GENESIS 20:1-7 – “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. 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.””
THEME OF THE DAY: THE PREVENTING GRACE OF GOD. The Apostle Paul writes to a pastor named Titus about the many aspects of God’s amazing grace – “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, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).
As we work through the Titus passage, we may identify God’s saving grace – “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people”; His training grace – training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions; His enabling grace – to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age; and His waiting grace – waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
In today’s scripture, we find another aspect of God’s amazing grace. It is His preventing grace. Enter Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech. We find the father of the faith, Abraham, afraid. He is fearful for his life from the King of Gerar – Abimelech – concerning his beautiful wife, Sarah. He reasons that if he tells the king that Sarah is his sister not his wife, he would not be killed. Imagine such an account. The man known as the friend of God is so scared he tells a lie and even is willing to submit his wife to commit adultery with this pagan king. But that is a lesson for another day. Now we shift to the king.
God comes to Abimelech at night in a dream and threatens him with his life over Sarah. Immediately the king defends himself. He has done nothing with Sarah, and he actually is bragging over his innocence, but then the Lord steps in – “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 was God’s preventing grace, not the restraint of the king that kept him from sinning with Sarah.
There are likely so many times in our lives God exercises preventing grace by His divine providence or a guardian angel preventing us from sinning against Him. It will be a wonder on Judgment Day to see the work of preventing grace in our lives. Until that day, let’s get into the habit, maybe at the end of each day, of thanking the Lord for His saving, training, enabling, waiting and preventing grace,
PRAYER: Lord, I praise You for not only Your saving grace in my life but Your preventing grace in my life.
REFLECTION: Thank God often for His invisible Hand protecting us from our worst enemy – ourselves.