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Abraham and Abimelech - The Book of Genesis · Bible in a Year with Jack Graham

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  Speaker 1: And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and
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  Speaker 1: dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. Genesis
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  Speaker 1: 20.1 Dear God, in the midst of my new season,
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  Speaker 1: when I am afraid that I might not survive it,
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  Speaker 1: I will not sacrifice the things close to me by
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  Speaker 1: giving them up to try to preserve my position and life.
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  Speaker 1: I declare that The same faith that brought me to
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  Speaker 1: believe in you will be the same faith I use
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  Speaker 1: to believe that you will protect me and deliver me
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  Speaker 1: from any future threats. Thank you, Jesus, that because of
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  Speaker 1: your sacrifice, I can be forgiven of my mistakes and
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  Speaker 1: still have my future restored when I come to you
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  Speaker 1: with a pure and clean heart. Holy Spirit, like Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: if there is any half-truth in my life, Reveal it
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  Speaker 1: to me, then I will correct it. Give me the
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  Speaker 1: strength to stand in integrity when it's easier to do
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  Speaker 1: the opposite. I am blessed and secured in your presence. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: I am free to be me and dwell in the
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  Speaker 1: place you've given me with peace and prosperity. In Jesus' name, amen.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for praying with me today. Continue listening for
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  Speaker 1: an incredible Bible story brought to you by BibleInAYear.com.
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  Speaker 2: Abraham and Abimelech Before this story, we learned about how
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  Speaker 2: God brought justice to Sodom and Gomorrah and delivered Lot
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  Speaker 2: and his family out of that city. But Lot's wife
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  Speaker 2: turned back, and became a pillar of salt. Now we
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  Speaker 2: will learn about Abraham again saying, Sarah is my sister,
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  Speaker 2: to protect his own life from King Abimelech. Inspired by
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  Speaker 2: the book of Genesis.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, I'm Pastor Jack Graham with today's episode of the
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  Speaker 3: Bible in a Year podcast. In our previous passage, we
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  Speaker 3: focused on Lot and his daughters and the results of
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  Speaker 3: fear in their lives. Today, we turn again to Abraham
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  Speaker 3: and Sarah. Lest we imagine that Abraham has now fully
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  Speaker 3: matured in his faith and has become immune to fear
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  Speaker 3: and faithlessness, today's story reminds us that often our journey
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  Speaker 3: is one of highs and lows, of zigs and zags.
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  Speaker 3: At times we trust and obey, at other times we
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  Speaker 3: turn back to our sin and disobedience. That's where we
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  Speaker 3: find Abraham today. Once again, encountering a powerful king whom
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  Speaker 3: he appears to fear more than he fears God, the
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  Speaker 3: God who has promised to be with him and bless him.
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  Speaker 3: Not only that, but again, Abraham will show a lack
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  Speaker 3: of regard for his wife. He is meant to lead
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  Speaker 3: and protect his wife, but now he uses her as
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  Speaker 3: a way to secure his own safety, to save his
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  Speaker 3: own neck. As you listen, notice how Abimelech is spared
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  Speaker 3: from committing a sin that would have cost him dearly.
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  Speaker 3: And notice how Abraham responds when confronted with his deceitfulness.
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  Speaker 3: Does he repent of his wrongdoing and fully own up
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  Speaker 3: to his mistake? Or does he try to twist his
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  Speaker 3: way out of it, justifying his actions? Finally, watch how
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  Speaker 3: God works through this situation to restore Abraham and Sarah,
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  Speaker 3: as well as King Abimelech and his household. Consider how
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  Speaker 3: God has guarded you from sins you may have committed
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  Speaker 3: in times of temptation had he not intervened. It is
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  Speaker 3: a reminder of God's faithfulness to us always, even when
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  Speaker 3: we fail to be faithful to him. Now let's listen
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  Speaker 3: to today's passage.
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  Speaker 2: Abraham and his wife, Sarah, ventured to a new land
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  Speaker 2: where Abimelech was the king and ruled over the people.
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  Speaker 2: When they had entered the land, Abraham had once again
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  Speaker 2: claimed that Sarah was his sister, so nobody would harm
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  Speaker 2: him to take her. Abimelech, being curious about Sarah, had
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  Speaker 2: her brought to his home since he believed that she
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  Speaker 2: was Abraham's sister, yet he did not touch or harm her.
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  Speaker 2: One night while Abimelech was asleep, God came to him
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  Speaker 2: in a dream, saying, You are a dead man because
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  Speaker 2: of the woman you have taken, for she is a
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  Speaker 2: man's wife. Abimelech cried out in anguish, knowing he had
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  Speaker 2: not touched Sarah. He cried, Lord, do not kill an
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  Speaker 2: innocent man. Did he not himself say to me that
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  Speaker 2: she is his sister? And she herself said, He is
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  Speaker 2: my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the
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  Speaker 2: innocence of my hands I have done this. The Lord
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  Speaker 2: knew this, and was the one who had kept Abimelech
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  Speaker 2: from touching her. He knew the integrity of his heart
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  Speaker 2: and commanded him to approach Abraham for prayer and return
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  Speaker 2: Sarah to him. Yet God warned, If you do not
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  Speaker 2: return her, you shall surely die, you and all those
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  Speaker 2: who are yours. Abimelech and all those under him became afraid.
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  Speaker 2: The wombs of the women in his household were shut
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  Speaker 2: and became barren. Terror filled Abimelech's kingdom. Therefore he wasted
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  Speaker 2: no time trying to find Abraham. He sought out Abraham,
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  Speaker 2: and when he had arrived, demanded answers. What have you
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  Speaker 2: done to us? You made me sin against you, and
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  Speaker 2: now my kingdom is to be punished for it? You
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  Speaker 2: should have never done this. Abraham, embarrassed and ashamed, spoke
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  Speaker 2: a half-truth, saying, Sarah and I share the same father,
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  Speaker 2: but not the same mother. So, She is my sister.
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  Speaker 2: He continued explaining, I did not take you for God-fearing people.
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  Speaker 2: I was afraid that you would kill me to take her.
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  Speaker 2: Then Abimelech, both enraged and afraid, took sheep, oxen, and servants,
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  Speaker 2: and gave them to Abraham. Then returned Sarah to him.
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  Speaker 2: This is my land, he said. Dwell wherever you please.
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  Speaker 2: Then he turned to Sarah and said, After another failure
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  Speaker 2: of character, Abraham was faced with his faithlessness. Not only
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  Speaker 2: did he betray his wife to protect himself, but he
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  Speaker 2: put an entire kingdom in a place of sin. Abraham
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  Speaker 2: prayed to God, And God healed Abimelech and also healed
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  Speaker 2: his wife and servants so they could bear children once again.
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  Speaker 2: Even after another failure, God's promise to Abraham would not
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  Speaker 2: be made void. He would still be faithful and continue
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  Speaker 2: to bless him.
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  Speaker 3: Abraham and Lot, whose stories we've heard in the previous chapters,
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  Speaker 3: are in many ways contrasting characters. Abraham is often an
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  Speaker 3: example of wisdom and faith and obedience to God's direction. Lot,
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  Speaker 3: on the other hand, is rarely any of those things.
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  Speaker 3: As we have seen, he acts with worldly wisdom and
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  Speaker 3: compromise and reacts based on fear, not faith. They are
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  Speaker 3: indeed very different men. This does not mean, however, that
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  Speaker 3: Abraham always moves in the right direction, trusting God and
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  Speaker 3: acting wisely. Today we've heard one such example. Fear has
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  Speaker 3: taken over Abraham once again. Just as he had done
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  Speaker 3: when they entered Egypt many years before, Abraham is in
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  Speaker 3: a new land, the land of a king whom he
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  Speaker 3: does not know and who he fears greatly, King Abimelech.
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  Speaker 3: We're not told what the basis of the fear is,
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  Speaker 3: only that Abraham hatches another crazy scheme of deceit to
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  Speaker 3: protect himself. He tells everyone that Sarah is his sister,
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  Speaker 3: not his wife. In other words, she's available. So King
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  Speaker 3: Abimelech sins for her and she is brought to him.
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  Speaker 3: Before we get to what happens next, I want you
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  Speaker 3: to think for a moment about what this is saying
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  Speaker 3: about Abraham that he would put forward his wife to
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  Speaker 3: save his own skin. Year after year, Abraham has seen
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  Speaker 3: God's strength and faithfulness to keep Abraham and Sarah together
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  Speaker 3: and strong and safe. Not only that, but God has
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  Speaker 3: repeatedly reaffirmed his promises to grant Abraham a descendant through Sarah.
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  Speaker 3: If Abraham were to be killed, as he fears, that
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  Speaker 3: would mean God did not or could not keep his promise.
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  Speaker 3: So think about it. What Abraham is saying here with
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  Speaker 3: his action is that he really doesn't trust God to
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  Speaker 3: deliver on his word. Now, lest we judge him too quickly,
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  Speaker 3: how often do we, by our own actions, say the
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  Speaker 3: same kind of things? God has given us so much,
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  Speaker 3: and we have such a wonderful promise of life, abundant
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  Speaker 3: life in him. And yet so often with our actions,
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  Speaker 3: we're willing to say, to show that we really don't
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  Speaker 3: trust God to give us what we need, that God
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  Speaker 3: is not enough, that his promises may not be true.
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  Speaker 3: So that's what Abraham does here. But fortunately, Abimelech is
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  Speaker 3: spared from sin by God himself and because he appears
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  Speaker 3: to be a man of some integrity. Before he touched Sarah,
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  Speaker 3: God appears to Abimelech in a dream and tells him
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  Speaker 3: the true story. This terrifies Abimelech And he asks if
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  Speaker 3: God is going to destroy him for something he has
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  Speaker 3: not done. God assures him that he knows the king's
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  Speaker 3: heart and reveals that it was him who kept the
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  Speaker 3: king from sinning. Look what he says to the king
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  Speaker 3: in Genesis 20, verse 6. Then God said to him
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  Speaker 3: in the dream, Yes, I know that in the integrity
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  Speaker 3: of your heart you have done this, and I also
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  Speaker 3: kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not
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  Speaker 3: let you touch her. You see, God is not only
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  Speaker 3: active in the lives of those who have received a
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  Speaker 3: special calling and blessing like Abraham. Here we see that
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  Speaker 3: God is watching over this king, Abimelech, searching his heart
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  Speaker 3: and keeping him from sin. God says he will spare him.
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  Speaker 3: if he will return Sarah immediately. Abimelech promptly does so,
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  Speaker 3: confronting Abraham for having lied to him. And rather than
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  Speaker 3: owning up to his dishonesty and deceit and fully admitting
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  Speaker 3: that he was wrong, Abraham tries to soften it by
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  Speaker 3: telling another lie. Sarah is in no way his sister,
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  Speaker 3: but he is still trying to save face with the king.
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  Speaker 3: We'll see many times in Scripture how someone is confronted
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  Speaker 3: with their sin and rather than openly admitting their fault
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  Speaker 3: and repenting, they try to justify or explain their actions.
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  Speaker 3: This isn't true repentance, and it's not what God wants.
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  Speaker 3: But once more, as we've seen so many times already,
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  Speaker 3: and as we can see vividly in our lives today,
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  Speaker 3: God is faithful to Abraham in spite of his lack
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  Speaker 3: of faith. God restores Sarah to Abraham and heals King
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  Speaker 3: Abimelech and his household. Dear God, Thank you for this
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  Speaker 3: story and what it teaches us about your faithfulness even
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  Speaker 3: when we take backward steps in our walk with you.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you also for what Abimelech's example shows us about
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  Speaker 3: your hand of protection in times that we're not even
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  Speaker 3: aware of our danger. Thank you for always watching over
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  Speaker 3: us and always, always delivering on your promises. In Christ's name, amen.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to today's Bible in a Year podcast.
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  Speaker 3: I'm Pastor Jack Graham from Dallas, Texas. Download the Pray.com
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  Speaker 3: someone's life. And if you want more resources as to
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  Speaker 3: how you can know God and experience Him in your life,
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  Speaker 3: be sure to visit jackgram.org. God bless you.