ABRAHAM AT GERAR

If we fail to learn from our mistakes, we will almost certainly repeat them! Abraham is a case in point, and events at Gerar prove that like Elijah, he was ‘a man subject to like passions as we are’, Jas. 5. 17. This wasn’t the first time that Abraham described Sarah as his sister (see Gen. 12. 10-20), and on both occasions he was reprimanded for his deception. After all, a half-truth is just as bad as a downright lie. We must be known for ‘sound speech, that cannot be condemned’, Titus 2. 8.

Whilst it is not surprising that God exonerated Abimelech from all blame in the circumstances, it is surprising that He does not censure Abraham. It is, however, remarkable that it was in response to the intercession of Abraham that God ‘healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children’. We might have expected Abimelech to have prayed for Abraham! But God makes no reference to Abraham’s weakness when speaking to Abimelech; ‘Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thoushalt live’, v. 7. This teaches us at least two important lessons:

First, that personal failure does not alter our standing before God. The book of Numbers records the murmuring of Israel in the wilderness, but it also tells us that God ‘hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’, Num. 23. 21. Like Joshua, our ‘filthy garments’ have been taken away, and we have been clothed with a ‘change of raiment’, Zech. 3. 1-6. But this does not mean that we are free to do as we please. Personal failure affects our communion with God. It is significant that at Gerar, God communicated with Abimelech, not Abraham, ‘in a dream by night’, v. 3.

Second, that personal failure does not mean the end of effective prayer. In fact, God expected Abraham to pray for Abimelech, and pledged to answer his prayer! The psalmist fully understood God’s provision for restoration; ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared’. God is gracious, and as with the psalmist, once our failure has been confessed, He will continue to hear and answer our prayers, Ps. 130. 3-5.