Over the past two weeks, we’ve walked with Princess as she left everything behind to follow her husband Abe’s calling from God. We’ve seen her grief over losing her sister Mickie, her Uncle Nate, and the only home she’s ever known. We’ve watched her struggle to find home in an RV, living in liminal space, trusting someone else’s certainty when she couldn’t hear God’s voice for herself.
This week, we’re going to talk about what happens when that trust is broken. When the person you followed into the unknown makes a choice that puts you in danger. When faith stops feeling like courage and starts feeling like survival.
The Moment Everything Changes
Princess and Abe arrive in a new place, and there’s an opportunity for Abe to advance his calling, to move closer to the promise God gave him. But there’s a problem: Princess’s presence complicates things. Her identity as his wife creates obstacles he doesn’t want to navigate.
So Abe makes a decision. He asks Princess to lie about who she is. He asks her to pretend she’s his sister instead of his wife. He tells her it’s necessary and that everything will work out if she just goes along with it.
And Princess? She’s caught. She’s already given up everything to follow him. She’s already trusted him with her entire life. How can she say no now? How can she question the man who heard from God when she didn’t?
So she agrees. And that agreement puts her in a position of incredible vulnerability and danger.
The Cost of Someone Else’s Calling
Here’s what we need to understand: Abe’s decision isn’t just a small deception. It’s a betrayal of the most fundamental kind. He’s asking Princess to erase her identity, to make herself available to other men, to put herself at risk so that he can protect himself and his vision.
He’s prioritizing the promise over the person. He’s prioritizing his calling over her safety. He’s asking her to sacrifice her dignity, her autonomy, and her security so that his journey can continue uninterrupted.
And the worst part? He frames it as faith. He makes it sound like this is what God requires, like this is part of the bigger plan, like her compliance is an act of trust in God’s provision.
But this isn’t faith. This is control. This is manipulation. This is a man using his spiritual authority to justify putting his wife in harm’s way.
When Faith Becomes a Weapon
Princess’s story forces us to ask hard questions about faith and authority. What happens when someone uses God’s voice to justify their own agenda? What happens when spiritual leadership becomes a tool for control? What happens when following someone else’s calling requires you to betray yourself?
These questions matter because they’re not just ancient history. They’re happening today. In marriages where one partner’s “calling” requires the other to sacrifice everything. In churches where leaders use spiritual language to manipulate and control. In families where faith becomes a reason to silence, diminish, or endanger.
Princess’s story is a warning. It’s a reminder that true faith never requires us to erase ourselves. True faith never asks us to accept harm in the name of someone else’s vision. True faith never weaponizes God’s voice to justify betrayal.
The Biblical Sarai: Handed Over Twice
In Genesis 12, Abram and Sarai enter Egypt during a famine. Abram is afraid that the Egyptians will kill him to take his beautiful wife, so he tells Sarai to say she’s his sister. Pharaoh takes Sarai into his household, and Abram profits from the arrangement. He receives sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and servants because of her.
God intervenes and afflicts Pharaoh’s household with plagues, and Pharaoh realizes what’s happened. He confronts Abram and sends them both away.
But here’s the devastating part: Abram does it again. In Genesis 20, he pulls the same scheme with King Abimelech. He hands Sarai over a second time, using the same lie, putting her in the same danger.
Twice, Abram prioritizes his safety over hers. Twice, he uses her body as a shield. Twice, he betrays her trust in the name of survival.
And Sarai? The text doesn’t record her words. We don’t hear her protest, her grief, her rage. We only see her compliance, her silence, her disappearance into someone else’s story.
But that silence speaks volumes. It’s the silence of a woman who has no choice. The silence of a woman whose voice doesn’t matter. The silence of a woman who’s been betrayed by the person she trusted most.
Princess’s Response
In Barren, I give Princess the voice that Sarai never had. I let her feel the betrayal fully. I let her question, rage, grieve, and struggle with what Abe has asked her to do.
She goes along with the plan because she doesn’t see another option. She’s already lost everything. She’s already miles away from her family, her home, her identity. She’s already dependent on Abe for survival. What choice does she have but to comply?
But compliance doesn’t mean consent. Obedience doesn’t mean agreement. Silence doesn’t mean peace.
Princess is drowning in the consequences of someone else’s faith. She’s paying the price for someone else’s promise. And she’s beginning to realize that following Abe’s calling might cost her more than she ever imagined.
A Question for You
Have you ever been asked to sacrifice yourself for someone else’s vision? Maybe it was framed as faith, as partnership, as loyalty. Maybe you were told it was temporary, necessary, part of a bigger plan. What did it cost you? And how did you find your way back to yourself?
I’d love to hear your story in the comments. This is a space for honest conversation about the difference between faith and manipulation, between trust and control, between following God and following someone who claims to speak for God.
What’s Next
Next week, we’ll explore what happens when everything falls apart and grief becomes Princess’s constant companion.
If you want to follow Princess’s full journey, subscribe to this newsletter. You’ll get weekly insights into Barren, behind-the-scenes reflections, and discussion prompts for your book clubs. And if you’re ready to read Princess’s complete story right now, Barren is available here:
Get your copy of Barren: – Amazon (also available on Kindle Unlimited) – Barnes & Noble
About the Margins of Genesis Series
Barren is Book One in the Margins of Genesis series. It’s contemporary fiction that reimagines the forgotten biblical characters from Genesis in modern American settings. These are raw, honest explorations of faith, survival, betrayal, and redemption. Because the people in the margins? They have stories worth telling too.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for holding space for the hard parts of Princess’s story. These are the conversations that matter.
Elizabeth Simon
Lizard Books LLC
Southwest Florida
P.S. If this email resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear that compliance doesn’t mean consent, and silence doesn’t mean peace. And comment below, because I read every single one.
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