FBT Daily Devotional: Genesis 20

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. Okay, today I have uh Genesis the 20th chapter, and um it's been real juicy. Um I dear brother Michael last night talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, which was head toward Crestmark Right. I'm so sorry, which was really, really good. Um I'm sorry, my phone is apparently traveling somewhere. I'm always traveling somewhere, so let me stop it. Um so it was really, really good as he was talking about um Sodom and Gomorrah. So today I'm talking a little bit about, give you a brief overview. Chapter 20 has to do with Abraham and Sarah again. Um, this time it talks a little bit about Abraham and Sarah and them traveling to um a land called Gar, Gyar, and um under a king called Abimelech. So I don't know if you guys have heard this story, you know. Um, for many years I've been teaching over in in kids world and I haven't had a chance to do it in the last two or three months because I've been on assignment. So um when we start out in the mornings or when we start out doing the word of God, we always tell the kids to repeat after us. Um, this is a so I'm gonna ask you in your heart to repeat after me, just to oblige me for today that this is um a story from the word of God, and it is a true story from the word of God. So in your heart, say true story from the word of God, true story from the word of God. So we're talking about a little bit about um Abraham and Sarah. Um, they were on the move again um in uh chapter 20. They were going to a place called Gerar. We're gonna stop there because I don't know, under a king by the name of Abimelech. Now he's been um Abraham has been in situations. I don't know if you guys remember from um chapter 12. He had been in a situation where um his wife, Sarah, apparently she was a looker. She was must have been a very, very beautiful woman. And um men desired her because she was beautiful. Well, um, here we go again into in the chapter 12. This man and this woman moved to another area, and Abraham's like, you know, I got a fine wife. Um, I need to protect me and protect her because basically I don't, I'm going to a land that I don't really know a whole lot about. Um, and before in chapter 12, Pharaoh was planning on killing um Abraham for Sarah. So that's just kind of a little bit what happened in chapter 12. And I know we went over chapter 12 here um before. I'm not sure who covered it, but you know, in Abraham's mind, he's like, wait a minute, I have dealt with this before. I'm moving somewhere new. I don't want anybody to be desiring my wife again, like that. Like he had a fear. Basically, I'm gonna call it, and I don't I don't like using this word overly, um overly, because they have taken certain terms in the world and used them inappropriately. But um uh I'm gonna say he probably had somewhat of a trauma response because what happened before was they were gonna kill him because of his wife. So what he did was he told the people that this lady is she my homie, she's my wife. She's not my wife, she's my sister. She's actually my sister, which is what he's done before. Now, in real life, this woman was his sister, she was his half-sister, but still nonetheless, she was still his wife. And his purpose for telling um the people in the town and and everybody that she was his sister is because he didn't want the same trouble that he had had before when he um was traveling around with her where he was about to be killed. So he basically told a half truth, a half lie. And my mama said, if you tell a half truth, it's really not not the truth, it's really a lie. So, and and I'm thinking, if I would think like Abraham would think, and it kind of describes it also in chapter 22, that basically um in his mind he was trying to protect himself, protect her, um, and he was doing what was not right. So he basically was having some memories of what was going on, and um God ultimately um you know showed him something different. So he was responding, his body was responding to something that had happened previously. So let me go get into it again get into the word a little bit. Um, of course, uh when we start in chapter one, um, it talks about uh Abraham's journey from um where he was south. And I'm just skipping around a little bit, but when you get a chance to read through it, now Abraham um said again to his wife uh about his wife Sarah that she's my sister. So Abimelech, the king of Guerrero, sent and took Sarah into his harem. So Abimelech saw her, thought she was beautiful, and decided to bring her into his in his in his little setting, which is not unusual for a king during that time. Um, but God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night and said, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you've taken as your wife, or in your harem is also another man's wife. Abimelech's like, yo, wait a minute. Um, now let me back up again. Um, Abraham had he's as he's a prophet of God, as we know, and um can make sure I watch my time. And he God had already given him a promise. His promise was that he was gonna have a son, and he'd given Sarah. So we knew that Abraham was a man of God. Even though he was a man of God, Abraham went and lied. Just putting that there, put a pin in that for a second. He was definitely called a God, but because he was in a pinch, a situation where there was fear, he did what felt comfortable and normal for him, which was to lie because he didn't want to be killed. So again, I would say that would be a trauma response of, you know, I don't want to be killed again. I know I've been called a God. I'm but I'm, you know, basically, I'm gonna say not in, well, we can't say whether it was intentional or not, but nonetheless, he lied and um knowing that God had a plan for his life. So even the man of God had been out there and you know, saying different things, knowing that God's hand was over his life. And Sarah knew her, his hand was over their life too, but he still took an opportunity to go into a new place. And instead of being a man, instead of standing up and being an honorable man, which he was for the most part, an honorable man most of his life, he made a mistake. He lied. He lied about his wife. So the king took him in, and the king basically told on on Abraham in the dream, told but Abimelech, look, this isn't this man's sister. He actually belongs to um, he actually belongs to someone else. Now, um basically God told him he was a dead man if he didn't um if he if he kept her in there. So Abimelech was shocked, he argues with argues with God respectfully. Wait, I didn't know in his heart, he really didn't know that the woman was not the man's sister. Um, so he actually Abimelech was listening to God as well, and God responds, I know, that's why I stopped you from touching her. And again, that's in um now Abimelechlek had not yet come near her, so he said to the Lord, uh, will you kill my people who are righteous and innocent and blameless? So regarding Sarah, so Abimelech even was fearful of God, he actually had fear of God in his life in his heart, and God told him, No, that's why I'm telling you this, basically in a dream, to protect you and protect your people and protect um Sarah, even when her husband, who is my prophet, did not protect her. Um, so the next morning, um Abimelech calls uh Abraham in and he has a conversation with him and said to him, basically, what are you doing? Why did you lie to me? Um, I could have sinned before God because of your lie. And that is that's verses um seven through it's through seven through eight, um, where he basically says, Now um return the man's wife, um, for he is a prophet, and he will pray, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, uh know that you shall surely die. You and all of yours will die. So Abimelech got up early the next morning and called all his servants and told them that these things that the man and the men were terrified. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What have you done to us? And how have you offended, how have I offended you that you have brought me here in the kingdom and wanted me to sin greatly? Um, you have done this to me, what ought not be done? And he said to Abraham, What have you encountered or seen um in your customs that you have done this thing to me? And Abraham said, Again, a trauma response, trauma response, um, because I thought surely there was no fear or reverence of God in this place. He didn't see what he thought was a reverence of God. Now, mind you, the chapter before was about Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham had prayed for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and now he's going to a new land, and he still sees people kind of wilding out. And he's like, I didn't see what looked like godly fearing people here. So, based off of that, I felt like I needed to protect myself and protect my wife. Again, trauma response because back in the day, Pharaoh had said he was gonna, you know, take his wife. He did take his wife, besides um back, she is actually my half-sister, so he kind of told the truth. Um, and then God calls me to wander to my father's house, and I said to her, This kind of and loyalty will keep loyalty can show me. So basically, the plot twisted because Abimelech had the dream. So even though Abraham was trying to protect himself to protect his wife, protect his wife, which he really wasn't protecting her, the plot twists when God got involved, which God was involved the whole time. But even the man um who had fear of God, God showed him in a dream that this was not what was supposed to be happening. So, in other words, basically, fear can make people act out of character, fear can make you act a certain way. Abraham was actually the father of faith, he was termed the father of faith, and even with that, he still struggled with fear and he had a trauma response. So God wants to protect us through his promises. Um, let's see, there was something down here that I wanted to get to before it's time for us to break out and breakout rooms. I know we're about to go. Um, Abraham, as we know, walked with God for years. He had seen miracles, he heard promises, um, and he watched Sodom be destroyed, but yet, and still he still was trying to protect when he really in his mind he was calling protection, but it was a trauma response. And I would offer and suggest to you that sometimes when we've seen God do miracles in our lives and we've seen him produce and do different things because of experiences that we heard had that were not positive, how many of us have trauma responses to things as well? Um, if trauma isn't healed, if it's not um taken care of, it helps us become powerless and we fall into sin again. So we have to be very, very, very careful about what we've experienced in life and how not to fall back in the same old patterns that we had before. Um, in Abraham's um mind, he thought the last time there was a powerful ruler and my beautiful wife, it entered, it equals danger for me. So he defaulted to what was his own natural strategy, which was to protect and lie, which is not what God wants us to do. He had unhealed wounds, unhealed hurt, unhealed fear from what had happened before, and he was bringing it into a new situation. So basically, his mind just went right to oh my gosh, I got to protect this situation when he really was not protecting. So that is my time. There is so much more I would like to go through about how Abraham panicked and get into a little bit more stuff, but my time is up and I want to be obedient. So let's go to breakout rooms and talk about it and pray. Thank you guys.