Vision (11.8.24): I also withheld thee from sinning against me (Genesis 20:6)

 

Image: King Abimelech Restores Sarah to her Husband, Abraham, tapestry, by Frans Geubels, c. 1580, Dayton Art Institute.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 20:1-21:8

Genesis 20:6 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.

After the just destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we are told that Abraham “journeyed” south and then “sojourned in Gerar” (Genessis 20:1). In this foreign land, rather than trust in the LORD’s protection, Abraham deceived Abimelech the king of Gerar by saying that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. He later explains that he did so, thinking, “Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake” (v. 11). He had done this same thing in Genesis 12 when he had traveled to Egypt during a time of famine (cf. Genesis 12:10-13). As Pharaoh had taken Sarah in Egypt, so Abimelech took her in Gerar.

The LORD then spoke to the pagan king in a dream and declared him to be a “dead man” for taking another man’s wife (20:3). Abimelech protested that he had been deceived and had only acted “in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands” (v. 5).

In v. 6 we hear the LORD God’s response. He begins, “Yea, I know….” This is worthy of meditation. The God of the Bible is God of all knowledge. He is omniscient. He knows all things, because he decrees all things.

He knows of Abimelech’s innocence, yet he reveals something further. The LORD knew that Abimelech had not approached Sarah, but the king had only been restrained from doing so, not by any righteousness in him, but only by the LORD’s own providential intervention: “for I also withheld thee from sinning against me” (v. 6).

That statement is truly something to consider. Who gets the glory in all things? When we do what it right, it is only by the grace of God and to God alone be the glory. And when we do NOT do that which is evil, this too is only by the grace of God, and to God alone be the glory.

Consider how many sinful things (actual transgressions) you have already done in your life. Then consider how many sinful things the LORD has, in his kind providence, graciously kept you, restrained you, from doing.

In how many circumstances, known and unknown by men, might the LORD say to us, as he did to Abimelech in Genesis 20:6: “for I also withheld thee from sinning against me.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle