Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 20

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Introduction

            In 1978 Carla and I moved into the village of Isle La Crosse, Saskatchewan for a one month stay.

We were supposed to proclaim the gospel as part of a missionary training program with NCEM.

It was difficult.

On one occasion, I had lost my knife.

One day we saw a group of kids who had been at our place and as we talked to them, I noticed that one of them had my knife.

When I asked about it, he denied having taken it and I had to buy it back.

On another occasion, early on a Sunday morning, a very drunk woman was banging on our door and wanting to get in.

This was uncomfortable because we were living in a truck camper set on the ground.

We were very aware of the fact that there were not a lot of Christian people in the community.

We felt quite alone and longed for Christian fellowship and wondered how to live and even make an impact in this community.

These feelings have happened to me at other times.

When I got my first job right out of high school, I worked with an interesting character who did not always show up for work on time because of what he had been doing the night before.

Conversations with him were not like any I was used to at the Christian school I had attended.

When I attended university I was challenged by other students and by professors.

Once I was in an elevator on my way to class.

I wore a button on my jacket, “God loves you” and one of the professors challenged me about that statement.

How do we live among people who are not believers?

Abraham found himself in such a situation.

In one of his travels, he moved to an area called Gerar which was on the eastern border of Canaan.

There was a king by the name of Abimelech who ruled in this area.

How would Abraham live among these people who did not know God?

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I. Wrong Judgements

!! A. Abraham’s Conclusion

            Don’t you hate it when you make the same mistake twice?

Sometimes we wonder at others and even ask, “You did the same thing again??!!” The story of Abraham’s sojourn in Gerar, found in Genesis 20, sounds similar to the story of his trip down to Egypt in Genesis 12.

He made the same mistake again by saying that Sarah was his sister.

He hadn’t learned the first time.

The story in Genesis 20 takes place after the heavenly messengers have announced to Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child and just before Isaac was born.

This is important when we realize that it comes at a time when Sarah was going to become pregnant and that she could have become pregnant by a man other than Abraham.

It was a threat to the promise made about the birth of Isaac.

As they came into this territory, Abraham told Sarah once again “say you are my sister.”

As we see later in the story, this was not a lie.

She was his sister, at least his half sister.

She was the daughter of his father, but not his mother.

And yet it involved a deception because he was hiding the fact that she was his wife.

Why did he do this?

The reason comes out later in the story when Abimelech confronted Abraham and asked him why he did this.

Abraham’s reason is given in Genesis 20:11, “I said to myself, There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.”

We can understand this conclusion, coming as it does just after the story of Sodom.

Abraham knew the evil of the people of Sodom and assumed that all people were just as bad.

He concluded, naturally enough, that the people in Gerar were also wicked and that they did not have a fear of God.

Abraham made a judgement about the pagan world around him.

!! B. The Righteousness Of Abimelech

            The only problem is that he was dead wrong in his judgement.

There is much evidence in this story that there was a fear of God in this place, that in fact Abimelech was a man who was prepared to listen to God.

As soon as Abimelech took Sarah into his harem - likely not because she was such a beauty, but because of a political alliance with Abraham - God brought sickness and the inability to conceive children to Abimelech and his household.

Very soon after this, God came to Abimelech in a dream and said, in effect, “you’re a dead man.”

He had taken a married woman and it is interesting to see the strong view against adultery in this society.

I have heard stories in our society which demonstrate that the faithfulness of the marriage vow is not held very highly in some contexts.

In this supposedly pagan society, it was held very highly.

But Abimelech protested that he had not yet touched her and that he had taken her in innocence, not knowing she was married and going by the words of Abraham himself which suggested that she was available.

That he hadn’t touched Sarah is important.

It means that he is innocent and also that Sarah will not have illegitimate offspring.

So far, we see innocence because of God’s protection in that he prevented Abimelech from touching her.

But was Abimelech a man who feared God or was Abraham right in his judgement?

Abimelech was given a choice in verse 7.

He was told that he must return Sarah and that if he did not, he was a dead man.

How would a man who does not fear God respond to such a warning?

If Abimelech had been the man Abraham thought he was, he would not have taken it seriously.

The warning reminds us of the warning to Cain when God said to him, “sin is crouching at the door, but you must master it.”

Abimelech could act in righteousness or ignore the voice of God as Cain did.

Cain, supposedly came from a godly line and failed to listen to God.

Abimelech, according to Abraham’s assumption, was from a pagan line.

Would he listen to the voice of God?

The next verse is the first indication that Abimelech was not at all like Abraham thought he was.

When he heard the warning of God, 20:8 says that      “they were very much afraid.”

The prompt response of Abimelech was fear of God, a proper fear of God.

The further response of Abimelech demonstrates that he was not like Abraham assumed at all.

He returned Sarah to Abraham and then blessed Abraham, giving him sheep and cattle and allowing him to live wherever he wanted.

He paid a huge sum of money to Sarah as proof that he had not touched her.

His actions demonstrated that he did fear God.

!! C. Do Not Judge!

The judgement of Abraham was “there is no fear of God in this place,” but how wrong he was in that judgement.

Sometimes we look at people of the world and we make the same judgements.

We assume that another person is not a Christian.

We make a judgement about their relationship with God.

Are we right in that judgement?

We assume that people of the world will act in a certain way just because they are not Christians.

We assume that unbelievers cheat, are open to adultery and drink too much.

Are we accurate in those judgements?

We assume that people will hate us because they do not share our faith in God.

Is that accurate?

Jesus warns us about making these kind of judgements about others.

He said in Matthew 7:1,2, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

One of the places where I have struggled with this issue is in relationship to other churches and pastors.

I have often been in ministerial associations with pastors from many other churches.

I have sometimes thought - “there is no fear of God in this place.”

This has made me afraid and caused me to do one of two things.

Either I have avoided contact and just been quiet about my faith or I have attacked the theological position of others with argumentation and sometimes even sarcasm.

As I have studied Scripture, prayed about this and continued to relate to these people, I have discovered that I was often wrong about there not being faith in this place.

Although we may not always agree on every detail, other people are on a journey to God and do have faith in God.

I have learned that it is not right to make judgements about where other people are at in their journey towards God.

Whenever people speak to me about someone else and indicate that they are not Christians, I get very uncomfortable.

Jesus tells us not to make such judgements.

Abraham made a serious error in judgement when he assumed that there was no fear of God in Gerar.

We often do the same thing and the example of Abraham and the teaching of Jesus warns us not to make such judgements about people.

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II.