July 26, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Proverbs 13

Weekly Memory Verse: Hebrews 4:12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 20:1-18 (NASB95)
¹ Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. ² Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.” ⁴ Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a nation, even though blameless? ⁵ “Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” ⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷ “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” ⁸ So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly frightened. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered, that you have done this thing?” ¹¹ Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. ¹² “Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; ¹³ and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” ¹⁴ Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵ Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” ¹⁶ To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.” ¹⁷ Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children. ¹⁸ For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.^[1]

When I read through this passage the question was in my mind, why did he move?  Abraham had just went through a tremendous spiritual time where he had met with God, and had begged for the lives of the men of Sodom.  He had just came off of a tremendous spiritual mountain top where he had prayed for Sodom, and had been promised another son by the Lord.  Along with that promise he was promised to be a father of many nations, and given the promised land by God. 

The scripture does not indicate why he moved; only that he did.   Remember the last time that Abram had moved from the Promised Land into the land of Egypt?  He had deceived Pharaoh by claiming that his wife was his sister, had gotten the whole land of Egypt in serious trouble and then was sent home and evicted from the land. 

The same thing happens in this story, Abraham moved to the land of Negev.  Notice the way that the tables turn, Abimelech defends himself before God claiming to be blameless.  Abraham obviously is the one who is in error.  God noted that Abimelech had exercised integrity, and that he was careful not to sin.  God also said that He had kept Abimelech from sinning.  In the last chapter Abraham was the one who stood blameless and pleaded for the salvation of a nation.  In this chapter Abraham is not blameless and is the cause of the imminent destruction of a nation.

I want to clarify one thing; the land of Negev was within the borders of the land promised to Abraham.  His sin was not that he had departed from God's will; his sin was that he had taken God's will and attempted to fulfill it by human actions.  He did not trust God enough to believe that Abimelech would not be able to hurt him or his wife.  Abraham did not believe God enough to believe that God would preserve Sarah according to the promise less than a year earlier.

God rubbed Abraham's nose in his sin.  He told Abimelech to return Sarah to Abraham, and that Abraham had to pray for him in order to lift the curse of the sin off of his head.  If Abraham did not pray for him, he and his nation would surely die.  I find Abimelech's question very interesting, "what have you encountered (seen) that you have done this thing?"  Abraham was rebuked by a gentile who was powerful enough to strike fear into Abraham.  He was so powerful that Abraham was willing to repeat a mistake that he had made before. 

Abraham had watched the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the deliverance of Lot and had a face to face meeting with God concerning his future.  Yet everything that Abraham had seen did not make him believe that God was really going to come through with His word.  Everything that Abraham had seen did not convince Abraham of the power of the God that he served.  I believe that Abimelech was echoing God's thoughts.

Abraham noted that Abimelech certainly did not have any fear of God.  Contrast that with the fact that Abraham did not have any trust in God.  Rather than admit his sin, Abraham justifies his sin by pointing out that Sarah was really his sister.   

Doesn't this ring true in our lives?  When we walk from God and walk according to our own guidance system, the flesh, don't we act just like Abraham did?  When we walk according to the flesh, we will justify our actions any way possible, bending the truth where we can in order to justify our sin. 

God restored Abraham to fellowship with his wife, and required him to pray for Abimelech so that he would not die as a result of Abraham's sin.  Can you imagine how embarrassing that had to be for a prophet of God?  Abraham was out of fellowship with God, and God required him to pray for an innocent man. 

Our actions affect others, when we walk with God, others are blessed through us.  When we walk according to the flesh, our actions affect other people around us after the effects of the flesh.  It is a tremendous responsibility, Abraham was an example to us of what happens when we walk away from God and how it affects other peoples lives.  I wonder how often that we consider the way that we affected other peoples lives when we walk away from God? 

Part of the restoration process is praying for those who we have wronged when we walk according to our own flesh.  Can you imagine the power that will be displayed in our lives when we get serious about the Lord?  Imagine also the powerful deterrent that praying for those who were wronged by the walk from the Lord would be in keeping us from straying. 

Why didn't Abimelech just kick Abraham out of the land after he had prayed for him?  One reason might be that he had had a personal encounter with the Lord God. That assured him that the Lord God did exist and that Abraham was certainly an ordained prophet of God.  Therefore to kick him out of the land may not be so wise of an idea.  Look at the actions of the righteous Abimelech, he gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver and goods. This was a recognition to God that Abraham was a prophet, and it was an act of worship on the part of Abimelech because he recognized that Abraham was a prophet.  Abimelech recognized that without this prophet he would have surely died, and showed his gratitude to God through the offering of money and goods.  The other reason was that God had promised the land to Abraham, no one would stand in the way.

Abimelech then proceeded to offer Abraham a home in his land.  This was a wise move on his part because he knew that where a prophet of a powerful God was at there would surely be protection.  Keep in mind that the great flood was not that far in the past.  The stories of the flood and of the great judgment of God were still fresh in the minds of the people.  When Abimelech had an encounter with God, he may have realized which God that he was dealing with.

God had opened the wombs of the people after the prayer of Abraham.  This illustrates that God did not only bring a curse of death to the people, He also had closed their wombs so that they would not even be able to bring forth new life. 

One last thought on this passage, look at how God considered marriage holy.  He set a precedent that fooling around was not acceptable in marriage.  He set a precedent that the Jews were not to be intermarrying with pagan cultures.  God made a point of the fact that Abraham and Sarah was married, no one was going to split them up. 

Today there are some who aren't concerned with marriage.  I spoke with a man recently who could care less if his wife went out on him, he actually endorsed it.  We as a nation need to return to God's standard, we need to return to the point where we consider marriage sacred.  And we as Christians are to set the example, just as Abraham was to set the example as a prophet in his land.

Questions for thought:

1. What does this passage teach us about how God guides us in our lives?

2. What does this passage teach us about marriage?

3. Why did Abimelech give Abraham great riches?

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes so that we can understand and apply this passage to our lives.  Build within us the passion to preserve marriages that You have demonstrated in this passage.

In Him,

Joe Turner.