Grace and Patience: Genesis 20:1-2
God’s grace and patience are unsurpassable. One of the most often cited expressions about history is, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” If we don’t learn from the past mistakes of others, we’ll make the mistakes ourselves. Now imagine being God. How many times must He endure generation after generation of mistakes? How often does God see people in need of learning the same lessons as the generation before? God is indeed a patient God.
Abraham moves to Gerar, which is just within Philistine territory. Since Abraham is a nomad, watching him move about Canaan is no surprise. Abraham would move with his flocks, following the grazing land and the water sources as they came and went through the season.
When Abraham gets to Gerar, he uses a familiar ploy. He calls Sarah his sister rather than his wife. Once more Abraham allows fear to dictate his actions. Abraham looks for the easiest way to enter a region instead of looking for the most honorable way.
It’s easy to sit back as a reader and ask what’s wrong with Abraham. After all, this same technique led him into sin in Egypt and got him kicked out! This same pattern of behavior required repentance when Abraham returned to Canaan and desired to walk closer with the Lord. How could Abraham make the exact same mistake? Why didn’t Abraham learn?
This is a great time to remember Jesus’ teaching as a part of His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells His listeners to be mindful of the log in their own eye before becoming concerned about the speck in the eye of their brother. Before getting up-in-arms about Abraham’s idiocy, we should make sure our own life is free from idiocy. After all, I’ll have much greater success changing my own idiocy than changing Abraham’s!
The reality is that I sin repeatedly. I make the same mistakes. I say I’ve learned my lesson and then I’m right back into the pit of despair in the throes of my sin. I relearn a lesson I should have mastered earlier. Perhaps I learn it a bit deeper, or a bit better, or I learn to pick up on some earlier indicators that I’m heading in a poor direction. The reality is, though, that I repeat transgressions more often than I’d like.
This demonstrates the beauty of God’s Word. Abraham is a massive figure of faith. He is one of the dominant exemplars of what it means to walk with God. This story illustrates Abraham’s humanity; he’s just like us. He not only made mistakes, but he repeated them. He doesn’t learn the lesson fully on the first-go-round.
Abraham could make the same mistake more than once and not fall out of God’s grace. He did need to repent. He did need to relearn the lesson. His status in God’s grace did not change, though. God’s grace and patience are unsurpassable.
