You're A Dead Man, Abimelech

After such a tremendous victory of faith- receiving not only the promise of a son, but an actual time frame to expect him in, we find Abraham turning back to that same unsuccessful policy which he employed in Egypt. Fearing that Abimelech, a Philistine king, was a man who had no fear of God, Abraham played Sarah to be his sister rather than his wife. Once again Sarah found herself being taken to be the wife of a pagan king.

What now of the promises of God? How can God give Sarah a son of Abraham if she is to become the wife of another? And how can Abraham- the patriarch of our faith, who trusts God with his soul, be so unfaithful to God when it comes to trusting him with his physical welfare? The scripture here also reveals a very important piece of information: Abraham had formed this policy back in Ur: Abraham said, "And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is the kindness which thou shalt shew unto me, at every place wither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother." Abraham had become a new man since that day back in Ur, and had even had his name changed; yet we still see evidence of his old man- the man who feared. He had never address this old sin and now we see it popping up again. But God would be faithful when Abraham was not. Abraham thought God was unable to change the ways of a pagan man, but as the scripture says, "the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord" God also protected Sarah by keeping Abimelech from her. God then warned him in a dream that he was a man's wife.

And faithful God did not condemn Abraham and take away his recorded righteousness but told Abimelech, "he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." When we would have left Abraham to fend for himself in his own selfish choice, God stepped in a restored him.

This plight of Abraham should seem painfully familiar to us. How often have we fallen into the same sinful traps time after time? How often have we trusted God for something great only to turn away from him in fear over something small? How often are our own problems a result of our own bad decisions? But God does not forget us. He waits to restore us, and to use us to pray for those we have hurt. How often he shows us that even the Heathen are in his hand and that he is in control over all things.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic