Title: Prophet Abraham! / Genesis 20:1-18
Content Title: Prophet Abraham!
Bible: Genesis 20:1-18
Date: 1997. 4. 6 (Sunday) Sunday afternoon at Mission Church
review
Added mercy to salvation (16-21) /
1) When we delay, we hold hands and lead (15-16) / We are bound like Lot / A wise person does not get entangled or look back.
Ex) Such beliefs are called beggars' faith.
2) It was allowed to escape to the city of Zoar. (17-23) / Zoar was originally a city that was to be destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah, but because Lot resided in that city, it was forgiven.
③ Nothing can be done until Lot arrives at Zoar. (22)
④ When Lot entered Zoar, the sun rose (23) / You can see how He saved His chosen ones before the time of God's judgment.
3) He rescued Lot by thinking of Abraham. / Verse 29 / This means that Abraham's earnest prayer helped Lot to be saved.
Ex) D.L. Moody had a list of 70 people who prayed for salvation throughout their lives. When he died, it was found that 69 people were saved, but one was still not saved. So, before he died, he called him to preach with earnest words and appealed to him to meet again in heaven. Eventually, he believed in Jesus on Moody's deathbed.
Hallelujah! Please do not stop praying for intercession for parents, brothers, sisters, and neighbors. If you pray especially for their salvation, he will surely save them.
Through today's events, we can see our weakness and still God's unchanging image. And in the midst of it, you will find the providential God.
Abraham's Moving: Moving to Gerar between Kadesh and Shur. It is also an incident that occurred by deceiving his wife as his sister... The incident in this chapter seems to be similar to the incident in Chapter 12 when he went down to Egypt. Of course, it is a similar incident, but today's incident is more shameful and dramatic than that incident.
<Let's compare and analyze the events of Chapter 12>
12:10-20
20:1-18
down time
At the age of 75 (before Ishmael was born)
At the age of 99 (after the birth of Ishmael)
why went down
famine
unclear
down place
Egypt
Philistine Land Gerar
related king
Right away
Abimelech
God's way of revelation
?
dream
God's Discipline
? (illness or death)
prevent pregnancy and childbirth
Why is the case of chapter 20 more severe infidelity than the case of chapter 12?
1. The events of Chapter 12 in Egypt were move for a reason. However, the present case has left the land of faith for no reason.
2. The event in Egypt was the first, but this time it was the second same failure.
3. Before that, there was fear as the first foreigner, but now, at that time, Abraham is a person who is known by everyone who knows him in the area. There is a big difference between stealing bread because you were hungry and eating it just because you were hungry. Therefore, there is no particular reason for Abraham to deceive his wife as his sister.
4. This time, through Sarah's body, he promised to give him the promised offspring, Isaac. Otherwise, Isaac could have become Abimelech's son. Therefore, to give up Sarah, who had the promise, in such a vulgar way is the sin of blasphemy that defiles God's promise.
What can we learn from this incident...
1. If God's chosen people leave the Promised Land for any reason, they will fall into temptation and sin. Therefore, no matter how difficult or difficult it may be, you must try to solve everything with faith. You must not leave the land of faith.
Ex) Sunday holy water, tithing, prayer life, marriage life...
Ex) The man in Luke 10 was met with a robber while he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
“(Genesis 26:2) The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but live in the land that I will show you.” (Gen 26:3) I will give it to you and to your descendants, and I will fulfill the oath I swore to your father Abraham (Genesis 26:4), and I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give all these lands to your descendants, and in your descendants all peoples on earth will be blessed. ”
2. A sin committed once can be committed again. Especially when given situations such as vague fear, our most vulnerable parts are threatened and that fear cripples us. And they make the same mistakes over and over again.
Ex) A person who averts a crisis by lying repeats it knowing that it is not.
Even a person of faith like Abraham acted in a completely different way without thinking about Sarah or Abimelech. Recall what God promised in chapter 15 as his cursed covenant! Abraham's attitude is unacceptable.
Let's read verse 13. This verse implies that Abraham lived his whole life under the shadow of fear. Therefore, the path of faith that Abraham walked can be said to be the best path he walked as such a weak human being.
In particular, in chapter 14, the bravery that defeated the 5th king of Shinar at once, in chapter 19, the master of faith who saved Lot through prayer of faith, and the appearance of trying to preserve his own life by deceiving his wife as a sister is incomparable. same. Therefore, the Bible is an actual event that shows the humble and weak heart that lies within the courageous man of faith.
No matter how courageous a person may be, he cannot continue to win spiritually and live. Sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes I fail. However, this is not the only thing that cannot be avoided. And there is no need for us to be disappointed and discouraged by such appearances. We need to understand each other like that. But we must somehow break free from this weakness and move forward with boldness. Otherwise, our children will not be blessed either.
Ex) In the end, he can't solve this weakness by himself, and he passes it on to his children. Isaac also tells the same lie (Gen. 26).
3. Unchanging God and His Promise / In spite of Abraham's weakness, God loves him unchangingly, and he sees that the promise he made to him must be fulfilled even in such a desperate situation. God's promises were not kept by Abraham, but God kept. This is the meaning of God alone, through the curse of God, in the midst of the meat cut in Genesis 15, to be in charge of that covenant.
God protected Sarah's honor and purity, which Abraham could not keep, and fulfilled the promise that Abraham had not received. God appeared to Abimelech in a dream and rebuked him. And he restored Abraham and Sarah to their original positions.
The eternal heaven promised to us and eternal children of God. And all the promises of grace are things that we can never possess by our piety and by any of our merits. But only God fulfills that promise.
What God has done to fulfill His promises...
1. Abimelech kept Sarah away (6) / The method is not recorded. Judging from the fact that he had a dream, it seems that he just put him to sleep.
2. Pointing out sin (3) / You will die because you have taken someone else's wife ethically. You must not take someone else's wife. Raising the alarm in this age of sexual promiscuity!
3. He is a prophet! (3) / If he prays for you, you will live, but if you do not return him, you and all of your belongings will die. Declaring that everything depends on Abraham.
ex) The offense against the servant of the Lord is taken seriously
* No criticism: Aaron and Miriam, who criticized Moses for taking a Cushite woman, got leprosy.
* No lying: This was not done by man, but by God (Acts 5:4-5) / Ananias Sapphira
* Poets, vows, and promises: the same effect as before God (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6)
* Bundang Enemy: Opposition to God (obstructing the execution of official duties: the police) Ex) Goradang
Especially do not let the Lord's servant stop praying for you! When you pray, there are people who only hear “Lord!” It is a pitiful person.
4. Confirming Sarah’s purity in front of everyone and restoring her honor as a gift (a thousand silver) as alimony! (14,15) / Reason: For the honor of Isaac, the promised child who will be born in Sarah’s body rather than Sarah. .
=> Should the scandal that God's people Israel be the son of Abimelech, the Philistine king, go out? The reason that not a single word of this scandal circulated was because it was so certain that God had done what He had done to the Philistines.
5. The Prophet Abraham's prayer yielded chastisement (3) / Now the Philistines could be dismissed!
Through this prayer...
1) The existence of God and
2) Abram and God were with
3) The holiness of the children of the promise
4) God's righteous discipline was revealed.
Example) Prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel
God is a God who works through prayer.
He says that even if there is a promise, you must ask for it to be granted.
With this, he perfectly protected Sarah and Isaac, the son of the promise.
bonus...
1. Abimelech was not as naive as Abraham thought. Fear makes us act cowardly like this without checking the facts.(4,5,8)
2. During Abimelech's rebuke in verse 9, God hid from shame, Matthew Henry commented on this part.
3. The limit of lies (11,12,13)
is actually my sister But now she is his wife. Even if you don't tell the truth, it's a lie.
Example) If you said, “If you eat ‘poison’, you will die.” But if you say, ‘If you eat ‘medicine’, you will die, without the word ‘poison’.
Fear drives people away from lying. But nothing can be solved by lying. Consider the result. Example) It is completely different from the case of Rahab.
<Conclusion>
1. The saints must not leave the land of faith.
2. Circumstanced migration is not beneficial. You must live by faith. Example) Difference between Lot and Abraham
3. Lying does not protect you, God protects you. Lying brings shame and shame together.
4. God will eventually fulfill that promise. (The promise in Genesis 15) Even if we sin 70*7 times, in the end, God is faithful and leads us.