Oh Lord, prevent us from sinning!

 Genesis 20:1-14 (NIV):

 

Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed 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 Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” Early the next morning Abimelek summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid. Then Abimelek called Abraham in and said, “What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.” And Abimelek asked Abraham, “What was your reason for doing this?” Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother." Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him.

 

Four categories of sin are present here. There was inadvertent sin because Abimelek did not know Sarah was Abraham's wife. There was hidden sin because Abimelek lusted after Sarah in his heart, and he did so willfully. There was also the potential for great sin. We know this because God told Abimelek that if he followed through with his desires and had sexual relations with Sarah, God would not only kill Abimelek but he would also wipe out his entire tribe. Even Abimelek acknowledged the "great guilt" which Abimelek alleged that Abraham had brought upon him and his kingdom. As further evidence of the depth of the sin, God had closed the wombs of all the women of Abimilek's tribe while Sarah was in Abimilek's household so that they could not bear children. Gen. 20:17-18.

 

What I find to be the most interesting part of this text is where God tells Abimelek that "I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her." We are not told precisely how this happened, but apparently God had arranged Abimelek's affairs in such a way that even though he desperately wanted to sleep with Sarah, he just couldn't get to it. It could be that he was distracted with other matters, or maybe he was sick or had suffered some debilitating injury. In any event, God did not let him sin in this way.

 

Perhaps, therefore, our prayer should be: "Dear Lord, arrange my life in such a way that I do not sin against you." Of course, this is a tough prayer to pray, because it may well mean that God will remove our greatest desires and ambitions and replace them with his own purposes for us, much as he did with Abraham. By the way, nowhere in scripture does it say that Abraham ever ran his little ruse about calling Sarah his sister past God. I wonder if he had, would God have told him to do or say something else instead?

LAZARUS IS US!!

 

Lazarus is us, each and every one of us—the dead Lazarus stinking in his tomb (John 11:39, ”But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days'") with his feet and hands wrapped and bound and a cloth over his face is us.  Lazarus is also us when Jesus calls out, "Here!  Outside."  Lazarus is also us when he wakes up and is confused where exactly he is (he was dead when he was put in the tomb), and moves haltingly to the sound of Jesus' voice.  

I think it's fairly easy to imagine how Lazarus came out of the tomb, his tomb.  He blindly shuffled and stumbled along using his body, mostly his shoulders and hips since his hands were bound, to feel his way along the inner walls of the cave where he had been entombed, always moving as best he could toward the sound of Jesus' voice.  See John 11:43, "Jesus called out in a loud voice."  Note that the verb "called out" is the same Greek verb (kraugo) used a few short days later by the crowd calling out to crucify Jesus.  Note also that Jesus called Lazarus by name.  Lazarus in death had not dissolved into the universe to become some anonymous, amorphous, indistinguishable chunk of matter and energy.  He had retained in death his individual character.  We are also, each of us, Lazarus as he shuffles to the door of the tomb, where Jesus' orders the bystanders (as He will someday order the angels) to "untie him and let him go."

 

This is what Jesus' mission on earth was all about—his ministry, his crucifixion and resurrection—calling our stinking, dead bodies out of the grave (where we deserve to be), be it a spiritual or a physical grave, having us untied us and letting us go free.  Lazarus would later die once more, but when Jesus calls him out the next time he won't die ever again. 

Daniel's Godly Courage

 

In Daniel 6 we are told of the plot against Daniel by his rivals in Darius' court.  Notably, when Daniel learned that the King had signed a decree requiring all his subjects to worship him and him alone for thirty days, Daniel did not make a scene or a speech or seek to placate the king.  He simply went about quietly praying to God three times a day on his knees in his room as he had always done.  Daniel 6: 10.  When Daniel survived the night in the lions' den, he did not upbraid the king but instead praised God, asked that the king live forever, and proclaimed his own innocence, "Oh, King, I have done no wrong."  Daniel 6:21. 

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Nebuchadnezzar's son behaved in a far more blasphemous way than his father had ever done, "So, they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.  As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."  Daniel 5: 3-4.  

 When Daniel was brought in to interpret the writing on the wall, Daniel was not disrespectful to this sinful king, although he did firmly reject the king's bribe.  "Then Daniel answered the king, 'You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.'"  Daniel 5:17.

 Daniel was not shy, however, in publicly convicting the king for his pride, Daniel 5: 22-23,

 "But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this (the humbling his father Nebuchadnezzar received at God's hands). ²³Instead, you have set yourself up against the LORD of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways."

Daniel behaved in a calm and respectful way both in times of plenty and in times of danger and persecution.