Episode Details

If you want to take your Bibles, we'll be in Genesis chapter 20 this morning. The question I want to ask as we get started is, how does God deal with sinners? Specifically, how does God deal with sinners who do not yet trust him for salvation? That's a crucial question when we consider the nature and the character of God. Now, until the last few weeks, most of our sermons for the last few months have focused on Abraham and his life.

He's the main character in Genesis chapters 12 through 25, the main human character. But the last two sermons we had out of Genesis, as we came into chapter 19, the focus shifted off of Abraham temporarily, and we looked at Lot and his tragic life. But now in chapter 20, the focus turns back towards Abraham.

But the drama of chapter 20 is not centered on Abraham himself, rather, the drama is centered on how God deals with this pagan king, Abimelech of Gerar. How does God deal with this man, this unbelieving sinner? So verses 1 and 2 of Genesis chapter 20 say this. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur, and he sojourned in Gerar.

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. So as we begin chapter 20, it's almost a repeat of the story in Genesis chapter 12, where then Abram and Sarai, now Abraham and Sarah, at that point in chapter 12, they sojourned down in Egypt, and they said, hey, she, Abraham said, she's my sister.

And Pharaoh took Sarah to himself, added her to his harem as a wife. It's also a preview of what's going to happen in chapter 26 when Abraham's son Isaac and his wife Rebekah sojourn in this same land, the land that's called in chapter 26 the land of the Philistines, and interact with another man named Abimelech, probably the son or grandson of this Abimelech. That name Abimelech, the etymology of the name just means my father is king.

So it was probably like a throne name that passed on from father to son. And the same kind of situation is going to happen where they aren't forthcoming with the nature of their relationship because Isaac is afraid of what would happen to him. So here, Abraham and Sarah, they traveled to Gerar, which is a city.

These kings, most often, not always, but usually kings in the Old Testament are kings of city states. They're not kings of what we would consider nations. That doesn't happen until several hundred years later, but they're kings over cities.

And so Abimelech is the king of Gerar, which is just south and east of modern Gaza in a region that would come to be inhabited by the Philistines. At this point, it is remarkable. I mean, it was remarkable 25 years earlier when they were in Egypt.

Sarah's 65 years old and Abraham's like, yeah, she's really pretty. She might get me killed. Here, she's 90 and the same thing is happening.

She's still apparently very attractive and he's concerned for his life. If you remember in chapter 18, God had just reiterated his promise to Abraham and to Sarah that they were going to have a son. And at that point, God puts a timestamp on it.

He says, within a year, I will come back and your wife, Sarah, will have a child. And this is in between that promise and the fulfillment of the promise in the next chapter. That's important for the drama of this story.

She's probably pregnant, and if not, she's going to very soon be pregnant. And yet when they sojourn in Gerar, Abraham is willing to let go of his wife and not focus on the promises of God or on protecting his wife. But instead, he's concerned with taking care of his own hide, saving his own skin.

This story does not reflect well on Abraham. Thankfully, Abraham is not the hero of the Bible. Abraham is not the model that we look to to find all of the answers to all of our questions.

And this story does reflect well on the faithfulness of God, the faithfulness of Go