His Sister

The cultures that once flourished in the ancient world were influenced by their ancient past and their

understanding of who God was. Even though we do not have the history of every ancient culture,

God was still working with humanity. Abimelech was not from the family of Abraham, yet he heard

from God. Abraham did not understand that Abimelech, the king of Gerar, not only heard from

God, but sought to follow Him. As a result of his mistrust, Abraham got himself into a bind when

he claimed Sarah was his sister and she was taken into the king’s harem. Granted, Abraham was

technically not lying, because Sarah was his half-sister, but he was lying by omission to preserve his

own life. It was not an act of faith, and whatever does not proceed from faith is sin ( R O M A N S 1 4 : 2 3 ).

Although Abimelech accepted Sarah into his harem, he had acted with a clear conscience. God did

not allow him to violate her in any way and confronted the king in a dream. God had other plans.

This failure to trust in the plans of God is specifically interesting today, as we ready ourselves to face

the coming of the LORD.