Abraham lied and told King
Abimelech that Sarah was his sister. King Abimelech then took Sarah
to his palace to be with him. But before he could sleep with her,
God intervened and told Abimelech in a dream that she was in fact
Abraham's wife. God told Abimelech to return her to Abraham, and to
let Abraham pray for him and his household, for God told him that
Abraham was a prophet. Early the next morning Abimelech obeyed and
immediately summoned Abraham and returned Sarah to him. And not
only that, he also did the following:
"Then Abimelech took sheep and
oxen and servants - both men and women - and gave them to Abraham,
and he returned his wife, Sarah, to him. "Look over my kingdom, and
choose a place where you would like to live," Abimelech told him.
Then he returned to Sarah. "Look," he said. "I am giving your
'brother' a thousand pieces of silver to compensate for any
embarrassment I may have caused you. This will settle any claim
against me in this matter." Genesis 20:14-16
I was amazed at Abimelech's
reaction. God told him to return Sarah to Abraham, but he went even
further and blessed Abraham with livestock, silver, servants and
even gave them first choice in choosing a place to live. Abimelech
met the living God and he turned into a generous ruler. He was
confronted with Deity and gifts started to flow. We as Christians
can learn from him and be as generous as he was. We have so much to
offer as we have the Holy God living inside of us.
Then Abraham prayed for Abimelech,
just as God instructed:
"Then Abraham prayed to God,
and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and the other women in the
household, so they could have children. For the Lord had stricken
all the women with infertility as a warning to Abimelech for having
taken Abraham's wife." Genesis 20:17, 18
I don't know about you, but I would
have felt so stupid if I were Abraham. Here I was, a prophet of the
living God, supposedly a representative of God and yet I lied to
save myself. And then it turns out that the person I lied to is
actually very nice and is now showering me with gifts and giving me
the best choice of land. I would have felt like a failure in my
witness to God. I would have felt as if I let God down. I don't
even know if I would have had the courage to pray to God for
Abimelech's healing. I would have felt like a hypocrite. We don't
know if Abraham felt that way, but Abraham stepped forward and
prayed for Abimelech and his household and God Who is faithful,
heard Abraham's prayer and healed them.
Today we might feel like failures
in our witness to God as well. We might swear at someone in
frustration and later see them in the same church we attend. We
might get irritated on the road and show all sorts of signs, and
forget that we have an 'I love Jesus' sticker on our bumper. We
might gossip about someone, and later when person finds out what we
said, we might be so embarrassed that we never talk about the Lord
to that person ever again. People might know that we are a
professing Christian and then we suggest to them at some stage to
cheat on their tax returns, because we don't get anything in return
from the Government anyway. And so I can go on. We all fail some
time and when we fail in our daily walk, the devil comes and
reminds us of it and tells us that we cannot be a witness for Jesus
anymore. He comes and tells us that our witness is tarred and that
God cannot use us to further His kingdom anymore. On such days
remember Abraham. Remember how he failed too and yet he stood up,
prayed for Abimelech and continued as one of the greatest men of
faith. In Hebrews 11 where he is mentioned as one of the great
heroes of faith, only his successes are mentioned and not his
failures. Why? Because he didn't dwell in them, but continued in
his journey as a great man of God. He continued to believe in God
and loved Him and that was his success.
Jesus died for all our sins and all
our mistakes. The time has come to leave them behind and to look
forward to all His promises that lies ahead. We need to shake off
the past and walk anew as a witness of our glorious Saviour. Do not
allow the devil to keep you down, but stand up for all that you are
in Jesus. You are a powerful witness, start living as one.
Father, thank you so much that we
can know that all our sins are forgiven by Jesus and that we can
walk in Your loving ways. We want to be a powerful witness for You,
please give us the courage to continue, even if we have failed.
Thank you that we can know that Jesus took all our failures upon
Himself, so that we can be free from them and be His hands and feet
on this earth. In Jesus Name. Amen