Genesis 20 - God's Grace Overcomes Our Sin [May 5, 2019]

[First 5 minutes of the sermon] At the outset, this whole section sounds extremely familiar, right? Doesn’t this feel a whole lot like the time Abraham did essentially the same thing in Egypt? In Genesis 12:10-20, when Abram and Sarai fled to Egypt to escape the famine, Abraham lied to Pharaoh about Sarai being his wife. In that passage, we saw that the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his entire house with plagues because of this. What was this teaching us about Abraham? Abraham was displaying not only a fear of man, but also a huge lack of trust in God’s provision and protection. Genesis 12:10-20 is immediately following the passage where God gives Abraham all of these promises about his huge family that bless the world. Yet, only a short time later, Abraham running around lying because he is scared for his life. We said he was more focused on his current situation than he was on the promises of God! One would think Abraham would have learned from this experience, but we see the exact same thing in Genesis 20. Once again, Abraham goes into a new place and declares that Sarah is his sister. Once again, the leader of that country takes Sarah into his home. Once again, God brings about judgement on that leader for taking another man’s wife. As I read these verses, I can’t help but wonder what Abraham was thinking. Why is he still doubting God’s protection? Why is he still doubting God’s provision? Hasn’t God continued to provide for him ever since Genesis 12? God has come to him multiple times to remind him of his promises and blessing. Multiple times God has come to remind him that he will have a son. For me, verses 3-7 have continually been of interest this week. I just think it’s a fascinating interaction between Abimelech and God. It says God comes to Abimelech in a dream and confronts him about his sin of taking another man’s wife. Does anyone else read the first word God says to Abimelech and think this is absolutely the definition of a nightmare? I mean, seriously! “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man…” That. Is. Terrifying. Not only is this a nightmare, but it reminds me a lot of what we talked about last week. The severity of sin; Sin deserving the wrath of God. God is telling Abimelech here just the punishment that sin deserves (death). But here’s where I think it gets really interesting. When God says this to him, Abimelech’s response is to say that he is actually innocent—that he acted with integrity! Verse 4 – Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” What makes this even more fascinating to me is that God agrees with him! Seriously, look at verse 6 – Then God said to him in the 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.” This just seems wild to me! God tells Abimelech that he is going to judge sin. Abimelech declares his innocence. God agrees but says that He alone kept Abimelech from actually sinning. In this one passage, within just a few verses, God declares the severity of sin and his judgement/wrath against it and at the same time, God declares his mercy and grace in keeping Abimelech from sinning. Remember last week how I said we see the dual emphasis on wrath and mercy? I see the same thing here this morning. You see, Abimelech was going to sin if God had not stopped him. Even though Abimelech was deceived and acting in ignorance, he was still heading down a path that ended in sin. Do you see that? Sin committed in ignorance is still sin! Again, this is why we should continue to pray and ask God that he would convict us of our sin, even when we don’t see it. Ignorance or accidents does not make sin okay.