There are scriptures and stories I accept by faith, but I do not understand.
This is just such a scripture.
The challenge of the scripture to me is in God’s request. Such a request is more painful than physical pain.
When my oldest son was just two years old, he had to have surgery. The thought of my two year going under anesthesia was immensely painful to my heart.
As they wheeled him away and he cried out for my wife and I, I would have done anything to comfort him.
The request of God in Genesis 22 is that pain I had multiplied to infinity.
I understand that Abraham reasoned God could Isaac back to life (Hebrews 11:19), but I also knew my son would wake-up from anesthesia–but it was still a pain my heart will forever remember.
So again, this is a scripture I accept in faith, but struggle with in my humaneness.
A quick note on the text today.
This story reminds us that simply because a person is a “pagan” does not mean they are less honorable than the “believer” in God.
Abraham shows dishonor once again to his wife Sarah,
Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
Genesis 20:11-13, NIV
But Abimelek seeks to restore Sarah’s reputation,
To
Genesis 20:16Sarah he said, “I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.”
Abraham = I want to ask you to put yourself in a position of compromise for me.
Abimelek = I want to completely clear you from any blame or suspicion.
In verse 16, I also appreciated this subtle jab by the King, he tells Sarah, “I am giving your brother.” He doesn’t call Abraham her husband. Why? My guess is because Abimelek will not give the title of husband to Abraham when he has not earned such a respectful title.
Being a husband is to be earned.
Reading the Bible is unlike any other book for a multitude of reasons, but in one way that is so fascinating is how with each reading the Holy Spirit impresses a new emphasis.
Normally when I read Genesis 18 I focus on Sarah laughing or Abraham “bargaining” with God for Sodom–at least that is what the notes in my margins all tell me have been on my mind in the past.
But this time I thought about Abraham’s hospitality. This was an expectation of their culture, but there is a reason. The bedouin culture understood the value of hospitality and sharing a meal with another.
Recently we had a church meeting with some of our leaders and we decided to host it at our house. We provided food . . . my wife or I did not go and kill a calf . . . we catered Chipotle . . . but still, the meeting was different because before we got to business people took off their coats, some took off their shoes, and they sat together and ate.
It made me want to have a meal around every meeting . . .
I don’t know that we could afford that, but I do think we’ll do it more often than we have in the past.
Show hospitality, eat with people.
These aspects of human, and even in the case of Abraham, divine relationships seem to be very important in the Bible!
The focus of this chapter is the covenant of circumcision.
But what jumped out at me, were the names.
Abram to Abraham.
Sarai to Sarah.
The name of the unborn Isaac, to remind Abraham that he laughed at God’s promise.
And my favorite of all, El Shaddai. Our English Bibles translate this, “God almighty,” but it is the name God gives to Himself,
“I am El Shaddai”
El is the term for God and Shaddai is often viewed as a translation for all powerful —
but there is also “the suggestion that Shaddai is a composite term of
Van Groningen, G. (1988). God, Names Of. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 882). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.sha (“the one who”) and dai (“is sufficient”). The later Greek versions have adopted this meaning.”
Sarai and Abram who could not have
Sarah and Abraham because God is sufficient to make a great nation out of the infertile–where there is nothing, God is sufficient to make something.
Proverbs 30:21-23 states,
21 Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: 22 a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; 23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Pr 30:21–23). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
We see Abram’s earth begin to tremble when the latter of the above becomes Hagar and Sarai’s reality.
Abram has shown moments of great faith and he will continue to, but he has also shown moments of great timidity and he will continue to do this also.
It is evidence that overcoming our character flaws is not the work of single moment, but the work of a lifetime . . .
As one with greater insight than I wrote,
Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime.
White, E. G. (1911). The Acts of the Apostles. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 560.
Abram let’s Sarai rule the day in every part of this chapter. She recommends he sleep with her servant to get a child. He acquiesces–it might have been a little more intentional than acquiescing.
Sarai then gets mad at Hagar and when she asks Abram to do something about it, his response,
“Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 16:6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
“Hey, I only slept with her and now she’s carrying my child, but what business is it of mine.”
Actually sounds like too many modern men that impregnate women.
It’s your body, I don’t want anything to do with it . . . it is not my problem.
Abram still a work in progress . . .
Praise God for grace!
The obvious topic to write on in today’s reading is the story of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and then His intervention when He observed Abraham’s trust and faithfulness.
But…
That is not what I am going to spend time looking at.
What I needed to hear and what spoke to me in my devotional today is the story of Abraham and the return of his deceit to not claim Sarah as his wife. I see in this story that Abraham is a repeat offender of the same sin, just like I can be…but that is not what caught my attention…
What truly caught my attention was God’s response to Abimelech,
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 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.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” -Genesis 20:3-7
God spared Abimelech from unknowingly sinning, but God still calls it sin. “I who kept you from sinning against me.” When I was a child I was taught to pray forgiveness for both the sins I was aware of and the sins I was unaware of. Society has shifted, even within the church, now sin is only sin if “I” think it is sin or know it is sin. Sin to me is no longer defined by God it is now defined by themselves. God clearly shows here that it didn’t matter that Abimelech didn’t know it was Abraham’s wife, if he had touched her it would have still been sin.
The sins we’ve committed both with knowledge and without knowledge Jesus took both on the cross. That is what is said, “I who kept you from sinning against ME.” All sin known and unknown is sin that killed Jesus, let us return to seeking forgiveness for both.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Judges 1-6