would have been a monumental undertaking.
Once he arrived, however, having faithfully followed the Lord’s directives, I imagine he assumed the blessings would soon begin. Instead, it appears very little time had elapsed before the onset of the famine (Gen 12:10).
This famine is also what prompted Abraham to go down to Egypt and stay there for a while. And it was while he was there in Egypt that he succumbed to the temptation to lie about his wife Sarah. To save his own skin he claimed she was his sister, not his wife.
I think neither the famine, nor the timing of its arrival, nor the intense, life-or-death pressure to lie were coincidental. For the enemy of our souls is always at work to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). And what better occasion to bring Abraham down than right after he had responded so beautifully to God in obedience?
The lesson should not be lost on us. For our adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). So be on the alert all the time, but maybe even more so when things are going well—so that you may not be taken advantage of by Satan! For we are not ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor 2:11).