| Subject: Gen. 20 vss. 3-7 Post # 106 |
Author:
Hillbilly
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Date Posted: 15:21:31 05/24/09 Sun
Genesis 20:3-7 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. 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. 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.
There are certain things that God will not allow to take place when it comes to His sovereign will and promises. We might wonder why God would not allow Abraham to pay the price of his folly and see his wife taken to another man. Here we must remember that the decree of God was that nations would come from the loins of Abraham and that Sarah would be the mother of the intended or promised seed. All the way back to the garden in Eden we find there has been a promised seed and that there would be a warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The history of the world has it's roots in this verse in Genesis. Abel's death, the flood, Noah's son committing a heinous act and Abraham's willingness to give Sarah to another to save his own life, not once but twice, are interwoven into this warfare. Satan cannot make people do things but it is well within his power to craftily and subtilely tempt and otherwise work within the desires of the flesh to bring about his own will in people's actions. Self preservation and self propagation are the two strongest forces in people's lives and both are at work here. If Satan can get Sarah pregnant by another man other than Abraham he has defeated the promise of God as Sarah would then be unfit for the promised seed. Abraham messing up with Hagar would not accomplish it because the promise was through the seed of the woman. All of this is a foreshadowing of the type of Israel as woman, and the intended literal fulfillment in Mary. You can read of Israel as the woman in Revelation 12 and of course the Virgin Mary in the gospels. The history of Israel cannot be separated from this earliest of prophesies and the history of the world and the nations interaction with Israel are all tied to this prophecy. Real history cannot be understood without finding what effect it all had or will have on Israel and the fulfilling of all prophecy concerning this chosen people of God and the land he promised to these people.
God warns Abimelech in a dream that he is but a dead man because of Sarah but Abimelech protests his innocence. It is interesting that before God tells Abimelech that he is spared because of his lack of knowledge Abimelech had asked the question "wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?" The sin of the king could bring the destruction of his kingdom. Just as the sin of David brought death to 70,000 in Israel (1 Chron. 21:1-15) the action of Abimelech could bring the hand of God down on Gerar. We need to take note of this as we are in a position now where the sin of our elected leaders can easily bring the wrath of God on our nation. From the sins of kings to the sins of the Achans among us the wrath and righteous judgment of God can fall on the innocent.
The last thing we need to note is that all sin is against God. Notice what God told Abimelech in verse 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." David took Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed in battle but when writing of it in the Psalms had this to say: Psalm 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Abraham's deed by giving his half sister wife to Abimelech could have brought death to Abimelech and his country. By Abraham passing his half sister wife off as his sister he opened up the probability that someone else would take her to wife. The blame lies with Abraham but the action of others would trigger the wrath of God. Such it is with man when he follows his own desires and fears instead of trusting God. God had promised and Abraham should have figured out that God would make a way to fulfill His promises no matter how the odds seemed to be stacked against that fulfillment. To Abimelech the decree was to restore Sarah to Abraham and live with the alternative being death to him and all that was his if he failed to heed God's warning.
God gave to Abimelech "an offer he could not refuse".
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