1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

Studies in Genesis, Lies Are Never White, Lesson XLV, Genesis 20:1-18

Genesis 20:1-18, And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. ² And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. ³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. ⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? ⁵ Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. 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. ⁷ Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. ⁸ Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. ¹⁰ And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? ¹¹ And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. ¹² And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³ And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. ¹⁴ And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. ¹⁵ And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. ¹⁶ And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. ¹⁷ So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. ¹⁸ For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

When reading this chapter, the phrase Deja Vu comes to mind, the feeling that the situation currently being experienced has already been experienced in the past. 

And this feeling is indeed true for in our previous study of chapter 12 we found Abram and Sarai in Egypt before their names were changed, deceiving the Pharoah into thinking that Sarai was Abram’s sister without revealing that she was also his wife.

Revealing that she was only his sister was a self-serving revelation which is made known to us in verse 11 whereby Abraham says as a reason for his deception: Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

And then further we find an agreement between Abraham and Sarah relative to telling this deception at every place and inferring it was God’s fault for causing him to wander from his father’s house. 

So, this deception had become normal in Abraham’s house and both he and his wife decided it was best to do this so as to safeguard his life. 

There did not seem to be any consideration of what this might bring to Sarah.

But all this deception was outside the realm of the faith that God desired.

So, because of this agreement to deceive we have here in this account the revelation that Abraham had a besetting sin.

Now the word beset is not used much anymore but it’s definition is to surround, to enclose, to hem in; to besiege. 

Kind of like to set on and not get up.

It means to press on all sides, so as to perplex, to entangle, so as to render escape difficult or impossible.

Now Abram in obedience to God’s direction decided to set parameters for his travel and asked of Sarai what he called a kindness, which I suppose we would call a white lie, that at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. 

This was indeed deception for the important truth that should have been given was that she was his wife.

And this deception, this sin had continued, the reports given in scripture being only two but how many reports of this deception not given is unknown. 

So, this is indeed a sin that is besetting, a sin Abram found to press on all sides, a sin entangling, a sin with continuing consequences.

Abraham is not unique as to besetting sins for it is a commonality with us all. 

How many times must we battle for victory over that sin that keeps popping up on our radar? 

How many times must we repent for that besetting sin that overtakes us without any attempt on our part to stamp it out?

I have a protruding part on the leg of my bed which has a habit of calling my toe to it so that pain can be inflicted. 

I know it’s there but in the darkness of night as I run a needed personal errand I forget and ouch, ouch, ouch is my response for there is no pain like that of a stubbed toe. 

That is like a besetting sin for this sin of Abraham had become a habit.

And really, didn’t God call Abram to leave his father’s house and go to a land of promise? 

And didn’t Abram, by faith, follow God’s call and did not that call infer that God would protect him?

So, this scheme was unnecessary, illogical, and it did not work for as we see its use in Egypt and in Gerar brought him heartache and trouble.

But Abram was simply a man, a man with the nature to doubt and to fear and this neglect of faith brought him to this besetting sin.

One of the constants of the Christian walk is to trust in God. 

This is not an act that can be performed every other day for it is an act which is required every minute, every hour every day and it is done by faith.

If there is to be victory over besetting sins this is a must for by God’s grace and power, there can be victory.

But beware of overthinking that the besetting sin is permanently evicted from your household. 

The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians of this when he said in I Cor. 10:12, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Abraham, our father of faith had walked with God, had talked with God, had experience following God’s direction for years and yet he fell into the same sin that had defeated him twenty years prior to his incident.

This should teach us that even the strongest of us are weak and this weakness should move us to walk in the Spirit in order to be strong in His strength.

Did not God say to Paul, For my strength is made perfect in weakness? 

God is looking for the weak, He is looking for the humble that his strength may be perfectly revealed.

Besetting sins reveal weakness and are opportunities to call upon God’s strength that victory will come by His hand.

One of the revelations from this chapter is that besetting sins are based upon the love of self.

In Abraham’s actions with Abimelech was God lifted up or was God’s name tarnished? 

Abraham used his wife and put her in jeopardy in order to save himself.

He loved himself more than he loved God, more than he loved Sarah, for he deceived and exposed her to adultery, exposed her to bearing a son other than the promised son because he was afraid of being killed.

Didn’t he remember God’s promise of a son to come in the next year? 

Self-love, not faith, was his motivation.

The world blames the lack of self-worth and self-esteem for its faults.

But the Bible teaches that most of our sins are traced from the fact that we love ourselves more than we love God and more than we love others.

The world declares, and the spokesman for the world is Satan, that you are to love yourself more.

But as usual the message of Satan is the exact opposite of what God has told us in his word.   

Jesus our blessed Savior and Redeemer, spoke of this in Luke 9:23, And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. ²⁴ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 

Abraham in this instance was not losing his life for God’s sake, for he wished to save his life for his own sake and in this, faith was forgotten, and God’s care was forgotten. 

Sins common to our life are many times called white lies thinking that the committing of them will do no harm.   

And perhaps Abraham told this white lie whenever he moved to new places and in most cases it caused no harm.  

Abraham was a rich and powerful man and in this new situation Abimelech was moved to take Sarah, Abraham’s sister into his harem perhaps to form an alliance with this man, who brought with him formidable herds and a strong force of men. 

But this little white lie, used too often, did indeed cause much hurt.   

You can feel the hurt and fear in Abimelech as he recounts his visit with God in a dream by night where he is warned by God thou art but a dead man, if you touch Sarah for she is a man’s wife.  

He recounted the dream to his servants and they too were sore afraid and when he talked to Abraham he said: 

What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. ¹⁰ And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? 

And as part of this hurt God brought punishment to Abimelech for taking Sarah and closed up all the wombs of his wife and his maid servants and caused Abraham to pray for their healing.   

This whole experience with God and the threat of death put such fear in Abimelech that he gave great riches to Abraham, sheep, oxen, men and women servants and of course returning Sarah his wife and an invitation to dwell where it pleaseth thee to compensate for his own sin in taking another man’s wife. 

Our sin reaches into all avenues for we never have the luxury of sinning in private and we will find that our sin will hurt others. 

We can also note in this account that it is of our nature to make excuses for our besetting sins, to brush them off as insignificant and not turn them out of our lives. 

In this account there is one who repents, and it is not Abraham.  

The Bible does not tell us of it but it tells us of him making excuses for it, not confessing his sin.   

Abimelech, full of fear, after hearing from God about his own sin in taking Sarah, confronts Abraham who does not bring repentance but brings excuses by saying he thought there would be no fear of God in this place. 

But how wrong he was in that faithless assessment for the men of that place greatly feared when they heard of God’s potential judgment on them.  

But Abraham feared them more than he feared God.   

That is what deception reveals, a greater fear of man, more than a fear of God by sinning. 

Abraham had developed this scheme ever since God caused him to wander from his father’s house.   

In his mind this was a dangerous venture and he must depend upon himself for protection, so he planned this lie.  

Why did he not think that if God called him to this great purpose of the birth of nations wouldn’t God be sure to keep him safe?   

Remember the saying of Dr. Bob Jones, It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.   

Abraham never heard that saying but it is a principal of faith.   

Abraham justified his deception in order to stay alive, so God’s promises would come about.  

But he forgot that God did not need his help to bring things to pass.

God does not want sin to be in the mix that brings his recipe to fruition. 

True, Sarah was his sister, but this truth was not the truth that was called for in this situation and therefore it was intended to deceive so that Abraham was safe. 

He bent the facts to promote falsehood and that is lying even if what he said was true.  

Abraham called his lie a kindness.   

This is so commonly used to cover lies is it not, as we say kindnesses to justify not telling the truth.   

Do you hear this at the ballfield? Wow, Son or Daughter, that was a great almost catch.   

Sure did enjoy that meal as some of the food is sneakingly given to the dog under the table.   

Honey, Do you like my new dress?  

Of course, dear, anything you wear is just beautiful because you are in it! 

But the bottom line of many kindnesses is a lie and a lie is never a little thing for it is always sin. 

Abraham had engaged in this conspiracy from the beginning of their quest and had gotten into a habit of saying this is the way we’ve always done it but just because we have always done something does not make it right.   

God says therefore, when we are born into his family, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

God can always, by His grace, take away those besetting sins, sins which we are so connected to by habit if we remember that old things are passed away with the old man. 

So, we have learned that besetting sins always arise from self-love, they not only hurt self, but they will hurt others, and we tend to see them as insignificant and excuse them rather than to confess and repent them before the Lord.