GENESIS 20:1-6 – From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb 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. 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 himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my 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.”

THEME OF THE DAY. THE RESTRAINING GRACE OF GOD. The grace of God is a treasure chest for the believer loaded with so many blessings. God’s grace saves us, sanctifies us, develops us, keeps us and trains us. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, he gives us great insight on the depth and width of God’s grace in His children. He writes . . . For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13). In this passage, we see saving grace, training grace, equipping grace, and waiting grace. Yes, fellow believer, God’s grace is a treasure chest loaded with many riches. Yet, there is another aspect of grace we may not think much about. It is found in today’s scripture. We may call it “restraining grace.” Let’s enter the story.

Abraham stops his journey in a place called Gerar. This ancient city was located south of Gaza in the foothills of the Judaean mountains. Both Abraham and his son Isaac temporarily stayed there having a cordial relationship with the King of Gerar, Abimelech. However, in today’s scripture, we find Abraham, the father of faith, struggling with fear, the antithesis of faith. He lies to the King about his wife Sarah. In a high display of unbelief, Abraham takes the initiative to protect himself by willingly giving his wife over to commit adultery with a pagan king. The story deepens with intrigue. King Abimelech has not touched her. God visits him in a night vision with a prophecy of his death for taking another man’s wife. The king quickly defends himself and we now see the lesson, not only in the story, but repeatedly occurring in our lives. And just like King Abimelech, we are just as ignorant of the lesson. The lesson? God often exercises “restraining grace” in the lives of people, and especially His children. As the king defends himself before God, the Lord responds, “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.” It wasn’t the king’s self-control that kept him from sinning against the Lord. It was God Himself. It was His “restraining grace” that kept the king from sinning. And only eternity will reveal how many times in our lives God has done the same for us. I am sure there have been opportunities in all our lives to give into the flesh, sin against God, and the Lord has intervened with “restraining grace” stopping us.

A good application from today’s lesson would be to start praising God for not only saving grace, but also restraining grace. Yes, we may not recognize restraining grace but we may be certain God is giving it to us. Why? Because like the hymn writer states, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” We are sheep who need not only saving grace, but restraining grace as well.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for grace that not only saves and trains me but keeps me from sinning.”

QUOTE: “Just because God will protect us from sinning doesn’t relieve us from the responsibility not to sin.”