The Sister Story Sequel

Today, in Genesis chapter 20, we will see once again, Abraham reverting to lying. It's sort of like Deceit Deja Vu. It's kind of the same thing, same song, just a second verse.

And so we will see this man once again, doing what he did in Genesis chapter 12. We've entitled it the Sister Story Sequel. Let's read it. Genesis chapter 20. Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. Then he sojourned to Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him, behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is married.

Now Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay a nation even though blameless? Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister? And she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream, yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. And I also kept you from sitting against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now, therefore, restore the man's wife for he is a prophet.

And he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing. And the men were greatly frightened. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, what have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, what have you encountered? That you have done this thing. And Abraham said, because I thought surely there is no fear of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife, besides she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. And it came about when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to her, this is the kindness which you will show to me. Everywhere we go say of me, he is my brother.

Abimelech then took sheep, and oxen, and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham. And he restored his wife Sarah to him. And Abimelech said, behold my land is before you, settle wherever you please. And to Sarah he said, behold I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver, behold it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared. And Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Quite a story. As I read through the book of Genesis I realize these are some incredible stories about some incredible people. And you wonder about our God and how He operates. In reading through the book of Genesis I'm just more confused about my God and how He operates. But this morning may I point out to you five different observations about this story in Genesis chapter 20. Number one, Abraham's transgression.

Abraham's transgression that's in verses 1 and 2. You would think a man who is the father of our faith, a man who has been called by God, a man who has experienced a great relationship with God, he's called a friend of God. God has personally communicated with this man, spoken to him, told him that he would be a father of a great nation, told him that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed and whoever would bless him would be blessed and whoever cursed him would be cursed. You would think that this man above all people would seek to live an exemplary life, would seek to live a life of integrity, would seek to live a life that would honor and glorify his God.

And yet we have seen him in Genesis 12 compromise his testimony. And now again we see him compromising his testimony. I mean he doubted God once and now he's going to doubt God again. And I think about your life and my life and realize how God has worked. And you know we're the same way. We've seen God do a tremendous work and we believe Him and we trust Him. And a few weeks down the road we find ourselves reverting back to the same old kind of tactics that we did before we saw God operate in our lives.

So, I find myself in the story of Genesis chapter 20. I see myself in the pages of Scripture. I see you here too, but I want you to know that I see myself here more than I see you. It's important to understand that hopefully you see you more than you see me in Genesis chapter 20. And if you didn't know Abraham, let's just say you just came into church one day and you don't know the Lord and you just read this story. You think that Abimelech was the man of great generosity and Abraham was a selfish man.

You think that Abimelech was a true believer and Abraham was the unbeliever. You think that Abimelech of all people who had God speak to him in a dream must have had some special relationship with God and Abraham not. But that's not the case. And God works in ways that we don't understand. But two things I want you to notice about Abraham's transgression, number one his decision and number two his deceit.

First of all his decision the text says very clearly, Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and set up between Kadesh and Shur and he sojourned in Gerar.

I don't see him making a decision based on the fact that he communicated with God. I don't see him making a decision based on the fact that he went to the Lord and said, Lord I guess it's time to move on. And that reminds me of this. How many times do we make a decision without ever consulting God and it leads to all kinds of turmoil in our lives. How many times we decide you know it's time for us to move. We're going to leave Southern California and we're going to move someplace else. Have you ever asked God about that?

Or you know what we're going to sell our house and we're going to buy a new house. Did you ever consult God on that? Or you know I just think it's time to find another church. It's time to move on to another church. Really? Did you ever consult God about that? We just somehow think that we're so smart that we can make wise decisions without ever consulting God on anything. Now listen we're all the same. We really believe we can control our destiny. We really think that we can make wise financial decisions, wise investments without ever consulting God.

And on the surface it might look wise. But if we don't consult God before we even take a step to go out our door in the morning to drive our car to work, we are destined to blow it royally. And Abraham was making a massive move. He makes a decision and then we see his deception. And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, she is my sister. Now, you know I love how the Spirit of God works here. He just kind of cuts through all the, all the outer layers of the whole story and gets right to the heart of the matter.

We don't see how he meets Zabimelech or how he comes into this city. We don't know anything. All we know is that she's my sister. She's my sister. Deceit, deja vu, same thing. Same old story. Here's a man because he made a decision without consulting God was walking by sight and not walking by faith. And whenever you walk by sight you always fear man. When you walk by faith you only fear God. And we know he feared man because over in verse number 11 of chapter 20, what does he say? He says, surely there is no fear of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife.

He was afraid. Listen, when you walk by sight you're always afraid. You're always afraid because you're judging things on the external. You're judging on a horizontal plane. You see everything and all you can see is the bad in it. But you don't see God in it because you're not walking by faith. His deceit was incredible. So that's Abraham's transgression. We see it in his decision to leave the land that he lived in even though God didn't call him, even though he didn't communicate with God. And then we see his deceit, his lying when he arrived because he was walking by sight, not by faith.

That leads me to Abimelech's revelation. Abimelech is going to find out all about this thing. It says, so Abimelech king Gerar sent and took Sarah. Now Sarah is 90 years old. Okay? She's no spring chicken. Abimelech has all these 18, 19, 20 year old girls in his kingdom and Sarah, 90 years old. She's not there to mother the other maidens. There's something about this woman. She was one good looking woman, even at 90. There's hope for all of us, man. This is incredible. I mean Abimelech wanted this woman.

There was something about her that made her attractive, that made her beautiful, that Abimelech would want her. That would cause Abraham, the quote, loving spouse, to lie about who she really, really was. Four things I want you to notice about Abimelech's revelation.

Number one, the illuminating dream. The illuminating dream. But God. I love that phrase, but God. You see, God's going to handle the situation. Abraham didn't do a very good job. And the good news about that is that whenever we don't do a good job, God's going to handle it. And God steps right in and says, I'm going to handle the situation. Remember, he's got to protect Sarah. He's got to protect the womb. He's got to protect that woman because it's through that woman that the seed will come. So, God will do everything in his power to protect that one woman.

And you will notice at the end it says, in verse number 18, "'For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech.'" Why?

Because of Sarah. If you go back to Genesis 12, you realize the same thing. It was because of Sarah. As you recall, we emphasize this fact, that when your husband doesn't protect you and take care of you, God will. God is going to take care of his own. So he does. The illuminating dream. God comes to him and says, Abimelech, you're a dead man. Now, that's about as clear as you can get. God doesn't mince words. He says, Abimelech, you took somebody who's married. Can't do that. Therefore, you're going to die.

I'm going to make sure that your life ends. Now, it's very interesting because God's standard on marital purity and fidelity always stands. God wants husband and wives to remain pure and holy. Leviticus 20.10 says that the adulterer should be killed. Should be killed. Can you imagine if we killed everybody who committed adultery in America? I mean hardly anybody would be around. He judged himself according to society standards. He didn't judge himself according to God's standards. And God says, there is none righteous.

No, not one. Oh, you might think you're better than Joe Blow sitting next to you, but you're not. Because you can't compare yourself with them. You've got to compare yourself with my standard. And my standard says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Excuse me. Therefore, you are not at all innocent. It's an ignorant defense. I haven't touched it. I'm clean. And would you now destroy a holy city, a holy nation, a holy people, a holy man, a righteous man, a blameless man, when in reality I haven't done anything?

Look at point number three, the incredible deliverance. God says in the dream, yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this.

I know that according to your standards you're integrous. I know that you think that it's okay. But your standards are not my standards, Abimelech, at all. And I also kept you from sinning against me. I kept you from sinning against me, therefore I did not let you touch her. You see, the implication is that Abimelech, you would have touched her if it wasn't for me. I kept you from doing that. The incredible deliverance, God steps in and does something in spite of Abraham's sin, in spite of Sarah's sin, because she would come and say, yes, he is my brother, in spite of that sin, God steps in and God handles the situation.

And that's got to be good news for you and me, because there are a lot of times that we make bad decisions, sinful decisions, and God steps in, doesn't he? Sometimes we don't even know it. Abraham didn't know it. So, something happened to Abimelech, number one, that he could not have any physical union with Sarah.

Something happened to the maidens that would cause them not to be able to conceive and bear children. Something so widespread that Abimelech knew something was wrong. But God stepped in. The Bible doesn't tell us what exactly God did. That's irrelevant. The point is, God stepped in. God did something. God kept Abimelech from touching Sarah. God will do whatever it takes to protect His own. So, God would step in the incredible deliverance. And fourthly, the immediate duty. He says, now therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live.

Evidently, whatever happened to Abimelech was so severe that if Abraham didn't pray for him, he would die. So, I don't know what it was, but Abimelech needed Abraham to pray for him. He says, but if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. So, God stepped in and told Abimelech, this man is a prophet of mine. So, Abimelech would know that he needed this prophet to pray for him in order that he might receive the healing he needs. That leads me to point number three, Abraham's humiliation.

Abraham's humiliation. And two things I want you to see, the rebuke, number one, and number two, the rationalization.

First of all comes the rebuke. So, Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing. And the men were greatly frightened. Why were they frightened? They were frightened because they were about to die. That's why they were frightened. They were frightened because God spoke. They were frightened because death was imminent. Something's got to change here. Great fear came over these people. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us?

And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done. What a rebuke. Here's a pagan king telling a prophet of God, You have done to me things that should not have been done. Why would you do this to me, Abraham? Why would you lie? Why would you allow these things to take place? What a rebuke. Amazing. And then instead of Abraham falling on his knees, confessing his sin, humbly asking for forgiveness, I want you to notice his rationalization.

Look what he says, Because I thought, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my life. First thing he says is, There's no fear of God in this place.

Well listen, Abraham, you should have already known that. If there was no fear of God in this place, why did you move there, Abraham? Why did you go there? If there was no fear of God in that place, then why would you even begin to journey in that direction, Abraham? That's no excuse, but that's how he rationalized his sin. And then he says, Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. She became my wife. But that was his excuse. You know, God caused me to wander out here and be here and go astray.

Back when my wife and I were just leaving, we said, This is what we're going to do. And after all, she really is my half-sister. I'm her half-brother, so it's not really a complete lie. Sorry about that, Abimelech. Sorry that you're about to die because of my lie. Sorry that all the wombs have been shut and no women can conceive, and great fear came upon your city because of me. Sorry about that, Abraham. I mean, Abimelech, but you know, what can I say? She really is my half-sister. And after all, you know, I was fearful for my life.

Never mind about your life. You're going to die anyway, but I was fearful for my life. So, therefore, the rebuke, then there was rationalization, which leads us to Abimelech's resolution. Listen to this. This is amazing. Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham. And restored his wife, Sarah, to him. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you. Settle wherever you please. And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver.

Behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared. Look at the presentation.

Here's what you've got, Abraham. I'm going to give this to you. I'm going to give you male and female servants. I'm going to give you sheep. I'm going to give you oxen. You'd think he'd say, Get out of here. Look what you have done to us. Get lost, Abraham. We don't need any kind of prophet like that in our city. Quite the contrary. He lavishes them with gifts. Amazing scenario. He bent over backwards for this man who caused there to be an affliction in his house. Then there was the restoration. He gave Sarah back to him, just like God said.

God said, Give the wife back. Don't touch her. So he did. He restored Sarah back to Abraham and completely vindicated her by giving Abraham the silver, by showing that she has been cleared, and that she is clean. Then the invitation. Dwell wherever you want. Any place you want to live, go ahead. It's yours. This leads us to our last point, Abraham's intercession. Abraham's intercession. And Abraham prayed to God. Finally.

Finally he acts properly. And it says, And God healed Abimelech, his wife, his maids, so that they bore children. The significance about Abraham's intercession is this, and then we'll look at the success.

But first of all, its significance. It shows us that Abraham got right with God. Got on his knees and communed with the living God. God would bless him in spite of his sin to show him that he was in complete control of all that's going on. Cause him to fall back on his knees and to pray for his enemy. Although Abimelech didn't act like an enemy, he was. He was a pagan king. But he would pray, intercede on behalf of the king, and God healed the king. And then its success. This is rather significant.

Because you see, it says over in verse number 22 of Genesis 21, Now, it came about at the time that Abimelech and Phochol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham saying, God is with you in all that you do. Wow, things have changed. Abimelech now saw the prophet of God as a true prophet. That God was with him in whatever he did. That was the success of a man getting right with God. Getting on his knees and praying for God to intervene and do a mighty work. And Abraham's testimony then would go before him.

How about you? Where's your life? We need to learn from the sister story sequel. We need to learn that deceit never honors God but dishonors God. It doesn't put God on display at all. It's wrong. If we can rationalize any way we want about why we do what we do, it doesn't make it right. Maybe men and women who consult God, who go to Him and ask Him for direction, to help us make wise decisions so we walk by faith and not by sight. Because if we walk by faith, God will be honored. If we walk by sight, He'll be dishonored.

And God wants to bring about success in your life. It's going to take you to fall on your knees before Him, to intercede on behalf of your enemy, to pray that God would do a mighty work. Then God will begin to use you once again. God wants to use you. Don't revert to old tactics. Don't go back to your old way of life to solve your problems. Solve your problems the way God wants them to be solved. Communicating with Him, depending upon Him, walking with Him, living in the light of His glorious Word.

Let's pray.