Abraham was Rebuked by and Unbeliever (Gen. 20:8-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 09-15-2006

My Worship Time                                                      Focus: Rebuked by an Unbeliever

Bible Reading & Meditation                                 Reference:  Genesis 20:8-18

            Message of the verse:  “8  So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly frightened.  9  Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, ‘What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.’  10  And Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘What have you encountered, that you have done this thing?’

11  Abraham said, ‘Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.  12  ‘Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; 13  and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, ‘He is my brother.’

14 Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him.  15  Abimelech said, ‘Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.’  16  To Sarah he said, ‘Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.’  17  Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.  18  For the LORD had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.”

Dr. Wiersbe points things that this sin cost Abraham: 

1.  The first thing that this sin cost Abraham was character, for this is one of the main things that a believer in the Lord is building, and sin always causes us to loose character.

            2.  The second thing that Abraham lost was his testimony.  James Strahan wrote, “A bad man’s example has little influence over a good men, but the bad example of a good man, eminent in station established in reputation, has an enormous power for evil.”

Abraham lost is testimony to Abimelech.

            3.  He lost his ministry; for instead of being a source of blessing he was the cause of judgment.  Discipline usually follows a child of God who gets out of the will of God.  See Jonah 1; Josh. 7; and 2Samuel 12:10 for examples of this principle.

            4. Perhaps one of the saddest consequences of Abraham’s sin was that his son Isaac would follow in the footsteps of his father and do the same thing, even making it worse by telling the same lie for his wife was really a cousin and not his half sister.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Dr. Wiersbe goes on telling of victory that a believer can have who confesses his sin and gets back in the will of God for their lives, for a true believer has been justified before the Lord because of Christ’s death on the cross so as stated in an earlier SD “The Christian life is a series of new beginnings,” certainly applies here.  Sin is often times the easy way out, yet it is never the best way, for it is always the worst way out.

The Word of God has been very challenging to my heart along with being very convicting to my heart this morning. 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To remember the cost that sin has caused in my life and reflect on it for a time, yet more importantly reflect on the forgiveness that God has provided to me through the Lord Jesus Christ’s work at Calvary.