GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter TWENTY

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: Old Natures Never Die GEN 20  

GENESIS 20 – by James Fire

Introduction: Our walk with the LORD is a process, one step at a time – and at times it’s three steps forward and two steps back, or four steps forward and one step back. There are times when, after experiencing a victory over sin, that we re-visit the temptation and fall back into what we were delivered from previously.

We see this in the ‘repeat performance’ of Abraham in this chapter, and how he somewhat blundered it. But we also witness the grace and tender mercies of GOD, being patient with his – and our own – repeat performances in failing to resist sin and temptations.

GENESIS 20:1-18

GENESIS 20:1-2
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. ² And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

Abraham previously dwelt in Mamre, north of and close by to Hebron, and he journeyed from there to this city of Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur. We have here a few different cities mentioned by name. 

As we study Scripture, and names of people or places are mentioned, it’s useful many times to research and find the meanings of these names: they will often shed light on the text and bring understanding.

Commentary on GEN 20 from the website Beth Melekh.

In this case, Mamre means “fatness/healthy or strength”, and we learned previously that Hebron means “association, league, or fellowship”; that was the place where Abraham built an altar to the LORD and communed with his Maker. What does Kadesh, Shur and Gerar mean?

Kadesh – sanctified, holiness, set apart.

Shur – simply means ‘wall’.

Gerar – to drag away roughly; also, to ruminate (think intently upon), chew, to continue in an action.

So Abraham did indeed go from the place of strength (Mamre) and fellowship (Hebron), and proceeded through sanctification and holiness, being set apart for the LORD (Kadesh), but as he ends up in Gerar, he hits the proverbial wall (Shur) and he’s stuck in a place where his wife is dragged away (Gerar) by those who would make her a concubine of the king of Gerar. 

Abraham once again, resorts to coaching his wife to tell the people of Gerar that she is his sister (not his wife), fearing for his life if they ever learned the truth (to acquire women for concubines, the husbands were either sold into slavery or killed outright).

Ray Stedman comments,

“These are the people among whom Abraham goes. He is evidently upset by what had happened in the destruction of the cities of the plains, and perhaps longs to get away from that infamy and terror. So, he moves down into the south country and comes among these people. The first thing he does there is to tell a lie about his wife. He says she is his sister, exactly as he did thirty years ago. This woman Sarah is still such a lovely creature that she is a lure to all the wolves that are around, and Abraham feels the only way to protect himself is to say that she is his sister. Just as before, the king comes and takes her as his own and gets into trouble.”

GENESIS 20:3-5
³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. ⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? ⁵ Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

Yet, despite Abraham’s failing here, GOD comes into the picture and defends both Abraham and Sarah by appearing to Abimelech, the king. Hear what the LORD tells him, “You’re a dead man Abimelech!”

The LORD intervenes in the lives of His saints, and protects His own; we see this happen throughout Scripture; I think about PSALM 18:

PSALM 18:6-19
⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. ⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. ⁸ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. ⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. ¹⁰ And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. ¹² At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. ¹³ The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. ¹⁴ Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. ¹⁵ Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
¹⁶ He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. ¹⁸ They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. ¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

The LORD informs the king that this woman that they abducted (a wrongful act in any circumstance!) is the wife of another man, the wife of Abraham!
Abimelech pleads innocence, making the claim that he is the leader of a “righteous nation” – not true, for it was a routine practice in Gerar to abduct women for concubines and young men and boys for slaves. 

While it’s true that Abimelech was deceived by Abraham, he is not a man of integrity or innocence as we are about to read. This king may have truly believed these things about himself, but GOD knows better: He is the discerner of men’s hearts and knows us far more intimately than we even know ourselves.

Consider Peter’s protest when the LORD told him that he would betray Him, the One that this apostle swore he would never betray. Yet he did, not once, not twice, but three times. And when he discovered that the LORD was right about him, what did he do? He fled the scene and went out and wept bitterly (LUKE 22:55-62).

What I find greatly encouraging is that long before Peter denied Jesus, long before the apostle was even born, the LORD foreknew Peter and he was among the elect of the saved! And all the while Saul of Tarsus was busy persecuting the church, the LORD intended on saving this man, and making him an apostle to the Gentiles.

What have you done recently in a failure to walk uprightly before the LORD? How disappointed did you feel when you realized your failure?

But know this: every temptation we ever fall into, any sin we ever commit, the LORD knew about it since before He said, “Let there be light” – and He saved you anyway.

It’s vital that we not allow the enemy to condemn us and keep us down and out of fellowship with the LORD, but to allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to convict us, and prompt us to get it right with GOD by repenting and confessing our sin, and washed in the blood of the Lamb!

GENESIS 20:6-7
⁶ And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore, suffered I thee not to touch her. ⁷ Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

Now we know the truth – it wasn’t the integrity of Abimelech that kept him from touching Sarah, not at all! We hear GOD’s own words, that it was He Himself that kept the king away from sinning against his Maker, restraining him of this evil.

Again, from Ray Stedman,

“I wonder sometimes if many of the events that appear to be tragedy are not the kind-heartedness of God restraining people for the sake of those who know him, who love him, keeping them from evil. Paul writes of one who restrains the full manifestation of human sin. Even in his day, "This mystery of lawlessness is already at work." (2 THESS 2:7), but he says there is one "who now restrains it", keeping it in bounds. In other words, if God was not at work restraining human evil, man would have long since blown himself off the face of the earth.”

Furthermore, GOD informs the king that this man Abraham, is His own prophet! A prophet that tells fibs?! Was Abraham, the prophet of GOD a man of like passions, susceptible to the same sort of failings as you and I?

Elijah was!
We are all flawed people to one degree or another – we are therefore to humble ourselves before one another and confess our faults to each other, and pray for one another:

JAMES 5:16-18
¹⁶ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ¹⁷ Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

The LORD made Abraham a prophet and gifted him for that office by providing insight and ability that are only GOD given, even though he, like Elijah, and we ourselves are people of like passions/weaknesses/flaws. Nevertheless, His calling and gifts upon us are irrevocable as it states in ROMANS 11:29.

Old natures never die; they only smell that way. We’re still capable of the worst sin that you have ever committed -- and more. Abraham has been cowardly for thirty years and he is still capable of being the same thing, hiding behind his wife, subjecting her to dishonor and disgrace, in order to protect himself. He had made a pact with her thirty years before and he had never gotten around to giving her any new instructions, in spite of how much he had grown in grace.

This old Adamic nature with which we are born, which is perverted and twisted so that it never operates as God intended it to, is totally depraved

. 

GENESIS 20:8
⁸ Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.

One has to wonder, had not GOD spoken to the king, and informed him who this Abraham was, that he is a prophet of GOD, would they be “very afraid”? Perhaps this jogged their memories concerning Abraham – ‘Oh, this was the man who took on four armies and won (by the grace of GOD! GEN 14). I’ll bet they suspected that since this Abraham is a prophet of GOD that he was somehow involved with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra! And as surely as Sodom lay in ashes – I’m sure the smoke was still ascending into the skies – this same GOD could and would be destruction to Gerar just as He said:

“Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine”

GENESIS 20:9
⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

King Abimelech was right, Abraham as a prophet of GOD shouldn’t have led the king astray by this deception; but on the other hand – the king and his men offended greatly by taking this man’s wife away from him: even if she was truly only his sister, how could such an abduction be justified, taking a person that belonged to another?

We see here the hypocrisy of human nature; when caught in sin, we try to distract attention away from ourselves and point out the sin of someone else, often times a sin that is not as grievous as our own. What sin would have been committed had the king and his men simply left Abraham and Sarah alone? None!

Consider the prophet Nathan, when he presented an allegory before King David of a man with one ewe lamb, which was like a daughter to him, and the rich neighbor of his who had an unexpected guest from out of town. The rich man ordered his men to get the neighbor’s ewe lamb instead of one of the hundreds he owned, from his own flocks.
When David heard this, he became unglued and demanded two things: that the rich man would repay his poor neighbor four-fold (which was according to the Law) and that the rich man should be put to death!? That definitely was not the Law!

Yet Nathan declared that he himself, the King, was ‘the rich man’ who had many wives and even more concubines, but he took Uriah’s one and only wife, Bathsheba (2 SAM 12:1-7).

GENESIS 20:10-11
¹⁰ And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
¹¹ And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

Abraham’s assessment was correct; as mentioned previously, when a beautiful woman came into the city (and apparently, even as old as Sarah was, she was still a beauty!), she would run the risk of being snatched and brought to the king as a concubine and as these were ungodly men, with no principles, he more or less knew what was a likely outcome. Which makes one wonder, why did Abraham go into Gerar to begin with? Why didn’t he avoid this place? Was that another misstep on this man’s part?

One thing is certain: that while Abraham was in Gerar, he wasn’t of Gerar – likewise we are in this world, but we are not of this world. The LORD Jesus in His prayer to the Father said as much in JOHN 17:

JOHN 17:16
¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

We are pilgrims, strangers – aliens in this world, and as such we are not to adopt into our lives the culture of this fallen world; the culture of sin and covetousness and lust and self-centeredness. We are to abstain from these things and live in holiness:

1 PETER 2:9-12
⁹ But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; ¹⁰ Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. ¹¹ Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; ¹² Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

GENESIS 20:12-13
¹² And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³ And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

So, Abraham didn’t tell a complete lie; Sarah was his half-sister. Yet how can we justify a half-lie and claim it isn’t as bad as a complete lie (we sometimes refer to them as white lies and black lies)?

People will often cite the occasion where Rahab intentionally misled her own people, deceiving them by saying that the two Hebrew spies ran away, “but if you hurry,” she said, “you can catch them”; when all along, they were hiding in her house, and once her fellow citizens left to chase after the spies, Rahab led them to the roof of her house to escape. Was she wrong to lie, even though it was to protect the Hebrew spies? It’s interesting to note that God neither commends nor condemns her actions in this matter. Would it have been more righteous to tell the truth and trust that God would defend His own? These are very deep questions regarding the ends justifying the means.

GENESIS 20:14-15
¹⁴ And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and women servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. ¹⁵ And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.

Here we see that Abimelech brought livestock and servants as compensation for Abraham and offers the prophet of GOD to abide anywhere he likes in all the land. He then brings Sarah out to her husband, and the offense is reversed. Then the king says something interesting to Sarah:

GENESIS 20:16
¹⁶ And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.

A thousand pieces of silver – that is a substantial price, one that a person might expect to receive for a dowry, but in this case, I believe the king was offering this as a way of recognizing the legitimacy of the marriage of Abraham, so that no other in Gerar would be tempted to snatch Sarah. He then tells her that he has given this great sum “to your brother” he says; interesting he doesn’t say ‘husband’ but ‘brother’. I sense something of a rebuke there in Abimelech’s voice, and this seems verified when he further states that Abraham will be “a covering of [her] eyes”. There are different views on what this statement means:

Some suggest that Abraham would (or should) provide a veil for his wife so that no one would see her and be tempted to take her for their own. Or possibly he meant it as a rebuke – that if only Abraham did provide a veil for her, none of this would have happened (which is doubtful, considering they were accustomed to taking women, married or not).

On the other hand, some say that because Abraham was a prophet, that this would keep Sarah protected, as no one would want to offend any god of a prophet by snatching his wife!

GENESIS 20:17
¹⁷ So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.

Now here is something that we learn just now – it wasn’t mentioned before, but it seems that GOD had inflicted the people of Gerar with infertility, because for as long as Abimelech held Sarah hostage, none of the women would conceive. This tells me that this king had a hold of Sarah for quite some time, at least a month or two, otherwise, how would they know they weren’t conceiving?

GENESIS 20:18
¹⁸ For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

What lengths will GOD go to protect His own? We see here that He afflicted an entire city for the sake of Abraham and Sarah. Imagine if all of Tucson was afflicted by something from GOD because they intended harm upon one of you?

PSALM 36:6-8 

6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.

7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter NINETEEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: The Wasted Years GEN 19
  

GENESIS 19:1-38 – by James Fire 
Watch the FB Video of this teaching here (8/07/19)

Introduction:
We are constantly making choices in our lives; some good and some bad – and we have to live with the consequences of those choices. All too often we find ourselves in trouble of our own making because of unwise decisions and taking directions in life that lead to potential disaster, or even disaster itself.

When we contrast the lives of Abraham and his nephew Lot, we see the truth of this. Abraham was not without his own unwise decisions; the same goes for Sarah his wife – point in case: Hagar and the subsequent birth of Ishmael, whose decedents even today are a constant thorn in Israel’s side. But then as Abraham grows in his faith, we see his life becomes blessed with spiritual stability and maturity (though he still stumbles here and there on occasion – as we will see in Chapter 20).

But as we consider the life of Lot, he just goes from bad to worse, making one bad decision after another – even though, the Scriptures attest to the truth that his soul was just, and it was grieved for the wickedness of Sodom (2 PET 2:7; Do we know how he feels, living in this wicked world?).

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter EIGHTEEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: When GOD Comes To Dinner GEN 18:1-15

Studies by Ray Steadman: How Prayer Works GEN 18:16-33

GENESIS 18: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS – by Sonny Islas
(We were not able to make a video recording of this teaching)

Introduction:

From GEN 18:1-15 Yahweh (God) shares Good News with Sarah “Sarah’s having a baby!” the son of Promise (Isaac).  

From verses 16-33 Yahweh shares Bad News with Abraham about His just judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

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A TTUF CALL On APOSTASY: Time To Name Names: Message from The ETERNAL LIVING WORD Church

The following is based on three teachings by pastor Sonny Islas of ETERNAL LIVING WORD Church entitled, Time To Name Name's.

Pastor SONNY ISLAS

Sonny lists various teachers who are accepted among too many churches, most of them, having churches of their own, or speak at the pulpits of said churches, but are nevertheless, false teachers promoting false doctrines.
I will list the videos of these teachings as they've been posted on Facebook, and the names of false teachers mentioned are hyper-linked to articles that show from Scripture that they are not true to the Word of GOD and the doctrine of the genuine church of the LORD Jesus Christ.
Along with these, I will post different TTUF articles, videos and other materials that deal with this subject matter.
There is quite a lot of material here to keep you reading and watching for quite some time, so I'll not add any more commentary as these videos by pastor Sonny, along with these other articles and videos are more than enough to express the truth of our situation in these last days before the RETURN of the LORD JESUS CHRIST! MARANATHA!

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter SEVENTEEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: The Circumcised Life

GENESIS 17 – by James Fire
Watch the video teaching on Facebook here, taught at ETERNAL LIVING WORD Church.

Introduction:

The LORD appeared to Abraham in a vision back in GENESIS 15: that was the second time He did this; the first time in chapter 12:7, 12 years before chapter 15. Now we are in Chapter 17, which is 13 years after the last chapter when he was 86 years old. He’s 99 years old now, almost 100 – and still – no child from Sarah.

The last time we were in Chapter 16 and pastor Sonny said:

“…Sarai was blind to the fact that God was going to use her young [as well as her] old age barrenness in an incredible way! It was when Sarai could no longer scheme or naturally have a baby (90 yrs old) when God came through to show Himself mighty!

“Sometimes, God will allow us to scheme and squirm, try, fail and fold (even brake) before He sends down the blessing. This way we don’t try and take any credit for His magnificent work. Sometimes we’re too strong and clever for God to bless us. In 2 COR 12:9 The LORD tells Paul ‘My power is made perfect in weakness.’”

And remember the story of Gideon, who had his ten thousand men, and GOD reduced his forces down to a measly 300 – just so that the children of Israel would know Who really won the war against the enemy!

GENESIS 17:1-2
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. ² And I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly.

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A TTUF LOOK at REPENTANCE – WHAT IS IT and IS IT NECESSARY?

~ by James Fire

In this day and age, sound doctrine is not being tolerated by the professing/apostate church in startlingly increasing degrees (2 TIM 4:3); likewise, there are legitimate and necessary contentions for “the faith” in our stand for the truth that must happen (JUDE 1:3). Additionally, left and right there are disputes between Dispensationalists and Covenant Theologians (TTUF will be doing an article or possibly a three-part series on Dispensationalism in the near future); between Calvinists and Armenians, between Baptismal Regenerationists and strict Blood atonement salvationists, Baptists (Cessationists) and Pentecostals (Non-Cessationists) and so on and so forth.

Then we have this issue of repentance – some say that a soul cannot be saved until they repent, while others say the Gospel doesn’t contain the pre-requisite of repentance. What is the truth of the matter?

While I hold no pretentions that I will solve this debate for everyone, I will share my views on what I believe the Scriptures teach, in the hopes that those who are uncertain and need instruction will find this article useful and encourage them in their own study of this doctrine.

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