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“Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her”.
(Gen 20: 1-2)
So, we have seen Abraham make the same mistake as he made last time. We need to pause here long enough to discuss this for a bit because Abraham is recognised as one of the Bible great men of faith, the Bible makes that very clear. In fact, the New Testament says he is the outstanding character of faith in the Old Testament, giving particular prominence in the great roll call of faith contained within Hebrews chapter 9.The fact that he leaves his family and his hometown, and he goes out into the unknown all because he believed God. That's the great illustration of faith, because he didn't really have any idea of where he was going to when God said go. That was in chapter 12 but by the time you get to chapter 15 it says “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness”.
Abraham generally was a man who was in the practise of believing God. Let’s be clear, he had his moments, but overall he was a man of faith and a man of prayer. He had just been through the whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing, leaving us with probably one of the greatest illustrations of how to wrestle with God in prayer. How to intercede with God into a worldly situation He intercedes with God to get God to delay destroying Sodom, and to save 10 people of faith. So, he was a great prayer warrior, a godly man, a man of faith. Remember all the obstacles he had, and will have to face, and now how those things are going to contribute to the developing of his faith. One of the key messages within the life of Abraham is how obstacles and challenges helped can help develop our faith. So, when we see Abraham lying again this is an incredibly disappointing turn of events. Abraham was a man of faith he's a man of power and prayer and the fact that he now commits the same sin as he previously committed is really disappointing but insightful to know.
The first time he did this he tried to do it in secret but Pharaoh discovered it and he was openly rebuked for it . In this passage as we will see in a minute, he does it again. News flash, spoiler alert, we all commit sins, even patriarchs commit sins. I want to explore this a bit because I think this bothers some people. The fact that he repeatedly sins is a puzzle to some people. One commentator says this, and I quote.
“In many respects Genesis 20 is one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible to understand the narrative is simple enough of course but how could Abraham and Sarah at this time repeat the very same sin they committed many years before, It might be understandable that in the days when their faith had not yet been really tested or he hadn’t seen Gods faithfulness fully confirmed. That they could have fallen into such a trap over and over again seems absurd”.
(The Holiness Code - G. Hepner)
Yes, it is true, he had had wonderful answers to prayers many miraculous proofs that God cared, and God protected their faith. F B Mayer famous commentator of a bygone day entitled this chapter quote, “A bit of old flesh of the old nature” and talked about how a sin not fully dealt with first time will often re-appear. But this should not surprise us if we understand the biblical doctrine of the depravity of man and appreciate that we are all capable of committing a sin and repeating it over and over again. We all know that, because we've all done that, right. That's exactly what Abraham does hear and what he does produces some very serious problems for him again. We shall look at how it unravels for him in the next episode.