Who is Worthy?

We’ve Seen this Before: Two Questions

As we read the scripture this morning, some of us may have found it oddly familiar, as if we’d read this story once before. If you had this feeling of Deja Vu, it’s because we have in fact read this story, or at least a very similar story, before in . At the beginning of the story of Abraham, right after God has come down to deliver the promise to him, we read of Abram and Sarai traveling down to Egypt and pulling this same trick on Pharaoh down there. Sarai claims to be Abram’s sister, and so the Pharaoh takes her to be his wife, only to be warned by God that Sarai is, in fact, a married woman! And now, just before when the child of promise will finally be delivered, we read almost the exact same story. The entire journey of Abraham, from the reception of the promise up to its fulfillment, is couched between these two tales of dishonesty, distrust, and disobedience from Abraham.

That’s not the only thing familiar in this passage, however. We may also note that Abimelech asks a very familiar question of God, one we’ve heard just last week in as God and Abraham overlooked the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Lord, will you destroy innocent people?” Abimelech points out that it was Abraham, and not he, who had lied and put everyone in this situation. The story takes great care to let us know that Abimelech was, in fact, a righteous person as he claimed to be. He had not touched Sarah, and had only taken her to marry because Abraham told him she was unmarried! And so, when God comes forward to accuse him of wrongdoing, he repeats the very same question Abraham had asked just one chapter before, “Lord will you destroy the innocent on account of the wicked?”

These familiar themes in this passage bring to mind two questions that need to be answered.

Firstly, Is God just? Is he going to punish Abimelech for what Abraham has done?

Secondly, Is Abraham worthy? Does he even deserve to receive the promise at this point? His entire story is surrounded with accounts of disobedience to God.

God’s Word Stands (Prep/Rel.) (First Q.)

The first question, “Is God Just”, is answered almost immediately.

“Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore 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, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.”

God hears Abimelech’s case, and offers him a very fair deal. If he does the right thing and returns Sarah, then he will be safe. If, however, he chooses to do the wrong thing and keeps Sarah, he will have to face the consequences. It’s hard to imagine a more just God than this! God graciously hears out Abimelech’s case. He is not quick to anger and execute judgement. No, God is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

And, because he is a just God, the Lord keeps his word. Abimelech restores Sarah to Abraham, and he is indeed cured of the curse on his house, and is allowed to live just as God had told him. So we see, once again in the Genesis story, that this God keeps his word.

Abraham as Instrument (Second Q.)

And yet, it is this very characteristic about God that brings us to the second question. God has kept his word up to this point, he has done all that he said he would do. But what about Abraham? The question here is no longer if God will do as he has said, but if he should do as he has said! Time and time again, God has reaffirmed his promise to Abraham:

The New Revised Standard Version The Call of Abram

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This was God’s promise to Abraham, and yet Abraham and his wife have done such horrid things in order to take the promise for themselves. They have lied to two kings, the Pharaoh and now Abimelech, bringing about curses instead of blessings, and they have even gone so far as to taken advantage of a poor Egyptian slave-girl, Hagar, in order to provide a son for themselves. So does Abraham really deserve to receive the promise?

This very question also seems to impinge on the first question as well: “Is God just?” God has made this unconditional promise to Abraham. If he does not come through with it, then God would have gone back on his word. And if he does go through with it, then it seems like God is rewarding Abraham’s abhorrent behavior!

Of course, all of this becomes even more complicated when we consider God’s purpose for the promise in the first place: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God has promised to bless all of creation through Abraham. Yet, so far, Abraham has proven to be a curse to those around him due to his disobedience to God! So how can God not only keep his promise while calling himself Just, while also blessing all of creation through Abraham?

A Gracious God

This seems like a very tough predicament for God to be in. The answer provided by this story, however, is one that calls us to radically rethink our ideas about God’s justice and his promises. God’s word to Abraham might be a problem if the promise depended on Abraham’s goodness and justice. Luckily, this is not the case. We can see throughout the story that the promise really doesn’t depend on Abraham at all, but on God. In fact, we can see that God did not choose Abraham because he was a just, upright man. No, God chose Abraham out of sheer grace. He gave the promise to Abraham not because of anything Abraham had done, but because God wanted to make such a promise. This is why, as we see early on, the promise really doesn’t have any strings attached other than faith on Abraham’s part.

What is perhaps most shocking about this passage, however, is that God is not only showering grace on Abraham, but even on the pagan nations that Abraham comes into contact with, despite Abraham’s tendency to be disobedient! Abraham’s lie here came very close to bringing about a curse on Abimelech, the gentile King, and yet, despite Abraham’s actions, God still finds a way to provide blessing through Abraham to someone like Abimelech. We see this when the text says:

The New Revised Standard Version Abraham and Sarah at Gerar

it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

Even in the life of someone like Abimelech, who was outside of the covenant people, God was at work bringing about blessing, even when Abraham would have brought about a curse.

Promise and Spirit

Even here, all the way back in Genesis, we see a glimpse of what Paul is talking about when he declares that we are saved by grace alone. Grace, in both Greek and Hebrew, really just means “gift”. And this blessing, this salvation offered by God, is just that. A gift is not something one earns or deserves. It is freely given, out of the goodness of the giver’s heart. The gift is predicated not on the one receiving it, but on the one giving it.

The answers to our two questions from this passage, then, aren’t as straightforward as we might at first think.

“Is God Just?” Well, of course he is. but he is also gracious and merciful, full of compassion and abounding in love. His justice is secondary, then, to his grace and love. Without such a God, humanity would have no hope. Because, like Abraham, all of us have fallen short of God’s glory. No one would be able to earn the promise God has set before us. The promise is made possible only by God’s grace.

Which brings us to the second question. “Is Abraham worthy?” The answer to that question is a resounding “No. Not at all.” In fact, no one is worthy. No one deserves the gift, no one has earned the grace of God. And yet he has decided to be gracious to us nonetheless.

If the promise were predicated on anything less than grace, then we might expect, at the very least, for someone like Abimelech to become the new recipient of the promise. Unlike Abraham, he remains trustworthy and faithful (at least so far as we see in this story). But that is not what happens. Abraham remains God’s chosen human not because he deserves to be, but because God has chosen him, in his grace, mercy and love.

Salvation by grace alone is a beautiful message for us today. It is assurance that, despite our flaws and our inability to live up to being the image of God we are called to be, the promise nonetheless relies on God’s goodness and not ours. This is, of course, not license to just do whatever we please, but it does mean that there is ample room in God’s vision of salvation for grace and mercy.

Salvation by grace is indeed beautiful, but it also poses a challenge for us. So often the Church has had this grandiose idea that God has given us a mission, a part to play in salvation, and that we can go off and do all of that because we’re special people. The Bible does, after all, call us “the Elect” of God. And so we go off and form committees, and set up programs, and do all the things a good church should do, confident that we can accomplish the mission we’ve been sent on. Sometimes we get this idea in our head that the Church is the hope of the world, and that we’re special, we’re the “chosen people of God.”

This is a very old idea, and one we see just as often in the Church today as we see in Israel throughout the Old Testament. And it’s a very wrong-headed idea. You are not special. I am not special. We, the Church, are not special. The Church is not the hope of the world. The Church, you and me, we cannot bring about the promise. The hope of the world is God. The hope of the world is Jesus Christ.

God has chosen to bring about blessing and salvation by working through the church, just as he brought these things to Abimelech through Abraham. Yet God very often accomplishes these things in spite of the Church, and not because of them.

This usually happens when the Church, like Abraham, begins to think that the promise rests on our shoulders, and we forget that it really rests on God. We forget that absent of the Holy Spirit, the church has no hope and no blessing to offer.

In , God will finally deliver the promised child, Isaac, but not because of anything Abraham and Sarah had done. Despite all of their scheming and plotting, the promise is fulfilled solely because of God’s good character.

One day God will deliver another promise: the redemption of all of creation and the resurrection of the dead. That promise won’t come about because of any of our plotting and scheming to get it on our own. It will happen solely by the might and power of the Holy Spirit, solely by the blood running from the cross, solely by God’s good mercy and grace.

Let us, then, cease our striving for the promise on our own terms. Let us not forget the source of our hope and strength.

Is God Just?

Is Abraham Worthy?

B- God’s Word Stands: God is Just (Prep/Rel.) (First Q.)

C- Abraham as Instrument (Second Q.)

D- Grace: God as sole provider of the promise

E- Promise and Spirit