I find going through Genesis at the leisurely pace of one chapter per day gives me time to notice things I had raced past before. For example, the promise of Isaac is explicit in the section ending in Genesis 18.15. Isaac’s birth isn’t recorded until Genesis 21. What’s in between?

First, the destruction of Sodom and the sordid story of Lot and his daughters (Genesis 18.16 – 19.38). I wrote about the prayer lessons from that account. But do we need chapter 20? It’s yet another story about Abraham’s lying about his wife:

From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” (Genesis 20.1 – 3, ESV)

What’s fascinating about that is in Genesis 26, we have a grown-up Isaac doing exactly the same thing in the same place:

So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. (Genesis 26.6, 7, ESV)

Like father, like son! It’s the opposite of what Abraham was supposed to be doing, as we wrote yesterday. Again, as with the previous lying episode, if I were compiling stories about the chosen nation and Abraham, its patriarch, I would have left that out!

What can we learn?

• Abraham’s assumption about Abimelech and his people was wrong:

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” (Genesis 20.10, 11, ESV)

• God gives us the freedom to make choices (as in Abraham’s deciding where to live) and sometimes, at least, protects us from the consequences of stupidity.
• It’s obviously not a requirement that God works through only perfect people! If you think you’ve disqualified yourself by bad behavior, think again.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace… (Ephesians 1.7, ESV)