Genesis 20 — Dependent on God

This sermon is from Genesis chapter 20 and is entitled, Dependent on God.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

It was delivered to Ekklesia Churches on Sunday, August 30, 2026.

In last week's passage, we came face-to-face with both the justice and the mercy of God.

In the story of Lot, we have a pretty strong warning against conforming to the world and

being influenced by the culture.

The story of Lot makes a pretty strong case for why we should abandon our pursuit of the

world and turn our allegiance to Jesus.

Some of you were probably convicted like I was around my role as a husband and a father

and leading my family in that area.

When we last left Abraham in chapter 18, he was standing on the edge of the valley looking down

at the destruction of these wicked cities. He's just received the best news that his wife would

soon have a son. He's also seen the destruction in the valley that resulted from the judgment of

God on a wicked culture. And honestly, he has a great view of some of the things God is doing

in the world around him. Yet, he still remains blind to some areas that are much closer to home

in his own heart. In chapter 19, if that was about being deceived by the outside world,

chapter 20 reveals the danger of being deceived by our own sinful heart.

As we step into chapter 20, something happens to Abraham. This man who we've watched

stand on his faith in God often crumbles under the weight of fear and returns to an old sin.

These first two verses set the scene, so let's begin there. This is Genesis chapter 20, verses 1 and 2.

Genesis 20:1

From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev 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.

So those of you who have tracked through Genesis with us are shaking your head in disbelief.

This is not a new plan.

It's an old one.

In chapter 12, Abraham did this exact same thing in Egypt, and it resulted in a very similar

situation.

Can you imagine?

being less than one year from a promised child,

and you manage to get your wife taken by a pagan king again.

This she is my sister plan is a deception that basically allows Abraham to hide behind his wife

and use her beauty to secure safety for himself at her expense.

And it plays out with expected and very near disastrous results.

But I have to ask, is it really that surprising?

Isn't this really just sinful human nature, that when things get stressful, we tend to

choose dependence on ourselves and our solutions?

We're tempted to go back to the same places that we used to find comfort.

And for Abraham, his fear drives him back to this old habit of trusting his own schemes

to shield him from danger instead of trusting the God who said in chapter 15, verse 1,

I am your shield. In this passage, we're reminded that we are a forgetful people

who are completely dependent on God to save us, to change us, and even to use us.

And I think there is good news here for anybody who struggles with habitual sin and addictive

habits. I think there is practical advice for disciples of Jesus who want to continue to change

and look more like Jesus. And I think there's even hope for imperfect people like you and me

to be used by God for his glory and for our good. So let's continue reading with verses 3 through

7 for starters and witness God intervene to save Sarah and the plan of salvation from Abraham's

choices. Beginning with verse 3. 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.

Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not

say himself to me, she is my sister? And she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity

heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream, Yes,

I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from

sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man's wife,

for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her,

know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

Abraham has failed to protect his wife and his legacy, and he has traded faith in God

for fear of man. But God is still faithful to save Abraham. If that isn't a storyline in Genesis,

I don't know what is. Man proves unfaithful, but God still faithfully saves. And here he steps up

in a very decisive way indeed. The Hebrew that's translated here is almost directly to English in

verse 3. When God warns Abimelech, you're a dead man. And with some sense of irony here,

Abimelech displays more integrity and fear of God than Abraham has. And by revealing Abraham's

deception, God saves Sarah and the redemption plan in one fell swoop. An Abimelech's declaration

here that he has not touched Sarah removes any doubt over who Isaac's father will be.

I think the clear takeaway from these verses is that the salvation plan is always in God's hands,

and that's really good news. God's plan of salvation does not hinge on Abraham's obedience

or his strength or his wisdom, it is carried out by God's sovereign will and plan. So praise God

for that. Because just as God's plan to bring Isaac into the world was saved by the hand of God,

so we are saved by the sovereign hand of God. We know that the plan for our salvation was never

going to be accomplished through our own merit or faithfulness. We cannot achieve our own salvation,

no matter how hard we try, our salvation was accomplished through the faithfulness of Jesus,

despite all of our unfaithfulness. This dependence on God for salvation is really

what makes Christianity different from every other worldview. We recognize what God's word

says plainly, that we are desperately broken and we are dependent on Jesus to save us. On the broad

spectrum of all other religions, all of them, will in some way deny at least half of that statement.

So the perspective of the secular world denies the first half. It says we don't need saving,

that right and wrong are determined by how we feel, like the people of Sodom. This is the

live your truth movement, or the you be you movement, or a dozen other phrases that sound

kind of nice until you realize that they don't actually mean anything. Because we can see,

with our own eyes that the world around us is broken, and if we're honest, we recognize that so are we.

If you were sick and you went to the doctor, and instead of diagnosing you and giving you the life-saving cure,

instead they sent you out the door with a smile and a nod and said,

just live your truth.

That would be very bad medicine because you would just be in denial and you would still be dying.

1 John 1.8 says that anyone who says he has no sin is lying and the truth is not in him,

that all have sinned and that death is the result of that sin.

Many other religions, on the other hand, deny the second part, that only Jesus can save us.

Anybody who is teaching you that you can self-save through works or rituals or some

combination thereof is lying. We can't work our way back into righteousness because as sinners,

Every desire of our hearts is warped in some way by sin.

That is, until we turn to Jesus.

And he starts this work of regeneration in our hearts.

Paul writes that it is not by works, but only by the grace of God through Christ Jesus,

so that no one can boast that we are saved.

There's no substitute for Jesus.

And there is no your truth or my truth.

There is only the truth, the way, and the life, and that is Jesus.

only our God can show us clearly the depth of our brokenness and then offer us a cure

that results in life instead of death there's a reason that Jesus is called the great physician

and we can be confident in his ability to save us even as we trip and stumble along like Abraham

but there's even more good news as we walk with the Lord he starts to show us these ways that we

are prone to stumble. And if we submit to him in humility and continue to repent, we actually start

to walk more like him. So let's read about how God uses Abimelech to do this correction with Abraham.

This is starting with verse 8. So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants

and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham

and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you that you have brought

on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.

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. Besides, she is indeed my sister.

the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her,

This is the kindness you must do me at every place to which we come.

Say of me, He is my brother.

In a painfully awkward exchange, Abraham is rightly called out by this pagan king for his behavior.

Abimelech is appalled at Abraham's ethics.

He says essentially, what did I do to deserve this trickery?

Because Abraham deceived him, Abimelech is now on the verge of destruction.

He has been stricken with some kind of terminal condition.

All of the women of his household have been made unable to have children.

And he rightly calls out Abraham.

But it gets worse because Abraham's excuses are exactly that.

They're just empty excuses.

And instead of owning his mistakes, he continues to try to justify his behavior.

So we're going to take a moment to look at each of these excuses because they tell us

a lot.

These excuses show the work that still needs to happen within Abraham.

His fear and dishonesty is being uncovered so that it can be addressed.

God is actually going to use Abimelech to expose some ways in which Abraham still needs to change.

So in verse 11, he says,

Can you just hear the self-righteous tone as Abraham begins his defense?

The culture here wasn't the problem.

The issue was in Abraham's heart.

Oh, the irony that this pagan king has shown more fear of God than Abraham has.

And what has replaced his fear of God?

Fear of man.

And he has forgotten that God promised to be his shield in chapter 15.

And so he lies.

And he hides behind his wife, who is apparently still very attractive at 90 years old.

And in verse 12, it gets even worse.

He tries to argue that his lie isn't really a lie.

He tries to get out on a technicality.

As would have been common in that time, Abraham's bride has come from his father's clan.

So she was technically his half-sister.

But that was obviously not her primary relationship to Abraham.

And he knew that.

She was his wife.

When I introduce my wife, I do not say, this is my friend Jordan.

Though it is true, she is my best friend.

So not only is he dishonest, he's arrogant enough to try to rationalize his dishonesty.

And if you thought that it couldn't get worse in verse 13, you'd be wrong because it does.

Abraham says the real reason for this deception is that God caused him to wander into a foreign

land in the first place.

He blames God for putting him in this position.

can you believe this guy? I can actually, because this is how sin works. Remember what Adam did

when he was called out? He pointed his finger at his wife and at God. And he said,

the woman you gave me was the issue here. But I can also believe him because

I know that I've had some very similar responses to sin. Have you ever been afraid?

Have you ever been stressed out and anxious and overwhelmed and forgotten that God is

your shield?

Forgotten that the Lord is your ever-present help in time of trouble?

As it says in Psalm 46, I have.

Have you ever turned to your own solutions for dealing with that fear?

Maybe old solutions that you've gone to over and over and over again that have created

these well-worn paths of disobedience in the past.

Have you ever tried to argue with God's word in those moments?

Said things like, it's not that big of a deal.

Or just this once.

Or maybe just one more time.

Or maybe the culture doesn't have a problem with this, so maybe it's not so bad.

Or maybe you've tried to blame God for your own failure.

If God hadn't put me in this position.

If God hadn't allowed things to fall apart.

It's amazing how our sin can cause us to forget the goodness of God.

Before we jump into these last few verses, I want to give you some hope if you're feeling

the pull of this moment.

If you find yourself thinking about something specific today and you feel the weight of

it on your shoulders, that is quite possibly the work of the Spirit of God, working through

the Word of God.

But it is not an invitation for you to sit under that weight in your guilt and your shame.

It is an invitation to repent, to be forgiven.

The Spirit of God calls us to repentance over and over, to come and confess our sin and turn

from those paths of disobedience, no matter how well-worn they are, to leave them behind and follow

Jesus. And you can do that right now, today, in this moment.

So let's look at what God does in these final few verses and how he uses Abraham despite

Abraham's failure here.

This is beginning with verse 14.

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them

to Abraham and returned Sarah, his wife, to him.

And Abimelech said, behold, my land is before you.

dwell where it pleases you. To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand

pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before

everyone you are vindicated. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed

his wife and female slaves, so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed all the wombs

of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Let's start by clarifying a few

things that are happening here. First, Abimelech speaks to Abraham and then to Sarah. So Abimelech

basically does what Pharaoh had done in Egypt and gives Abraham lavish gifts and sends him on his

way. This isn't because he loves Abraham. This is because he fears the God of Abraham. He's

terrified. What will happen if this prophet doesn't speak to God on his behalf? He tells Sarah that

he's going to make sure everyone in Sarah's family and in Abimelech's country knows that he never

touched her. The standard dowry price or bride price that would have been paid in that time

for a virgin bride, that's important, according to ancient records, was about 50 pieces of silver.

So Abimelech is saying, here's many times, 20 times that price as evidence to everyone that

Sarah was untouched by him. Which brings us to the climax of this passage, really,

in which Abraham is instructed to pray for healing. Abraham has been a coward,

He's been bailed out by God.

He's been rebuked by a pagan.

And God could have chosen to heal Abimelech directly, but he chooses to call Abraham into this.

This is not about God needing Abraham's prayer, obviously.

It's about Abraham recognizing his position before a very gracious God.

Abraham gets none of the credit here.

and God gets all the glory. Ultimately, we are dependent on God to use us for his glory

and our good. We do not bring anything to the table on our own. Not righteousness, not wisdom,

not anything that God doesn't already have because he's perfect and he's holy. And yet,

God still invites us into a role that we really don't deserve to be a part of something that's

too great to comprehend. In other words, God invites us into his work for his glory.

The joy of following Jesus is to be used for the glory of God. This whole experience has served to

show him, to show Abraham how much he still needs the work of God in him. And when he bends the knee

in prayer for Abimelech, he does not do so with the self-righteous pride that he came into this

land with. He does it with a humble faith in the God who miraculously isn't finished with him yet.

We are called to be a people of humble faith, who know that we are not perfect, but who are

daily dependent on the saving and sanctifying work of Jesus in us. It's from a place of dependence

on God that we can walk with confidence, knowing that God has saved us,

he is still changing us, and he will use us for his glory.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches

gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa

and in homes throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church

focused on preaching from Scripture

and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about what we believe

and contact a pastor at ekklesiachurches.org.

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