Ephesians Lesson 36 of 39 part 1

I have to tell people even before being instrumental in leading them to the Lord, "Now in short order, you’re going to come through a time of testing, and it will seem as though all hell has come upon you from all directions. And from the ones you would never have thought would." That happens every time to a new believer. God will allow testings to prove us and try us because as we have pointed out He places us all within the corral and under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit as in Israel's first estate. And all it does is just deepen our love and trusting in His faithfulness to bring about our dependency to Him and obedience on Him. We have the same thing with Abraham, and he has just now begun his walk in covenant ground and there is famine in the land of promise.

We are sure Abram has been instructed not to go down into Egypt, but yet he goes contrary to those instructions. For those of you who know your Bible, Egypt is always a picture of what? The world (filled with paganism). So he leaves the land of blessing, and land of promise, even though it is being tested with famine, and drops down into Egypt, which was a lot like Washington, DC as a political institution and New York City is the commercial core today. Egypt was at the very core of all the commerce, and economic activity and so forth, so it had all the allurement that the world even today has. So here Abram and his wife, and of course his nephew Lot is also still with him, can’t take the heat of the famine in Canaan, so down to the world they go. No doubt there is plenty of food and grain there. 

Genesis 12:10-12

"And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, (he’s on the border) that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: (now this is a believing husband speaking to a believing wife) Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife; (she is such a knock out, Pharaoh is going to want her in his harem) and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive."

We want to remember that the ancients had a moral code, and don’t think for a moment that they didn’t. They may have abrogated most of the time but they had a moral code. So Abraham knew his life wasn’t going to be for long, and he was thinking up a plan to stay alive. Now we are going to see the thing that what Abram did was the exact opposite of what Paul instructs us to do concerning our wives in this Age of Grace. Paul is teaching that Abraham should have been able to say, "Sarai, you’re beautiful, they will probably kill me, but for your sake, I’m willing to let them do it." But Abraham chickened out. We mean he chickened out, and said, "Now Sarai, we’re not going to let them kill me for your sake. You just go ahead and tell them that you are my sister, and they will spare my life." Now isn’t that something?

According to today’s standard of thinking, the sociologists, the psychologists, and the feminists, they would say, "What should Sarai have done?" She should have wrapped him on the side of the head, you know give him a Gibb smack, and said, "I’m not going to do such a thing. I’m not going to end up in some pagan king’s harem just for your sake." Isn’t that the thinking today? But you see Sarai didn’t respond that way. Sarai, obediently let them take her, and sure enough old Abraham was right, as they took her into the king’s harem. But you know what? The Almighty overruled. Even though Abraham pulled a dumb stunt, God still overruled on behalf of Sarai. And we think the lesson for women today is, yes once in a while your husband is going to make a dumb move, but you know what we know? "God is going to intervene in such a way that the end result for both husband and wife will still be for our good."

Genesis 20:1-2

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah."

We have to understand the pagan thinking of the ancients (in fact all throughout the Bible we need to be able to see and think as the ancients did, in order to understand the language and mindset of that time), and that was that they would kidnap beautiful women and bring them into the kings harem against their will. So Abraham instead of standing up and giving his life for Sarah, he lets them take her, and so she ends up in Abimelech’s harem, but God intervenes.

 

Genesis 20:3

"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."

And of course you know what the story goes on to say. Abimelech woke up and brought Sarah quickly back to Abraham. There is one more occasion this happens  when we find Isaac, he pulls the same stunt with his beautiful wife Rebekah in chapter 26 of Genesis. Remember this is a whole generation later.