Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19991031.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III - God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
J. Round Nine: Using God's PRECEDENTS As Guidance To Avoid Repeated Unbelief
(Genesis 20:1-18)
  1. Introduction
    1. If the only battle the believer ever faced was one of trusting God for obstacles and sins of others around him, life would be half as complicated as it often truly is. The bigger battle is dealing with repeat offenses of unbelief in the believer himself.
    2. Genesis 20:1-18 is a lesson in handling the problem of REPEAT failures of unbelief in the believer himself, and what God would expect him to do to get off the revolving door of such failure as follows:
  2. Using God's PRECEDENTS As Guidance To Avoid Repeated Unbelief, Gen. 20:1-18.
    1. When Abraham traveled down to Gerar, he entered the Philistine kingdom ruled by Abimelech, 20:1, 3a.
    2. Like Pharaoh in Genesis 12, Abimelech collected wives for his harem, leaving Abraham's presence in Gerar a risky venture regarding his own life, Genesis 20:2 (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn.)
    3. Abraham again relied on deception as he had in Genesis to offset this threat with Abimelech in Genesis 20:
      1. He identified Sarah as his sister, and she claimed Abraham was her brother, Genesis 20:2a, 5a.
      2. This left Abraham set to gain riches via Sarah's dowry versus being killed, (cf. Gen. 12:11-13).
    4. However, this deception came from unbelief caused by Abraham and Sarah overlooking God's precedents:
      1. Abraham and Sarah mutually feared for Abraham's life, explaining this deception.
      2. However, such fear was unnecessary in view of God's promises to the couple to that date:
        1. God had before promised to use Abraham (Gen. 15:4) and Sarah (Gen. 17:15-16) to produce the promised son, Isaac, and that within the year, Genesis 18:10 (Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, ftn.).
        2. Accordingly, both Abraham and Sarah were immortal until Isaac's arrival as a married couple so as to certify that Isaac came from their union and not of that of any other man with Sarah!
        3. So, for the couple to resort to a ruse that left Sarah open to marriage to Abimelech to preserve Abraham's life was an act of unbelief in God's promises so far!
    5. Nevertheless, in great grace, God intercepted Abimelech's effort to make Sarah his wife to preserve His promises untainted even by Abraham and Sarah's unbelief, Genesis 20:2b-18:
      1. God kept Abimelech from touching Sarah when he tried to get her into his harem, and then warned Abimelech of death if he did not get Sarah back to Abraham in short order, Genesis 20:2b-3.
      2. Abimelech was terrified of God's warning, and immediately submitted to the Lord in returning Sarah to Abraham without any demands or restrictions on his part, Genesis 20:4-7.
      3. He even chided Abraham on his deception, Genesis 20:8-10.
      4. Abraham relayed his fear to Abimelech to explain his original ruse, and prayed for Abimelech to be healed of his household's temporary infertility problem, Genesis 20:11-17.
      5. God's grace restored Abraham's honor as a prophet this way (Genesis 20:7, 17) and Sarah's honor as a chaste wife by Abimelech's return of her with an added payment to Abraham, Gen. 20:16.
Lesson: Had Abraham and Sarah paid close attention to God's leading of the past, they could have avoided the sin of repeated unbelief in the matter of the deception of Abimelech in Genesis 20.

Application: (1) We can learn from the unbelief of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 20 that it is wise to keep TRACK of and USE the divine PRECEDENTS of God's promising and leading in our lives TO DATE, for these are INVALUABLE signals of what God inte nds to ACHIEVE with us that can be used as indicators of what God wants to DO or NOT DO in the PRESENT and FUTURE with us! That can keep us from making errant turns on our own into unbelief! (2) This event also illustrates the eternal security of the beli ever: when God makes an unconditional promise of any kind to the believer, He keeps it HIMSELF, cf. Gen. 15:9-12, 17-21. Since God has promised to give eternal life to anyone who believes on His Son in John 5:24, that promise will be kept regardless of the believer's subsequent unfaithfulness to God, cf. 2 Tim. 2:13.