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?