February 21: The First Sunday in Lent
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.” –Genesis 21:22-24
Abraham is a man of faith, a saint, a hero in the history of redemption. This I know for the Bible tells me so! Why does the Bible have to tell me so? Because at any given moment in Abraham’s life, he may not look so faithful, saintly, or heroic. This is because he tended to deceive when he sensed he was in danger. When he thought other people were going to try to destroy him, he began scheming his way through the situation. He’s not the only Bible character who is named as righteous who does that either.
In the passage above King Abimelech and General Phicol come seeking peace with Abraham. Abimelech is ever so aware that concerning Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.” Abimelech knows Abraham’s God is for Abraham. He knows to go against Abraham is to go against the God who gets anything and everything he wants (“El-Shaddai”).
But the way he learned that was a hard way. Abraham lied to Abimelech and told him Sarah was his sister. Abraham sensed danger for himself and let Sarah be taken into the harem of Abimelech. This happened almost exactly the same way before with Pharoah 25 years before. Good grief! But Abimelech almost died not because he stole Sarah away, but because he believed Abraham’s lie.
In other words, Abimelech is sure about Abraham’s God, but he is not so sure about Abraham. So he cuts a covenant with Abraham to try to put Abraham under God’s oath that Abraham will tell him the truth all the time (“Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me…”)
There’s a lot that could be said about the passage, but what one might initially miss is that Abimelech throughout chapters 20 and 21 of Genesis seems always to do the right thing when he knows what the right thing is (both with Sarah and the well later on in Genesis 21). Abimelech obeys God and God’s servant-prophet Abraham. Abraham, on the other hand, knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it. Yet, as far as we can tell, Abraham is the Lord’s and Abimelech isn’t.
Being the Lord’s isn’t about being good or bad; it is in every other world religion, but in Christianity God justifies the wicked by faith in his promised Son (Abraham does this in Genesis 15//Romans 4). The gospel is not that good people go to heaven. The gospel is not that God’s people necessarily are better than all those who are not God’s people. The gospel is that Christ died for sinners like Abraham who would surely have ruined himself without the Lord both before and after his conversion. Christ didn’t need to die for godly (as if there were any); Christ died for the ungodly.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!