Genesis 20

This story is getting very familiar.

Abraham moved on and came to a new area. Abimelek is the king of that area and Abraham feared for his safety because Sarah was still beautiful, even though she was around the age of 90.

Again Abraham told Sarah to tell people he was her brother. He also told people she was his sister.

So Abimelek took Sarah into his household.

After she arrived all the women in the household failed to conceive. Presumably Sarah was there for some time, for it to be noticeable that there were no pregnancies in the household.

Abimelek was also stopped from ever sleeping with Sarah.

One night he had a dream where God told him he was as good as dead because Sarah was married to Abraham.

Abimelek pleaded with God. He had not slept with her. He understood she was Abraham’s sister and took her with a clear conscience.

God told him that He had stopped Abimelek from sleeping with Sarah.

God also told him to return Sarah to Abraham and ask Abraham to pray for him so that he would live.

So Abimelek summoned Abraham to his household. Abraham told him Sarah was his half sister, so he was correct in saying she was his sister. He also said that there was no fear of God in Abimelek’s kingdom so that he feared that he would be killed so Abimelek could get Sarah. This was why he had lied.

Abraham claimed that when God made him wander from his father’s household he told Sarah to tell people that he was her brother.

Of course the usual happened. Sarah was returned to Abraham along with silver, sheep, cattle and slaves. Abraham prayed for Abimelek and his household and the women started conceiving again.

This story again puzzles me.

Yet again, Abraham tells Sarah to tell people she is his sister. 

Now he is also implying he was “made” to leave his father’s household. It is as if he is blaming God for having to wander.

If that is so, then how is he considered righteous? 

This bit has always puzzled me. Is it that God knew this was Abraham’s weakness. That Abraham desired to obey God and follow Him but didn’t totally trust God?

Having thought about this for a long time, prayed and researched this subject, I think that is what is happening here. Abraham was not “perfect”, but he was being transformed by God into one who followed God closer as each year passed. He still didn’t totally trust God but a day would come when he would be more trusting and obedient.

This story also tells us that God watched over Sarah and kept her safe. 

This is hope for all of us that when things look bad and we are in difficult situations that God does watch over us. 

Sarah must have been in Abimelek’s household a long time for it to be noticeable no women were falling pregnant. It must have seemed hopeless to her at times that she would escape this man. But God did watch over her and in time she was returned, safe, to Abraham’s household.

It is interesting that the Bible focuses on Abraham and his experience but barely mentions Sarah and what she went through. There must have been a strong sense of deja vu by now. I wonder how fed up she was with the way she was being treated? What was her relationship with God like? Did she hold on to hope that God would watch over her as He had in the past? How strong was her faith in God?

We will never know the answers to these questions but we do know that God watched over Sarah and kept her safe. No matter how long she was there and how hopeless things seemed to be, she was kept safe and eventually returned to her own household. 

It is important to remember the instances in the Bible of God fulfilling His promises and watching over us. It can take an agonisingly long time, but it eventually happens.

Genesis 19

Before I start the blog I want to acknowledge that I have missed two weeks of blogs. Sometimes in life things happen to prevent things being done and that is what happened with me. I believe my blogs are written at the right time, when God wants them to be written and they are posted when God wants them to be posted. May what is written here be read by you when you need to hear its message.

In my last blog I spoke about Abraham being visited by God and the angels. At the end of that visit God told Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham begged Him not to destroy them if he found any righteous people there. God agreed to this.

Now the angels went to Sodom. Abraham’s nephew Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom in the evening. He saw the angels and begged them to come to his house where they could accept his hospitality.

The angels demurred, saying they would spend the night in the square.

But Lot insisted, so they went to his house. 

Lot prepared a meal for them and baked bread without yeast, which they ate.

Before they retired to bed for the evening, the men of Sodom came to the house and demanded Lot hand the men over so that they could have sex with them.

Lot went out to speak to them and told them he would give them his daughters instead, but they were not to harm these men he had offered hospitality to.

The men were not happy with Lot. They quite angrily pointed out he was a stranger and they would do what they wanted.
The angels pulled Lot inside and locked the door. When the men outside tried to break the door down the angels struck the men blind so that they could not find the door.

After this the angels instructed Lot to get any other family in Sodom out of the city. They were going to destroy the city because God had heard the outcries of the victims.

So Lot went out to the men promised to his daughters and told them to leave, but they laughed at him and refused to leave.

At sunrise the angels physically pulled Lot, his wife and daughters out of the city. Once outside they were instructed to run to the hills for safety. But Lot was afraid of what might happen in the mountains and asked instead if he could go to a nearby small town and the angels told him to go and hurry.

He was instructed to run and not look back. That the angels would hold off destroying the plain until he reached the town. Only the town would survive.

Once Lot had arrived in the town a river of lava rained down on the plain and Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his daughters were saved but his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Abraham looked out over the plain and saw the plain had been destroyed. God had carried out His threat to destroy these places. But God had saved Abraham’s nephew and family. Lot was after all a man who honoured God’s requirement to always care for travellers and to protect guests from harm. I am not too happy with his offer to hand his daughters over to be raped, but maybe he knew the men would not want them.

The end of his story is that Lot left the place of refuge and lived in a cave in the mountains. His daughters were concerned they would never have children as all the men were dead. So they hatched a plan to become pregnant by giving their father enough alcohol to pass out and then sleep with them. So they had children, one Moab – the father of the Moabites. The other Ben-Ammi – the father of the Ammonites.

What really struck me about this story is that the victims of the people of the plain cried out to God for help. Their cries were long and insistent. The abuse by the people of the plain had gone on for a long time. God had not acted. But now He had decided to act. 

The Bible is full of stories of God allowing victims to cry out for a long time before intervening. There are also examples of people doing wrong and God allowing it to go on for a long time before intervening. 

I don’t know why God does that. Why He allows terrible things to happen and doesn’t intervene. From the examples of the Bible we can learn that He does eventually act. But why He waits is a mystery.

This mystery cuts at the heart of human suffering. People live out their lives waiting for God to intervene and dying without His intervention. 

Maybe we will know after we die. Maybe it will be like Margaret Fishback Powers “Footprints in the Sand” poem. We will ask God why He didn’t help us and He will show us that He carried us during those times we felt most alone.

It is hard to maintain trust in God when you go through unrelenting hardships and never feel His support. So many talk about it. It is a common experience for so many.

There is so much about God we don’t know or understand. Suffering is one of them. I won’t offer empty words to comfort you if you are in such a time. I have been through those times too. I don’t know why God doesn’t intervene and the truth is no one knows.

In my darkest moments, when I am angry with God and want to turn my back on Him I won’t. I can not forget being called up into His throne room and being in His presence. I know God is. I don’t know why He does what He does, but I refuse to not believe in Him. Sometimes belief in Him is all I have. And in those times, I cling to that and wait for things to get better.

Never lose faith in God. His ways are ways we don’t understand. But God is. Sometimes the help He sends is so tiny you can miss it if you are not looking. 

May you look and see today.

Genesis 18:16-33

When I was a child I was admonished by church and Sunday School leaders to never question God. This puzzled me because the Bible is full of instances of people questioning Him. These verses here are a particularly notable example because this is Abraham, who has just made a covenant with God, questioning God. The way I was taught he would surely have been struck down. Yet here he is questioning God and God listens to him and doesn’t punish him.

After the conversation at the tent where Sarah had scoffed at God’s promise, God had stood up with the angels who accompanied him.

He wondered if He should hide from Abraham what He was about to do. He considered Abraham would become a great and powerful nation and that all nations on earth would be blessed through him. God had chosen him and He knew that Abraham would teach his children and household to keep God’s way and do what is right and just. 

It is important when considering how to follow God to realise that justice is one of God’s most important values. This is why these first 5 books of the Bible are so important to read. There is no room for harshness, judgementalism and black and white thinking in God’s followers. He expects us to do what is right and just.

God decided to tell Abraham what He was about to do. He was going to visit Sodom and Gomorrah to see for Himself how bad their sin was. Of course God did not need to physically visit. He knew full well what was going on there. But this was a test for Abraham. How would he react to what God was telling him.

Abraham was appalled at the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed when there might be righteous people living there. 

Abraham had the courage to stand in front of God and ask Him if He would destroy the righteous as well as the evil. He even argued to God that the God he knew would not lump the righteous in with the evil.

He kept challenging God on numbers until he was satisfied. 

God didn’t get angry with him. He listened and reassured Abraham that He would not kill the righteous.

If you have been taught that it is not acceptable to question God then you have been taught incorrectly. God does not condemn us for questioning Him. 

Never be frightened to be honest with God about how you are feeling and what is concerning you. He is our patient and loving parent. He loves us and is patient with us. It is only when we seek to do evil that He becomes less patient. I am not talking here about doing what others consider sin but doing genuinely evil things. We all sin, we all repent, and God forgives us.

Part of your relationship with God is about being comfortable to express your feelings. He will listen and He will appreciate your honesty. After all, He already knows what you are feeling, but if you hide it then He can’t have a conversation with you about it.