Genesis 20
After the promise given to Abraham that within a year his son would be born, Moses has taken us on a digression from the main narrative to deal with Lot and Sodom. In Chapter 20 the story moves on a little but still we do not get to the birth of Isaac. Now there are one or two problems with Genesis 20, indeed we may think that it is here placed out of sequence. Was Sarah at her great age still so attractive that men were keen to take on her looks? Was she not heavily pregnant? If this is to be taking place in the time period between conception and birth then how is there time for people to know that the Lord had stopped the women in Abimelech's palace from conceiving?
As we know all such questions when addressed can be answered. But I think that for us what we might gain in academic or theological wisdom would probably not be worth the effort. Rather we must here try to see what the message is that God has for us.
Two aspects of this story must immediately jump out at us as relevant.
The first is that we have been here before with Abraham. Back in Chapter 12 we find him denying that Sarah is his wife, when he has to head, down into Egypt because of a famine. As we showed in that passage such behaviour demonstrates distrust in God. Abraham did the same when he decided to go down the road of trying to bring the promise of God to fruition by having a son by Hagar the slave girl. And now here again we have Abraham failing to place his trust in God. He must have been in a difficult position. He must have feared greatly for his life. And so he decides to save his own neck. At verse 11 we read, "I though that there would be no one here who has reverence for God and that they would kill me to get my life." Abraham is slow to learn just as we are. I am sure he could mouth all the platitudes we come away with about trusting God. But they are mere platitudes unless we really live them. Unless we really trust God. It is fitting that this lack of trust in God is placed here, just before Chapter 21. For as we all know it is chapter 21 that the greatest trial of faith and trust is going to laid before Abraham. It will be as though his whole life has led up to this point.
We may also draw comfort here from the general truth we have discerned not only in this chapter but in chapter 19 last week. Although we may fall in our pilgrimage towards God, yet we have to keep picking ourselves up and moving on. We have to keep loving God and moving forward.
The second theme that runs through this chapter is one that I have been told I should avoid because some people find it uncomfortable. But how can we avoid the Word of God? How can we decide to leave bits out because they are uncomfortable? How can we ignore the clear teaching of the living word of God. Doesn't God have a right to speak to us? Do we have a choice in what he says? Can we alter the rules to suit our own needs? The word of God is uncomfortable! It makes us wriggle with embarrassment. It makes us angry. It makes us feel we are being got at it. It makes me feel all of these things and I am sure youoften feel the same way. It is God's way of dealing with us. We are not perfect are we? Do we feel that somehow we have reached heaven already? Have we died and gone to glory? Are we perfect? No of course we are not - and we don't know everything either - therefore God teaches us and leads us day by day and sometimes we don't like what he says to us. But we have no right to refuse to hear it.
So let us deal with what the Lord teaches us here. Abimelech has his eyes fixed on Sarah. He obviously is drawn towards her. He is already married. He thinks Sarah is not. He moves in on her. Adultery is in the cards. Marriage as ordained by God is to be violated.
However God intervenes here. Verse 6 "I kept you from sinning against me and did not let you touch her".
But do you see the penalty in verse 3, "You are going to die because you have taken this woman; she is already married."
Around us today in society and creeping into the church is a very loose and unbiblical view of the sacred act of marriage. Adultery is fun, sex before, within and outside marriage is viewed as being ok. People shrug their shoulders. We are told we must move with the times. Living together is OK. Sex anytime is OK. Adultery is just one of those things that happens. Marriages aren't worth the paper they are written on. That's the kind of view that is there in society. And everything I have just said is a quote from things that people have said to me. There is no sense of sin or shame.
Now that's the negative side. The positive side is that the Lord teaches the Christian that this is not to be our way. From the very beginning of God's revelation to man he revealed the sacred centrality of Christian marriage. Genesis 2v24 "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife and they become one." And this idea of becoming one has little or nothing to do with symbolism for the sexual act. It is about the ideal of two souls merging together in perfection. Complementing one another and serving the Lord. As we see in the trinity the perfect oneness and communion of love,so, we made in the image of God, in marriage are to reflect that oneness and communion in love. It is a reflection of the divine in our lives.But of course we have to deal with the global and universal effects of the fall. We cannot achieve in this fallen estate, even although we are chosen by God that ideal. Indeed it is hard work in our fallen state to come close to this ideal. But within the sacred bonds of marriage we may taste the divine. Indeed the church and its relation to Our Lord is often talked of in scripture as being that of the bride and groom. Do we not see this in the Song of Solomon? In Revelation?
Is this not why the devil is so active in society and in our midst to destroy marriage not only as an ideal but also many actual marriages? Marriage is a gift of God. We see in Genesis 20 the seriousness with which the Lord deals with even the semi-innocent tampering with the marriage bond.
Too often today we run in fear of the secular. We should proclaim the reality of marriage. We need to trumpet abroad the Christian ideal of marriage. There is a divine authority and command and structure and teaching that undergirds marriage,and we should never be ashamed to uphold it. And here I confess to have perhaps been remiss in not dealing with the biblical teaching on marriage more fully. It is an omission that perhaps soon the Lord will guide us to deal with.
Now I am always wary in dealing with this subject, for I know that there are many of you who have suffered a great deal in your own lives or in the lives of your families in relation to marriage, and yet time is too short here in the mornings to deal in depth with many issues such as this. And knowing how easily the devil can twist words between speaking and hearing; I feel constrained (by the Lord) knowing the pain that many of you have felt in your life in relation to marriage and knowing that you may have heard wrongly or be in pain about your situation, or in confusion about where you stand with God, to say this to you: A proper Christian understanding is required about marriage, adultery and relationships in general and there are many who carry false ideas in their heads. Are you confused about the biblical teaching? Are you in pain about this? If you want to know what the Lord is saying to you and if you are unclear about where you stand before God on this matter then Come and talk. Come and we'll pray together, search the scriptures together that the Lord might heal you..... The Lord may condemn our sin but he loves US. The Lord wants to build us up as Christians. He wants us to be like Abraham. To be able to pick ourselves up and keep on going with our minds firmly fixed on him.
And you see that's what happens here in Chapter 20. The Lord intervenes. He speaks. His word is heard. Painful though it is, it is acted upon. And by the end of the incident all has been restored, to where it should be. Healing has taken place. Sins have been forgiven. And the Lord can do that with our lives!