Our Familiar Sin
Genesis 20:1-18
Message #11
In spite of a number of judgment errors and a few downright sinful choices, Abraham is becoming the Father of the Faith.
He’s been building altars and worshiping God
He whooped the Kings of the east and rescued Lot
He gave tithes to Melchizedek
The Lord and his angels came to Abraham’s tent for dinner
And Abraham interceded for any righteous in Sodom
Abraham is becoming the Father of the Faith, but he is not done making mistakes yet, and God is not done transforming Abraham through his mistakes yet. There’s a lot to learn here about “familiar sin” because each of us has a “familiar sin.” It is often our default “coping mechanism” that we employ in difficult or uncertain circumstances. We always tend to fall back into this one thing that is destructive or ungodly, and today we are going to call that our “familiar sin.” Let’s pray that God would reveal our familiar sin to us today.
Abraham’s familiar sin was taking matters into his own hands and trusting his own ideas and his own approach when things got hard instead of trusting God completely. He drops his trust in the Lord, and instead, he does what he thinks is best – which is always wrong.
And God, in his incredible grace, continues to allow Abraham to face this familiar temptation and fail until Abraham overcomes this obstacle to his faith. The commentator Ian Duguid uses this illustration (and it is a good one). When a horse is learning how to jump fences, it may learn to jump a number of types of fences or obstacles. But often, the horse comes to one obstacle that it just will not jump. The horse just throws on the brakes and digs in its hooves and refuses to clear that one obstacle.
(The horse is you; God is the trainer in this illustration.) And so, what the trainer does is, he calms the horse down, walks with the horse awhile, then leads that horse right back to that exact same obstacle. And the trainer patiently does this for as long as it takes until the horse finally trusts the trainer enough to clear that one “familiar obstacle.”
And that is exactly what God does with us to finally get us over our familiar sin (that one thing that always trips us up). God is so patient and kind and merciful and graceful – he just works with us like that trainer. He’s like, “Let’s just walk together for a little bit, but you’re going back to that hurdle. You’re going back to that obstacle. And if you don’t clear it next time, guess what? We’re just going to walk together again for a while, and then I’m going to walk you right back to that obstacle. And I’m going to keep walking you back there until you learn to clear it – until you overcome that obstacle.”
That’s what’s happening in the life of Abraham. That’s what is happening in our lives about what we are calling our familiar sin.
In Genesis Chapter 20, Abraham falls back into his familiar sin, which, again, is taking matters into his own hands instead of trusting God.
Abraham leaves the area of Hebron and ends us (again) on the very edge of The Promised Land.
Genesis 20:1 (NLT)
1 Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar . . .
This area is far south of Hebron, toward Egypt, and then west into the land of the Philistines (Gaza today). Abraham, when he needs to move, he moves back towards the place where he easily is tripped up by sin. And like the last time we saw Abraham fall into this familiar sin, his motivation was probably fresh grazing land for all of his livestock.
At this time, Abraham is a pastoral nomad. “Pastoral,” meaning he cared for large herds of sheep and goats. “Nomad,” meaning he had to move to keep his herds in good pasture lands, and that is probably what motivated his move.
But Abraham moved toward the same place he had previously committed his familiar sin, and that (in itself) is a great lesson. Once you confess (agree with God) that “this” is my default sin, this is the sin I fall into easily, don’t go to the place where you are likely to fall into that sin. If this is an area in your life where you tend to sin, don’t go there.
So Abraham is back on the edge of the Promised Land (the unsafe edge), moving toward Egypt and Gaza.
Genesis 20:1(b)-2 (NLT)
1 . . . While living there as a foreigner (a nomad), 2 Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.
King Abimelech of Gerar was probably the Philistine king.
And so, Abraham has come again to his familiar obstacle that he has so far refused to overcome. He introduces his wife by saying, “She is my sister.”
The Lord has again allowed Abraham to face this same obstacle in order to refine and increase Abraham’s complete faith and total trust in the Lord. It is crucial that Abraham clears this hurdle (and maybe you can remember one in your life) because in the next chapter, Isaac – the Son of Promise – is going to be born, and in the following chapter, Abraham will face the single, greatest faith test of his life. And so, God has got to get him to overcome this hurdle. He has got to get him to overcome this familiar sin, his default sin.
But for today, Abraham is going to again fail the test of his most familiar sin. So, again, Abraham and Sarah go with the “she’s my sister” approach, which continues to put Sarah in serious danger while continuing to protect Abraham’s skin. And this time, King Abimelech of Gerar (possibly the Philistine king) takes Sarah into his harem because a king had the right to take any single woman into his harem.
This is the exact same situation as the last time we saw Abraham refuse to clear this hurdle. But this time, it seems even worse because the Lord himself, while eating a covenant meal with Abraham, had just promised to give Abraham and Sarah a son within one year. But Abraham takes matters into his own hands (again) and again sends Sarah into the harem of a pagan king, which could obviously eliminate the possibility of Abraham and Sarah having a son.
And now we say, this is incredible! This is unbelievable! We can’t believe Abraham would fall right back into this same old sin. He made these mistakes. He sinned like this. In the midst of that sin, God made him into the Father of the Faith. Just like God will make us into whom he has called us to be through the mistakes that we make. But aren’t we prone to do the exact same thing? Abraham is falling back into his default way of dealing with things himself instead of trusting God. This is Abraham’s familiar sin.
So, can I ask you? Would you please (right now) ask God to show you what your familiar sin is? Let’s get our own familiar sin clear in our own minds so God can refine us and encourage us through his Word today.
Lord, would you please reveal to us by your Holy Spirit, supernaturally, divinely reveal to us, Lord – give us a name, give us a picture of the sin that is most familiar to us, that we are most likely to be tripped up by, Lord. Help us to acknowledge it so that you can continue to transform us in this area until we can overcome this obstacle. In your name, Jesus, amen.
Hebrews 12:1(b) (NLT)
1 . . . let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
What is that sin that so easily trips you up? That is your familiar sin.
And God’s Word says let us strip off that sin that so easily trips us up. Let us finally overcome that familiar sin in our lives.
Abraham received a strong rebuke from God and man for this exact same sin in Egypt, but he hadn’t fully dealt with it. And so, now, as soon as he gets into a similar situation, this familiar sin is right there to take him out – again. Abraham is becoming the Father of the Faith, but God is patiently allowing Abraham to return to this exact same obstacle until he has enough faith to clear it. He’s being patient, just like he is with you. He’s bringing you to a place where you can replace that familiar sin with complete faith and total trust in God. That’s what we do. We don’t just try hard to stop. We replace that with God, with the relationship and the power of the Lord.
God was helping Abraham get to a place of abandoning his own fleshly plans and idea. God is helping Abraham to crucify his “default response” to difficult situations. And the Lord will help us do the same thing with our familiar sin.
Because God is faithful and merciful (and maybe you can remember a time in your life when this happened) he steps in to protect Abraham from himself. Have you ever had God step in to protect you from yourself – from your own decisions, from your own choices? That’s what God is doing here in verse 3.
Genesis 20:3 (NLT)
3 But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!”
Here is God’s one-sided commitment to bring to pass what he has promised to Abraham that Abraham would have a child with Sarah, and the Lord would absolutely bring that promise to pass. And in the process of bringing that promise to pass, the Lord was going to refine and mature Abraham’s faith. And so, God is stepping in to save Abraham from experiencing the consequences of this sin. God’s promises are more sure than our choices. God’s promise is in and through our choices. God will bring to pass what he promised, and in the process, he’ll refine and mature your faith and your relationship with him.
So, God shows up to the Philistine king in a dream to warn him, and the king responds to God in the dream.
Genesis 20:4-5 (NLT)
4 But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?
5 Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean.”
This is a pagan king of a people who would become the sworn enemies of the People of God. But here, this pagan king is acting way more godly than Abraham. The Father of the Faith had (again) lied like a pagan, and the pagan king had responded with godly integrity. Have you ever had that happen in your life where an unbeliever acts more godly than you? That’s so humbling.
But God uses those failures on our part to refine us and mature us and transform us, and he’s going to do the same thing here with Abraham.
And so, God continues the conversation with the king in the dream.
Genesis 20:6–7 (NLT)
6 In the dream God responded, “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her.
7 Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”
This is the first use of the word prophet in the Bible.
But notice this. God’s view of Abraham does not change even in the midst of this sin. God’s view of Abraham does not change even in the midst of his sin. Because God is not continually judging us on some type of works curve, where if we’re doing well, then he sees us one way. And if we’re not doing well, he sees us another way. That’s called performance-based love, and it’s what destroys many marriages. God is not like that, and I’ll tell you why. Because God is not caught in the time continuum – he’s outside of time.
And so, he sees Abraham as he’s going to make him. He sees Abraham as what he is going to be. He sees Abraham at the end from the beginning. And so, when Abraham is in the midst of this sin, God still says, “He’s a prophet.” That’s who he is. Abraham doesn’t even know that yet. He’s certainly not acting like it. But God sees it. And he sees it in you. And he sees it in me. And he calls us who he’s made us to be because he has promised to finish the work in us. Right?
Sometimes I am asked, “Does God still love me after that sin?” I say, “Listen. God is not judging you based on your performance. He’s not ‘loving you’ or ‘not loving’ you – he’s loving you unconditionally, permanently, sacrificially, and outside of time.”
God is saying Abraham is making a huge error right here. But he is a prophet, and you need to get his wife back to him.
Genesis 20:8 (NLT)
8 Abimelech got up early the next morning and quickly called all his servants together. When he told them what had happened, his men were terrified.
Abraham was no small man in this area. His presence was large, and he was certainly known as a God worshiper, and now his witness to these unbelieving people was shot. And to top it off, Abimelech’s pagan men had a greater fear of God than Abraham did.
Genesis 20:9-10 (NLT)
9 Then Abimelech called for Abraham. “What have you done to us?” he demanded. “What crime have I committed that deserves treatment like this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? No one should ever do what you have done!
10 Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”
Again, this is training by humiliation for the Father of the Faith. An unbeliever is saying to Abraham, “You have done things to me that no one should ever do to anyone!”
This is another humiliating verbal lashing from a pagan king to the Father of the Faith. But even worse was Abraham’s response. When we fall to our familiar sins, don’t we have a tendency to justify and rationalize our actions? What sin do we tend to justify and rationalize? “Yeah, but..” “Yeah, but…” and then you rationalize your sin, or you justify your sin, or you defend your sin. That sin that we rationalize, justify or defend is your familiar sin. God says crucify it.
Here’s Abraham’s response.
Genesis 20:11–13 (NLT)
11 Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘This is a godless place. They will want my wife and will kill me to get her.’
12 And she really is my sister, for we both have the same father, but different mothers. And I married her.
13 When God called me to leave my father’s home and to travel from place to place, I told her, ‘Do me a favor. Wherever we go, tell the people that I am your brother.’”
Really, Father Abraham? You’re going with the justify and rationalize approach? You’re defending your actions and trying to deny that this is your familiar sin?
This was Abraham’s “default approach” to this situation. This was his “familiar sin.” And when he’s pressed, he fell right back into it. It’s the obstacle God keeps walking him to, and he’s going to keep walking him to it until he learns to overcome this familiar obstacle by faith. All Abraham needs is complete faith and total trust in the Lord, and he can clear this familiar sin. And God’s going to do it.
And we have to overcome by faith our own tendency to do the same thing.
God’s work in these events is to so transform us through them, that we would forever crucify the familiar sin in our lives. But at some point, we have to join God in the work he’s doing. We can’t just keep going around and around. At some point, you’ve got to clear the hurdle. You’ve got to join God and say, “Okay, God. I’m ready. With all the power of your Spirit, my complete faith and total trust are in you. Let’s clear this thing. Let’s overcome it.”
We’ve got to acknowledge our familiar sin and commit to crucifying that sin by our faith and trust in God, and God will continue bringing us back to this same obstacle until we do.
And as we continue with Abraham, he will overcome this familiar sin of taking matters into his own hands and ignoring his faith in God in the process. In fact, this is the last time a sin like this is recorded for Abraham. God is merciful and grace-full, but at some point, we must join him in the work he is doing in our lives.
Next, we see the unbelievable grace given to Abraham by the (supposedly) ungodly King Abimelech.
Genesis 20:14–15 (NLT)
14 Then Abimelech took some of his sheep and goats, cattle, and male and female servants, and he presented them to Abraham. He also returned his wife, Sarah, to him.
15 Then Abimelech said, “Look over my land and choose any place where you would like to live.”
This is amazing. This pagan king doesn’t owe Abraham anything. This was Abraham’s sin. This was Abraham’s fault. But the king’s response was certainly brought on by God’s warning in the dream. (He took it seriously.)
Genesis 20:16 (NLT)
16 And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your ‘brother’ (little sarcasm) 1,000 pieces of silver (25 lb) in the presence of all these witnesses. This is to compensate you for any wrong I may have done to you. This will settle any claim against me, and your reputation is cleared.”
The ungodly king goes way out of his way to make things right with the godly sinner, Abraham.
Here’s the good news about today’s message. God is at work to help you overcome your familiar sin. And every time you find yourself facing it, God is there as the trainer saying, “Are you ready? Are you ready to clear it?” And you say, “No.” And God says, “okay. I’ve got all the time in the world. We’ll just walk around, and we’ll come back to it until you’re ready.” But when you’re ready, God will be your strength, and he’ll be your power, and he’ll be your ability to clear that obstacle.
Even though this whole scene is caused by his sin, in the end, Abraham returns to his intercessor role.
Genesis 20:17–18 (NLT)
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, so they could have children.
18 For the Lord had caused all the women to be infertile because of what happened with Abraham’s wife, Sarah.
God’s ability and willingness to use us even in the midst of our failure and our mistakes blows our minds, doesn’t it? Even when I stumble, it doesn’t remove me from being used by God. The sin will remove me, and if I don’t confess and repent and turn back to the Lord, then I will be separated from the Lord. But God is not removing me for sin. His plan is still at work in my life and in your life.
And here, Abraham’s dependence on his own devices is finally shattered, and that is exactly what God needs from Abraham and from us.
God wants our faith in him to replace our familiar sin.
And God wants to use the obstacle of our familiar sin to increase our faith and trust in him so that we can overcome that familiar sin obstacle and get on with the good work and good plans that God has for us. He loves you enough to keep walking you back to that place until you can clear that hurdle. And he will be your power, and your strength to clear it, but you have got to join him.
Overcome that obstacle of your familiar sin once and for all so you can continue “running the race” that God has set before you.
He’s been building altars and worshiping God
He whooped the Kings of the east and rescued Lot
He gave tithes to Melchizedek
The Lord and his angels came to Abraham’s tent for dinner
And Abraham interceded for any righteous in Sodom
Abraham is becoming the Father of the Faith, but he is not done making mistakes yet, and God is not done transforming Abraham through his mistakes yet. There’s a lot to learn here about “familiar sin” because each of us has a “familiar sin.” It is often our default “coping mechanism” that we employ in difficult or uncertain circumstances. We always tend to fall back into this one thing that is destructive or ungodly, and today we are going to call that our “familiar sin.” Let’s pray that God would reveal our familiar sin to us today.
Abraham’s familiar sin was taking matters into his own hands and trusting his own ideas and his own approach when things got hard instead of trusting God completely. He drops his trust in the Lord, and instead, he does what he thinks is best – which is always wrong.
And God, in his incredible grace, continues to allow Abraham to face this familiar temptation and fail until Abraham overcomes this obstacle to his faith. The commentator Ian Duguid uses this illustration (and it is a good one). When a horse is learning how to jump fences, it may learn to jump a number of types of fences or obstacles. But often, the horse comes to one obstacle that it just will not jump. The horse just throws on the brakes and digs in its hooves and refuses to clear that one obstacle.
(The horse is you; God is the trainer in this illustration.) And so, what the trainer does is, he calms the horse down, walks with the horse awhile, then leads that horse right back to that exact same obstacle. And the trainer patiently does this for as long as it takes until the horse finally trusts the trainer enough to clear that one “familiar obstacle.”
And that is exactly what God does with us to finally get us over our familiar sin (that one thing that always trips us up). God is so patient and kind and merciful and graceful – he just works with us like that trainer. He’s like, “Let’s just walk together for a little bit, but you’re going back to that hurdle. You’re going back to that obstacle. And if you don’t clear it next time, guess what? We’re just going to walk together again for a while, and then I’m going to walk you right back to that obstacle. And I’m going to keep walking you back there until you learn to clear it – until you overcome that obstacle.”
That’s what’s happening in the life of Abraham. That’s what is happening in our lives about what we are calling our familiar sin.
In Genesis Chapter 20, Abraham falls back into his familiar sin, which, again, is taking matters into his own hands instead of trusting God.
Abraham leaves the area of Hebron and ends us (again) on the very edge of The Promised Land.
Genesis 20:1 (NLT)
1 Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar . . .
This area is far south of Hebron, toward Egypt, and then west into the land of the Philistines (Gaza today). Abraham, when he needs to move, he moves back towards the place where he easily is tripped up by sin. And like the last time we saw Abraham fall into this familiar sin, his motivation was probably fresh grazing land for all of his livestock.
At this time, Abraham is a pastoral nomad. “Pastoral,” meaning he cared for large herds of sheep and goats. “Nomad,” meaning he had to move to keep his herds in good pasture lands, and that is probably what motivated his move.
But Abraham moved toward the same place he had previously committed his familiar sin, and that (in itself) is a great lesson. Once you confess (agree with God) that “this” is my default sin, this is the sin I fall into easily, don’t go to the place where you are likely to fall into that sin. If this is an area in your life where you tend to sin, don’t go there.
So Abraham is back on the edge of the Promised Land (the unsafe edge), moving toward Egypt and Gaza.
Genesis 20:1(b)-2 (NLT)
1 . . . While living there as a foreigner (a nomad), 2 Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.
King Abimelech of Gerar was probably the Philistine king.
And so, Abraham has come again to his familiar obstacle that he has so far refused to overcome. He introduces his wife by saying, “She is my sister.”
The Lord has again allowed Abraham to face this same obstacle in order to refine and increase Abraham’s complete faith and total trust in the Lord. It is crucial that Abraham clears this hurdle (and maybe you can remember one in your life) because in the next chapter, Isaac – the Son of Promise – is going to be born, and in the following chapter, Abraham will face the single, greatest faith test of his life. And so, God has got to get him to overcome this hurdle. He has got to get him to overcome this familiar sin, his default sin.
But for today, Abraham is going to again fail the test of his most familiar sin. So, again, Abraham and Sarah go with the “she’s my sister” approach, which continues to put Sarah in serious danger while continuing to protect Abraham’s skin. And this time, King Abimelech of Gerar (possibly the Philistine king) takes Sarah into his harem because a king had the right to take any single woman into his harem.
This is the exact same situation as the last time we saw Abraham refuse to clear this hurdle. But this time, it seems even worse because the Lord himself, while eating a covenant meal with Abraham, had just promised to give Abraham and Sarah a son within one year. But Abraham takes matters into his own hands (again) and again sends Sarah into the harem of a pagan king, which could obviously eliminate the possibility of Abraham and Sarah having a son.
And now we say, this is incredible! This is unbelievable! We can’t believe Abraham would fall right back into this same old sin. He made these mistakes. He sinned like this. In the midst of that sin, God made him into the Father of the Faith. Just like God will make us into whom he has called us to be through the mistakes that we make. But aren’t we prone to do the exact same thing? Abraham is falling back into his default way of dealing with things himself instead of trusting God. This is Abraham’s familiar sin.
So, can I ask you? Would you please (right now) ask God to show you what your familiar sin is? Let’s get our own familiar sin clear in our own minds so God can refine us and encourage us through his Word today.
Lord, would you please reveal to us by your Holy Spirit, supernaturally, divinely reveal to us, Lord – give us a name, give us a picture of the sin that is most familiar to us, that we are most likely to be tripped up by, Lord. Help us to acknowledge it so that you can continue to transform us in this area until we can overcome this obstacle. In your name, Jesus, amen.
Hebrews 12:1(b) (NLT)
1 . . . let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
What is that sin that so easily trips you up? That is your familiar sin.
And God’s Word says let us strip off that sin that so easily trips us up. Let us finally overcome that familiar sin in our lives.
Abraham received a strong rebuke from God and man for this exact same sin in Egypt, but he hadn’t fully dealt with it. And so, now, as soon as he gets into a similar situation, this familiar sin is right there to take him out – again. Abraham is becoming the Father of the Faith, but God is patiently allowing Abraham to return to this exact same obstacle until he has enough faith to clear it. He’s being patient, just like he is with you. He’s bringing you to a place where you can replace that familiar sin with complete faith and total trust in God. That’s what we do. We don’t just try hard to stop. We replace that with God, with the relationship and the power of the Lord.
God was helping Abraham get to a place of abandoning his own fleshly plans and idea. God is helping Abraham to crucify his “default response” to difficult situations. And the Lord will help us do the same thing with our familiar sin.
Because God is faithful and merciful (and maybe you can remember a time in your life when this happened) he steps in to protect Abraham from himself. Have you ever had God step in to protect you from yourself – from your own decisions, from your own choices? That’s what God is doing here in verse 3.
Genesis 20:3 (NLT)
3 But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!”
Here is God’s one-sided commitment to bring to pass what he has promised to Abraham that Abraham would have a child with Sarah, and the Lord would absolutely bring that promise to pass. And in the process of bringing that promise to pass, the Lord was going to refine and mature Abraham’s faith. And so, God is stepping in to save Abraham from experiencing the consequences of this sin. God’s promises are more sure than our choices. God’s promise is in and through our choices. God will bring to pass what he promised, and in the process, he’ll refine and mature your faith and your relationship with him.
So, God shows up to the Philistine king in a dream to warn him, and the king responds to God in the dream.
Genesis 20:4-5 (NLT)
4 But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?
5 Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean.”
This is a pagan king of a people who would become the sworn enemies of the People of God. But here, this pagan king is acting way more godly than Abraham. The Father of the Faith had (again) lied like a pagan, and the pagan king had responded with godly integrity. Have you ever had that happen in your life where an unbeliever acts more godly than you? That’s so humbling.
But God uses those failures on our part to refine us and mature us and transform us, and he’s going to do the same thing here with Abraham.
And so, God continues the conversation with the king in the dream.
Genesis 20:6–7 (NLT)
6 In the dream God responded, “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her.
7 Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”
This is the first use of the word prophet in the Bible.
But notice this. God’s view of Abraham does not change even in the midst of this sin. God’s view of Abraham does not change even in the midst of his sin. Because God is not continually judging us on some type of works curve, where if we’re doing well, then he sees us one way. And if we’re not doing well, he sees us another way. That’s called performance-based love, and it’s what destroys many marriages. God is not like that, and I’ll tell you why. Because God is not caught in the time continuum – he’s outside of time.
And so, he sees Abraham as he’s going to make him. He sees Abraham as what he is going to be. He sees Abraham at the end from the beginning. And so, when Abraham is in the midst of this sin, God still says, “He’s a prophet.” That’s who he is. Abraham doesn’t even know that yet. He’s certainly not acting like it. But God sees it. And he sees it in you. And he sees it in me. And he calls us who he’s made us to be because he has promised to finish the work in us. Right?
Sometimes I am asked, “Does God still love me after that sin?” I say, “Listen. God is not judging you based on your performance. He’s not ‘loving you’ or ‘not loving’ you – he’s loving you unconditionally, permanently, sacrificially, and outside of time.”
God is saying Abraham is making a huge error right here. But he is a prophet, and you need to get his wife back to him.
Genesis 20:8 (NLT)
8 Abimelech got up early the next morning and quickly called all his servants together. When he told them what had happened, his men were terrified.
Abraham was no small man in this area. His presence was large, and he was certainly known as a God worshiper, and now his witness to these unbelieving people was shot. And to top it off, Abimelech’s pagan men had a greater fear of God than Abraham did.
Genesis 20:9-10 (NLT)
9 Then Abimelech called for Abraham. “What have you done to us?” he demanded. “What crime have I committed that deserves treatment like this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? No one should ever do what you have done!
10 Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”
Again, this is training by humiliation for the Father of the Faith. An unbeliever is saying to Abraham, “You have done things to me that no one should ever do to anyone!”
This is another humiliating verbal lashing from a pagan king to the Father of the Faith. But even worse was Abraham’s response. When we fall to our familiar sins, don’t we have a tendency to justify and rationalize our actions? What sin do we tend to justify and rationalize? “Yeah, but..” “Yeah, but…” and then you rationalize your sin, or you justify your sin, or you defend your sin. That sin that we rationalize, justify or defend is your familiar sin. God says crucify it.
Here’s Abraham’s response.
Genesis 20:11–13 (NLT)
11 Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘This is a godless place. They will want my wife and will kill me to get her.’
12 And she really is my sister, for we both have the same father, but different mothers. And I married her.
13 When God called me to leave my father’s home and to travel from place to place, I told her, ‘Do me a favor. Wherever we go, tell the people that I am your brother.’”
Really, Father Abraham? You’re going with the justify and rationalize approach? You’re defending your actions and trying to deny that this is your familiar sin?
This was Abraham’s “default approach” to this situation. This was his “familiar sin.” And when he’s pressed, he fell right back into it. It’s the obstacle God keeps walking him to, and he’s going to keep walking him to it until he learns to overcome this familiar obstacle by faith. All Abraham needs is complete faith and total trust in the Lord, and he can clear this familiar sin. And God’s going to do it.
And we have to overcome by faith our own tendency to do the same thing.
God’s work in these events is to so transform us through them, that we would forever crucify the familiar sin in our lives. But at some point, we have to join God in the work he’s doing. We can’t just keep going around and around. At some point, you’ve got to clear the hurdle. You’ve got to join God and say, “Okay, God. I’m ready. With all the power of your Spirit, my complete faith and total trust are in you. Let’s clear this thing. Let’s overcome it.”
We’ve got to acknowledge our familiar sin and commit to crucifying that sin by our faith and trust in God, and God will continue bringing us back to this same obstacle until we do.
And as we continue with Abraham, he will overcome this familiar sin of taking matters into his own hands and ignoring his faith in God in the process. In fact, this is the last time a sin like this is recorded for Abraham. God is merciful and grace-full, but at some point, we must join him in the work he is doing in our lives.
Next, we see the unbelievable grace given to Abraham by the (supposedly) ungodly King Abimelech.
Genesis 20:14–15 (NLT)
14 Then Abimelech took some of his sheep and goats, cattle, and male and female servants, and he presented them to Abraham. He also returned his wife, Sarah, to him.
15 Then Abimelech said, “Look over my land and choose any place where you would like to live.”
This is amazing. This pagan king doesn’t owe Abraham anything. This was Abraham’s sin. This was Abraham’s fault. But the king’s response was certainly brought on by God’s warning in the dream. (He took it seriously.)
Genesis 20:16 (NLT)
16 And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your ‘brother’ (little sarcasm) 1,000 pieces of silver (25 lb) in the presence of all these witnesses. This is to compensate you for any wrong I may have done to you. This will settle any claim against me, and your reputation is cleared.”
The ungodly king goes way out of his way to make things right with the godly sinner, Abraham.
Here’s the good news about today’s message. God is at work to help you overcome your familiar sin. And every time you find yourself facing it, God is there as the trainer saying, “Are you ready? Are you ready to clear it?” And you say, “No.” And God says, “okay. I’ve got all the time in the world. We’ll just walk around, and we’ll come back to it until you’re ready.” But when you’re ready, God will be your strength, and he’ll be your power, and he’ll be your ability to clear that obstacle.
Even though this whole scene is caused by his sin, in the end, Abraham returns to his intercessor role.
Genesis 20:17–18 (NLT)
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, so they could have children.
18 For the Lord had caused all the women to be infertile because of what happened with Abraham’s wife, Sarah.
God’s ability and willingness to use us even in the midst of our failure and our mistakes blows our minds, doesn’t it? Even when I stumble, it doesn’t remove me from being used by God. The sin will remove me, and if I don’t confess and repent and turn back to the Lord, then I will be separated from the Lord. But God is not removing me for sin. His plan is still at work in my life and in your life.
And here, Abraham’s dependence on his own devices is finally shattered, and that is exactly what God needs from Abraham and from us.
God wants our faith in him to replace our familiar sin.
And God wants to use the obstacle of our familiar sin to increase our faith and trust in him so that we can overcome that familiar sin obstacle and get on with the good work and good plans that God has for us. He loves you enough to keep walking you back to that place until you can clear that hurdle. And he will be your power, and your strength to clear it, but you have got to join him.
Overcome that obstacle of your familiar sin once and for all so you can continue “running the race” that God has set before you.