Genesis 20
The results of recurring sin
The Bible calls it “the sin that so easily besets us.” Or entangles us
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
The author of Hebrews is encouraging believers to set aside a particular sin in their lives. It’s the sin that they are easily entangled by. What sin is that? Well I think it’s different for different people. For some Christian men, it may be lust, others may struggle with doubt. Some women may struggle with anger. Others may struggle with gluttony.
But whatever it is, the author of Hebrews is encouraging believers to “lay aside every weight.” He compares the Christian life to a race. And when you run a race, you strip down to the bare necessities in terms of weight. You wear light clothes, you don’t wear jeans, or a coat. You don’t carry a backpack. You set aside anything that may impact how quickly you run.
And even before the race, a runner will work on his diet, so that he is lean when it comes to race day.
That’s the analogy this author is using. And one of the weights that prevents a Christian from living a life that is most pleasing to God, and most effective for the Kingdom of God, is that sin that easily entangles you.
Now I don’t know what that sin is for you. But it is a sin in your life that you haven’t been able to shake. It is the sin that, despite your best efforts, and confessing and repenting before God, you continue being tempted.
Let me give you an example. In my Christian life, there are sins that I struggle with, and others that I just don’t. For example, I’ve never had a problem with cursing. I grew up in a home where my parents didn’t cuss. We didn’t watch shows with cussing. We generally didn’t hang around with people who cussed. So, when I hit my finger with a hammer, no cuss word comes out. It’s just not a part of my thinking process.
But I know others who grew up in a different culture. Cussing was second nature to them, before they became a Christian. So, after they became a Christian, it has continued to be a struggle to control their tongue under certain circumstances. Controlling their tongue may be their “sin that easily entangles.”
And those sins can be obstacles in the way of your great success as a Christian.
So the author of Hebrews says to “set them aside.” But how do I do that? Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like, “Just quit sinning!” Well, if it were that easy, I would have already done it.
So what I wanted to do today with the text in Genesis , is use it as a guide. A guide for “setting aside the sin that easily besets.” And the story we’re reading is that of Abraham and Sarah as they travel to Gerar. And you will see in a moment why this passage is an illustration of dealing with the “sin that easily entangles.” Abraham commits a sin in this chapter. And it is not just one time, this is the second recorded time that he commits the same sin. And he commits it even after he is reprimanded on the first occasion. So let’s look at a few verses from the chapter to set the stage for what happens.
20 Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. 2 Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
To summarize what happened, after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham traveled south to an area called Gerar. And just like he did years earlier when he went down into Egypt, he lied about Sarah. He said that she was his sister. And the king of Gerar was attracted to Sarah and came and took her to be his wife.
And there are a number of things that make this an even worse sin than it was the first time he did it. It wasn’t just a lie, it was far more. But what we want to discover are some principles for dealing with sins we struggle with. Abraham struggled with this sin, so we can take his life as a negative example for our response to besetting sin. Let’s dive into the story.
20 Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South,
Abraham traveled from “there.” From where? Well the last place we find him is at “the Oaks of Mamre” where God and two angels visited him and told him three things; first, you and Sarai are to change you names from Abram and Sarai, to Abraham and Sarah, second, within one year Sarah would give birth to a baby boy, despite her old age, and third, God would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness.
And it tells us that the morning after that meeting, in chapter 19
27 Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. 28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
So Abraham sees that these cities of the plain have been destroyed by raining fire and brimstone. He is up in an area of high elevation. He is able to look down on the plain and see the smoke of the destruction. Now it would be upsetting enough to know that 5 cities and their citizens were destroyed through the night. But what was more distressing was that Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family lived in one of those cities. Abraham doesn’t know if Lot and his family survived. We’re never told if Abraham and Lot ever see each other again. God had promised Abraham that if He found 10 righteous people in the city, He would not destroy it. But He didn’t. So was Lot, or any of his family righteous? We know that God did send 2 angels to drag Lot, Lot’s wife, and two daughters out of the plain. Lot’s wife died because of disobedience, but Lot and his daughters escaped to the mountains. But Abraham doesn’t know that. So it says that Abraham decided to journey south. If you look at a map, you’ll discover that he journeyed south, and dramatically down in elevation. I think he was trying to get away from a bird’s eye view of the destruction in the Sodom and Gomorrah valley.
Now, previously, when he committed the same sin that he commits here, he had also travelled south, all the way to Egypt. But then he went because there was a famine in the land. Now it tells us nothing about a famine. It just seems that he wants to get away from the highland, and away from a view of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And therein lies the first principle for dealing with the sin that easily besets. Here’s the first principle;
1. Watch your path very carefully when you are depressed, or after a disappointment, or time of despair.
In times of despair, it is tempting to give up not only on yourself, but on any hope you have in the promises of God. It is in those times that we are tired, and we often are not thinking clearly. But it is also then when we need to be the most careful.
Our Lord Jesus Himself went through the time in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was at the lowest point in His life. He knew His death on the cross was coming that night. He knew that His own followers would forsake Him. He was so emotionally wrought that He sweat drops of blood which is a rare condition that happens under extreme duress.
And it was in that moment when He also met His greatest temptation; the temptation to walk away from His death on the cross. He would tell His disciples that if He wanted to, He could call for ten thousand angels to set Him from any human arrest.
So, in His despair, what did He do? He spent all night praying. He sought God. And God strengthened Him.
We don’t find that with Abraham here. He seems to head down the mountain in despair, and he is in a very vulnerable place of temptation. So let’s go on with the story
20 Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. 2 Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.”
This story is very familiar to us because it happened once before. It is also familiar because years later Abraham’s son Isaac repeats the same sin regarding his wife Rebekah.
Why does he say that she is his sister? He does it out of fear. He tells us that in verse 10-11.
10 Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?”
11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’
He thought that Sarah being a beautiful woman, the men of the place would be willing to kill her husband in order to have her. It was the same fear that drove his action the last time. And that also gets us to why this is an even bigger sin than it was last time. You see, it’s not just a lie. It is a sin against Sarah. He is willing to put her in jeopardy to save his own life.
He seems to be following the cultural norms of his day, rather than the high standard of the Word of God. Women were regarded as property in that culture. And a wife that had no children was an unprofitable piece of property. But that’s not how God regarded women, or any person of a low estate.
In Mary’s song, after she is told that she will bear the Christ Child, she says about God,
50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He was willing to let his wife be taken as a wife by another man. And that not only showed that he didn’t value her life, but it also showed a lack of faith in God. And his lack of faith in God was worse this time than the last time he did this. Last time he was fearful that he would be killed for Sarai’s sake, even after God had specifically told him that He would give him the land of Canaan and make him a great nation. Think of this, Abram, who was childless, was afraid that some man might kill him, despite the fact that God had told him he would live to have a child.
That was the first time he put Sarai in jeopardy. But his lack of faith is worse this time. Now, years later, he is still afraid that somebody is going to kill him, despite the fact that God has kept him alive through the intervening years. And, let me add this, the last time he lied, he didn’t know that Sarah would be the one who would give birth to the promised son. So now, he is not only afraid that he will be killed, despite the fact that God promised him a son, he is putting Sarah in jeopardy, the very woman that God said would bear Abraham’s son.
And there is the second principle regarding sins that easily beset us;
2. Make decisions out of faith, not fear.
What is faith? Faith is choosing to believe God, and His Word. What should Abraham have done? He should have been meditating on the Word of God. He should have been thinking about God’s promises and their implications in his and Sarah’s life. Then he could have walked into Gerar, been faced with the temptation to fear and lie and call Sarah his sister, and said, “No, God told me that I’m going to have a son, by Sarah, within the year. I believe God, so I know God will watch over me and Sarah, I don’t need to fear men.”
But he didn’t do that. He fell back into old habits, old ways of thinking. He fell into fearful thinking. Fear is the opposite of faith.
Psalm 127:1 says
Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
He should have kept his mind on God, and God’s Word, because, regardless of the circumstance, nothing is impossible with God.
Did Abraham think that God was incapable of protecting him from the threat of men? God can do anything, as demonstrated by what happens next. And this leads us to another principle.
3. When dealing with recurring sin, think about how your sin will affect others.
Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Oh no! The king of the land took notice of Sarah and sent for her, to take her as his wife! All is lost! The promise of God is ruined! Sarah might have to be intimate with this king, and even if she gets back to Abraham, if she becomes pregnant, how will they know for sure that the child is Abraham’s?
This is terrible! This is awful!
But remember. God promised Abraham that he would have a son by Sarah within the year. God is going to keep his promise. Nothing that Abraham does can undo the Word of God. And that is a statement of faith. God could do any number of things to protect Sarah. He could strike the king dead. He could hit him with a dose of Narcolepsy. All of a sudden, he just falls asleep on his feet. Nothing is impossible with God. God could have prevented this from happening to begin with. So why didn’t He? I think God wanted this to be a lesson for Abraham. Once again, Abraham is going to be scolded from the mouth of a heathen king.
So what does God do to protect Sarah,
3 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 a man’s wife.”
Now, this must have been a very vivid dream. It struck fear into the heart of Abimelech.
4 Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?
I can’t help but draw a parallel here to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These people had to have heard or seen what became of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain. The night they were destroyed, they might have seen the flaming brimstone falling from heaven. The next day they probably had people who were coming down out of the mountains, bringing word of the destruction in that valley. It probably struck fear in the hearts of the cities of the vicinity. They probably considered this some sort of judgment. And they had to wonder if they were safe. They also likely knew the reputation of the cities of the plain. So the judgment of those cities would make them reflect on their own moral decisions.
So, when God speaks to Abimelech in a dream, and tells him he is a dead man, that had to strike fear in his heart. So he defends himself.
Now, did Abraham think of anyone but himself when he committed this sin? No. He wasn’t thinking of Sarah. He wasn’t thinking of Abimelech. Do you know all that had to happen for Abimelech to take Sarah? Abimelech had to first see her and decide he wanted her as a wife. He then would have sent an emissary to Abraham to ask about her marital status. Abraham and Sarah both answered that they were brother and sister. The emissary would then communicate to Abraham that the king wanted to take Sarah as his wife. And Abraham would have then consented to the marriage. At any point, Abraham should have been thinking, “What am I doing?” I can’t do this to Sarah. I can’t do this to Abimelech.
Many of the sins that easily beset us will also affect those around us. We need to think about how we are hurting those that we love.
But he didn’t. And now Abimelech has to plead his case before God.
5 Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister’? She, even she herself, said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”
I didn’t know she was married. They both told me that they were brother and sister.
6 God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her.
So, what was that? God withheld Abimelech from touching her. How did He do that? Well, we don’t know. Maybe Abimelech got a sudden bought of food poisoning. Maybe he was called away for a few hours on some pressing business. But God worked out the circumstances to prevent Abimelech from violating Sarah. Now I want you to notice something else. God is not done protecting Abraham and Sarah.
7 Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”
You see, it is likely that Abimelech was very angry with Abraham and Sarah. They put his life in jeopardy. They put him in the place of sin. And Abimelech could have lashed out at them. But God tells him to restore Sarah to Abraham, and that Abraham is a prophet. But notice these words, “and he will pray for you, and you will live.” God tells Abimelech that his life is in whose hands? Abraham’s. In effect, God is saying, if you restore Sarah, and Abraham prays for you, I won’t kill you. So you better stay in Abraham’s good graces. That is God protecting Abraham and Sarah from Abimelech’s wrath.
8 Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!” 10 Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?”
This brings me to another point about our temptation to sin.
4. When tempted to sin, consider your witness to the world.
If you read Abimelech’s statement to Abraham, it’s as though he expected more from a prophet of God. He keeps asking for a cause. “How have I sinned..” “What did you see, that you have done this thing?” In other words, Abimelech thinks that there has to be a good reason for a prophet of God to put him and his people in jeopardy. Maybe Abraham saw some evil in their land, and purposely lied so he could then bring a curse on the land or king.
I mean, surely a prophet of God has to have a good reason to lie.
And so, we to should think about how our sin affects our witness to the world around us. Will our sin give people around us another excuse to reject God?
Our present culture seems to have no regard for how their behavior affects others. They have a “it’s none of your business” attitude about what they do.
But all that you do has an impact on family, your kids, your work colleagues, your church, and your future witness. It baffles me how willing people are to upload stuff to the internet. As a teacher, I see kids who make videos of themselves, putting it up on the web. They record fights in school, and don’t seem to realize that the author of the video can be traced back. And not only will they be in trouble for putting the video up there, but that video can be shared. Then it will never be retrieved. It stays with you for life.
Now Abraham didn’t have that kind of “going viral” issue, but what he did here sullied his reputation as a man of God. It lessoned him in the eyes of his wife, the king, his servants, and really us as well. When we read this story, it still causes us to doubt “the faith of Abraham.”
So, when tempted to sin. Think about the people around you that it will affect.
5. Quit making excuses and blaming others, and start confessing.
11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
So, Abraham’s explanation for doing what he did is, “It’s your fault Abimelech, your and your people.” “If you guys weren’t so heathen, and evil, I wouldn’t have been forced to lie.”
He says, “Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place.” He assumed that they didn’t fear God, and that they were willing to murder a man to get his wife. That’s a big assumption. Well, was it true? Were they that evil? We don’t know. We know that there had been some cities that displayed that kind of behavior. Remember that when the two angels went into Lot’s house in Sodom, that all the men of the city surrounded the house and demanded that the men/ angels be sent out so the men could have sexual relations with them. Lot tried to reason with them, but they then became violent toward Lot. In other words, they were so consumed by lust, that they had no regard for any normal standards of right and wrong.
They didn’t seem to care about the angels/men consenting to sex. They were willing to force them. They didn’t care about Lot or his family as their neighbors. They just wanted to gratify their lust.
And that is what Abraham is saying about Gerar. He assumes that they are all as evil as Sodom and Gomorrah. So, he may have had reason for his assessment of these people. But regardless of the danger to him, that does not excuse his lying, or his lack of faith in God’s protection. And at this point, it just sounds like a lame excuse. He is blaming his sin on anyone but himself.
Then he tries to dance around calling it a lie by the typical “white lie” justification. “Well, technically, I didn’t lie, she is my sister. She’s my half-sister.” “We have the same father, but not the same mother.”
First off, let’s get something out of the way here. I know what you are thinking, so all together now, let’s say it. “EW.” He married his half-sister. But we read the Bible through modern eyes. We superimpose a later morality on a former age. Yes, God later condemned this kind of incest.
Leviticus 18:6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 18 specifically lists all the close relatives with which you are forbidden to have sexual relations. And brothers and sisters are on the list.
Leviticus 18:9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover
Notice that that includes half-brothers and sisters.
But Abraham had no such commandment. That reminds me of a principle in interpreting the Scripture. It is the principle of progressive revelation. As the story of the Bible unfolds, God reveals Himself, and His will, over time, to humanity. He doesn’t dump a 2000 page manual on Adam and Eve the day of their creation, and say “memorize this.”
In fact, if you remember, Adam and Eve only had 3 commandments. 1. Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 2. Tend and keep the garden. 3. Be fruitful and multiply.
Then, as time went on, and sin and Satan entered the picture, God slowly added other commandments.
Don’t murder. Sacrificial laws. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. The 10 commandments. Marriage laws, etc.
And really, that slow unfolding of God’s laws was not really complete until the end of the New Testament. For example, we’re not given a hard and fast rule about polygamy until Jesus comes and points out that it was God’s intent, from the beginning, for only one man and one woman to be wed for life. All the way through the Old Testament, we have instances of polygamy allowed, or overlooked by God. Even Abraham himself had two wives at one time; Sarah and Hagar.
So, God reveals His standards over time.
But back to the original point. If you are tempted to sin repeatedly, in a particular area, you need to recognize when you are making excuses. And stop the excuses, confess and repent, and go on.
6. Solicit the help of your wife, or those closest to you when fighting sin.
Now Abraham did the opposite of that principle. He actually asked Sarah to join him in his sin.
13 When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
Now what kind of message did that send to Sarah? It said to her that he didn’t value her as a wife. That he was willing to put her at risk to save his own neck. He drew her in to the lie. I just don’t get the sense that Abraham ever highly valued Sarah until she gave him a son. And that was the attitude of the day. In many instances, wives were just property, and if they produced no children, then they could be cast aside. Now Abraham didn’t do that. He did continue to care for Sarah. But I think he looked on her as someone to be pitied, of little value. So, because she wasn’t pulling her weight by bearing children, the least she could do was to not bring unnecessary trouble on Abram’s head. So they passed her off as just a sister.
But, my friends, your spouse, your kids, your loved ones, were placed in your lives for your mutual support. You can be of great value to them, and they can be of great value to you.
Can you imagine, if Abraham would have valued Sarah, what a different story this would have been? When Abraham and Sarah first arrived in town, They could have presented a united front. People would ask their names and relationship, and Abraham could have said, “I am Abraham, the father of a multitude, and this is Sarah my wife, and Princess.” They might have said, “How can you be called the father of a multitude when you and your wife are old and have not children?” And he would have had the opportunity to tell them that God was going to give him a son through Sarah within the year.
They probably would have laughed and scoffed, but then it would happen, and now the people would look on this couple in awe.
Well what if one of the men, or the king had tried to kill Abraham to get Sarah, or his possessions? Then God would have protected them, as He always did. In the end, it would have been an opportunity for Abraham and Sarah to value each other, express their fears to each other, and then, together agree to trust God. In the end, they would have been stronger, and bound together more closely.
As it is, in this story, they seem further apart, when all is said and done.
And the same holds true with sin in your life. Nothing can bring a couple closer than mutual confession, forgiveness, and faith in God.
14 Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him. 15 Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated.”
So, in the end, God protects Abraham and Sarah, and enriches them. Abimelech gave them sheep and cattle, male and female servants.
But hold on a minute! Abraham took these gifts from Abimelech, but do you remember that Abraham earlier refused to take anything from the King od Sodom, after Abram won the battle against an invading army? Remember this conversation?
Genesis 14: 17 The king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and take the goods for yourself.”
22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
So, how come Abraham is willing to take Abimelech’s stuff, but not the stuff from the king of Sodom? Well, there’s a couple of reasons; 1. He made a vow to God that he wouldn’t take the king of Sodom’s stuff. (He was keeping his motives pure.) 2. The king of Sodom had a reputation for evil, and Abram wanted not obligation or future relationship or connection to exist between them. 3. Abram was reacting from a place of faith and power after the battle. In Abimelech’s case, Abraham was reacting from a place of fear and humiliation.
And finally, Abimelech seems to me to be a more honorable man than the king of Sodom. By all indications, he had no evil intent by taking Sarah. He pleads his cause before God, and God declares that he is a man of integrity. So, Abraham is willing to form an alliance with this man, because he is not corrupt, like the king of Sodom was.
17 Abraham prayed to God. So God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.
It seems that while Abimelech had Sarah, he and his wife and female servants were afflicted with some malady that prevented them from having children. Now, that raises two questions for me; How long was Sarah with this man’s household? I think it was a very short time. So, if it was a short time, how did they decide that they couldn’t have children? I mean, what happened that made them think that they were cursed with not having children?
Well, we don’t know. But here are a couple of possibilities. First, maybe all the women stopped having their monthly period, but none of them were pregnant. That would have raised some suspicions and fears. But it also says that God healed Abimelech, along with his wife and female servants. So that leads to a second possibility, maybe they were all struck with some sort of venereal disease, that prevented them from having intercourse. Maybe it was painful. Again, that would get their attention.
But whatever it was, because of the vision Abimelech had, they attributed the problem to a curse for having taken Sarah. So Abraham prays and they are all healed.
18 For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
The moral of the story is that Abraham’s sin put him through some unnecessary pain during this circumstance. And if he had chosen faith, strength, trust, and power, it would have resulted in stronger bonds with all those involved.
Let us pray