Abraham and His Wifster!

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Abraham: Life of Faith

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Abraham and Sarah, can't fool God, deceive, Egypt, generational curse, Genesis 12:11-13, half-sister, half-truth, lies, Lincoln, Pharoah, Sin will take you, white lie, wife

I’ll bet you didn’t know Abraham had a wifster. He did. It was only when Abraham decided to go Egypt because of famine that we discovered the wifster.

It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” Genesis 12:11-13

Abraham was a man of faith. But now that a famine has occurred, he has gone off the reservation. He concocted this plan to save his own skin. Sarah was actually Abraham’s half-sister. The only problem was she was his whole wife.

You may have all heard of the southern parents who had a son that was serving time in the penitentiary. But his mother told all her friends and relatives he was off serving time in the war. Well he was sort of serving time for his country.

Abraham Lincoln said “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” But the greater truth is you can’t fool God any of the time. No matter how you view it, participating in deception violates the conscience and further impairs our relationship with God.

So Abraham produced a half-truth called a wifster. But a half-truth is also a half-lie; and a lie in any proportion is intended to deceive. The nearer a lie is to the truth, the more perfectly deceitful it is. This is Satan’s modus operandi.

Abraham’s intent was clearly to deceive. Doubtless he justified it on the grounds it was needed to protect his beautiful wife. Perhaps this was the most startling thing about this story. Sarah was sixty-five years old at the time, yet so remarkable was her beauty that Abraham was afraid he might lose her. This was exactly what happened. When the Egyptians saw her, they immediately took tales of her beauty to Pharaoh.

Why is lying so bad in God’s eyes? Lying is the very opposite of speaking and living God’s truth. To lie is to cower at current circumstances and abandon the promise of God’s deliverance. Lying lips cause us to live below God’s standards and to trust the flesh. This is especially true when you ask someone else to lie for you. There is no honor in lying. Abraham’s solution was to sacrifice Sarah’s honor and save himself. “That it may be well with me for your sake, and that I (My soul shall) live because of you.” (13b) Abraham was basically saying, “Sarah save me!” He was not crying out to God but scheming with Sarah. Abraham was not seeking the Lord’s guidance nor relying on His protection.

Remember it was fear that caused Abraham to leave God’s land of promise. Now, it was fear again that caused Abraham to concoct a plan of lies and deception. Often, when we get out of God’s plan, we get ourselves into worse situations that take us further down the very road we were trying to avoid. There is an old saying that states,

Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.

I am sure Abraham didn’t immediately wake up one day and say, “I am going to sacrifice my wife’s honor to save my own life.” No, the more he thought about his own life, the more he became afraid. The more fear he allowed into his heart, the more schemes like deception and lying came to his mind.

To say this little white lie didn’t have consequences and conclude God didn’t care is the wrong conclusion. God did protect Abraham but a generational curse was placed upon his family and it manifested in the next four generations.

Blessings,

Pastor

How to Avoid Making Bad Decisions

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Our Journey Into The Promised Land

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

erase bad decisions, Gibeonites, handling compliments, invoking God's name, Joshua 9, lies, pray the solution not the problem, wise decision

In Joshua 9 an interesting dilemma arose in Israel’s history. A neighboring nation approached the Israelites disguised in order to make a treaty with them. This nation, the Gibeonites, was afraid they would be destroyed just like Jericho. At first Joshua and the leadership were skeptical, but eventually bought the lies of the Gibeonites. The Jews never sought the Lord, nor did they investigate the matter further. They were deceived and had to live with the treaty.

We too can be deceived and be coerced into bad arrangements. Maybe you are living with a few bad decisions that were not totally your own. Joshua 9 gives us some helpful guidelines to avoid making bad decisions.

1. Keep asking the difficult questions until you get adequate answers .

Joshua asked the right questions. Joshua asked, “How am I supposed to know you guys aren’t from around here?” (Joshua 9:7) He asked the hard question – he just didn’t stick with it until he got an answer. Unfortunately, people will lie to you. Maybe you have found that to be true.

We do similar things. At first we have doubts about something, but in the course of the conversation we allow our attention to get diverted and our questions go unanswered.

2. Realize that compliments don’t make you more competent.

The answer Joshua received was an attempt to butter him up. The deceiving Gibeonites replied, “You are in authority – we are merely your humble servants.” (Joshua 9:8)

Sometimes compliments are sincere. Other times they are offered with a hidden agenda.

It’s easy to get off task when someone starts throwing compliments your way. Most of us are praised so seldom, when someone does compliment us… we eat it up.

The fact that people say we’re “wise” doesn’t actually mean that we’re about to make a wise decision. Don’t get sidetracked just because someone is saying nice things to you.

3. Know that God’s Name being invoked is no guarantee.

This is a major weakness for a lot of Christians. We presume if the name of God comes up, then we definitely have a green light to go forward.

I wish I could say that is true, but the sad reality is that there are a lot of people who invoke the name of God while having other agendas. There are a lot of people who will talk about God while lying to your face.

Ever had a salesman start talking about Jesus when he/she finds out you are a Christian. Enough said!

4. Always talk to God about it.

“So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD.” (Joshua 9:14)

This was, without a doubt, Israel’s greatest mistake. God would have given them insight if they had only asked.

Sometimes our prayer lives get so focused on people’s problems and needs, we forget to pray about the solution they really need.

I have to constantly remind myself, “pray the solution, not the problem.” If I become “problem focused” I will never hear or believe God for the answer.

5. Understand that a “good offer” is not the same as a “God offer”.

“Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.” (Joshua 9:15)

The offer of peace seemed to be a good one. Why not take it if it’s a good offer? Well, the fact that it was a good offer doesn’t mean it was what God wanted them to do. In fact, it was not God’s will at all.

At times “good deals” appeal to us because we are not deep in the Word and are not familiar enough with God’s will. In fact, “God’s will” appears foreign when we are not “asking, seeking and knocking.”

This is because we have such low expectations of anything God might do for us that we’re quick to accept what the enemy offers.