Hear the word of God as you find it in Genesis, the 21st chapter, and
beginning at verse 22. And it came to pass at that time that Abimelec and Fycle, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me with my offspring or with my posterity. But that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land and in which you have dwelt. And Abraham said, I will swear. And Abraham rebuked Abimelec because of a well of water which Abimelec's servants had seized. And Abimelec said, I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me nor had I heard of it until today. So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelec and the two of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven U-lams of the flock by themselves. And then Abimelec asked Abraham, what is the meaning of these seven U-lams which you have set by themselves? And he said, you will take these seven U-lams from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well. Therefore he called that place bear sheba because the two of them swore an oath there. And thus they made a covenant at bear sheba. And so Abimelec rose with Fycle, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. And then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in bear sheba. And they are called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for many days. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, let's pray together. Father, we do give you thanks for this, your word. And Father, we confess that as we read a passage like this, we read names that are not familiar to us, we read of trees that are not familiar to us, we read about U-lams that we know nothing about and covenants that we know little about. As we read these things, we realize how much we need your help and the assistance of your spirit if this portion of your word is to have its application in our lives. And now we ask for that assistance. We ask that you'd open our eyes. We ask that you'd make our hearts receptive. We ask that you would take this your word. And apply it to our lives and cause it to remain with us and cause it to bear much fruit in our lives for the honoring of your name. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Maybe seated.
By the 12th of December 1949, Harry Truman and his family, Bess and Margaret, had moved out of the White House, had moved across the street to Blair House, and for the next three years and four months lived in Blair House, while the White House, the official residents of the chief executive of the United States, underwent renovations and restoration.
The renovations began December 13, 1949. The building was first under construction in 1792. And the first residents of the building moved in in the year 1800, John and Abigail Adams. And there were six rooms on the main floor of the White House. Only a couple of them were finished and habitable. Abigail Adams used to string up her laundry in what is now the East Room of the White House.
But in the intervening century and a half, nearly, very little was done to preserve the structural integrity of the building.
And so Harry Truman took it upon himself to see to it that this, frankly, dilapidated and falling apart executive mansion was restored and made structurally sound. And so they moved out and the renovations began on the 13th of December.
Now all of the rooms on that main floor, the green room, the East Room, the Red Room, the Blue Room, the State Dining Room, all of those rooms underwent significant restoration renovation and were brought pretty largely back into conformity with original design. And Truman himself oversaw most of the renovations and made most of the decisions pertaining to those renovations. And in the main hallway just outside the Blue Room in the White House, there had been embedded in the floor the presidential seal, the seal of the President of the United States. The very Truman wanted that seal removed from the floor. And so if you go to the White House today, you will see that seal, the seal of the President of the United States. But instead of being embedded in the floor, Truman had it placed above the entrance to the Blue Room on the main floor of the White House. And he did that because he didn't like the idea that people would walk on, would step on the seal of the President of the United States. He had such high regard for the dignity that he in effect changed the behavior of people who would go for tours in the White House, who would live in the White House, who would entertain in the White House. The behavior was changed because of the regard that Truman had for the dignity of the office of the Presidency. I'm told him it read this, but I'm told that it is the case that Ronald Reagan only entered the Oval Office in the White House with a code and tie, and that he would not work at his desk in the Oval Office without a code and tie because he had such high regard for the dignity of the office and his regard for the dignity of the office affected his behavior in the literal office where he worked. I remember that Jimmy Carter, President of the United States at the time, didn't like the idea that people would play heel to the chief upon his departure from the White House or his arrival at the White House. And he didn't like that idea because he felt unworthy of that kind of distinction. Now at one level, Jimmy Carter was right, not because he was a Democrat, or a Republican, or an Independent, or whatever a President might have been, but because he's a frail human being, and nobody is worthy of that office. But on the other hand, it's not about Jimmy Carter. It's about the office of the Presidency, and there is behavior that is appropriate because of the regard that one would have for the office of the President of the United States. So while in the one hand, Jimmy Carter is right that he ought not be saluted, given that he is a frail human being, it's with regard to the office of the Presidency that the band strikes up the tune hail to the chief. There's a relationship between the office of the Presidency and the kind of behavior that one has with respect to it. Now, I'm always struck by little anecdotes like that, and I'm frankly convicted by them, I'm confronted by them, and I wonder, I wonder to myself, and this is a question that I ask myself. So please understand that I ask myself this question, before I ask this question of you, I wonder, do we have the same regard, the same regard for the dignity of the name of God, for the honor of the name of God, do we have the same regard for the office, if you will, the office of the King of Heaven, and do we see that there is a connection between our regard for the honoring of his name, our respect for the dignity of his office, and the way that we live, the way that we behave. There is that connection, it really struck me this week that there is that connection in Genesis 21, the tward for the dignity of God and for the honoring of the name of God, and the way in which Abraham behaves, the way that he conducts himself, in his interaction with Abimolec, this pagan King, this Philistine King. The number of things that you see in this passage, the characters here, just very briefly, the characters are Abraham, and Abimolec, and then Abimolec's general Fycole, and Abimolec is a Philistine King, and he's already made an appearance, he's already shown up in Genesis 20, and you remember that situation where Abraham, when he comes into the land of the Philistines, misrepresents the exact nature of his relationship to his wife, and in effect lies and acts in a deceitful way with respect to Abimolec, and so these men know each other, they've had an encounter already, and there is some period of time that has transpired from that initial encounter which Abraham and Abimolec had had. In fact, it's probably several years because in verse 8 of chapter 21, earlier in the chapter, you read there that Isaac has been born and that Isaac has been weaned, and in those days weaning occurred two or three years after birth. There's a big feast and a big celebration to honor the occasion of Isaac's being weaned. And so over the course of those years, as Abram lives in Philistine territory, he lives on the full eye of Abimolec, and Abimolec has been watching Abraham. Now you infer that from what is said in verse 22, when Abram is approached by Abimolec, what Abimolec says is, I know that God is with you and everything that you do, how does he know that? He's been watching him. He's been watching him, and in this verse there is a fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abram years before, that he would bless him, the blessing of the Lord would be upon Abram, and God has demonstrated his faithfulness to Abram. He's shown himself faithful to Abram, and he's shown himself faithful to the extent that a pagan king, a Philistine king, looks at Abram, watches Abram over an extended period of time, and acknowledges to Abram, that God is with him in everything that he does. The blessing of God has been upon Abram. Now I want you to notice something. I want you to notice that Abimolec's attention is not drawn to Abraham. It is not Abraham that Abimolec is attracted to, but it is God's faithfulness in Abram's life that gets Abimolec's attention, because you see Abimolec knows Abraham, and he knows that Abraham is not faithful. He knows that Abram is not worthy of his trust. He's already had one experience with him, and Abram acted deceitfully with Abimolec, and Abimolec comes to him now. The first thing he says, I know that God is with you and everything you do, but then he sews him for peace. He sews him for peace. Make a treaty with me, and make a treaty with me, promising something to me that you will swear truthfully to me, and not deal falsely with me, my offspring, or my posterity. Why does Abimolec have to say that to Abim, because he's had experience with Abram? And he knows that Abram is not worthy of his trust, and so he wants some objective concrete manifestation, demonstration, testimony that Abram will act faithfully with Abimolec. See, Abram is a sinner. The remarkable thing is that in the midst of Abram's deficiency and weakness and deceitfulness, his misrepresentation of his relationship with Sarah, which expose Sarah and expose the promise and pose the threat to Abimolec. Sin always has consequences. It goes places you cannot predict. It does not play by the rules. Sin goes places you cannot predict. It's like a flood, and you can't find enough sandbags to keep it constrained and contained. It doesn't play by the rules. It goes wherever it wants to go, and it wreaks havoc wherever it wants to go. And it was doing that with Abimolec, but even in the midst of that, this is the stunning thing, even in the midst of that, Abimolec had to acknowledge that God's blessing was upon Abram that somehow even in the midst of Abram's inconsistency, the blessing of God remained. Is Abram to be credited for that? Is attention to be drawn to Abraham for that? No. Of course not. Attention is to be drawn to God, and you're confronted, aren't you confronted with something in this? Don't you come away from this here as a pagan king who knows what Abraham is like, and yet even knowing what Abraham is like, he has to acknowledge that the blessing of God is upon him.
Do you ever ask yourself? Ask yourself the question, what is the world see when it looks at us?
Now, if the world looks very closely, it's going to find that we're just like Abraham. We're inconsistent. We're deceitful. We're sinning. Yes. Remember the movie of Iraqi?
Remember when Pauli asked Iraqi why he was interested in his sister Adrian? Gaps. We all got gaps. You got gaps. I got gaps. She fills my gaps. Everybody's got gaps. Not just gaps in relationships, but huge gaps of inconsistency in our behavior. Do you ever ask yourself the question, is the blessing of God upon us in such a remarkable degree that even when people look at us, they would look beyond our sin and they would say, God is with you in everything that you do. Doesn't it remind you what Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount after the Beatitudes when he says, let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father who was in heaven?
Do we ever ask ourselves that? I mean, we're painfully aware of our gaps, painfully aware of our sin, but do we ever ask ourselves, what does the world see when they look at us? Do they look beyond our sin? Do they look beyond our gaps and do they acknowledge that God's blessing is upon us and that God is with us in everything we do. Folks, that is something to pray for. And I want to suggest to you that if the world in some sense, if you don't find that there are people out there in the world, looking at us, some person here, some person there, some pagan kings, some Philistine, some Babylonian, if there isn't some person like a Bimolek looking at us and saying in the midst of everything that I know to be true about you, I must still acknowledge that the blessing of God is upon you. If we're not hearing that, if we're not seeing it, it seems to me the first motion of our hearts is to repent, not because we've done some particular thing wrong, not because we need to beat ourselves up, simply because the dignity and artist's name of God is not sufficiently manifested among us. Does that make sense? That we would first repent and say, Lord, we repent and we are, we are saddened, we are brokenhearted, that your name is not more honored in our midst. And then it seems to me the next thing we would do would be to implore God and plead with God that for the sake of his own name, he would work in our midst and do those things which would constrain somebody out there to look upon the church and say, God is truly among you, God is truly with you and everything that you do. I'm very challenged by this. I'm challenged about it in the way that I live my life and the way that I form my praying and think about my praying.
The name of God was honored by a pagan, fallistine king because the blessing of God was so upon Abram that he had to acknowledge it, even knowing there's no white washing the truth about Abram, even knowing what Abram was like. That is what God had promised. It's what he had promised to Abram that he would bless him, that he would be a blessing to the nations. It's what Moses prayed for in Exodus 33, 16 and following. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and pleased with your people unless you go with us? What is there that will differentiate us, distinguish us from the rest of the nations, but that you are present in blessing and in glory in the midst of your people? That's what Moses prayed for. It's what God promised that he would do in Deuteronomy 4, 5 through 8. It's what Isaiah imploring God and reflecting upon God and being inspired by God described as being the distinguishing feature of God in his relationship to Israel, that his blessing would be upon them. Look at Isaiah 49, 8 through 12 and 22 to 23. In those passages, you will see a description of the blessing of God upon the people of God to such an extent that the nations stream to Israel. God will be with Israel and the nations will see it. Do we ask, what does the world see? What does the world see? Do we have something that would cause them to say, God is with you in all that you do? Bimilek saw God's faithfulness and a Bimilek honored the name of God because of what he saw, the blessing of God upon Abraham. But here's the second thing. And this is where there is the connection. It seems to me a more clear and obvious connection between the dignity and the honor, the regard that we are to have for God and our behavior. Abram's behavior confirms the judgment of a Bimilek. Abram's behavior in this setting confirms the judgment of a Bimilek. Abraham behaves differently. He acts differently. Let's get real. I want to be so clear about this. I want to be so careful that we understand this. Abraham's behavior does not earn for him God's favor. He does not do what he does in order to be God's. Rather, he does what he does because he is God's. We don't do what we do in order to be Christ. The doing has been done for us. The doing has been done for us perfectly, completely. It was done in Jesus by his life of obedience. A life lived for you and his death on the cross where he suffered God's judgment in your place that you might be set free. The earning, the doing is done. It's finished. Abram doesn't do what he does in order to be God's. He does what he does because he is God's. He is in covenant relationship with God. God has secured for him the blessings of the covenant. He has reminded Abram of that again and again. A Bimilek has seen that though Abram is a sinner, the blessing of a covenant making and covenant keeping God is upon him. And the same is true for us. While on the one hand, we are very good to say that we don't do what we do in order to be Christ's because Christ has done it all for us. On the other hand, we must say that we do what we do precisely because we are Christ's. And it matters what we do. It matters for us, as I've said. And the Proverbs say this. If a man clutches fire to his bosom, he cannot help but be burned. If a person embraces sin, it will burn you. But there's something of greater significance in this. And that is the name of God. Abram's behavior confirms the judgment of a Bimilek that the blessing of God is upon him. Abram acts differently. Look at verse 24, 25, and following. Abram first swears that he will keep faith with a Bimilek. He makes that promise. He swears that he will keep faith with a Bimilek. This is a pagan king. And Abram, the son of the covenant, the father of all of the faithful swears that he will keep faith with a pagan king. Do you keep faith with your pagan neighbors? Do you keep faith with your pagan work associates? Do you keep faith with the pagans that you meet in the grocery store or in a restaurant? Do you keep faith with people who would spitefully use you? Abram promises to keep faith with a Bimilek. But then as you look at verses 25 and following, that commitment is put to a test. That commitment is put to a test. What happens is that Abram has dug a well and wells were necessary for the sustaining of life in those days. Sustaining of his own life, sustaining the life of his family, sustaining the life of all of his flocks and herds, Abram had dug a well. The well was his. It was rightfully his. It belonged to him. And a Bimilek acknowledges that. The acknowledges that in their exchange. Abram complains to a Bimilek that a Bimilek's servants had seized this well and what that word really means is that they had taken it by violent force. It had just happened upon it. But they took it by force. And then in their exchange, a Bimilek says, I didn't know. I didn't know that this had happened. And in his saying what he says in those verses, he is in effect acknowledging that Abram has a right to this well, that it is Abram's well, belongs to him. And how does Abram then respond to a Bimilek? Does he sue him for the well?
It's interesting, isn't it, that when a Bimilek came to Abram he brought the general, the commander of his army. You almost expect in that, don't you? That a Bimilek is expecting a war to break out over this well. Because Abram is significant in number. And we've already seen in an earlier chapter, him go to war to rescue Lot. But does Abram go to war? Does he sue? Does he engage in battle? No, he acts differently. And I'm convinced and persuaded that he acts differently because of his growing regard of the name of God. And he would do nothing, nothing that would detract from the honoring, from the dignifying of the name of God. What does Abram do when this well has been stolen away from him? He doesn't sue for it. He doesn't go to war over it. He buys it back. He buys back something that is rightfully his. He puts himself at personal disadvantage. He experiences personal loss. So as to be a peace with a Bimilek so as to confirm in a Bimilek's mind that a Bimilek's judgment about the blessing of God upon Abram is right, he behaves differently. What does the world see when the world looks at the church? Does the world see the blessing of God upon the church? In such unique ways and to such significant degrees that the world is constrained to say that God is with you and all you do. And then as the world continues to look at the church, does the world see the church acting differently? In far more substantial ways, far more significant ways, far more sacrificial ways than the simple lists of ways that we typically would hold up as being the differentiating behaviors of Christians. We don't smoke, we don't chew, we don't go with girls who do. We don't go to the wrong movies, we don't dance, we don't play cards, we don't do whatever. When the world looks at the church, does the church manifest a behavior that is so markedly different from the world that the world is constrained like a Bimilek was to have confirmed in its mind its judgment that the blessing of God is upon us. Somebody mentioned this last week, a passage from Isaiah. I haven't been able to get this passage out of my mind. The passage in Isaiah, Isaiah 58, where God is complaining against Israel for the manner in which she conducts herself religiously.
58, 3, why have we fasted? They say, and you have not seen, why have we afflicted us in this? In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen a day for man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bull rush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen to lose the bonds of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, to break every oak? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring into your house the poor who are cast out? And when you see the naked to cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh, if you do these things, the inferences, then your light shall break forth like the morning and your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Lord shall be your guard. And then in Isaiah, there's a connection made between fasting in the Sabbath, verse 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath by doing your pleasure online to follow the Sabbath until the light of the holy day of the Lord, call it honorable, then he shall honor him. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. You see what God is saying through Isaiah is that there is a conduct, there is a manner of behavior and in this particular case it has to do with the hungry and the naked and the poor and those who are cast off, those who are set aside, it has to do with bringing those people into our homes. And as those people are brought into our homes and their bonds are set free and they are relieved that their heavy burdens then righteousness will go out before us and healing will spring forth for us and the glory of the Lord will be our guard and the world will see it and it will be confirmed in their minds that the blessing of God is upon Israel. I've mentioned a couple of times this passage in Luke the 14th chapter about parties and the kind of parties we have. I'm really challenged by this stuff. I don't think I read my Bible, frankly. I think I read it and it just kind of goes in one eye and out one year. Luke 14 verse 12, then he said also to them who invited him to this dinner. When you give a dinner or a supper, don't ask your friends, don't ask your brothers, don't ask your relatives, don't ask your rich neighbors, unless they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the main, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed and you will be rewarded, repaid at the resurrection of the just. How many things could we look at? How many examples could we find in the scriptures of one kind or another that describes something so markedly different? And we wonder, what would the world say? What would the world say if they were to see these things? Last week I had a conversation with a friend, a friend who was on staff with campus crusade for Christ who was going to go to work for chosen people ministries and in the course of our conversation, she said that she had been reflecting upon Romans 111, this passage where Paul the Apostle talks about the gospel making his brethren according to the flesh jealous and she asked the question,
she asked the question in a, in just a kind of a quiet reflective sort of way, is there anything in the church that would cause a Jew to be jealous of what we possess?
A Bimilex saw something in Abraham, an Abram's behavior confirmed in a Bimilex mind the correctness of his judgment that the blessing of God was upon him. And the wonderful consequence of this, the wonderful benefit of this and this is the third thing, the wonderful benefit of Abram's obedience is that he was a peace, he was a peace with a Bimilex, he was a peace with his enemy. Proverbs 167 says, when a man's way pleases the Lord, he causes even his enemies to be a peace with him, that's what happened. Now the scriptures are not naive about this, the scriptures know and it's all fulfilled in the life of Jesus. The scriptures know that there are cruel and vicious and destructive enemies of the gospel out there. And Jesus experienced it firsthand still, still. In Abram's life, in the wisdom literature, and across the experience of the church, it is the case that when the blessing of God is upon the people of God in such a superlative degree that pagan kings must acknowledge it. And then when the behavior of the church confirms that that judgment is right, the people of God will know peace even with their enemies, for their enemies will have to acknowledge that the blessing of God is upon them. Can I encourage you to pray about this? Can I encourage you to plead with God about this and plead with him that no matter the cost to you and no matter the cost to me, his blessing might be upon this congregation to such a great extent that people would be stopped in their tracks and would have to acknowledge that God's blessing is upon us. We are a blessed congregation. We have so much here, but I don't know if we're blessed in the right ways and in the best ways. And so may I ask you to pray about this and think about this and reflect upon this and ask the question, what does the world see when the world looks at us? Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, you set the standard so very high, you elevate the bar well above what we are able to get over, apart from your grace, apart from your movement among us, apart from the radical work which you alone can do in our lives, no matter how high we know that they're that bar. And so we do look to you and plead with you that for the sake of your own name, for the honoring of your name, that your name might be dignified even, even among unbelievers, would you work among us, that they might be constrained to acknowledge that your blessing is upon us, for the sake of your name, do we ask this? Amen.