GENESIS

Notes on Genesis 20

Genesis 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

This is a good example of how we can temporarily get away from trusting in the Lord. Abraham, the beloved man of God gave into fear once again. Sarah must have been beautiful indeed to have been that way at the age of ninety. He made the same mistake again. How many of us keep making the same mistakes and messing up? It gets us in trouble but as we see God doesn't abandon Abraham.

Genesis 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

God could not allow the seed of Abraham to be defiled. Christ was to come through this seed. It had to be by the power and will of God and no other. It had to be miraculous as a sign that it is from God. Abraham and Sarah was old. Sarah was past childbearing age. She had already been through menopause. For her to have any children, it had to be a miracle. This miracle would come only when the Lord brought it forth. Another man was not allowed to come near Sarah. God was serious about this. Had Sarah been with another man, the seed could not come according to the promise to Abraham because if she bore a child it would not be Abraham's seed, breaking the promise that God would bring forth a savior from the seed of Abraham.

Genesis 20:4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

In our thinking today and I believe it to be the way God intends, some king deciding to just take one of our people for himself without our permission would be strange. I believe because of the influence of Christ since He came into the world, our thinking has changed. We should be thankful that it is that way now. In later years when Israel desired a king instead of the judges, God warned them that kings would force their daughters to go and serve them in their palaces if they so desired. Kings did according to their own will.

Genesis 20:6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.
12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.
17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bore children.
18 For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

This event seemed to have been for a long period of time for no one could conceive while Sarah was at the household of Abimelech. We see also that God used this to communicate His will to a place that formerly didn't know God. Abraham prayed and reproductive health was restored to the people of Abimelech.

Even though Abraham had weaknesses, God still had His hand upon Abraham and God chose Abraham for a purpose and did not remove that promise from him when he made mistakes. We must remember this in these latter days when so many try to teach wrongly that God has forsaken the Jewish people. The promise of Abraham and the land of Israel is still true no matter how they rejected Jesus Christ. That land will be given to them in the end when Christ returns. They will find out who Jesus really is before the whole land that was originally promised to them is given back. They only possess a part of it now and with the pressure from the US and other countries, they are constantly urged to give up part of their land for peace. Yet every time they give up a part, there is no peace granted to them. It will not ever work that way.

All the US presidents put together cannot bring peace to the Middle East. God's word doesn't change because we interpret it wrongly. He has not changed His mind about Israel. Because of their blindness, salvation came to the Gentiles. That doesn't mean that we replace Israel or the church replaces Israel. We must get away from that thinking. There is a rightful place for Gentiles when they come to Christ but it doesn't mean that we take Israel's place. Every time a soul comes to Jesus Christ, we ought to rejoice with the angels in heaven. When Israel as a nation returns to God by recognizing Jesus as their Messiah, it should cause us to rejoice even more. It is going to happen. The book of Revelation will come to past. God's word will not change because of events we see with our eyes.

Look at the trial of faith Abraham and Sarah went through. God promised them a child but they had to wait years for that promise to be fulfilled. To us who read the bible, the birth of Isaac is just a few chapters later, but to them it was years. It went past the time when Sarah could naturally conceive. I'm sure they often wondered if they imagined the whole thing. It is hard for any of us to wait on the Lord. We always feel like we have to do something to help the word to come to past. Sarah really had faith but tried to help God by giving Abraham her maid to conceive by her. Our human reasoning actually hinder us. Since the baby wasn't coming right away, they tried other means to fulfill God's word.

Even after Ishmael was born, they waited. I wonder if they gave up at times. Perhaps this visit to the country of the south was a weakening of faith and they thought perhaps God might have changed His mind and decided to use Ishmael instead.

We who believe in Jesus today have the same type of temptations. We are waiting for Jesus to return just like Abraham and Sarah waited for the arrival of their son. The early church thought He was returning in their day. He didn't. The church in the Middle Ages thought He would return in the year 1000. He didn't. There were many who thought Jesus would return in the 1800s, the 1900s. When Israel was reborn in 1948, it was a sure sign but He still didn't come in the year 2000 like some thought. This is a trial of faith. Yet He will come. Remembering this we must occupy until He comes for He will come in a day when the world thinks He is not coming.

Here is a warning in Matthew:

Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

Giving meat is really giving the word faithfully so that souls will be saved and the word is preached to all nations.

Matthew 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Notice that when these servants thought the lord was delaying his coming, they began to do what was really in their hearts. They mistreated one another and began to do as they pleased. This will happen when we lose sight of the coming of Jesus. We will begin to pick on one another and in the case of the Roman church in the middle ages, they even went so far as to put people to death that disagreed with them. They substituted the word of God for their own commandments, doctrines and creeds. They left off giving the word similar to the above servants who failed to give their households meat in due season thinking the lord delayed his coming.

Some Protestant churches later did the same thing. We must remind ourselves that Jesus is returning and stay faithful until He returns no matter how long He delays His coming. We must preach the word, teach the word and give that word to our fellow servants. We must be ready and occupy faithfully until He returns. Just as Abraham and Sarah waited for their son, we must wait for the Son of God to return. It may be in our lifetime and it may not be but we can't change the word to mean something else just because things do not happen when we think they should happen.

Some think the Lord will not come until we take over the world in the name of the Lord and make it a righteous place. The Roman church already tried that and it didn't work and it will not work now. True conversion to Christ cannot be by force, it must be by the Holy Spirit. Only God can save a soul by the Holy Spirit coming into a person and changing their lives. Only Jesus can return and set up His own kingdom. We are to occupy until He comes by preaching the gospel and teaching the word so the lost can be saved and the saved can stay faithful. We are never to use force or try to make converts by force. We must remain ready by believing the word and not trying to change it to fit world events, times or present day situations.

Israel becoming a nation in 1948 is a sure sign that God's word will come to pass as He said. Yet even before 1948, we should have known that would happen because it is in the word. We do not have to be ignorant. What God says will happen. We can't think in our hearts that the Lord delays His coming so we have to set up the kingdom and make it happen ourselves. God did not tell us to do that. He said to preach the gospel of the kingdom, not set up the kingdom. The gospel is to repent and believe in Jesus as the one God sent to save us. That gospel has not changed. Sarah and Abraham tried to brings God word to pass and they meant well but it was a mistake. We must not try to get ahead of God and set up His kingdom before He comes to set it up Himself. "Kingdom now, and "replacement theology" is wrong. Preach the gospel instead.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Notice we receive God into our lives first and then we are ready to do good works. The works do not save us but when we receive Christ we do good works because we believe and we do them because we love Him and want to spread His word.

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

That prophet is Jesus and no other. DC

Genesis 21