Sunday, September 6, 2020

Sunday School lesson taught at Lake Marburg Baptist Church today on 9.6.2020 - Genesis 19:27 through 20:18

 


Genesis 19:27 ¶  And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: 28  And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. 29  And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

Genesis 19:30 ¶  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31  And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32  Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33  And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34  And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35  And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36  Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37  And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38  And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

For Abraham’s sake, God saved Lot. I’ve already discussed what remembered means in this context in comments on 8:1. Whether or not it is doctrinally true in the age of the church there have been many sermons about adult children being drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit because of the fervent prayers and heart-felt love of a parent.

Lot was afraid to say in Zoar. Perhaps, as he came out of Sodom, the terrified people blamed him for the destruction, maybe believing in their gods’ anger causing the destruction. But, he ended up in the mountain that he feared.

One explanation for what happens next is that Lot’s daughters, in this vast scene of utter destruction, felt completely alone and desolate and simply used their father to provide them with children. They knew he would not do such wickedness willingly so they got him roaring drunk.

Another explanation is that Lot’s daughters were raised in the immoral and depraved climate of Sodom where sex and religion were united. They thought that the ways they had seen and known, the earth religion, was lost to them lest they take action themselves. Notice the passage;

31  And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

The results of this godless and evil rape by the girls of their father are the nations of Moab and Ammon, who will play roles later as the Hebrews try to claim their Promised Land and then even later in the history of Israel.

Here is an important point in understanding the Bible. God acknowledges the results of sin without accepting the sin.

Deuteronomy 2:19  And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.

For instance, God ordained that a marriage was to be between one man and one woman.

Genesis 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

His will was for Himself to be king over Israel but they wanted a human king like other countries.

1Samuel 8:7  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

And yet God did not abandon the offspring of a king who had multiple wives, even a son that was the offspring of adultery and murder.

1Kings 1:11  Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not?

God doesn’t create culture, the practices of a family, a community, or ethnic group, and He didn’t create civilization. God modified culture and civilization already created by man, bringing commandments to bear on it to alter it and move it toward His standard, sometimes even in small ways. Your country, your culture, your civilization is not holy, is not special, and is not blessed of God just because you have a few churches in it and some of your people claim to believe in Christ or a God of First Causes. But, in the Bible, God worked with men and women where they were and in the conditions they inherited from their forebears. Some of these conditions and cultural practices we find wicked today and clearly against God’s will. God doesn’t justify a cultural practice by acknowledging it and modifying it to be more merciful.

It must be remembered that the Bible is about God’s reconciliation of man to Himself and not about justifying your social order or nation-state’s policies, a nation that will one day cease to exist.

But, the point is that what happened with Lot and his daughters happened and there is no way around it. It was wicked but God wove the consequences of it into His plans, something He knew and did from before He created the world without justifying it or preventing it. The Holy Spirit paints a picture of mankind in the Bible, warts and all. This picture shows a vile and wicked creature, degenerate in his practices and lacking in faithfulness toward God. But, God is merciful in spite of man’s wickedness. Our Creator is merciful to the created thing that turned on Him. I am thankful for that.

Genesis, chapter 20

Genesis 20:1 ¶  And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

As proof that Sarah was still desirable to look at in an age where people lived longer and were more youthful looking longer and as further evidence of the customs of the time, the king of Gerar places Sarah in his harem. Abraham repeats his same, what we would call today cowardice, practice as in chapter 12 in Egypt in protecting himself from possible murder but not his wife from this humiliation.

This shows us the dangers of travel in those days particularly if you had a wife other men might desire. Abimelech king of Gerar is used here as Pharaoh king of Egypt is used in 41:46 and in other verses. The question then arises as to whether or not Abimelech is a Philistine title for a king or whether it is a name. Isaac will repeat this behavior in a few chapters and dwell in this same city for a time. In 26:8 this king of Gerar is called the king of the Philistines.

We see two characteristics of life in the ancient world. One, the molestation of visitors to a city as revealed in the story of Sodom and later in Judges 19 and, two, how ancient kings might forcibly take a man’s wife and kill him if they felt like it.

This also shows us the political powerlessness of women, used without their consent as commodities, sexual resources, or just instruments to produce progeny. The woman had no right to say no to any of this. Her value was in her usefulness to men, much like a farm animal, modified only by affection and a sense of moral custom. But, when God’s directive will was involved, by these cultural practices, women in the Bible were blessed by being part of God’s plan of producing the line that He came to earth through in His work of reconciliation of man to Himself. A woman’s lot in life, based on the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin and man’s prevailing cultural custom, was ameliorated only by the affection her husband might have toward her and the love of and for her children, sons of which might care for her in her old age if  She was widowed.

Keep in mind again that man invents culture and civilization and God permits him to do so by God’s permissive will. God alters and modifies to lead man’s effort to an end He has ordained. Imagine that while slave ships and ships for conquest went out a couple of hundred years ago missionaries went out as well. And while many missionaries were simply instruments of the conquering country or institutional church a minority simply went out as God’s instruments to save souls. We need to reorder history in our minds to see how God intervenes and directs. When you include God’s actions in the course of history and cease thinking of Him as simply a first cause or standing on the sidelines waiting for a prayer you get a different picture of history. Of course, you get a different picture of everything from biology to literature if you haven’t accepted the mental condition of modernity that removes God from every equation.

Genesis 20:3 ¶  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 other times that God speaks to men in dreams as to Jacob, Laban the Syrian, to Joseph, etc.

Abimelech is not the sort of man that the previous Pharaoh that Abram and Sarai encountered was. God dealt with that Pharaoh by visiting sickness on his house to cause him to bring no shame on Sarai/Sarah while God kept Abimelech’s household from conceiving as revealed later in verse 18. But, Abraham has misjudged Abimelech. God reveals to us that this king has integrity and wants to do right. He had not touched Sarah and truly thought she was Abraham’s sister. So, God moved in him to prevent him from having any relations with her. It was God who prevented this sin of ignorance that was possible but not completed.

God made provision for dealing with sins of ignorance, just not realizing what you were doing, in the Law given to Moses. You can read examples of this in the context of Leviticus, chapter 4, for example. But God does restrain us from following our “natural” impulses at times, our desires, as He did when he kept David and his men from killing, as Abigail believed, even though David considered it and felt justified by Nabal’s treatment of him and his men.

1Samuel 25:26  Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

God has restrained you from doing things that you thought were the right thing to do because you didn’t have all of the facts. How often have you thanked Him for that mercy? You have held your tongue when you really wanted to blast someone with your words only to find out that you were operating off incomplete understanding. We should always be careful and not to repeat the errors of Job’s friends in assuming we have knowledge we do not. A friend may get a serious illness, lose their job, have marital difficulties, or have a rebellious child and you assume there must be some secret sin in their life that they are being judged for but, if God is merciful to you, you managed to refrain from the evil of misrepresenting God and telling your friend what you think before you have all the facts. Of course, you may never have all of the facts so it is a good idea just to shut up and minister to your friend in their grief.

But, remember, as here, you may have some difficulty related to your intention to shoot your mouth off and hurt your friend. Think about what God is telling you. Abimelech’s household were having some problems with Sarah around. Something wasn’t right. Before God’s dream came to the king came the problem with conceiving. As you were intending to speak out of turn someone was saying things about you they had no knowledge of and this should have been a warning as God eventually prevented you from damaging your relationship with your friend. To see how God works in our lives we have to be sensitive to His guidance. This is very hard for you if you have adopted the modern sense of God not participating in your life on a moment by moment basis.

My problem has always been about assuming I knew someone’s intentions and motives when I did not. If that is your problem have you found yourself on the receiving end of someone accusing you of motives that you did not have as you contemplated the same error on someone else, even the same person? Did God prevent you from speaking your mind or, perhaps, did you not speak your mind in this instance and not realize that God had prevented you?

Think about when you don’t say something, did you really prevent yourself?

In God’s warning to Abimelech He refers to Abraham as a prophet. As Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel, and Israel itself went about doing God’s will, even if they had to be steered by God because of their stubbornness in not completely trusting and doing things their own way they received God’s protection.

Psalm 105:8 ¶  He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9  Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; 10  And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 11  Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: 12  When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. 13  When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; 14  He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Genesis 20:8 ¶  Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. 9  Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10  And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? 11  And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. 12  And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

This Philistine king does not delay early in the morning to calling his servants together and telling them how God spoke to him in this dream. Apparently, the righteousness of this individual king is reflected in the culture of his household.

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Understand God’s involvement in and control of every moment of your life and realize how badly you need to pray for His mercy and how happy you should be that He loves you.

Abimelech blames Abraham for deceiving him and bringing the possibility of great sin upon his household. He insists he has done nothing to deserve this treatment and wants to know why Abraham did it, what he saw in Abimelech that suggested this sinful deception was necessary. Abraham admits that he assumed that Abimelech was a godless reprobate who did not fear God. So, we can assume that this was the normal state of kings and kingdoms as Abraham knew. He had every reason to believe that Abimelech, as we have understood the customs of the time, would kill him and take his wife. It must have been a common concern of men.

Abraham then sort of halfway justified himself. “Well, what I said really wasn’t a lie. She is also my half-sister.” This scene makes a mockery of the times when we justify a lie, dissembling, insisting that since it was partly true it wasn’t really a lie. Oh, how many times I have heard that argument from a child, a teenager, or a grown person. The intent was deception but when found out we think we are so clever in that part of it was really true.

Finally, he says that this was what he told her to do everywhere they went where there was some danger. But, we see that Abraham’s lack of trust in God’s protection was unwarranted because even though he tried to deceive Abimelech for his own safety’s sake God revealed Himself to the king and warned him. In the two situations we see that Pharaoh, though wicked, was wise enough to know that, with the sicknesses brought on his house, he wanted to be rid of Abram and Sarai and even blessed them with abundance. But here, God, knowing Abimelech’s heart, revealed Himself, but protected Abraham.

Abimelech is a model of a righteous Gentile king.

2Samuel 23:3  The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

Genesis 20:14 ¶  And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15  And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. 16  And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. 17  So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. 18  For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.

The graciousness of a heathen king should cause many so-called Christian leaders shame. He not only did what God told him to do, restoring Sarah, but he made Abraham even wealthier than he was. Not only did he offer Abraham material wealth but he gave him the right to live in his kingdom wherever he wished.

Abimelech then scolds Sarah, calling Abraham her brother, as she and Abraham had dissembled regarding. He has rewarded Abraham and tells Sarah, in so many words, to stay faithful to Abraham, her husband, to not risk other men’s intentions toward her. She is never to call Abraham her brother again. Both have been reproved in this. Reproof, from which reprove comes, is correction. See the synonyms to reproof in this verse and do a word search to see the phrases and words it is linked with elsewhere to confirm.

2Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Remember, as you read Abraham’s journey, that the Bible is the story of God’s work in reconciling man to Himself. Reproof is an essential part of that correction, that instruction in righteousness, and fundamental to that doctrine.

It is important to note here that Abraham prayed for Abimelech, whom he had wronged. Prayers of supplication for others are important, as God reveals throughout the Bible. Christians are commanded to pray for each other.

 James 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

We are to pray for kings and all those in authority. As there were no Christian kings when this was written we are called to pray for the heathen leaders, that they come to Christ but for mercy and grace to be applied to them, as well.

1Timothy 2:1 ¶  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

We are to pray even for those who abuse us for our faith. Notice the context of God’s perfection here.

Matthew 5:43 ¶  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

God honored Abraham’s prayer and healed Abimelech’s household.

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