Christ Has Redeemed You And You Have The Words Of Life (Genesis 20)
A lot of us in this room have a past that we are ashamed of. We might joke about it a bit, but we really understand that we lived in sin and rebellion against the Lord and the shame of it all can be a bit hindering to us. We can be haunted by our past and believe at times that we are beyond redemption or unable to declare the message of God’s grace and love to others.
Today, Abraham will be shown to behave far worse than the pagan king Abimelech. His behavior is quite troubling throughout this chapter. Yet, when we consider that God is faithful to keep His promises to Abraham despite his sinful behavior, we gain great comfort. As bad as you may have been, Christ has redeemed you and you have the words of life.
God’s People Still Sin (Genesis 20:1-13)
Believers know this intuitively. We know this from our own lives and the things we’ve done or not done. But it is helpful to see what this in the saints of Scripture. We know this from our own lives and the things we’ve done or not done.
Abraham moved south. He is in the southern part of Canaan following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Let’s take a moment to see where Abraham has been. He had prayed before the Lord rather boldly for the people of Sodom and he saw Lot rescued. Before this took place, he had conversations with the Lord where tremendous promises were given. God had been with him and faced insurmountable odds in the battle that took place in Genesis 14. And God rescued Sarah and him when he claimed Sarah was his sister in Genesis 12:10-20.
If we consider all of these things that Abraham did, one would think that Abraham would have taken account of his life and been a champion for the Lord in every way. But he wasn’t.
Out of fear, Abraham returned to his old ways here in Genesis 20. Back in Genesis 12:10-20 he had insisted that Sarah say that she was his sister. He did not trust that the Lord would protect him even after all the Lord had done for him. So, he left Sarah unprotected and Pharaoh took her to be his wife. And now, Abraham does the same thing again out of fear. And he has again left Sarah unprotected and she ended up in Abimelech’s royal harem. Out of fear, Abraham has again lacked faith in the Lord, led his wife to be deceitful, and left his wife in danger.
And the rest of the text does not picture Abraham well either. Throughout this chapter Abimelech seems to behave himself better than Abraham. We even find that Abimelech and his servants feared God (Genesis 20:8). And this is the case even while Abraham seems to fear Abimelech more than God. Later we find that Abraham did not believe there would be any fear of God among the people of the land, and Abraham was even wrong in his assessment (Genesis 20:11). And when we consider their motivations, it is obvious that Abraham feared for his life while Abimelech feared for the people in his care. Abraham should have been taking care of his wife, but she was taken because Abraham feared for his life. Abimelech on the other hand is afraid of what God will do with him and the people under his care. Even Abraham’s defense for his actions make him look bad, for there is some incongruity between the account with Pharaoh and this one (Genesis 20:12-13). It seems that Abraham is lying to Abimelech and that we are intended to pick up on this.
I want to dwell upon this for a moment. We are not intended to have a good view of Abraham’s actions here. The narrative paints him rather poorly and we are to pick up on that. But, despite all of this, God did not revoke the promises given to Abraham. Abraham is still called “a prophet” (Genesis 20:7).
Another thing that we should note here is that Abraham is definitely not the Messiah. The one promised in the Book of Genesis that would return us to the Garden has yet to appear in the narrative. But we find through this story that Abraham is still, despite all of his failings, “a prophet” and it is the prayer of Abraham on his behalf that would keep him alive (7).
The Messiah came many years later from the family of Abraham. His name was Jesus. He was God the Son who took on human flesh and lived on Earth. He lived completely and totally righteously. He completely fulfilled the Law of God and committed no sin. He was perfect. Though perfect, He died a sinner’s death on a cross between two criminals. There He took the wrath of God in place of guilty sinners. He died and was buried in a rich man’s tomb and rose from the grave three days later. And those people who trust in Jesus are united to Him by faith. By faith we are united to Christ and credited with His righteousness and He was credited with our sin. He paid the price for the sin of all who believe and those who believe are counted as righteous in Him.
And here is the truth of the matter. It’s not about how good a person you are or how good you will one day be. It is about God’s grace. Christians will sin after becoming believers. We are being perfected and not yet made perfect. When we look at the life of Abraham, we see this quite plainly.
God Is Still Your God (Genesis 20:3-7, 17)
I worked with a young lady at the Post Office who believed that she would be lost forever if she sinned right before she died. Every sin, in her mind, cast her away from God’s presence and it was up to her to remember every sin and ask for forgiveness for every one of them, otherwise she could be lost forever.
Yes, we are to ask God for forgiveness when we sin. We need to do that. We need to repent when we sin. But your relationship with God is not based upon your effort. It is based upon Him. And we see in this text that despite Abraham’s obvious and sinful lack of faith in God’s protection, the Lord was still with him and protected him and Sarah.
Very quickly we are brought to a courtroom scene (Genesis 20:3-7). God judged Abimelech a dead man because he had taken Abraham’s wife (Genesis 20:3). In Abimelech’s defense he had not “approached her” (Genesis 20:4). He had not had sex with her. He is claiming innocence in the matter. Furthermore, Abraham had liked to him and he thought Sarah was Abraham’s sister. God knew this. And God states that it was valid. But Abimelech’s purity of action was not completely his to claim for God had prohibited him from touching Sarah (Genesis 20:6). Though we are not told exactly how this took place we find out later that God had done something to close the wombs of the entire house of Abimelech (Genesis 20:17). This was something that Abimelech himself had to be healed from. So, though God agreed that Abimelech was innocent thus far, it wasn’t all on his own account. And God called upon Abimelech to return Sarah to Abraham. If he did not do so, death would come for him and all that are his (Genesis 20:7).
As a side note that helps to fill in a few details, this illness that Abimelech and his harem had to be healed from gives us a timeline that is dark. This doesn’t paint Abraham in a good light either. If he knew the wombs of his entire harem were closed, and that he had a problem, that this lasted more than a few days. If I were thinking through all the issues, this would have to have been at least a month, if not more. Abraham’s fear left Sarah in danger for at least a month. And here God comes to his and Sarah’s aid.
You must understand that your salvation is not based upon your performance. It is based upon the performance of another, Jesus Christ.
You are not perfect. You are being perfected in Christ which will only be complete when we see Him like He is (1 John 3:2). The Christian will desire to follow Christ and they will desire fellowship with one another and to work toward living faithfully in both. But we are not yet perfect.
I can look back at my life and say that I am glad that my relationship with God is not based on my performance. I have had periods of rebellion in my life. I have had times when I did not behave at all the way that I should have. There have been times that I have made decisions out of fear rather than faith in the Lord. I am glad that my relationship with the Lord is not based on my performance. If it were, then I would be in an awful place.
You are God’s child, not based upon your performance, but the performance of His Son.
God’s People Still Have The Words Of Life (Genesis 20:7, 17-18)
This story is so incredibly negative toward Abimelech that what I am about to point out here comes as somewhat of a surprise. In verse 7, God told Abimelech that Abraham was a prophet an that he would pray for Abimelech and the punishment of death over him and his would be removed. Notice what happens concerning the death penalty that resided over Abimelech.
“Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man’s wife” (Genesis 20:3 ESV)
Now look at the end of the chapter.
“Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” (Genesis 20:17-18 ESV)
Abimelech had the penalty of death hanging over his head. And do you know who on Earth was going to help him? That deeply flawed man who keeps endangering Sarah through his failings.
Does this sound familiar?
Does it not sound like the church?
Christians are by no means perfect, but they have been given the words of life. The sentence of death hangs over the heads of our lost family, friends, and neighbors. And we have the words of life. We have the message that saves them from death.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21 ESV)
Christian, regardless of what you have done in the past, you have the words of life. You have the message of the gospel. You have the grace of God, and you are to deliver that to a lost and dying world.
Yes, your neighbor has probably heard you call your kids names when you were frustrated at them in the driveway. It was embarrassing. But you still have the words of life.
Yes, it is very likely that you made a royal fool of yourself at Thanksgiving some time in the past. It was also embarrassing. But you still have the words of life that your family needs.
Yes, you said and did things you should not have done at work. You know you shouldn’t have done it, but you did it anyway. Repent and tell your coworkers those words of life that you have.
All of humanity stands under a curse in a condemned mass of humanity. Christ came and accomplished salvation. And you have the message of His grace that they desperately need. Go and deliver to them the words of life and stop using your past sins as an excuse. God can and will use you for the salvation of others. Go and deliver that message.
Conclusion
God’s people are being perfected and are not yet perfect. And God’s people have a past in which they were not His people. All of this can come together in our minds to cause us to have serious doubts about God’s love for us and our effectiveness in sharing the good news of God’s salvation.
If you are a Christian, then God loves you. You are His and you will be so forever. Let this odd chapter in the Book of Genesis assure you of that. And you have been entrusted with the words of life. You have the message of the gospel that our lost and dying world desperately needs to hear.
R. Dwain Minor