NUMBER 5

Thursday – 15, January 2015

'For a while he(Abraham) stayed at Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." Then Abimelech king of Gerar took her.' Genesis 20:1,2. 

I knew a man who, when the telephone rang, would say to his son, 'If it's so and so, tell him I am out.' On the first occasion his son challenged him, 'But you aren't out, dad!' His father responded by stepping out of the kitchen into the garden, 'I am now,' he said, 'If the phone rings, I will be out.'Obviously, with his father in the garden when the phone rang the child would not be lying in saying that he was out.... but it would still be deceit.

Abraham committed the same sin. For he had married his half sister, (same father different mother Gen 20:12). He wasn't wrong in stating that she was his sister. His sin was in inferring that she was not his wife. We may never tell a lie, but using truth to deceive another is just as bad. Secondly, this was not the first time Abraham had sinned like this. (see Gen 12:10-20). Sarah was beautiful, and having gone to Egypt to escape famine Abraham feared that the Egyptians would kill him so that they could take his wife. On that occasion too, he claimed she was his sister.

Yet despite committing the same sin more than once God did not give up on Abraham. Truly repentant, we can find ourselves later, when overwhelmed by fear/temptation, falling into the same trap again, only to feel afterwards, 'how can God continue to forgive such a failure as me?' Be assured, he can and he will if we are honest in our sorrow for sin and our longing to please him. Praise God our Salvation depends on his grace and not on our righteousness. God bless you all.

Howard Webber

Bournemouth, UK