Genesis 20: Why Here, Why Now?

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.  Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. (Genesis 20:1-2 NASB)

Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.  Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; 13 and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'" (Genesis 20:11-13 NASB)

This chapter in Genesis seems odd for a lot of reasons, only one of which is that Sarah is now 90.  It may be difficult to imagine a 90-year-old winning a beauty contest in our day, but perhaps, longer lifespans of that age would make it plausible.  She lives long enough after this to raise a son, so perhaps at this point she can win one.  But that's just one oddity.

Another odd piece is the placement.  Either this happens a lot or Sarah really can't win a beauty pageant.  Abraham and Sarah have used this ploy ever since they have been in Canaan.  It makes it seem as if everywhere they go, this is how they introduce themselves, as brother and sister.  This is one of the reasons it's difficult for me to believe that this is a response to fear or lack of faith.  If it is, it one that God seems to permit.

The position of this account is sandwiched between Sarah being revealed as the mother of Isaac and the birth of Isaac.  So, I have wondered whether or not this account really ocurred at some other time in the lives of Abraham and Sarah.  It's placement here creates some tension in the story of Abraham because there is suddenly the danger that Isaac would not be Abraham's son, or at least that it wouldn't look that way.  That Abraham would continue this ploy after the assurance that Sarah would bear Isaac also seems strange.

So, as I examine this passage, I am left with two possibilities that fit the character of both Abraham and God.  Either the passage is in the wrong place but placed here for narrative tension, or Abraham really isn't "scared" at all, rather he is shrewd.  In this account, as in Genesis 12, he is handsomely rewarded.  He comes out on the other end of it with more than he started with.  And God backs him up in this.  It seems oddly out of character for both Abraham and God, regardless of placement.

The character of both God and Abraham are where I find my application.  Abraham is not a "perfect" prophet, or at least not perfect in his assurance that God will protect him without his deception.  God is perfectly willing to protect his weak chosen one.  He has a specific plan and will even support the deception of his prophet to make it happen.  And God is perfectly willing to raise up a chosen people from one with such character.  I see in this relationship room for me to have this sort of walk with my Master.

In Abraham, I see someone who I can measure up to.  I see that God is willing to work with my strange lapses into weakness.  I see that I can't really mess up God's plan, at least not in specifics.  I see that God will choose to work with me regardless of gaps in my character.

So if the key is not "perfectly complete" faith, what is it?  What is the key to such a relationship with the Master of the universe, Creator of all matter?  From this passage the key seems to be the Master.  Even with the king, Abimelech, the key is the Master.  It's not me, my character, or my ability to meet a standard that continues the relationship with my Master, it is my Master who continues the relationship with me. 

The grace of my Master, once having initiated my relationship with Him, now is the mechanism sustaining that relationship.  The love of the One forming stars fashions a link with me that I cannot really control or break.  Perhaps it's the irresistable grace of Calvinists, but I think of it more in terms of an irresistable desire of an irresistable God.  It's not that I want Him or that I have "gotten His attention."  It is that He has regarded me for His own reasons. 

I believe that I responded and that this response of mine is crucial; like the obedience of Abraham in leaving Haran.  But that He has regard for me is not because of something I have done.  Whatever potential He sees in me, He put there in the first place.  It was never a potential "created" or "imagined" by me.  Again, and again, my prayers have to begin with, "You love me, You have my back, and I am at Your service."  For me in my walk with my Master, that is what it is about.

Allowing my Master to be my Advocate

In Psalm 123, in this Psalm of Ascents, the writer cries out to the Master for grace because of the excess of contempt they have experienced.  If it had a curse to call down on those who held the writer in contempt it would be an imprecatory psalm, but it’s really not.  It asks for grace from Yahweh rather than pain on those who hold the writer in contempt.  This is a psalm sung on the way up to Jerusalem to worship, a traveling song where the end of the journey is the worship of the Great King.  On the way, they sought grace.

When I am held in contempt, I want to fix it.  I want to explain myself because clearly they don’t understand.  Who could understand and hold me in contempt?  Please stop laughing, it feels like contempt, and you clearly don’t understand.  Of course that’s not the problem, at least not usually.  The most common time for me to experience this is when I’m explaining something absolutely no one cares about or is interested in.  I can’t tell you how often it happened in sermons.  I get all excited about something and go to explain it to the nearest human available.  Invariably I get these looks, like my sanity is in question.

The answer to such a problem is not more explanation.  I’m learning that now, slowly.  Instead, what I need is what the psalmist asked for, grace from Yahweh.  I need grace from my Master because I am focused on myself.  I need grace from my Master because whatever I learned came from Him anyway.  I need grace from my Master because I need to be willing to accept that I will be misunderstood (wasn’t Jesus?  Am I not supposed to be walking in His footsteps?  So, get over it!).  That willingness to accept being misunderstood requires a lot of grace, but it requires something else as well.

Part of the problem I’m trying to fix by over explaining myself is my acceptance by the other person.  I am trying to repair a breach formed between them and me.  The problem with my solution is that I want to fix the footing of the bridge within their boundaries, and it’s not mine to fix.  I want some modicum of control over the other persons’ will.  That is wrong on a very fundamental level.  That is why I need to go to my Master.  I need an adjustment at a fundamental level.  By focusing back on my Master several things are fixed at once.

Returning my focus to my Master builds gratitude into my response to whatever I learn.  I don’t take credit for it, but thank my Master for His revelation.  By going back to my Master, I permit Him to direct when, where, and to whom I share my new understanding.  And I accept that He may not permit it.  Accepting that this could be just for me is hard.  I feel like the village idiot, the only one who needs this lesson.  I may not be, but my Master asks me to rely on Him totally, whether I am or am not the village idiot.  I gain the humility necessary to be the village idiot for my Master’s sake, which is the only way I can have peace in my life.

I learn, and I hope to change in response to what I learn.  What I learn today from this Scripture is that when I receive contempt, I go to my Master, not into combat mode.  This is a spiritual discipline of relinquishment that gives up more of myself and receives more of my Master.  It helps me fade into the background scenery of the play of life, and let my Master take the center stage; where He belongs.  As John the Baptist said, I must decrease and He must increase.  I think of it as “spiritual camouflage”.  If you know me, you know I like camouflage.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 23

Wrath and Grace

The technical term is propitiation, but the sound of it suggests little of the devastating meaning it contains.  Jesus propitiated the wrath of God in His death on the cross.  The word brings with it both the terrifying wrath of the Creator and appeasement of that wrath.  I have heard people say that the God of the Old Testament is wrathful and the God of the New Testament loves.  Such a statement demeans what was accomplished by my Master on the cross.  The love of my Master is understood best when His wrath is laid alongside.

Just my sin incurred the wrath of my Master.  Sure I was born with it, but I also earned it.  It’s not reasonable to blame my Master for being penalized for the way I was made, I ensured the sin I was born in rightly applied by my own activity.  When I read that my Master died for the sin of the cosmos, I am immediately struck by an unimaginable enormity of what He took upon Himself in that act.  More than that though, it says literally that God put on Him the sin of the world, so that He was killed for that magnitude of sin.  And that is the essence of wrath; it is the high price paid to balance justice.

I remember feeling the shame for my addiction and it crushing me.  In a sense I needed to feel that, but in the sense of my guilt before my Master, not by succumbing to the crushing weight on myself.  He bore that crushing weight on Himself, and to take it back is ridiculous, and shows a lack of faith and understanding.  I was supposed to be aware of my guilt before the Creator of the cosmos, and therefore, His amazing love showed toward His human creatures through the sacrifice of my Master in our place.  In taking on more than that, I continued in my pattern of stacking more onto the wrath poured out on my Master.

Love and grace are best embraced in the face of wrath and justice.  I think sometimes I become so accustomed to the love and grace of my Master, I forget and take for granted the stark contrasting wrath and justice that makes them so glorious and powerful.  The closest I come to understanding what my Master has done on the cross is when I allow the conviction of my contribution His wrath to expand to include as much of humanity as I can imagine, and then extend that back into history and beyond.  There are realities of this life that I easily miss and so trivialize my relationship with my Master.  It’s a forest-trees thing.

The wrath of the Creator on His creation was laid on His Son, who obediently took it upon Himself.  A stunning truth which is then followed by another: the Resurrection.  It’s impossible to encompass the enormity of what Jesus did on the cross.  But when I extend that into the resurrection I find that the grace and love of my Master was not satisfied with removing the crushing weight of the wrath of God.  He also extended eternal life to that same rabble whose weight He bore.  I still can’t get there to wrap my mind around the enormity.  I can’t get my emotions to engage with it; it’s so huge I lose the sense of it permeating all life on earth (all life on earth is difficult at best to imagine all on its own).  I’m so overwhelmed I’m numb and easily fall into apathy.  I need to strain at the limits of my ability to imagine and describe this unimaginable indescribable reality in which I live.  That is my life’s work.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 19