Abraham lies.

He enters Egypt and tells Pharaoh that Sarah is his sister, because he fears Pharaoh will kill him to take her. The plan works in the most uncomfortable way: Sarah enters Pharaoh’s household, Abraham receives gifts of livestock and servants, and God intervenes with plagues to extract Sarah from a situation Abraham’s deception created. The episode ends with Pharaoh, a pagan king, rebuking the father of the faithful for dishonesty.

Then Abraham does it again. In Genesis 20, with a different king.

This is the man God chose to carry the covenant. The question the text forces is direct: what kind of covenant does God make with a man like this?