Episode 185: Faith and Flaws: Lessons from Genesis 20

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Today Counts Show Episode 185

Preview

Jim: My at-the-time fiancé, who’s now my wife, we were involved in a head-on collision on the highway in Southern California. She did not see it coming because there was a big billboard in the middle of this median that blocked her view. But a white Chevy van, as I recall, had crossed the median and was coming right at us. And as I said this morning, I really don’t know if the time that elapsed was one second, two, or three, but it was that fast.

But it’s amazing how God made us because there’s a lot of things that you can do in your mind in one, two, or three seconds. I was facing death in the face, I was only 19 years old. I do remember uttering the words, “Oh God,” or–

Appreciation of our Supporters

Winston: Hey, before we jump into the podcast, we want to thank all our donors and supporters who make the Today Count Show possible. It’s through your generosity that we’re able to shape leaders through this content and this podcast. And be sure to like, subscribe, and follow wherever you find yourself coming across this content. All right, let’s get to the podcast.

Introduction

Jim: Hey, welcome back to the Today Counts Show. If that applies to you, thanks for coming back. If this is your first time, welcome. And you have landed into what we’re calling the Genesis Project. We have more podcasts on the Today Count Show than just the Genesis Project, but what this one is about is me and a few of my friends, we are reading together the biblical book. I think that’s correct. Biblical book of Genesis. And we’re talking about it.

And so, please join us. We do tend to lean towards the leadership realm as we’re talking about that. We try to pull out applications, but let’s face it, we let the Bible drive and we just try to correspond with it. So, let me just say hello to Gary Harps and Winston Harris. Thanks for joining me today.

Gary: Thank you, Jim. Good to see you again.

Jim: Yeah, good to see you guys. And Pastor Matt is putting out fires today. So, he’s going to step out of Genesis 20.

Abraham Deceives Abimelech

Before I read this, it’s a pretty small chapter, so it won’t take long to read through it. Just to give a little bit of an overview, and you guys can throw your two cents into it as well. We find Abraham moving again. He seems to be doing that as a nomad, which I think would be kind of typical for that. We don’t see that as unusual. And just to remind everybody, his wife Sarah is also his half-sister. So that sounds kind of weird nowadays, but not too weird in those days.

As he enters enemy territory, he and his wife agree that they pawn each other off as brother and sister because apparently, Sarah was a beauty queen. Kind of turned heads. I guess today we’d say she’s a woman who was striking, so you can’t ignore her. And this was an era of, “This is my land. I will conquer. I will do what I want.” And so they had to figure out some ways to defend against that. So that’s a little bit of the backdrop.

A Repeated Deception

What’s interesting here in this story is that they did this in Egypt when they were in Egypt, and now they’re moving to what I think is Philistine territory and they do it again, but God steps in. So let’s check it out. We are in Genesis chapter 20. It’s not a biblical title, but the editors of our Bible, at least on mine, say Abraham deceives Abimelech. Deceives, a leader deceiving. Here we go.

“Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur. And then he moved on to Gerar.” Gerar, I believe, was a property of the Philistines. “While living there as a foreigner, Abraham introduced his wife Sarah by saying, ‘She is my sister.’ So, King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah,” because he was the king, right? “And had her brought to him at his palace.

God’s Intervention and Abimelech’s Dream

But that same night, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him.” I think that’s interesting, right? Because a lot of people today wonder whether God only speaks to believers. Well, certainly here in this time God speaks to whoever he wants. And in my opinion, I think he could still do that. Anyway, back at verse three, “That night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “‘You are a dead man.'”

I like that language. That would get my attention. “You’re a dead man.” I can see a gang banger saying that to you, but when God says it hmm., for that woman you have taken is already married. There’s a message there. But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, had not had sexual relations with her yet, although I think that was the plan. So he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?”

Abimelech Pleads His Innocence

I find humor in that, too. Sorry, guys, it’s been a long day. What? Me? I didn’t anything. Didn’t do anything. Didn’t Abraham tell me she is my sister and she herself said, “Yes, he is my brother”? I acted in complete innocence. My hands are clean.”

In the dream now, God responded. So, he’s having a dream about a conversation with God. “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me.” How did he do that? “And why I did not let you touch her? Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”

Boy, that’s a dream, huh? “So, Abimelech, when he woke up, got up early the next morning and quickly called all his servants together. When he told them what had happened, his men were terrified.” Sometimes I think these pagans have more fear of God than so-called Christians today. Maybe me.

Abimelech Confronts Abraham

Verse 9. And Abimelech called for Abraham. “What have you done to us?” he demanded. “What crime have I committed that deserves treatment like this? Making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin?” Because I’m sure he’s never done any bad things before. Sorry, that was Jim’s commentary. That’s not in the text.

“No one should ever do what you have done. Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”

Abraham replied, “I thought this is a godless place. They will want my wife and will kill me to get her.” Same story he said in Egypt. “And she really is my sister, for we both have the same father but different mothers.” That’s kind of a slang today too, isn’t it? “And I married her. When God called me to leave my father’s home and to travel from place to place, I told her, ‘Do me a favor.'” I like that too. “Dear wife, do me a favor. Wherever we go, tell the people that I am your brother. Let’s get our story straight.”

Abimelech Restores Sarah and Makes Restitution

Verse 14. “Then Abimelech took some of his sheep and goats, cattle, and male and female servants, and he presented them to Abraham.” He gets a bonus for being a liar and a deceit. Interesting. “He also returned his wife Sarah to him. Then Abimelech said, ‘Look, look over my land and choose any place where you would like to live.’ And he said to Sarah, ‘Look, I am giving your brother 1,000 pieces of silver.'”

I think it’s interesting. “Sarah, look, I am giving your brother,” still calling him a brother, “1,000 pieces of silver in the presence of all these witnesses. This is to compensate you for any wrong I have done to you. This will settle any claim against me and your reputation is cleared.”

“Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants so they could have children. For the Lord had caused all the women to be infertile because of what happened with Abraham’s wife Sarah.”

This is almost like a rerun from another movie that we talked about. Sure, there are things that stuck out to you guys. What are they?

Winston’s Reflection on God’s Presence

God’s Power and Human Will

Winston: You hung out on the dream situation, God coming to Abimelech in a dream. My initial statement I wrote as you were talking about that is: God has the ability to invade our consciousness without robbing our willingness.

Jim: You always come up with those great phrases. Say that again, Winston.

Winston: God has the ability to invade our consciousness without robbing our willingness. Because I think sometimes people might argue, or even in fear of misunderstanding who God is, think he can abuse you with his power. But in his sovereignty and his goodness and his love, he uses his power appropriately. Though he could force us to do something that he wanted us to do, he makes us aware of what should be done and then requires a response from us.

God’s Accountability and Presence

And so even with Abimelech not being a worshiper of Yahweh and a worshiper of God, he still holds Abimelech accountable for his wrongdoing and makes himself present, makes himself aware. Abimelech has no excuse. Whether he knows or didn’t know, now he knows because God made himself aware through this dream.

God Communicates on His Terms

And kind of a side note, once again, I was thinking through this. We don’t get to choose always how God communicates to us. God communicates as he pleases, on his time, when he pleases. And so there’s this humility required to follow the God of the Bible. We don’t get to dictate when and how. We have these moments of hyper-awareness, if you will. God’s not a vending machine where we can just pray the right prayer and automatically get what we’re looking for.

God’s Faithful Love and Our Responsibility

Not super related to this specific instance, but in general, just this idea that God is faithful in his love to make us conscious of him. And oftentimes we try to stay ignorant to things because we don’t want to be responsible for what we know. But God wants us to know what we need to know so that we don’t die. “You’re a dead man if you don’t know this.”

Gary’s Thoughts on Abraham’s Fear

Gary: Something that strikes me in this, I mean, we’ve seen it twice, but you think of Abraham as the paragon of faith and trust. And he’s given as the example of he believed God and he counted it as righteousness. I was always struck when he was called to take Isaac’s life. It says he was told to do it and he said the next morning he strapped up and did it. I mean, he immediately obeys.

And yet on this one topic he has this fear that doesn’t seem faith-based at all. Right? He’s afraid. Twice now, without even being challenged, he’s offered up that she’s his sister as opposed to doing it in the middle of a threat. There was no threat. He anticipated that this might happen, and he still caved in. It just doesn’t–

And it reminds me of my own. In one area I can be faithful, in another area I can be absolutely nuts. This appears to be one of those cases where this makes no sense. Why would you be afraid after all God has done for you?

Jim’s Questions on Culture and Faith

The Silence Between God and Abraham

Jim: I have some questions for you guys. You know, when we read the Bible, it has a way of compressing time as if Abraham and God are talking all the time. But when you really break it out, although I suppose it is possible that they spoke all the time, to your example, Gary, take your son Isaac and go and sacrifice, that kind of thing. But when we read scripture in its totality, it seems like there’s more silence between a man and God than what we might see as this running narrative all the time.

And so he does seem to be a guy that works on his own wits, right? But what I find interesting about it is when you read it at face value, God punishes the king. I mean, he could have woke up from the dream saying, “Was it just something I ate?”

Cultural Openness to the Supernatural

But I do think that, wouldn’t you guys agree in your studies that in that day and age, one of these things are true? One of these things are true: either the culture was more open to encounters with God or gods, the supernatural, or maybe our advancing in technology has numbed our posture toward being more open in how God might speak to us.

But here I find this pagan king who seems to be repentant of a sin because God called it a sin, and he accepted it as a sin, paid penance significantly. Abraham and Sarah lie, and they’re rewarded for it.

Sarah’s Role in God’s Plan

Gary: There’s a bigger mystery going on, though. Sarah fits into God’s purpose in a way that’s almost like Christ. She’s past the age of bearing a child and yet she’s been promised to create the seed from which God is going to establish all of this, right?

And so when they’re messing with her, even Abraham, the two of them together, they’re messing with God’s plan for the Messiah. By her getting pregnant by somebody else, it ain’t going to happen under God’s watch. And so it’s like these two themselves, Abraham and Sarah, are just pawns in God’s declared strategy here. He’s mysterious.

God’s Strategy Beyond Human Logic

Jim: Gary, that’s a really good point. To hop on your wagon, it is interesting how we can look at our lives, circumstances in our lives, and the circumstances in this narrative and bring it down to our level. And what you did is you just said, “Wait a second, there’s a lot more going on here than a man’s faithfulness or the logic of who gets rewarded and who gets punished.” That’s good insight. Really good insight.

The Tension of Free Will and God’s Sovereignty

Winston: What are your thoughts here? This may be into some Calvinism here, but does God’s presence expedite the end? Does God’s presence already increase what’s already there? So to the point of Abimelech, he was already somebody who was willing to repent. He had that potential. And then God expedited that potential by confronting him in this dream.

Because you were saying something a little bit earlier, and I was thinking about Judas. Judas was literally walking with Christ, seeing miracles, and he didn’t repent. He didn’t choose, right? And so this tension between free will and God knowing the end from the beginning and what’s already there has always been there.

I think in the scripture as well with Pharaoh. I think the scripture literally says God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, but he didn’t actually do that. Pharaoh’s heart was always hard. God just knew it was going to remain hard, and so he leveraged it to release God’s people in that way. Just a thought there.

Gary: Well, I think it ties back to what you said earlier, Winston, that somehow God intervened in this guy in a dream, but he didn’t take away his free will. And it says the same thing Jesus said about Judas. This has to happen, but woe through the person it happens. This duality of God’s plan is going to be executed just like that. But we still have a free will, and how we participate in that is a mystery.

Reaping and Sowing, and God’s Communication

Jim: Like the message I sent you guys this week. I listened, as I have a habit of doing, I listened to our podcast this week for the end of chapter 19 in preparation. We’re in a conversation right now, concentrating on it right now. But there’s just something about letting the podcast rest, be produced, come out, and then I listen to it afresh.

And it’s funny, I don’t remember a lot of the things that were said, but I was really touched by it because we kind of talked about what you’re bringing up right now, Gary, that reaping and sowing is still in play, yet God making all things the things he wants happens at the same time which is–

I think the other thing that I’m appreciating about this text is it’s reminding me of stuff. I certainly believe that we need to be pursuing truth with every ounce of our being. And I don’t even like the conjunction, but I don’t know how to transition to the next sentence without using the word “but.” King Abimelech, I mean, there was no orthodoxy at this point in history as far as I can tell.

So to say that Abraham’s a believer and Abimelech not a believer, I don’t know that I can say that. Look at how Abimelech responds to God. He calls him Lord. Granted, that was a common term for authority or whatnot, but Abraham has done the same.

God’s Unexpected Choices

When you really think about it that way, God is just communicating to his boys, going to what Winston said, protecting and setting up what he wants to do in the future. In other words, in our day, maybe the application is we shouldn’t be shocked that God taps somebody on the shoulder that we would think he would never tap on the shoulder, that he wouldn’t woo to himself.

I kind of like this king, Abimelech. He’s a bit offended. What I’m trying to say is as far as he understands, he’s a pretty stand-up guy. And he’s kind of upset with his brother Abraham. I don’t know. I’m almost wanting Abimelech to run for president versus Abraham, and he might get my vote.

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Imperfect Leaders and the Longing for the Perfect Leader

Winston: I was just going to drop in there to that point of Abraham not being what he should be in this moment. He’s the foreshadowing of many imperfect leaders that leave us wanting better leadership in the Scriptures. And it’s this constant setting up of the perfect leader which is to come, Christ. But up until that point, we just keep getting let down. Leaders just keep stepping up and they’re just like, “Ah, maybe he’s the guy, he’s not the guy.” Or maybe he’s the guy and he’s not the guy.

And it’s this tension of, “Well, there’s nobody else stepping up, but we need something better. This is not sufficient. This type of leadership is not sufficient.”

Jim: So what is that longing for the guy? What is that about? Because I think that’s true. Why is there a longing for the guy? Again, there might be somebody, not to get too weird, but as we start reading towards the end of the Bible, there’s obviously a longing.

In politics, some completely holistically believe in the person that they vote for as the solution, the answer. It’s an all-in kind of thing. Not everybody votes all-in, but a lot of people vote all-in. They believe what they choose to believe. Gary, you were going to say something.

Fear and Unbelief as Red Flags

Abraham’s Fear as the Root Problem

Gary: Yeah, I think it’s related, but it’s maybe putting a point on the leadership topic of where this goes wrong and what’s the root cause. I’m making a connection here to what it’s telling about Abraham to something I just read in Revelation 21. I’ll make the connection.

But it says Abraham defended himself because he said, “I thought–” Right there is one problem, what I think.  “Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me.” At the root of his decision– You could argue maybe this was wisdom, trying to avoid a problem, but the root of it is he was afraid. That’s the root.

As a general principle to all of us, when we spot fear in ourselves, it’s really a red flag to stop and figure out what’s going on in our heart and mind.

Revelation 21 and the Call to Overcome

Here’s the passage in Revelation 21. I like Revelation because I feel like the Bible is this increasing revelation from story to story, but when you get to the end, you feel like all the history is behind us and you’re getting a recap that considers all of history.

In Revelation 21:5 it says, “I am he who sits on the throne, the ruler, I am making everything new.” So there’s a recap. All these other books are telling us a story about making things new. Then he said, “It’s done. I’m finished. I’m going to give to the one who’s thirsty the spring of life.” And then he says, “He who overcomes will inherit all this.” What a statement—he who overcomes.

The Seriousness of Fear and Unbelief

But here’s the point I want to make: “I will be his God and he will be my son. But here’s the list of the people that don’t inherit this.” I don’t know about you but when I think about want and sin and the things that reject God, I have this list of big sins—pornography or the desires we struggle with and our desires.

But here’s the first thing he says: the cowardly and the unbelieving. That’s the first two things he lists as those who won’t share in this are cowards and unbelievers. It’s not  some sexual sin. It’s not some big murder thing. Murder is fourth on the list.

God’s Offense at Unbelief

Our holy God is offended when we don’t believe Him. Us mere mortals created by Him—and He says something is true—and we cannot act on that truth. The king did. He was afraid of God. He believed in God’s holiness and righteousness and he acted on it. What did Abraham do? He failed. I’m not criticizing because I’m in the middle of that. I’m there. Unbelief and fear are really big red flags for me that I’m getting off track.

Defining Sin and Cultural Practices

Jim: This is all good. I’m looking at verse six with a magnifying glass. It says, “In the dream, God responded, ‘Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me and why I did not let you touch her.’” That’s an interesting phrase, is it not? To me, it suggests there is a difference in the definition of sin.

There are a lot of things in our Christian culture that we might label as sin. Maybe because we’re thousands of years later, and God, to your point, Gary, continues to help us understand what sin is. We continue to learn what that is. But it appears here that– I almost hate myself for saying this, but I have to say it because the mid that gave me goes is that there must be a difference between the heart of a man and the cultural practices of a man that we would all run to and say is sin is wrong, at least in that day.

Because I’m saying, “What are you talking about? This guy practiced immorality and didn’t have a problem grabbing another lady to be part of his harem.”

Gary: What’s Sarah thinking about all this?

Jim: Yeah. Yeah. I think it tells us how powerful culture is at least, right? It is much more powerful. We might curse the darkness. We might stand up and say, “This is wrong in our culture, that is wrong in our culture.” But we’re certainly a part of our culture. How do we discern what part of the culture I’m receiving is good and what’s not? I don’t know.

God as Our Anchor

Gary: The thread through this, to the point of the culture thing, is just chaotic. How many messages do we get figuring out what’s right and wrong? The kids today have a million times the messages I did. It is chaotic.

But you see this thread through here: God protects Abraham from his fear because he didn’t step up to it, and He protects the guy that’s the object of his fear, where his failure spills over, He protects both sides of the error here. God is our anchor, right? Because Abraham did wrong and so did Abimelech. And we would probably justify Abimelech, say, “Well, it wasn’t his fault.” That’s not the way God looked at it.

God’s Justice vs. Human Justice

Winston: I was going to say, I don’t know if you could thread the needle with the King Solomon story with the mother and the baby—cut the baby in half or keep the whole baby—but just that same way, God’s judgment, God’s justice, is not our justice and our judgment.

Gary: His ways, yeah.

Jim: Yeah. I think one of the really good principles that has been brought out the most is Gary’s point about there’s a bigger thing going on here. That might be the place to really focus. Because otherwise, I think we could get paralyzed down here in this humanity, because I’m looking at it as a chess game going, “Well, okay. There would seem to be no repercussions for Abraham. In fact, somehow he keeps walking away richer, right?

So that goes against the whole reaping and sowing principle that the book of Galatians teaches us. So, okay, what do you do with that? And then you got a guy that’s dominating women in every way, shape, or form. And God tells him he’s innocent.”

Lessons from Abraham and Personal Testimonies

If there is a beautiful part of this from the lower elevation—the human, the sandals elevation—it is that it’s pretty apparent that Abimelech really was sorry. I mean, he carried it out. He carried it out, and the Lord seemed to be agreeable with him in those things, I guess. So, I don’t know about you guys. For me, what I’m looking at is I’m going, “What can I learn from this text for my own life?”

On the part of Abraham, I’m thinking, “All right, where am I? Where is my self-preservation and my rationalization causing harm? Is there any of that in me?”

Okay. Here’s my contribution, and you guys share your own. I’m reminded of an event in my life. I talked about this morning—our church had a prayer meeting, and Winston was there. I didn’t tell the whole story because I didn’t have time. You get a little 10-minute spot to do a devotional.

The Angel Donna

The Collision in 1980

I told a story from 1980. My fiancée at the time, who’s now my wife, and I were involved in a head-on collision on the highway in Southern California. She did not see it coming because there was a big billboard in the median that blocked her view. A white Chevy van, as I recall, had crossed the median and was coming right at us.

As I said this morning, I really don’t know if the time that elapsed was one second, two, or three, but it was that fast. It’s amazing how God made us because there’s a lot you can do in your mind in one, two, or three seconds. What I shared this morning was that I distinctly remember going through what’s the theological term—kenosis—emptying myself before God. Not because I was a great guy, but because I had no other choice. I was facing death in the face. I was only 19 years old.

Crying Out to God

I do remember uttering the words, “Oh God,” or “Okay, God,” or something like that. I really gave myself up, knowing this was it. This was over. On the other side of the story that Winston didn’t hear, because I didn’t have time to go into it and I don’t know how relevant it was, but when Rhonda and I woke up from being unconscious, there were already, we estimate, like 50 people: fire trucks, ambulance, bystanders, people hurt in the van, and then us.

When I woke up, my fiancée Rhonda was still out cold. Her head was resting up against the steering wheel. My right shoulder was separated, dislocated, because my flex was to turn to my right side. My door was jammed. I couldn’t get out between my shoulder and what have you.

The Mysterious Helper Donna

This lady came up to me—there were no windows, they were shattered and broken. She asked, “What are you trying?” I said, “I’m trying to get over and help Rhonda.” She said, “You stay here and I’ll go help Rhonda.” Then she told me her name was Donna. She went to the other side of the car, she had her hand on Rhonda, trying to look at her.

A big old sheriff came and opened my door. I was able to get out but then I fell to my knee. Long story there—the sheriff puts in place. In those days, you could do that. Nowadays, he’d probably get sued or something. I don’t know.

Then I went over to the other side. There was blood all over my face. Rhonda said only the whites of my eyes she could see on my face. It was all superficial.

When Rhonda came to, she panicked. She couldn’t breath because she had a collapsed lung. There were all kinds of stuff going on. This woman, Donna, was incredible. Absolutely incredible. We get ushered off into this ambulance and we’re on our way to the hospital.

All right. So, there was a big investigation. The police officers were taking witness accounts because the other guy was a drunk driver and had several people in the van.

The Mystery of Donna

The dust settles. We make it out alive, and Rhonda and I don’t remember everything. We remember this one day, remember another day, another day, another day. But we both remember Donna. But Donna—there was no record of Donna. Donna did not give any testimony. There was nothing written down.

The witnesses that we talked to, because it was a big old thing. It ended up in the courts and all kinds of stuff, nobody could find Donna. But the EMS team, I don’t know what they’re called in those days, the firemen, they had to work around Donna. Everybody saw Donna, but nobody saw Donna.

And Rhonda and I have always been weird about it because we can only conclude that it was an angel.

Overcoming Doubt and Organized Faith

The Power of Culture on Testimony

But our culture always looks at people weird when you, even in the Christian world, if you share that story, you’re trying to dramatize something. And me being a cynic, I get it. I even have asked myself, have we made up that story?

What I’m trying to say is it’s amazing to me how powerful culture is, even in the believing community, where we continue to organize God. We put God in boxes. We put God on our library shelf. We’ve got to make sense of God. “Why would an angel visit us?” we would say that to ourselves.

So I think for me, what I see here is I’m convicted that sometimes my testimony—I’m not talking about walking around telling stories about Donna, I’m talking about being more open with my faith in the face of difficulty.

The Van Purchase Story

I remember—I’m going to tell you guys one more story. When I was a youth pastor, I bought a vehicle that I could not afford. Brand new, and I was spiritually convicted that I had buyer’s remorse, but I believe it was God convicting me.

Now, you have to remember I was around 30 years old, and I was a zealot to live the way that God would have me live. I didn’t think in any gray. There was no gray. It was black and it was white. That’s a tough way to live, but that’s the way I lived.

To make a long story short, the following day I drove that big old van back to the dealership. I had a fear of God. I told the salesman, “I’m a Christian. I’m a pastor. I wasn’t supposed to buy this van. Please give me my money back, give me my trade-in, take this.” Well, you know how that went. In the end, I won. I stayed there for hours and hours and wouldn’t give. Finally, they gave me my truck back, they took the van back, but they said they were going to keep my down payment, which I think was $500.

God at Work Through Conviction

I already knew in my head that probably wasn’t legal. But I said, “That’s my penalty for being an idiot.” The funny thing is before I left, the sales manager told me his dad was a pastor and that he hadn’t been to church for years and years. But because of this encounter, he promised he was going to go back to church.

Also, a month later, that check came in the mail, and they tore it in two and sent it back to us.

Zealousness and Trusting God

So there’s something about Abraham that convicts me. Sometimes the older we get, we can get none the wiser. We sometimes lose that zealousness that I had when I was younger. I don’t know. That’s what the story does for me anyway. Wouldn’t that have been great if he would have walked up to the king and said, “This is my wife. Funny thing, she’s my sister too,” and just trusted God?

I don’t know. If I get to meet Abraham someday, I’m not going to– He must have been a pretty amazing man. But I don’t know. Those are mine. What do you guys think?

Gary: Nothing after that story.

Jim: And you don’t have to have an answer. That’s just where I’m at, and we can call it a day.

Gary: Only thing I’d say is that Donna must have come so that you would be here today to talk to us. That must be why she rescued you.

Winston: The other thought I had to that point—why would Donna come visit you guys? If Christ is willing to visit and dwell within you, why wouldn’t angels be willing to dwell and visit with us, right?

Jim: It shows how powerful doubt can be, or how bad we really feel about ourselves in so many ways. I’m 65 years old, and I’m still telling that story from when I was 19. I don’t tell it very often. I didn’t think I was going to tell it today. And I thought about telling it this morning, but I didn’t really find the place for it.

God is at Work

Gary: I’m glad you shared it. I think we’re all saying the same thing. God’s at work. I can’t trust me, and I can’t trust others. All I can do is trust that He’s at work. Everything goes sideways, but He’s going right down the middle.

Looking Ahead to Genesis 21

Jim: I think you guys know what’s coming in the next chapter. We continue, or maybe begin in a sense, being introduced to not just Abraham but Isaac, and things get spicy.

Gary: You look at this story coming up, how it sets the table for everything that’s going on in the world today.

Jim: And we need to talk about that. I think it’s going to be important for the listeners. So we need to do our homework. We need to be careful yet bold all the way through the end of Genesis. The whole deliverance of the Hebrew people, the patriarchs—it sets the table for everything now. I’m excited about it.

Good seeing you guys. And we will be in Genesis 21.

Outro

Winston: Hey, thank you so much for joining us on the Today Counts Show. We’ve got so much more planned for you, so stay tuned and stay connected on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and subscribe on YouTube. And remember, today counts.