-About 10 years ago a guy went viral at a Gophers hockey game. If you’ve never been to a sporting event, they do all sorts of random activities to keep the crowd engaged. Took the kids to a Timberwolves game this weekend, and Ellie LOVED the halftime show: it was dancing. What we see as commercial breaks at home are times they do activities to distract you from becoming bored. One of the activities they used to do (I haven’t seen it in a while) is a “kiss cam” where they’ll pick couples out from the crowd, show them on the big screen with the expectation that they’ll kiss. This guy got on the screen, and pulled out this sign:

-Yes, he was there on valentine’s day with his sister. And he made the sign just in case this happened! This is a picture of what Abraham does in today’s text.

READ/PRAY

1. Sister-Wife (1-2)

-Parallels between previous account(s) – both Lot and Abraham failing to protect the women in their lives

-Last time was Gen. 12, where Abraham fled the land because of a famine, this time there’s no famine, Abraham just continues his nomadic ways

-Last time, he at least admitting how beautiful his wife was, this time he just says she’s his sister, doing exactly what the guy at the hockey game did!

-But things didn’t go as well for Pharoah. Severe plagues strike the house, Pharoah confronts Abraham about this and sends him on his way. Yet as we’re going to see in today’s passage, apparently this was a routine in Abraham’s life in this season.

-Location of Abraham’s travels: Negev (south), scholars think Gerar west of Beersheba, Sodom and Gomorrah on the east side of Dead Sea, Mamre on the west side

-And he’s back to his old lying ways! Apparently Sarah still has some looks to her (that either Abraham has grown used to or assumes) because the king takes her into his harem, and he assumes everything is going to be just fine!

-Remember something I said toward the beginning of this series: this was a BRUTAL time period to live! It was completely a dog-eat-dog world where whoever was the strongest always won. There wasn’t such a thing as “human rights.” I read a fascinating article this week from Tom Holland, a British historian and one of the hosts of The Rest is History podcast, who grew up attending church, but didn’t really find Christianity stimulating enough (at least compared to dinosaurs, Greeks, and Romans), so he became at atheist. This article is almost 10 years old now, and Tom, who is an expert on Roman history, finally realized that the entire world we take for granted today is built on the foundation of Christianity, so without Christianity the entire Western world doesn’t make any sense. He wrote an entire book about this topic called Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. He says that Christianity has so embedded itself in the Western world that it is thoroughly Christian, even though it doesn’t admit or realize that. Another author, Glen Scrivener (Aussie who now lives in England), has picked up on this idea and says the world today is trying to build castles in the air. The foundation for our entire civilization is built on the understandings and ethics of Christianity, without admitting or understanding that. And many people in our world are starting to wake up to that reality! 

-And part of the reason I bring this up is because it’s something we need to keep in mind as we engage our friends, neighbors, and coworkers who don’t know the Lord (or you if you think this stuff makes no sense). The world apart from Jesus is a brutal place, it literally is survival of the fittest. But Jesus’ arrival changed all of that so that now we actually view humans as worthy of dignity, care for the poor and marginalized is a virtue, not a vice, men and women are equal in value. Those don’t come from secularism, those come from the pages of the Bible. And they’ve become such the norm in the world today that we take them for granted. But friends, use this reality as an evangelistic opportunity!

-I said all of that to make the point that Abraham’s concern is legit. If you have a beautiful wife, others may be tempted to kill him to take his wife as their own, and there would be no stopping them. So Abraham (and apparently Sarah is ok with it) offers an alternative story to cover himself: Sarah’s his sister, and we’ll get to the rest of that at the end of this story because it’s not a complete lie, it’s just not the whole truth.

-And just like last time, there are consequences to this decision:

• God Confronts Abimelech (3-7)

-Remember that the primary person throughout this story is Abraham, but this story then shifts to focus on what happens to Abimelech after he takes Sarah into his harem. This is the first time God appears in this story, and it’s not to Abraham.

-Remember what happened in last week’s story? In the midst of the destruction of S&G, who talked to the Lord face to face? Abraham. Yet even Abraham isn’t always the one to whom God appears. God acts on behalf of Abraham and even will appear to an idolatrous king to ensure Abraham is protected and being obedient.

-And notice how God appears to this king: in a dream. Does God meet people in dreams? Apparently so! He does throughout the OT, and there are even stories of God meeting people in dreams in the Middle East today! Muslims in closed countries being confronted by the living God who continually accommodates Himself to our levels and reaches people in ways they need to be reached. I’ve never had a dream where God met with me, but I do know that if God ever did come to you in a dream, He wouldn’t contradict what He’s already revealed in Scripture!

-God’s condemnation of Abimelech is because he’s taken a married women into his harem.

-At this time, adultery was seen as the “great sin.” Many ancient documents have been uncovered that refer to this as the unforgiveable sin that no one should commit. It was a different story after wars and conquests, but willingly committing adultery was the worst sin imaginable! Which makes sense of Abimelech’s response here and shows the consequences for sin against God’s people. Abimelech is threatened with death!

-But Abimelech questions God why he would be destroyed if he hadn’t yet committed this horrendous act. And the wording Abimelech uses would be familiar to us, because it came up repeatedly last week (made less clear by the English translation), but vs. 4, the word he uses at the end is the same word Abraham used last week in his asking if God would not destroy the city for 50, down to 10 innocent people, but last week it was translated as righteous. So once again we’re struck with this realization that righteousness isn’t inherent to these people, it has to come from somewhere else. 

-It’s also important for us to realize who is being described as righteous in this passage, because up until this point Abraham has been the righteous one, but this story shifts things significantly. And we see that even righteous Abraham didn’t always live up to his end of the bargain in his covenant with the Lord. The pagan king and Abraham in this story have switched places from what we’ve typically seen of Abraham, particularly of Abraham from last week’s story! Abimelech is the one who actually lives according to God’s plans for humanity, while Abraham is following in the ways of the world and living like he’s descended from the serpent!

-So God responds that He knows exactly what has happened and He has prevented Abimelech from committing this sin.

–Prov. 16:9 God’s in control, even of the acts and affairs of godless, idol worshipping kings. And God tells Abimelech what the next steps need to be in order to preserve his life: return Sarah and ask Abraham to pray for him because “he is a prophet.”

-What is a prophet? A prophet is at the core someone who speaks on behalf of God. That’s it! Unfortunately it doesn’t always mean someone who liveslike God. Now that shifts under the new covenant (that is after Jesus) because the Spirit now indwells everyone who follows Him. The Bible has a wide assortment of people who speak on behalf of God who aren’t following after Him at all! One of my favorites was in my Bible reading this week: Balaam in Num. 22. It was one of my favorite stories growing up in the church, Balaam is a prophet who is hired by a king to curse Israel, and as we’ve been learning in our series with Abraham, you shouldn’t try to curse God’s people (this came up in Rev. too!). This prophet is visited by God and told to only say what God wants him to say, and he continues on his way to curse Israel for money, but along the way an angel is positioned to kill Balaam. Fortunately for Balaam his donkey sees the angel and keeps running away from the angel, to which Balaam gets angry and beats the donkey. Then the Lord opens the mouth of the donkey and the donkey talks back to Balaam, and the funniest part is Balaam doesn’t change his mind then, he argues with the donkey. Anyone here ever get into an argument with a donkey? After this argument, the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes so he sees the angel, and then has a conversation with the angel. Friends, God can even speak prophetically through a donkey! 

-Generally, God’s people are supposed to follow and obey His voice. Think of all the times Israel is punished for disobeying God. But that’s not the case here. What’s fascinating is God doesn’t threaten to publish Abraham, despite his lying and manipulating ways. God is continuing to uphold His end of the covenant, even as His covenant partner continues to disobey and live in deplorable ways. But you know who is living stand up and obeying the voice of the Lord in this story? This king, let’s see what happens next:

• Abimelech confronts Abraham (8-18)

-How long did Abimelech wait? Nothing! “Early in the morning.” Contrast this response with how Abraham has been behaving in this story. Who has Abraham been obeying? His own selfish desires for ease and protection at the expense of his wife? Abimelech immediately calls together all his people to tell them what’s been going on.

-And what’s the response of all these men? Terrified! Friends, this shows us what our response should be when confronted by sins regardless of our intent. According to the information given to him, Abimelech wasn’t sinning, but as soon as he’s confronted he immediately responds without making excuses, without blaming Abraham (even though he has every right to). It seems that this people are an embodiment of Prov. 9:10, if you want to pursue wisdom, fear the Lord, not other humans, or even the devil! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it’s only by following after Him that we can live a truly wise life.

-And one of the ways that we demonstrate that wisdom is by how we deal with our sin. Friends, you’re not going to catch God off guard, you can’t out-sin Him, so bring your sins to the only person who can deal with them! 

-After sharing with all his servants, he moves out to Abraham, and the first question he asks Abraham is significant because that exact same question had been asked before, but previously God was asking the question. 

-In Gen. 3:13, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God is going through each creature and questioning them, and God’s question to Eve is the same thing God asks Eve, signifying to us that just as Eve sinned, here Abraham is demonstrating that he’s listening to the voice of the serpent instead of the voice of the Lord, and this pagan king is actually obedient to the 1 true God and speaking on behalf of God to Abraham. Yet God doesn’t acknowledge this king as a prophet, that’s Abraham. Another reminder that God’s ways aren’t ours!

-And Abimelech continues on with the questions: Abraham brought guilt on the kingdom, betrayed confidence, tried to get him to commit the “great sin” that no one should ever do, you get the sense that Abimelech is rightfully outraged!

-And look at just how lame Abraham’s reply is: No fear of God in this place. Look up at vs. 8 again. What’s the response of Abimelech and all his servants? Fear of God. But in this story Abraham is revealing himself as the one who doesn’t fear God!

-And to make matters worse, Abraham continues that she is his sister: his half-sister. But that’s only half true, because she’s also his wife. A partial truth isn’t true! He’s intentionally keeping things hidden.

-But there’s more that make this even worse. First, think back to last week, and one of the things I pointed out that you can see in your Bible is when God is referred to by His divine name “Yahweh” it’s in small capitol letters LORD, it’s throughout last week’s text. Abraham doesn’t use that word in either case this time. One commentator on this passage said that if Abraham is accommodating himself that far to this king, it’s the lowest point of faith in Abraham’s life. 

-Additionally, the word Abraham uses for “wander” is used to refer to pointless wanderings, sometimes it’s used to refer to deceiving or leading astray. And some people argue that Abraham is going so far as to say that “when the gods had me wander.” Even more deception and refusal to identify himself with the 1 true and living God, despite Abimelech’s accusations. 

-And what’s the outcome? Despite Abraham lying, refusing to identify with Yahweh, he still comes out wealthy AND with additional land. 

-I think this recounts Abraham and Lot, where Abraham allows Lot the choicest land, here Abraham is promised the same thing from this king, but this time Abraham is the recipient of the blessing.

-Then he turns to Sarah, and I think we should read this dripping with sarcasm I’m giving “your brother” all this silver. This was an extraordinary sum! The same total as 200 bride prices at the time! The king is bending over backwards to ensure he’s not punished by the Lord, but no punishment is given to Abraham.

-The text doesn’t say how long these events took place, but it was over a period of time that was long enough for them to know that infertility had fallen upon this house. And this was shortly after the Lord had promised that Isaac would be coming within the year, if the Lord hadn’t intervened Isaac’s lineage would have been in doubt! If there was ever a time to work to protect your wife, it would be in this season! Sarah could very well have been pregnant during this whole story! Yet once again we’re given a picture that righteousness can only come about through an act of God, nor through the obedience (or disobedience) or humans. However, we as humans still have a responsibility:

-There are 3 things I think we see in today’s text for us, the first is a caution and the other 2 are a reminder for us.

-Pursue God’s will – 1 Thess. 4:3 (perseverance in holiness)

-The bad news about this is your sanctification won’t be complete until the Lord returns or calls you home! But the good news is that God’s Spirit is guiding you in this so you don’t need to try to do it by yourself!

-Abraham offers us a caution here: don’t continue in your sin! Don’t keep playing with it, cut it off and the root so that you can continue pursuing God’s will! It’s not hidden, it’s not a secret: it’s holiness, it’s becoming more like God. We saw that with the angels last week: those that spend time with God end up reflecting Him, so are you pursuing God’s will? 

-Be a prophet – 

-Lots of debate on what’s often referred to as “sign-gifts,” the ones that we don’t see as often today: healing, prophesying, speaking in tongues. I think we have too narrowly defined some of these things, particularly prophesy. In Joel, we read from the Lord that someday he will pour out His Spirit on all humanity, and the sign will be men and women prophesying. And we see this is fulfilled in Acts 2, where Peter stands up and tells everyone that they’re not drunk (everyone heard someone speaking in their own tongue the truths of the gospel)

-As I said earlier, a prophet broadly defined is someone who speaks on behalf of God. And guess what, every single one of you can do that today by reading God’s Word. Allow God’s word to soak and saturate your heart and mind so that what comes out when people talk to you is what God has done and is doing in you. Look to be a prophet!

-Remember to pray – 

-I still can’t believe that Abraham is called a prophet, he’s called righteous, and God continues upholding His end of the covenant, despite Abraham’s continual sin. And what’s incredible to me in this story is God still listens to Abraham despite his sin. This reminds us that there’s nothing you can do to separate yourself from God’s love. God invites you to pray! James 5:16tells us:

-And who’s counted righteous? Anyone who’s been saved and covered by the blood of Jesus! Friends, our prayers are powerful! They don’t just end at the ceiling, they don’t just stop when the sound waves die, God listens and responds to our prayers. I love the way one pastor said it: pray what you’ve got.