We would think, after all that God has done for Abraham, that Abraham would be able to trust God by now. Abraham repeats his lie of many years ago regarding telling king Abimelech that Sarah is his sister instead of his wife, fearing that he would be killed for her. Fortunately, God intervenes and keeps the king from sinning with Sarah (v6). Still, Abimelech is charged with returning Sarah to Abraham.
Early the next morning Abimelech arises to sort things out. He sends his servants to get Abraham. Can we imagine the scene? Here we find the pagan king Abimelech confronting God's man Abraham with his sin! How humiliating that must have been.
Abimelech knew the problem. I really like the King James rendering here - “What sawest thou..?” Parrowphrased we would say, “What did you see that made you do this?”
Like many of us, or all of us at times, Abraham had an eye problem. What he saw with his eyes got him into trouble. What a feeble excuse Abraham had - “Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.”
Abraham saw a situation and thought, whether he would admit it or not, that God could not handle it, so he took matters into his own hands. Once again, he “blew it.”
How like many of us was Abraham? He did not like what he saw, thought that God could not take care of it, so acted in his own foolishness. What do we see today that makes us think and act the way we do? How often do we walk by sight instead of by the spirit?
May we be reminded again of the oft repeated verse, 2 Corinthians 4v18, as to what we should be seeing today - “While we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”
Remind us Father not to act on what we see and think, but instead on Your Word and on eternity!
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