“And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelt 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.” vv. 1,2.
It has been noted before that when circumstances place a child of God in the company of, or close to, the world’s atmosphere, there is real need for prayerful care and faithful dependence on the Lord to keep him from falling into Satan’s snares and pitfalls. We do not know why Abraham journeyed as far south as Kadesh and Shur at this time, but find that this journey put him into territory that was occupied with people of whom he had to say, “Surely the fear of God is not in this place.” This is a reminder too of today’s pathway for the believer, who also walks in the midst of a world where the fear of God is, by and large, unknown or often professed with little reality. Indeed it would be an unusual thing if the believer should go through life without being confronted with business or necessary contacts with the world in one form or another.
What then is to be the guide for such? The Lord’s own words, addressed to His Father, provide the answer: “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” John 17:15-1715I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:15‑17). Abraham was, in the same sense as the present-day believer, in the world, but for the moment he was not proving “Thy word is truth,” Thus through his own carelessness, he was afraid of the evil company aroused him, with the result that the testimony with which he should have been honoring God was lacking. If we are to be kept from the evil of the world we must walk in the light of God’s Word, “as obedient children,’ confident through faith that God will watch all our affairs and preserve us from treacherous ways.
Abraham, whose business may have required him going into the country between Kadesh and Shur, made the mistake of taking up residence is Gerar, in company with men of this world. True faith would have caused him to pitch his tent outside the city and thus display his real pilgrim character. However, unhappily he placed himself and his wife in the company of those who should have remained strangers, and most distressing circumstances resulted.
We find Abraham here falling into exactly the same snare that previously overtook him when in Egypt—fearful to acknowledge Sarah as his wife and thus, except for God’s overruling, exposing himself to the most severe penalties. Did he not remember God’s promise: “Sarah shall her name be. I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her?” Genesis 17:15,1615And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. (Genesis 17:15‑16).
It is not likely that Abraham actually doubted that the Lord would bring this to pass, but finding himself in the strangers’ land, and permitting himself to be exposed to their presence, he apparently felt he needed to take matters into his own hands, without thinking that thus he was actually denying God’s ability to care for him.
ML 10/10/1965