At first glance Chapter 20 of Genesis seems about as useful as a snowmobile in the jungle. It’s pretty much an instant replay of what happened in Egypt in chapter 12. But this relatively short chapter is put here for a reason. Abraham and Sarah are going to have to deal with this repetitive sin before they can have the promised son, Isaac.
I think it’s safe to say that until you and I are willing to really deal with sin in our lives, there will be little blessing for us, especially corporately as the church.
Vernon McGee puts it this way, “How many Christians will not seriously judge sin in their lives, and as a result, there is little blessing or answered prayer in their lives? If those who are in leadership in our churches would confess their sins and deal with the sins in their lives, I frankly believe we could have revival. I don’t believe there will be any blessing until sin is dealt with.”
Paul in 1Corinthians 11 says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
In 2 Corinthians he says that he rejoices that his harsh letter caused them godly grief because it led to repentance, and that he did it because he loves them so much. Again he says “examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith, test yourselves. Or do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you – unless of course you fail to meet the test.”
It never says in the Bible that it’s impossible to stop sinning. It’s us who say, “He forgives our sin, that’s why Jesus went to the cross, so I don’t really have to work that hard at being sin free”. Very difficult to stop sinning, yes, in our nature to sin, yes. But we have been given a new nature and the power of the Holy Spirit, the full Spirit of God, if we have truly been born again. And if we take that seriously we do have the power to be slaves of the Spirit rather than slaves of the flesh.
It is not an issue of being able to stop sinning or not, it is an issue of desire as to whether we choose to follow the Spirit or the flesh.
It’s very possible that blessing (and I’m talking here about really seeing God working, bringing people to him through the church), that that kind of blessing is being withheld from the church and from the lives of many believers because we will not seriously deal with our sin. We don’t have this godly grief about our sin.
So this book is really important in terms of Abraham and Sarah dealing with their sin and finally receiving their promise in the next chapter. Sin is deadly serious to God even though he has forgiven it if we have placed our lives in the hands of his son.
So why don’t we begin by looking at:
I. The Repetition of a Failure (vv 1-7)
And,
A. The Deception by Abraham (vv 1-2)
We read that Abraham is on the move again. Not sure why. Maybe the memories of what happened in the valley were too difficult. Maybe he thought more problems were coming, I don’t know. But he journeys toward the land of the Philistines, and much like when he went to Egypt, this was a potentially dangerous land that did not know God. Of course that may be the very reason he’s going there without knowing it himself.
And lo and behold it’s pretty much an instant replay of what happened in Egypt. Abe and Sarah have been doing this for about twenty years now and I guess though he confessed this sin after the Egypt episode, he has not really judged it and dealt with it. Admitting a sin is not the same as agreeing with God and repenting. True broken repentance begins with an attitude of hating our sin and loathing ourselves for having sinned, as God states in Ezekiel a couple of times.
Otherwise we’re no different from unbelievers without the Holy Spirit, who have a natural conscience and admit their mistakes when they get caught. But don’t really repent.
So instead of learning from his mistake in Egypt, he walks by fear instead of faith again, and this time it’s even worse because Sarah also lies. Fear of man and faith in God cannot dwell together in the same heart at the same time. Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.”
Interesting that both times heading to a pagan country, Abraham expects these unbelieving people to be wicked simply because they are unbelievers, but in both cases the Kings show more morality and integrity than Abraham. Morality is universal and there’s no doubt that there are many unbelievers that are better people than many believers. But we know that just being a good person doesn’t save anyone.
Satan is the king of fear and lies. God is love, love casts out Satan and all fear. Jesus said amoung other things, that he is truth, there is no fear or untruth in God. So when we’re in fear, or we’re lying, we are not in Christ, the Holy Spirit is not leading, Satan is.
Once again in response to Abraham’s lie we see:
B. The Revelation of God (v. 3)
To Abimelech. Hey king, you’re a dead man (he really is, but not because of Sarah, but because he doesn’t believe in God). God scares Abimelech in a dream. God has to intervene once again for Abraham in a crisis to protect the promise, and of course the king wakes up and rightly objects to God’s indictment. Here’s:
C. The Objection by Abimelech (vv 4-5)
“Wait a minute”, he says, “I haven’t done anything wrong here.” And interestingly he calls God “Lord”, and asks, “Lord you wouldn’t kill an innocent people would you?” He pleads his innocence. Does this mean he now believes?
Then we see:
D. The Protection Of God (vv 6-7)
God acknowledges Abimelech’s plea but isn’t it interesting that God takes credit for keeping him from sinning with Sarah. The implication of course, is that it was not his own righteousness that kept the king from sleeping with Sarah, but God’s intervention. But again, even though Abimelech is a pagan, he demonstrates more righteousness than Abraham in this situation.
So God tells him in another dream to return Sarah to Abe and for some reason throws in there that Abraham is a prophet, and it is through Abraham that the intercession, and removal of the death sentence will come. Of course through Jesus this is ultimately true.
We see protection on two levels here. One is that God is protecting the king from sleeping with Sarah and possibly jeopardizing the promise of Isaac. But also by calling Abraham a prophet, and making him responsible for saving Abimelech, the king doesn’t kill Abraham for lying and bringing this upon his people.
Believers, even the greatest of them do sin. Noah, Moses, David, Peter, Barnabus. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls.” The Bible really tries to help us see ourselves in these people, and know that in spite of our failures, God is always in charge and just asks us to keep coming back to him.
Now let’s see:
II. The Response to this Failure (vv 8-13)
God doesn’t respond directly to Abraham but speaks through the king. But before that we hear about:
A. The Trepidation of Abimelech’s Servants (v. 8)
The king and his people are terrified. God told Abimelech they would all die if he didn’t give Sarah back. These people are not even guilty of anything except not believing in God. I don’t know if this episode changes that, but I’m guessing it did.
This let’s us see something many of us have experienced, that your sin doesn’t happen in a vacuum, even if you think it’s private, it affects those around you.
Then Abimelech brings Abraham in and we hear:
B. His Frustration (vv 9-10)
Abimelech is basically asking “why would you do this? I’m a fellow human being who has done nothing to you. You have judged me for who you think I am without even knowing me, shame on you.” What a great witness from Abraham again hey?
How do you think it felt for Abraham to be chastised for his sin by this pagan unbeliever who is acting much more righteously than Abraham? How would it feel for you to have an unbeliever confront you for your sin? It’s one thing to hear it from another Christian or your pastor, but what about from people who you are supposed to be holier than.
The more I think about this passage, the more disturbing it is. This is a good reflection of how Christians today and through history, treat those outside the church. Judge first, get to know them later if at all. They couldn’t possibly be as good as we are, we need to protect ourselves from those people even though we’re only going by our preconceived judgment of who they are.
That is the holier than thou attitude that offends others and keeps unbelievers out of our churches. Why should we fear these people that God wants us to love? Do we have that little faith in God, that if we follow His will, he will abandon us? What’s the worse thing they can do, cause us to sin, kill us? Jesus said don’t fear those who can kill the body, fear him who can destroy both body and soul.
Now let’s look at:
C. The Motivation of Abraham (vv 11-13)
First of all as we said, he was intimidated.
1) Intimidation (v.11) (don’t read)
“I did it because I thought, there is no fear of God in this place so you must be a bunch of lustful murderers.” Again he feared unknown people before giving them a chance or having any evidence to support his fear.
Then he moves to:
2) Rationalization (v.12)
“Well besides she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.” Can you hear the scrambling, making up of excuses as he is confronted?
Half truths or technical truths meant to deceive are the most dangerous of lies because they contain enough truth to make them plausible and therefore more deceptive. F.B Meyer rightly said, “A lie consists in the motive just as much as in the actual words.”
Christians do lie and they do sin, and this doesn’t necessarily affect their position in salvation or annul their faith, but it sure can make our witness more harmful than helpful in bringing people to the Lord. So Abraham is going to be OK eternally, but its Abimelech and his people who are under the sentence of death even though they have acted well.
And you know what? Abraham may be responsible for this death just as Scripture says we will be held responsible for the death of those around us if our witness causes them to flee from Christ instead of to Christ.
This is actually a good passage to use if an unbeliever calls Christians hypocrites. Of course we sin, but we need to consider our spiritual position. We are all sinners, but they are dead in their sin, rejected before God and under divine condemnation. We get punished perhaps, but we are accepted before God. They don’t have to be perfect to be accepted, just believe and have faith. Why would you not?
The other dangerous thing we witness is:
3) Habituation (v.13)
There’s a pattern of behaviour here with Abraham and Sarah that has become the way they do things. Have you ever noticed how easily bad things become habits, and how difficult it is to make a habit out the things that are good for us?
Satan makes it so his agenda becomes habit easily, but we have to work really hard to make God’s agenda a habit, and of course nobody wants to work harder than they already are. Lying is an especially easy habit to develop.
When I was a kid I learned to be a very competent liar. But eventually I would get caught, because it’s really hard to keep all your lies in your memory and make sure you don’t slip up and get found out. It’s much harder work to lie continuously than to tell the truth, even if their are consequences from the truth. They’re usually over with quickly, but the consequences of lies, and losing people’s trust can last a lifetime.
You will never permanently overcome a bad habit or addiction without extreme desire, effort, and supernatural assistance. It won’t happen, not permanently.
What did this lie cost Abraham? To begin with it cost him his character. He started asking what is safe rather than what is right, and just like it’s impossible to make salt salty again after it’s lost its taste, it’s hard to rebuild character and gain trust after you have lost it.
As I already said it cost him his testimony, God now has to take matters in his own hands, because his representative did a poor job. It cost him his ministry as a blessing to all nations. No babies were born because of him and he leaves with a bunch of their stuff. He ended up being a taker rather than a giver of blessing.
And he almost lost Sarah, which would have also meant losing Isaac. Warren Weirsbe says, based on Deuteronomy 6:16 and Matthew 4:7, that whenever we do something out of God’s will that forces God to intervene miraculously, we are tempting God, and that is a sin.
Now that’s not the same as testing our faith through obedience, where God has to make something happen if we follow His will, but when we do something on our own agenda that requires him to fix it. That’s presumption.
Then as we’ll see a few chapters ahead, that this sin is repeated by his son Isaac years later, and that may be the saddest consequence of all.
Finally we have:
III. The Reward in Spite of the Failure (vv 14-18)
Sinning believers can be forgiven and restored. Look at:
A. The Compensation given to Abraham (vv 14-16)
Same as in Egypt, Abraham lies, brings a terrible witness and is rewarded with riches. But I think we need to look at it this way. These things are not being given to Abraham for his sake, but are given to God through Abraham.
God was indeed seen by Abimelech and Abraham was defended by God. God called him a prophet and gave him great power to save the king and his people. This stuff is being given to God, through Abraham not because of his sinful behaviour, but because of the glorious intervention by God through Him.
God does not reject his children when they sin anymore than a parent rejects their child for disobedience. Abraham was justified by faith and had a righteous standing before God that can’t be changed. But if we are justified it also leads at least eventually, to a humble confession and forsaking of our trespasses, because faith without works that show our faith is dead. But our justification is not altered by the extent of our sanctification, or our practice.
Does that make sense? Once truly saved by a real faith, always saved, but our faith is useless, and we are useless to God unless it is shown in our works. We might as well go get our little room in heaven at the far end of the river of life right now, if we are not going to act out our faith in this life.
Though it’s not written, I think we see the proof of Abraham’s confession and God’s forgiveness in:
B. The Intercession of Abraham (vv 17-18)
According to Psalm 66 our prayers will not be answered or even listened to unless we confess our sin in our heart. Abimelech who had done nothing wrong, had to go to Abraham and ask him to pray for the salvation of his people. Can you imagine the conviction Abraham must have felt, and how earnestly he must have prayed knowing that he could have been responsible for the destruction of an entire innocent nation because of his little half truth?
How grateful he must have felt to be given this grace and power to save the King and his people, in spite of what he did. Because being for the most part a righteous person, how could he have lived with the guilt otherwise?
Terrible, self-centered sin marks Abraham and his family, yet his call as a prophet and blessing to all nations is not rescinded. And that my friends, is the nature of God’s outrageous grace. It continues though it has never been deserved.
You and I have sinned throughout our lives and will continue, hopefully less and less often, but God made a simple, eternal promise to us. Confess your sins (in other words agree with God that it is sin), believe in me, and do your best to live as I desire you to, and I will never leave you, and you will never die. Not bad huh?
But as Paul says in Romans, does this mean we should continue to sin so that this grace will abound even more? Of course not, because if we have truly believed in Him, we have died to sin and should not let sin reign in our mortal bodies any longer. Do not obey it now that the Holy Spirit lives in us, let Him reign. Continually choose to present our bodies to Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.
Have you died to self, and given your body (which includes your mind by the way) as a living sacrifice to Jesus, and are you willing to show this outrageous grace that lives in you, to others?
Action Plan:
Practice God’s outrageous grace with those people around you, especially your children. Everyone has made the same mistake more than once, we don’t always learn the first time. Be patient and encouraging rather than judging and angry. What is/are your habitual sin/s? How have you dealt with it/them?
