Abraham once again lied about his
wife, Sarah. He told King Abimelech that she was his sister. He was
afraid that he will be killed if the king desired to have her. And
sure enough King Abimelech liked Sarah and took her to his palace.
But before he could sleep with her, God intervened. God appeared to
Abimelech in a dream and said the following:
"You are a dead man, for that
woman you took is married." Genesis 20:3
God intervened in the situation
despite Abraham's insecurities. Isn't our God wonderful? But one
cannot help but feel sorry for Abimelech. He didn't know that she
was married and here God declares that he is a dead man.
Fortunately God is a merciful God. He gave Abimelech a chance to
correct the situation. He told Abimelech to return Sarah to Abraham
and then he will live. Abimelech immediately rectified the
situation. He got up early the next morning, called all his
servants and Abraham and said:
"What is this that you have
done to us? What have I done to you that deserves treatment like
this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin?" Genesis
20:9
In this situation Abimelech was the
honourable man and Abraham wasn't. Abraham, one of our heroes in
the faith, was overcome by fear and acted out of his own sinful
nature.
"Well, Abraham said, "I figured
this to be a godless place. I thought, "They will want my wife and
will kill me to get her." Besides, she is my sister - we both have
the same father, though different mothers - and I married her. When
God sent me to travel far from my father's home, I told her,
"Wherever we go, have the kindness to say that you are my sister."
Genesis 20:11-13
Abraham loved God very much, we
know that, but yet when their lives were in danger, he didn't trust
God enough to handle the situation on his behalf. He decided it was
much safer and easier to lie, than to trust God to help him. But
before we look at his life with judgmental eyes, we need to look at
our lives first. Do we truly trust God to turn things around for
us? Do we really turn to God first before making rash decisions
when we feel threatened? Or do we also retreat and allow our sinful
natures to run our lives on our behalf?
You see the devil knows our
weaknesses and he knows them even better than we do ourselves. And
in those weak points, he will come and tempt us to fall. He will
look for vulnerable spots in our spiritual armour. Therefore we
need to be on guard and clothe ourselves with God's armour every
day. We need to put on His helmet of salvation and know without a
doubt that we are saved, we need to put on His body armour of
righteousness and claim that we are the righteousness of God
because of Christ's finished work. We need to put on the belt of
truth and only believe what God's Word says and not what situations
tries to deceive us by. We need to take up our shield of faith and
believe in God's promises found in His Word, which is His sword.
Then finally we need to put on the shoes and be ready to spread the
gospel of Good News!
Do not allow the devil to side
track you and have you paralysed with fear. We already have the
victory that Jesus won for us. Therefore we simply need to resist
the devil and his temptations and stand strong as the conquerors
that we are. I say it again, do not allow fear to take hold of you,
but fight fear with God's armour. Nothing can stand against it. God
is gracious and good and always ready to help us even if we fail
like Abraham did. Aren't you glad that we serve an amazing
God?!
Father please help us to stand
strong against our own fears. Thank you for Your armour to protect
us and help us in resisting the devil. Help us to put it on each
day. Thank you that victory is ours through Jesus Christ, Your
lovely Son. And thank you Father that we can know that even if we
fail like Abraham did, You are still there to help us and to guide
us. We love You. In Jesus' Name. Amen