Genesis 20 Bible Study

hello and welcome to the next part in our chapter a day series as we're working chapter by chapter through the book of Genesis today we find ourselves in chapter 20 if you've been following along with us you've been seeing how God is unfolding his plan and reinforcing his covenant the covenant that began when God first made a promise when he spoke to the first man and the first woman after their fall after their rejection of God after their rejection of his law after the desire to be independent rather than dependent as he's laying out what is going to happen to them as a consequence of what they have done he tells them at the beginning of a promise that there is one who will come through the seed of the woman one who will come who is going to bring a victory who is going to overcome we've watched the generations we've seen God's working and then we've been brought into the life of one couple of Abram and Sarai who the Lord has changed their names to Abraham and Sarah and how he has established a covenant with Abraham a powerful covenant in that covenant he is told Abraham that he is going to multiply his descendants and make them into great nations that Kings will be born from that line that the Lord will bless him and make him a blessing that those who bless Abraham and his descendants will be blessed by God and those who curse him those who dishonor him the Lord will curse and then he reminds him over and over again that through this line all the nation of the world will be blessed now we come to this chapter 2 chapter 20 it seems like we take a step back it seems like everything that Abraham has been learning and growing and trusting seems to fall away so let's get right into the chapter from there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur and he's sojourned in Geier and Abraham said of it of Sarah his wife she is my sister so Abraham is beginning to travel again likely where he had encamped there isn't sufficient good grazing ground and has a very powerful plan leader of a semi-nomadic people with vast numbers of herds it's necessary for him every so often to move his household to move his clan to an area where they'll be sufficient grazing to sustain all the donkeys all the camels all the goats all the sheep that he makes his livelihood on that's the source of his wealth so he's moved to a new area and this area is under the control of a king and we're told that the King's name is a bivouac he is the chieftain a ruler of this region so as Abraham and his household move into this region Abraham goes to Sarah his wife and says tell people you're my sister now if you've been following along with us through the book of Genesis we've been here before very shortly after Abram and Sarah I arrived in the land of Canaan they traveled down to the south they traveled closer and closer toward Egypt and as they traveled to that region and moved away from the place where God first told them this was the promised land that they would have they come into a land of famine and the famine rather than driving them back up into the land of promise drives them down into Egypt and Abram fearing for his life knowing that his wife is beautiful and fearing that they will say she's so beautiful we want to take her as a possession and we'll have to kill the husband he says that Sarah is his sister this causes the princes of Egypt to take her and present her to the Pharaoh and Abraham though his life is spared Abraham loses his wife the Lord intervenes not only the Lord preserve Abram and Sarah's and Sarah eyes lives at that point but he also brings them back together and brings them out of Egypt safely you would think that that experience and all that the Lord has been revealing but have such an impact on Abraham Abraham whose new name given to him by God means father of multitudes that he would recognize that God has told him that he will have offspring God appeared to him face to face in a theophany in a christening and said within the year your wife will have a son and you will call his name Isaac which means laughter because Abram had laughed when God said this to him Sarah had laughed because it was physically impossible now for them to conceive a child but the Lord says is anything too hard for me so now Abram Abraham moves into this new area and what's the first thing he does he begins to think self-preservation again I have to protect myself I've got to look after myself and so he tells Sarah tell people you're my sister because if they know we're married my life could be in jeopardy and we see what happens and Abimelech king of Gera sent and took Sarah verse 3 but God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him behold you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man's wife now abemolik had not approached her so he said lord will you kill an innocent people did not he himself say to me she is my sister and she herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart and in the innocence of my hands I have done this then God said to him in a dream yes I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart and it was I who kept you from sinning against me therefore I did not let you touch her now then returned the man's wife for he is a prophet so that he may pray for you and you shall live but if you do not return her know that you shall surely die you and all who are yours this is a powerful scene we have so Abimelech take Sara why because as far as he's concerned there's no reason why he can't he probably gave gifts to Abraham he or she is traveling with her brother a bit like Juan sir for his wife so he takes her to be his the Lord intervenes and we can hear the conversation were given that by the author as he's led by the Holy Spirit that the Lord intervenes and it's interesting to see the conversation first when the Lord appears he basically says that Abimelech in this dream you're dead you're dead because what you have done is you have taken a man's wife that is not yours to take this goes back to the creation narrative this goes back to being told that one man and one woman were to come and come together and to be one flesh and not to be separated in this conversation God has in the dream with Abimelech he's also reinforcing the marriage covenant that is intended and we can see in the dialogue Abimelech responds back said look lord I didn't know I took these people at their word I didn't act out of sinfulness I thought that she had no husband therefore I could become her husband and the Lord's response to him is very significant the Lord says I know your heart I know your heart and because I knew your motive I knew how your heart was working I prevented you for whatever the reason we're told that Abimelech had not yet had sexual relations with Sara and the Lord says I was the one who prevented you from defiling her from I was the one who prevented you from committing adultery with her why because I knew your heart I know that your desire was not to do wrong so because of that I intervened but know this now that you know the situation now that you know that I protected you from sin now you have a choice you can release Sara back to her husband and I will have Abraham pray for you or you can choose to disobey me and act according to your own will and know that my judgment will fall on you and again we have that picture back to the beginning what is the penalty for human disobedience a human rebellion against God the day you eat of it you shall surely die the Lord is saying in this conversation with a devil like if you knowing the truth you know that sara is not Abraham's sister she's not simply that his wife knowing that she is his wife if you act now and continue in your course of action to take her as your possession know that you will surely die so let's see what Abimelech does hearing this from the board so Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things and the men were very much afraid then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him what have you done to us and how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me in my kingdom a great sin you have done to me things that ought not to be done Abimelech is angry with Abraham and he is a right to be because as far as I've been like is concerned Abraham put him in the position where he would fall under the dredges judgment of God Abraham should have known Abraham who had received the Covenant of God Abraham who had been told that his descendant we come through Sarah and then he allows Sarah to be given over to another man not trusting him Abimelech is anything what you've done to me is you basically set me up to fall under the righteous judgment of God Almighty this should not be done then we read Abraham's response Abraham said I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place and they will kill me because of my wife besides she is indeed my sister the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother and she became my wife and when God caused me to wander from my father's house I said to her this is the kindness you must do me and every place to which we come say of me he is my brother so it's interesting we see that Abraham is still growing and still has things to learn his reasons for doing what he did he says the first reason is basically saying I thought God didn't matter to you saying you basically your godless people God didn't matter to you so if I were to say to you she's my wife and God has given me a promise God has made a covenant with me that my wife and I are an integral part of that would mean nothing to you so Abraham's he's putting the blame first on a bit like saying well I just thought you were godless people and then he says well and you should also know that you know she is technically technically my sister because she's my half-sister so it became my practice that's been my practice for quite some time that whenever we go into a new place as we travel along I tell people say that you're my sister this shows us something of where Abraham is and where he still has to go because well that's true maybe he thought these people didn't care about God it is true that Jesus half-sister but the fact is none of this matters if he is trusting in the Covenant because if Abraham's trusting in the Covenant remember the Covenant remember the path of blood if you've been with us in the earlier chapters when the Lord Almighty walked the path of blood proclaiming he would rather die rather cease to exist and to break the covenant promise he had made with Abraham so these excuses don't matter a big well that could been wicked and hard-hearted and absolutely against God but that doesn't change the fact that God made a covenant with him it is true that his traditional practice Abraham has had for years to say she's my sister as a way of sort of giving him some self-preservation the fact is previous practice doesn't matter we saw that in Egypt because he should have trusted the Covenant and most of all the Covenant maker Abraham is still wrestling with who he trusts is still wrestling with this and maybe some of that's because at this point there is no heir yet there's been Covenant promises but no realization yet verse 14 that Abimelech took sheep and oxen male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah his wife to him and Abimelech said Behold my land is before you dwell where it pleases you to Sarah he said behold I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver it is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are vindicated then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves so they bore children for the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife so we see this picture here despite the weakness of Abraham entrusting the Covenant and most of all the covenant maker we see that abimelek he responds he is going to act in obedience to the Lord even though Abraham has not so been well that comes and he brings gifts to Abraham he brings a monetary gift and that monetary gift had very significant value it was basically a testimony saying I am giving this as a way of making an oath and laying out an offering a sacrifice to say that I have not violated Sarah before all witnesses I did not touch her there is no worry she has not been defiled by me I am proclaiming that with this gift with this offering your wife is yours there is no threat from me she was never touched she was never harmed and then we have this statement at the end that Abraham responds by praying for Abimelech as God said he would and that there is a healing that happens to Abimelech and to his household because apparently when God was holding a Bimala accountable we're told that the wombs of all the women in his household were closed so I described that that they're ovulating cycle may have ceased that they were no longer menstruating so it was obvious something was wrong however it was playing out physically we know that Abimelech could see the power of the Lord and the truth of what he had said so I know your heart if I prevented you from acting simply but now you need to make a choice are you going to submit to me and give this man back his wife because I've made a covenant with him or are you going to choose to do that which is right in your own eyes know that if you make that choice in disobedience to me the consequence of that is death not life so what bin maalik chooses to follow God even though in this moment Abraham did not it's a good chapter to think about it's also a good chapter for us to remember how God is at work in our lives to remember those times when we any of us can fail to trust the covenant maker the promises that he has made to us that he has the power to keep and sometimes we will walk out again under our own devices seeking to work things out our own way because we don't actually believe the promises he's made or we don't believe he has the power to make it happen is anything too hard for the Lord is he able to protect Abraham and Sarah even in the face even if Abimelech was godless even if he didn't care about who God was is God still able to fulfill his promise and the answer always is yes I hope this is an encouragement for you today as always we'd love to hear your feedback and if this has blessed you please share it with somebody else so that maybe you can bless them too thank you and god bless you

Channel: Biblical Discipleship

Views: 2,149

Rating: 4.9534883 out of 5

Keywords: Stoneridge, Stephen Michels, Bible study, Chapter-A-Day, Genesis, Genesis 20

Id: -vX6s0tDUq0

Length: 22min 57sec (1377 seconds)

Published: Fri May 04 2018