Genesis 20
Book of Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Abraham has been growing in his knowledge and love for God for over 2 decades now. Last chapter he was promised that His son Isaac would be born within 1 year. Before those events take place, Abraham takes one more detour of weak faith. Remember in the past, almost at the beginning, Abraham told the king of Egypt that his wife was only his sister. This brought some problems but God preserved Abraham and helped get him out of this situation. Well some 20 years later, we see almost the exact same thing take place, just which a different king from a different nation.
1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Abraham travels from where he was in Mamre to the Negev which was in the south. On his way he traveled through Gerar. We are not told why Abraham traveled to the Negev. Lets see what happens.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
One thing I’ll point out is that Abimelech is not the kings name, rather its a title. The term Abimelech has been used 11 times to refer to different kings of the region.
Abimelech = the term is a combination of father and king meaning my father is the king. This is pointing to the fact that this was a position directly under the king of the region.
Abraham tells the ruler of Gerar that His wife is just a sister.
The difference from Egypt and this time is that before Sarah was barren, now Sarah is fertile and perhaps pregnant already but definitely not showing or else she likely would not have gone along with this scheme.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. 4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Abimelech is going about his normal life with a new girl he thought would make him a nice new wife. Then God shows up and terrifies the ruler. Starts off with, you are a dead man. Imagine the shock of Abimelech! God reveals the secret lie of Abraham and says you took a mans wife, your gonna die!
Abimelech says wait will you destroy an innocent nation? didn’t Abraham lie? why then will I be destroyed?
6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
This is amazing to me, God says Yes, I know this was not your fault. You were lied to, thats why I did not let you touch and defile this woman. God not only stepped in to get Abrahams wife back , which he lost due to his own sin, God kept the situation from getting worse, which it could have.
7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Think of this, God admits to this pagan king that Abraham is His prophet. have you ever had a child or maybe a friend do something that was so not right you don’t even want people to know the two of you are associated together? Think about how this made God look! remember two weeks ago we talked about our purpose in life is to bring glory to God, and yet we keep seeing Abraham and lot fail in this purpose. How sad do you think this makes God feel? I know there were probably many times when I was growing up that my dad was like, “I don’t want to own up to being this guys father” and I deserved that.
Think of the Prodigal son, he foolishly looses all his dads money living like a fool, he goes back knowing that he does not deserve to be called son, and yet before he can speak to his dad, The dad reclaims ownership and with joy brings the son back!
Here Abraham has not even repented yet and we see God follow through with His promise and preserve Sarah from being defiled. God reclaims His son and with love and grace God brings His child back!
This shows us a new side to Gods long suffering, as well as, how far he will go to keep His word!
Abimelech, could have gotten angry and decided not to return Sarah, God knew this so he gave a serious warning. Return her or die.
8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
First thing in the morning Abimelech informs all his workers and they kinda freak out. They call Abraham and lay into him. Essentially saying, you have wronged our entire nation and put us in danger in a way that should never have been done.
I find it interesting that God did not go to Abraham and correct him directly. God used a pagan king and others to correct him. Think of all the times God allowed the children of Isreal to be captured as slaves, many times directly telling us this was due to the sins of Isreal. Many times when we are not obeying God the way we should God does use even unbelieving people groups to correct us.
11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. 12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
Abrahams reasoning is fear of man rather than faith in God’s ability to protect him. He qualifies this lie by saying “well, it was only a half lie.” He kinda even puts the blame on God and says when God caused me to leave into a scary land. Abraham trusted God years ago to the point where God said he had a right relationship with God, but we see here he still had times of fear.
In the time of fear God did not smash Abraham like he could have, He did not take back his promise like he could have. Instead Gods love preserved Abraham and the promises. God’s forgiveness was seen not just by Abraham but even by Abimelech and the nation of Gerar.
14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. 16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.
This is amazing, Abimelech almost died because of the sin of Abraham, God preserves all involved and Abimelech gives any land they want to them, servants, live stock, and 1,000 pieces of silver. Abimelech says this was all to compensate Sarah, the one who was really the abused in the entire situation.
Sarah was faithful to Abraham and followed his lead even when it was wrong and Abimelech says these gifts are because of your honor and because you were treated wrong in the whole situation.
Notice, several times we have seen women be mistreated by by others, sometimes by men, and sometimes by other women. We have seen slaves mistreated by people and we keep seeing God bless the oppressed. We see God Show up so many times to take care of His people and the ones that are being mistreated, even the ones mistreated by his own people.
17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. 18 For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.
Abraham prays for the ones that his sin has cursed and God heals everyone that has been effected.
Two things I learned about God in this:
God is longsuffering even in my sin! God will work to bring me back to Him because He loves me. God corrects us, in many different ways, because he loves us and wants us to fulfill the purpose of bringing Him glory with our lives.
Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
God is for me and protecting me when others attack me. Jesus called me blessed when others attack me or sin against me. Sarah was blessed when others, including her own husband sinned against her, and God promises the same for you.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.