Providence and Repentance

Exegetical Idea: God works when Abraham lies about his wife to Abimelech providentially in saving Abimelech, in preparing the way for the promised heir, and in confronting Abraham’s dishonesty with Abimelech’s.

Theological Idea: In Providence, the Father gives good gifts to humanity, prepared history for Christ, and through the Spirit sanctifies the saints.

Homiletical Idea: The Father providentially gives good gifts, prepares the way for Jesus, and sanctifies me through his Spirit.

Outline

Introduction: Where is God working? Horse and his boy....

It’s in the fog, and Shasta is at hte end of his adventure. He’s lost. He’s lost his friends. He’s come all this way, and he’s walking and he hears and can feel this voice. And he talks to the voice, and the voice says, “Tell me your sorrows.” so “Shasta told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the Tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded his friend. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.”

Story

Repetition of the earlier story (breaking all 10 of the 10 commandments)

A later detail we find out is that Abimelech and all his household were plagued

God appears to Abimelech in a dream

Abimelech tells all his officers about the dream

Abimelech confronts Abraham

Abimelech testifies to Sarah’s purity

Abraham prays for Abimelech - they’re healed of their plague

Where is God’s Working in all this? God’s working through his Providence. God’s Providence is his “purposeful, caring sovereignty over all things.” In other words, God is working everywhere, at all times, in all things to bring about the good things that he has planned. So what are those good things? WEll, we see 3 of them in our passage, and they roughly correspond to the three persons of the Trinity.

The Father’s good care

God came in a dream (3)

Abimelech said I’m innocent (4-5). Now, we shouldn’t assume more than is warranted from this. Abimelech means “in this matter” I haven’t sinned. As we will se in a bit, Abimelech is a bit of a trickster. But here, he’s saying, I didn’t do anything wrong.

God says “I Know. I’m the reason you haven’t sinned” (6-7)

God saved Abimelech from violating Sarah, most likely by the plague he had sent.

Abraham sinned, and God kept Abimelech from suffering through suffering. If God hadn’t given Abimelech the plague, he would have brought destruction on himself and on all his people.

Illustration: The birth of Calvin

Joseph (Gen 50:19-20)

Genesis 50:19–20 ESV

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

God does not cause evil, but he does not allow evil to come on anyone without his say so. (Consider the example of Job; Matt 5:45)

Matthew 5:45 ESV

so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

God never does anything wicked to anyone, he only does good for his people (James 1:17)

James 1:17 ESV

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

But you say, well you don’t know what I’ve gone through, why did I have to suffer that? Why did I have to go through this? Why did it turn out this way? And I don’t have the specific answer for you, except to say that God does not do wickedly for his people. He is directing it, and watching it. And the only thing you can do is cling to the goodness of God.

Preparing the way for the Son

Why did God let Pharaoh go so far as to have an affair in chapter 12, but he does not allow Abimelech to? Well he’s already announced in chapter 18:14, that the promised child would come within a year’s time, and it’s not too long after this event that Isaac is born in 21:1-2. And it is safe to assume that Sarah’s pregnancy is not obvious yet, that she’s not showing yet. Otherwise, I find it unlikely that Abimelech would have taken her. Now, if God had allowed Abimelech and Sarah to have an affair, the father of Isaac would always be in doubt, wouldn’t it?

God kept Abimelech from having an affair with Sarah to preserve the promise that he had already made to Abraham that Isaac would come.

From Isaac, will ultimately come Christ. And God has orchestrated all of this to prepare for the coming of Christ. That God’s providence is at work to fulfill all of his promises through Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

We also see that God does this typologically. That is, God prepared all of history full of types of Christ, full of all these patterns in the Old Testament, so that when the Messiah would come, Christ would be able to be recognized.

Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-3)

Hebrews 7:1–3 ESV

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

Jonah (Matthew 10:40-41)

Matthew 10:40–41 ESV

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Isaac himself is a type (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

If God would not have protected Abimelech, the Messiah would not have come, and Isaac would not have been a type of Christ.

God is still guiding all things by his Providence to further the message of the gospel.

Ed. Kimball => D.L. Moody => Wilbur Chapman => Billy Sunday => Mordecai Ham => Billy Graham

the Spirit’s work of sanctification

It kind of looks like Abraham is getting off the hook, doesn’t it?

Look at Abraham’s response to Abimelech in vs. 11-13. He blames everybody: Abimelech, his dad, his wife, but he doesn’t take responsibility for his actions himself. Why does he get off so well?

Look at 21:22-34.... (explain story)

Now, I told you not to think Abimelech is such a good guy earlier, and we should be a little bit suspicious. Because after all, what king doesn’t know who his people are bullying, and after all, they’re living in Beersheba now, which is 25 miles away from Gerar. So what made them move? What is going on?

Look in vs 26, Abraham confronts Abimelech. And does Abimelech take responsibility? No, he does exactly the same thing that Abraham just did. He blames Abraham, he says, “Well, I didn’t know about it,” which is a pretty flimsy legal excuse. As the reader we’re meant to see through this. Abimelech is doing the exact same thing to Abraham, being dishonest and not taking responsibility for it, as Abraham did to him.

Why would God allow Abraham to go through that kind of suffering, being wronged? To show him teh folly of his ways. To bring him to repentance. To help him grow spiritually.

David & Shimei

My own experience as a pastor.

Have you ever thought maybe the reason God put this complaining person in your life to help you to see what you sound like? Have you ever thought maybe the reason God put a gossipping person near you is to teach you to hate gossip? Have you ever thought that maybe this difficult season in your marriage, this difficulty with your child, this problem at work, this broken relationship, it is meant to bring you to repentance?

Abraham recognizes this, and gives back the wealth that he had received (vs. 27). It’s as if he is recognizing the error of his ways, as if he is repenting.

And notice here at the end, how Abraham alls on the name of the Everlasting God and he plants a Tamarisk tree. Why is that? The Tamarisk tree is especially long living tree, typically they live for 2-300 years, but could live longer. The point of this is that Abraham is planting a particularly long lived tree to indicate that God himself is eternal. And the eternal God is the God of the eternal covenant.

Abraham is recognizing that God is with him. ANd even in the suffering, God hasn’t abandoned him.

Application

God is always working in your life. So take heart. When you are suffering, when you’re afflicted, when you’re broken, don’t be despondent. God has not forgotten about you. He’s working. He’s working for your good. He’s working to press out the gospel. He’s working to grow you. We usually don’t get to know in the midst of our trials why God is working. Even after our trials, we don’t always get to know. But that doesn’t mean he’s not working. In fact, you and I can take this promise to the bank that he made in Romans 8:28....

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Ask yourself, what is God trying to teach me. But if that is true, maybe you should ask, “What is he trying to show me?” Is he trying to show me his fatherly care? Is he trying to give me a chance to share the gospel? Is he trying to sanctify you and grow you spiritually? And maybe you don’t know. And if that’s true, grab hold of him, because we can know that he will never, ever let go of his people, he will not abandon them, and he certainly will not forsake them.

Conclusion: If the Christian life is a walk of faith, then that means you and I have to take each walk by faith. But that does not mean that we have to walk alone.

Well Shasta, tells his story to the voice, and he gets to the end, and the voice speaks to him.

"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.

"Don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said Shasta.

"There was only one lion," said the Voice.

"What on earth do you mean? I've just told you there were at least two the first night, and — "

"There was only one: but he was swift of foot." "How do you know?" "I was the lion." And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."

"Who are you?" asked Shasta. "Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again "Myself," loud and clear and gay: and then the third time "Myself," whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.

Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too. The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing he had not been noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.

He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came. No-one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south to have heard the tales that were whispered about a dreadful Narnian demon that appeared in the form of a lion. And of course he knew none of the true stories about Aslan, the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-sea, the King above all High Kings in Narnia. But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.

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