MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Genesis 12, 20, 26
Reader: Richard Wallman
According to the dictionary, a “besetting sin” is a sin that is “persistent,” “deeply rooted”, one that haunts a person, gives him or her great trouble, and causes pain for others.
Four pastors went away for a retreat. As they sat around the fire talking, one pastor said, “Let’s all share our besetting sins. I’ll go first. My besetting sin is that every so often I slip away from the office to the racetrack and bet on the horses.” The second pastor volunteered, “My besetting sin is that I keep a bottle of wine down in my basement. When I get really frustrated with my deacons, I sneak down there and have a nip of wine.” The third pastor gulped and said, “My besetting sin is that I keep a punching bag at home. When I get mad at someone in the church, I go home and think about that person as I hit the punching bag.” They all turned to the fourth pastor and asked, “Well, what is your besetting sin?” He hesitated, but they coaxed him. Finally, he said, “My besetting sin is gossip, and I can’t wait to get home!”
From the bible.org website here are 5 observations re. besetting sins:
- Besetting sins are always a danger.
The minute we forget this, or start thinking we’re strong enough in ourselves, we’re in trouble. If we know that we’re easily tempted by certain situations, such as being around alcohol for alcoholics, avoid those situations, whatever they may be! The Bible teaches that we can have consistent victory over sin, but it comes through relying on the Lord’s strength, not ours.
- Besetting sins are rooted in the love of self.
Today, we will see two men, Abraham and his son Isaac, who loved their own lives more than their wives, and who did not love or trust God as fully as they should have. The Bible teaches that most of our sins stem from the fact that we love ourselves more than we love God and more than we love others. The solution to this lies in “denying yourself”, as Jesus told us in Luke 9:23.
- Besetting sins always hurt others.
We tend to think of our besetting sins as basically harmless, e.g. “This is just a little white lie. No one will get hurt.” But sin always hurts someone, so we need to think things through carefully before sinning.
- We tend to excuse besetting sins; not confess & forsake them.
We will see examples of this today in the lives of Abraham & Isaac.
- Besetting sins always dishonour God.
All sin dishonors God but when we are seen as representatives of God, our sin is particularly egregious. Today, we will see two men who did not represented God well. Before we look at their stories, though, I do want to commend them in one way: that being, that they understood their culture well. You may remember that before Jesus sent out his disciples to witness to their society about the Good News of the Kingdom of God that he had brought to the world, he said to them,
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
God’s people are not to be naïve, ignorant, or uninformed about what is going on in the world around them. Abraham and Isaac understood that in the Ancient Near East, male rulers had the right to marry any woman they wanted. We moderns are understandably disgusted by this, but in those societies, the people needed to understand that if they wanted to survive. A king taking a woman into their harem was a power move, a bragging point stating their greatness. But if said ruler desired an already-married woman, the solution was to have the husband murdered. Married couples would try to skirt around that reality by claiming that they were not married but brother and sister. This was a self-preservation ploy by the husband, but it did not alter the terrible reality of the wife having to enter the king’s harem. By the way, it seems that in Egyptian culture, adultery was considered to be worse than murder. In our culture murder is illegal, but adultery is not. In any case, after Abraham and Sarah had previously arrived in the Promised Land of Canaan, we read that they went on through to Egypt.
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. (Genesis 12:10-16)
We believe that there were ethical problems with Abraham getting rich after lying but that fact was not recorded for us to admire or emulate. The flocks and servants given to Abraham were in exchange for Sarah. Those gifts were from Pharaoh, not a blessing from God. However, Pharaoh would soon regret the entire situation.
But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So, Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had. (Genesis 12:17-20)
Abraham, Sarah, everything and everyone with them moved back to the Promised Land, eventually settling in the hill country of Canaan, at the city of Hebron. Sometime later, though, after the events in the nearby Jordan River Valley where many cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah, were destroyed, Abraham decided to move far away.
Project map showing Abraham’s movements https://howellworldhistory.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/map_of_abrahams_journey.jpg
We read,
Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. (Genesis 20:1,2)
Abraham’s “besetting sin” of not trusting God but fearing others rears its ugly head, once again! The late radio preacher J. Vernon McGee observed, “Chapter 20 seems about as necessary as a fifth leg on a cow. It is a chapter that you feel as if you would like to leave out, because in it, Abraham repeats the same sin which he committed when he went down into the land of Egypt and lied concerning Sarah.”
Liberal critics of the Bible argue that these two accounts of Abraham, as well as the very similar incident with Isaac that we will look at from chapter 26, were really only one incident, which a not-too-smart editor for some reason rewrote and mistakenly claimed were three different incidents. But that would mean that whoever put Genesis together was truly “not-too-smart” for there are differences amongst each. Thus, there is no reason to doubt their historicity, particularly when one considers the human tendency to commit besetting sins.
In this second incident involving Abraham, this time with King Abimelek of Philistia, there is no indication that Abraham sought the Lord before his move to Gerar. Going to a place where it was known the ruler would take his wife for himself was foolish of Abraham. Sarah was now 90 years old. Unlike in the earlier incident in Egypt where Pharaoh noticed Sarah’s beauty, there is no mention that it was her beauty that enticed Abimelek, a fact that leads commentators to deduce that Abimelek’s taking of Sarah as his wife was intended as a power move, meant to cement his greatness.
But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” (Genesis 20:3-7)
“But God”…God inserted Himself into this situation so that a sin might not occur. “Give Sarah back to Abraham”, God tells Abimelek. Let’s remember that this incident happened not long after God had told Abraham that Sarah would become pregnant and bear a son named Isaac, the promised child of the covenant that would culminate in the Messiah, Jesus. Since Isaac was the link in God’s plan to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed, the whole Messianic program had been jeopardized by Abraham’s foolish lie. That is why God intervened.
Early the next morning Abimelek summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid. Then Abimelek called Abraham in and said, “What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.” And Abimelek asked Abraham, “What was your reason for doing this?” Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” (Genesis 20:8-13)
Abraham offered three lame excuses for his behaviour. First, he wrongly assumed that because there was “no fear of God” in that place but Abimelek and his officials showed that they actually feared God more than Abraham did! Second, Abraham justified his lie by stating that his claim of Sarah being his sister was really the truth because they had the same father, Terah. Though technically true, it was intended as a lie, however. The motive is what counted. Third, Abraham claimed that this was a long-standing plan hatched between Sarah and him back in Ur of the Chaldeans and that he was simply following through on their agreed-to ploy. But everyone asks, “why didn’t Abraham trust God?” That is the real puzzler in this incident.
Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelek said, “My land is before you; live wherever you like.” To Sarah he said, “I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.” Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah. (Genesis 20:14-18)
Abimelek recognized that having a known, powerful man like Abraham live in his land could benefit him, so he offered Abraham land (which Abraham turned down), but we can surmise that in being generous, Abimelech was also “heaping burning coals on his head” (as the Bible says). We would all say that Abraham should have been the one giving gifts, because he was the one who lied. However, by God’s grace, wherever he went, whatever he did, Abraham stood under God’s protection and blessing. That was because he was the one through whom covenantal blessings would come to the world. By the way, Abimelek giving 1000 shekels to Sarah when, in that culture, fifty shekels was the maximum ever asked for in a marriage and the average wage of a worker in his land was only half a shekel a month, shows how seriously Abimelek took his own sin. Abraham could have learned a lesson from him!
One more thing in this incident: did you notice that God referred to Abraham as being a “prophet”? This was the first use of the word “prophet” in the Bible. That word “prophet” seems to have originally meant a “divinely chosen spokesperson”. “He will pray for you and you will live”, God told Abimelek. In an ironic twist for a man who had been praying for decades for his wife Sarah to become pregnant, Abraham was led by God to pray for all the women in Abimelek’s household to become pregnant. His prayers were answered.
Going now to our third incident of “besetting sins”, we will see the old adage, “Like father, like son” being played out with Abraham’s son, Isaac, who was married to Rebekah. This incident took place some 40 years after the second incident so the Abimelek mentioned here would have been a different person. Adding credence to that is the belief that the word “Abimelek”, just so you know, is believed to be as the word “Pharaoh” was for the Egyptian ruler, a title rather than a name.
Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar…When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.” When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.” Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” (Genesis 26:1,7-11)
How do we end this? Well, we all think poorly of Abraham and Isaac for lying to protect their lives. However, most of us believe in the right to self-defence. If someone is trying to kill you, it’s okay to take steps to preserve your life. Besides which, we understand and pray for missionaries who are not truthful with the authorities of lands hostile to the Gospel that they go into. Those missionaries have our full support when they lie to protect their lives so maybe we should have some grace to Abraham and Isaac. Personally, I find it helpful to read uncomfortable stories like the three we studied today. They are not glamorous stories, and do not paint the giants of the faith in a good light, but they are honest and cause me to think. After all, being human, like Abraham and Isaac were, I can easily fall back into besetting sins. How about you? The apostle Paul wrote,
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:19,24,25)
Are there sins that you have taken to the Lord and said, “Never again!” only to find yourself returning to the Lord to confess the same sin again and again? It may have to do with substances, interpersonal relationships, a habit you simply can’t shake, an emotion you can’t seem to control, unhealthy spending habits, an unwise desire for material goods, or poor time management. Whatever the besetting sin, it does need to have control over you, for we read in the Bible that,
In Christ, we have been set free from our sins and are no longer slaves to sin (John 8:36).
As well, we can stand strong as the apostle Paul did, saying,
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
And, with all the saints, we are told,
We can lay aside “the sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1).
Finally, if a besetting sin does take us down, we can seek God’s wonderful mercy and grace, and claim this promise for ourselves:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
It is my hope this morning that you find a way to be encouraged by these stories of Abraham and Isaac. In your besetting sins, you are not alone. Abraham and Isaac struggled. We all struggle. It’s a part of the human journey. The path to spiritual maturity begins when we are humble enough to acknowledge our need for change and growth. Victory can be yours, in Jesus. And, until then, God is with you, to protect and save you. So, be encouraged! Amen.
