God's Faithfulness Despite Relapse, Week 7
Notes
Transcript
God is faithful to us…EVEN when we are not faithful to Him.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the Christian life is our continual struggle with sin—especially our tendency to repeat sins for which we’ve already been forgiven. Even though we know the right thing to do, we often fall into old habits when we face difficult circumstances. Often these habits reflect our lack of trust in God and His promises.
The great women and men of the Bible shared this struggle in their attempt to follow God. In Genesis 12:10–20, Abraham doubted the promises he had just received from God (blessing, children, land; see Gen 12:2–3, 7). He fled to Egypt at the first sign of trouble (see Chapter 2). While there, he jeopardized God’s promises by lying to Pharaoh’s officials about Sarah’s identity. When we read Gen 20, the story feels all too familiar: Abraham repeated this same sin—using the same lie—and failed to trust in God’s promises and protection while in foreign territory. Instead of exhibiting faith, he fell back on his old lie that Sarah was his sister in an attempt to avoid death. And yet God mercifully used Abraham’s repeated sin to reaffirm His covenant faithfulness—despite His servant’s faithlessness.
Following up from last week, in Chapter 19, God rescues Lot and his family from Sodom. Two angels come into the city, Lot brings them into his house, the men of the city want to have their way with the angels, and Lot offers up…his daughters…heaven help us… The men continue to try to break in, and the angels finally strike them blind and ask Lot if he has any other family here. Translation, if there is anyone of value here, you’d better gather them up we’re getting ready to get out of here and fix this problem permanently.
Now, big question. Did all of Lot’s family escape?
14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
Depends on where you put son-in-laws in the category of family...
However, Lot, his wife, and his two daughters were able to escape Sodom and the city was destroyed. But even knowing what they had been saved from, not all of Lot’s family was faithful to do as God had commanded.
17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
And...
26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Now, we pick up where this weeks lesson starts.
VIDEO
1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?
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 you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.
7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.
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 my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”
10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’
12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.
15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.”
16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.
18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Although Abraham is remembered as a man of faith, he still encountered setbacks. Genesis 20 begins with a familiar phrase: “And Abraham said about Sarah his wife, ‘She is my sister’ ” (Gen 20:2). When we read this statement, we recall the last time Abraham used this lie and its aftermath (see Gen 12:13, 15). We remember that things didn’t go well in that situation, and we begin to expect similar results here. We also recall that since God intervened then, turning evil into good, He will probably act similarly here—a pattern that has come to typify Abraham’s life.
At first glance, it may seem surprising that Abraham lapsed into this old sin. But 25 years had passed since God first promised him an heir, and he was getting older. As the end of Abraham’s life approached, he was becoming desperate. Earlier, he and Sarah had tried to bring about the promise on their own (see Gen 16:1–4), perhaps thinking that God needed their help. But God was very specific in His promise: A son would be born to Abraham by Sarah (see Gen 17:19). Abraham’s goal at this point was to stay alive, so as he approached Gerar, he reverted to a plan that would ensure his survival, even though it jeopardized God’s promise.
As often happens in our own spiritual journeys, Abraham failed to learn from his mistakes. The lesson he was supposed to learn in Gen 12 failed to take root, so in Gen 20, he regressed to his previous sin. Even so, the big picture of Abraham’s life testifies that God provides for and protects His people, despite their moral failures.
Genesis 20 begins by noting Abraham’s southern sojourn. At some point, he made a trip northward to the city of Gerar, perhaps to trade or feed his flocks (see 1 Chr 4:39–40; 2 Chr 14:13).1 It is at that point that we encounter Abraham’s old lie (Gen 20:2; compare 12:13).
News of Abraham’s arrival had made its way back to Abimelech, the king of Gerar. At this time, although Abraham was an elderly, nomadic herdsman, he was also very wealthy; he owned large amounts of livestock and led his own private army (see Gen 14:14). It would have been politically advantageous for Abimelech to take a member of Abraham’s household into his harem; marrying one of Abraham’s close relatives would ensure that Abraham would never go to war against him. Since Abraham was old and had no children by Sarah, his lie (“she is my sister”) was believable.
After Abimelech took Sarah into his harem, God intervened to ensure that His promise—that Sarah would have a son—would be fulfilled (see Gen 18:10). God appeared to Abimelech and indicted him (Gen 20:3). The king responded by appealing to God’s justice: Since he had not yet consummated the marriage—a point the text makes clear (Gen 20:4; “approached” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse)—he considered himself innocent. Yet the king also recognized the legitimacy of God’s indictment and the gravity of the accusation. Adultery wasn’t merely a Jewish prohibition; other ancient Near Eastern law codes viewed it as a punishable offense as well.2
Since he did not know Abraham’s God—Yahweh—Abimelech addressed him as “Lord” (adonai in Hebrew), a deferential, respectful title. He asked, “Will you even kill a righteous people?” (Gen 20:4). Not only does this mirror the question Abraham asked of God regarding the destruction of Sodom (see Gen 18:23, 25), but a form of the word tsaddiq (“righteous”) is also used to describe Abraham (the offending party here) in Gen 15:6. In addition, Abimelech appealed to his own integrity (tham in Hebrew) in Gen 20:5, using the same word God used when commanding Abraham to “walk before me and be blameless” (Gen 17:1). The contrast between the two men is intentional: In every respect, the foreign king acted in the way Abraham should have acted.
God acknowledged Abimelech’s integrity (Gen 20:6) but put it to the test: Since he was aware of the grievance, he needed to make it right; failure to do so would result in his death. God also asserted that He prevented Abimelech from committing this great sin (consummating the marriage and committing adultery). The text leaves us wondering exactly how this was accomplished. The end of this chapter tells us that God caused the women in Abimelech’s harem to be barren, but this would hardly have prevented the king from consummating the marriage; he wouldn’t know about their barrenness until sometime after the fact. It is possible that God caused the king (and perhaps the men of his household) to be temporarily impotent. Perhaps this is what he needed to be “healed” or cured of in Gen 20:17. But the story’s main point is that God intervened to protect His promise of a son. The birth of Isaac, which follows immediately in Gen 21:1–7, was not the result of a sexual union between Abimelech and Sarah.
Obediently, the king awoke early and took action (Gen 20:8). Before summoning Abraham, he first called his court officials to tell them about his encounter with God. After being interrogated by the king, Abraham attempted to justify his deceit by saying, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place” (Gen 20:11). Yet the story tells us that earlier, when Abimelech’s officials heard the words of God, “[they] were very afraid” (see Gen 20:8). Abraham feared man rather than God and repeated his previous sin, whereas the men who did not know God feared Him. Abimelech and his men obeyed unquestioningly after their first encounter with God, and they did so at the earliest possible opportunity.
After previously declaring Abraham righteous (see Gen 15:6), God then used this righteous foreign king to rebuke him. Abimelech questioned Abraham about the motivation behind his deception (Gen 20:9–10). He showed himself to be morally superior to Abraham by appealing to a seemingly universal value system—“You have done things to me that should not be done”—that Abraham ignored (Gen 20:10).3 Compared to Abimelech’s defense in Gen 20:4–5, Abraham’s excuse was weak and unconvincing. Whereas Abimelech offended Abraham unintentionally, Abraham acted deliberately, motivated by self-preservation. He thought that Abimelech would choose to kill him rather than commit adultery, and he considered Gerar to be without fear of God or respect for human life.
Abraham further attempted to justify his lie by explaining that Sarah was his half-sister (Gen 20:12). Such a relationship was later banned by the law of Moses (see Lev 20:17; Deut 27:22), but at this point (pre-law) it was still socially acceptable to marry half-siblings. Even so, Abraham could not hide that his original motivation for explaining this relationship was to deceive Abimelech.
The king, who still needed Abraham to pray for him (see Gen 20:7), probably recognized that Abraham’s defense lacked substance. Yet he chose not to reply. Instead, Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham, publically exonerated her, gave them both lavish gifts, and invited them to continue sojourning wherever they pleased in Gerar (Gen 20:14–16). Abraham subsequently prayed for Abimelech, and God healed the king and his household (Gen 20:17).
The story ends by recalling God’s divine intervention (Gen 20:18). Abimelech presented a threat to the fulfillment of God’s promise to give Abraham and Sarah a son. Since God was about to fulfill this promise (see Gen 21:1–7), He had to intercede. If left to Abraham and Sarah—who repeatedly jeopardized God’s plan—the promise might not have been fulfilled; it was realized only by the grace of God. Abraham’s encounters with Abimelech did not end here; the two meet again in the following chapter (see Gen 21:22–34).
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.
23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.”
24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized,
26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”
27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart.
29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?”
30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”
31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath.
32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.
34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
In light of the events of Gen 20, this episode opens with the two men making a covenant to deal truthfully and loyally with one another (Gen 21:22–24). Sometime after this, as Abraham sojourned under Abimelech’s jurisdiction, a dispute arose over a well. Abimelech’s servants had seized the well from Abraham’s servants, apparently without the king’s knowledge (see Gen 21:25–26). Abimelech’s encounter with Abraham’s God in the previous chapter, as well as his knowledge that Abraham was God’s prophet (see Gen 20:7), predisposed him to act favorably toward Abraham (see Gen 21:27–34). As the story concludes, God’s demonstrates His faithfulness, despite Abraham’s repeated sin in Gen 20.
Abraham’s repeated sin—and the questions associated with it—draw our attention to a larger issue. They emphasize God’s role in the story of His people. Sarah’s son had to come from both Abraham and Sarah to fulfill God’s promise (see Gen 17:18–19; 18:10, 14). Consequently, God prevented the people of Gerar from procreating so that Sarah could not be impregnated by Abimelech. Immediately following this episode, God fulfilled His word with the birth of Isaac (although roughly a year transpired). It is God who promises, provides, and protects, and God is faithful to His promises, despite the repeated sins of His people.
In times of difficulty or uncertainty, it’s easy to relapse into familiar habits—even if we’re aware that what we’re doing is wrong. When Abraham once again found himself feeling threatened in an unfamiliar land, he fell back into an old sin characterized by fear, doubt, and dishonesty. Yet God brought Abraham through the mess he got himself into, despite his weakness, and He brought about the promise of an heir according to His word. Even when we fall short in our struggle against sin, God remains faithful to His promises.
Our struggle against sin can seem never ending, despite forgiveness and faith in Christ. In Romans 7:14–25, the Apostle Paul voices this frustration, remarking, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Rom 7:15 nrsv). Yet Paul also knows that our salvation, which is secured in Christ and with the indwelling Holy Spirit, gives us the power to overcome sin and trust God’s promises in every situation. Because of this, Paul could exclaim, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:24–25a)!
When we face times of uncertainty, we can also take comfort knowing that God is in control. As He demonstrates in Abraham’s story, all life—and the ability to create and sustain it—is in His hands. If God even takes care of the birds and the grass (Matt 6:25–34), we, His children, can have confidence that He will take care of us in every situation (John 1:12; Rom 8:14; Gal 3:26). As Jesus said, “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:32b–33).
When faced with the challenge of relapsing into old sins, we need to remember that Jesus’ death secured the means to overcome this struggle. Because of Christ’s sacrifice and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we can trust in God’s promises in the face of all opposition and uncertainty.
Grigoni, Michael R., Miles Custis, Douglas Mangum, and Matthew M. Whitehead. 2012. Abraham: Following God’s Promise. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.