Some People Never Learn

Genesis 20:1-18

Why is it that we seem to repeat the same sin over and over? Why is it that an alcoholic, even though they know what will happen when they drink will continue to do so? Or the woman that marries a wife beater, gets out of that marriage and then finds another man that is similar to her husband to have a relationship with?

As we look at tonight’s passage, we see Abraham returning to his old ways. None of us would think that Abraham would have allowed lies to become so much a part of his life that he became a pathological liar, but it does seem like he didn’t learn a lot from his past mistakes. He should have remembered that lying wasn’t only wrong, but also dangerous.

One sin, almost all the time, makes it easier to commit another sin. Why did Abraham go back to Egypt? God had given him so much in Canaan. Granted there was a famine in the land, but what of his riches? Maybe he felt his lifestyle was threatened and he didn’t want to give up anything he had. Maybe he was so used to having so much, that he felt he couldn’t do without anything.

Are we ever like that? Are we ever caught up in doubt? Jesus warned us not to worry about what we would wear or eat, as he would take care of us. Life needs more than food and clothing though, at least according to society today. Did God send the famine to give Abraham a little dose of humility? Maybe to give him a little touch of hardship to make him grow stronger in his faith in God? Did Abraham prove to fail to be faithful in facing this test? We really don’t understand how God operates the universe, so it is not for us to fully understand why Abraham was faced with this famine. We can profit from what we see in this passage, though. When we sin once, it is easy for us to do it again.

Sin destroys our creativity. Abraham had been in Egypt once, at least, before. This time we are told that he had fear as he approached the land. He thought back to the king coveting his wife and how when he had been there before he was afraid for his own life because of the beauty of Sarah. By now Sarah was well advanced in years, but was apparently still a very attractive woman. Maybe he was still afraid that he would face death as the king might want her for his wife. All these maybe’s really don’t matter. What does matter is that Abraham had not learned that lying can produce dangerous consequences. Abraham didn’t even try to come up with a new lie, he just reused the old one that had failed him before.

Abraham had forgotten that God had handled things before. His mind was clouded by thoughts of what might have happened before and what might happen again, instead of focusing on the fact that God had handled things before and he would handle them again.

This passage of scripture shows us that the things that we call half truths are in fact lies. Technically speaking, yes, Sarah was Abraham’s sister, according to Jewish traditions. The practical matter was, though, Sarah was Abraham’s wife. Abraham used some flawed reasoning to come up with Sarah being his sister, much like the old song, “I’m my own Grandpa” used. I am sure a number of you remember that song. The point is, though, that many times when we want to prove a point we use flawed reasoning as well.

Lying, no matter how it is disguised, no matter who it protects, no matter what we think it accomplishes, is wrong. A lie can be more than saying something false, it can be giving a false impression by not telling all the truth. It can be telling the facts, but telling them in a way to make what actually happened not appear to be what happened.

In spite of Abraham’s return to lying, God still loved him and took care of him. God watches over us when he has a purpose for us, too. God delivered Abraham and he will deliver us. All of us are weak and sinful, but we just have to rely on God to take care of us.

God took care of Abraham’s problem. Both the Egyptian king and the King of Abimelech could have taken Abraham’s life, but they spared it. They had a moral code that they followed and they did not seek revenge for Abraham’s lie.

God wants to deliver you, the same way he delivered Abraham. We just have to be willing to allow him to deliver us.

God directly intervened on Abraham’s behalf. We don’t ever want to wait on God’s direct intervention. It is far too easy for us to condition ourselves to sin that it stops bothering us when we do sin. We may even go as far as to lose all control of our moral lives. God is not obligated to rescue us from bad choices. According to the Levitical law, offerings could be made by the Jews for all kinds of wrongdoing. There was one wrongdoing, though, that there was no offering that could be made for, a deliberate wrongdoing. No sacrifice would cover that.

Mistakes should teach us lessons. We should learn from them. Error has been called the force that welds people together, but truth is really what keeps them together.