bal war of tremendous magnitude. His belligerent atti tude, his threats and his total disregard for the welfare of the individual have created resentment, hostility and fear in the minds and hearts of the world’s population. Yet, we must never forget that Khrushchev cannot start a war one instant before it is God’s time for him to do so. He may think of himself as a great world leader, an international figure. Yet, in God’s hand, Khrushchev is only a puny little instrument to accomplish the divine purpose in God’s time. Though he denies God, his every breath is dependent upon God’s will. The Christian knows from Scripture that one of the great restraining forces in the world today, keeping back the surging powers of evil and anarchy, is the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church. St. Paul once wrote that “He who now restrains will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7).* This same Holy Spirit of God was present in the situation described by our text, restraining Abimelech from taking Sarah. When Abimelech learned how closely he had come to sinning against God, Whom he seems to have known in a rather vague, distant sort of way, he was both fearful and angry. He rightly berated Abraham for his deception and I think it is nothing short of miraculous that he didn’t beat Abraham within an inch of his life for putting him in the spot that he did. Notice the dialogue in verses 10, 11: “ Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘What caused you to do such a thing?’ And Abraham replied, ‘I thought that, since the fear of God is not in this place, they would kill me to get my wife.’ ” What a weak reason! “ I did what I did because I thought there is no fear of God in this place.” Yet, how often do you and I perhaps make the same mistake? We find ourselves in a certain situation, among strange people, and we assume that they can’t be Christians, and so we must adjust our mode of living to conform to theirs, rather than stand out like sore thumbs. Or, we assume that, because some Christian movement doesn’t bear our particular religious label, it cannot possibly be sound and evangelical. Some years ago when I was in seminary, the British clergyman, Canon Bryan Green, came to Philadelphia and held a preaching mission in Convention Hall under the auspices of the Philadelphia Diocese of the Episcopal Church. Canon Green wore a Roman collar and a robe with sash and tassels and I can recall that many of my friends thought this would be a dead service — all form and ritual, with no Gospel. Or, to paraphrase our text, they assumed that “ the fear of God would not be in that place.” Yet, Bryan Green proved to be one of the most dynamic speakers and evan gelists I had ever heard. True, there were things in his messages with which I could not agree. But when I be
came a Baptist pastor later, I tried to engage him for some meetings at my church. Abimelech went out of his way to make amends to Abraham and Sarah for trying to add another man’s wife to his harem. He gave gifts and presents (v. 14) and offered a piece of land as Abraham’s own property. Note the sarcasm in v. 16 — “ To Sarah, he said, ‘Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver . . Surely, this Oriental king could have had mighty little respect for Abraham’s “religion” after this unethical con duct. And, incidentally, do we ever check up on our own actions to see if there are things in our lives which repel people from Christ rather than draw them to Him? Perhaps the crowning touch of irony in this story
Grace Is Poured Into Thy Lips
Stand up thou bit of clay, And do His wonders now display. As pleasing men, thou shalt not be, But 'tis thy God thine eye shall see. Of ruin, of sin, of undone state, Of these thy lips shall sure relate; And of His death on Calvary's cross, Thou shalt not varnish, nor emboss, But full and clear thou shalt display, Atoning grace to men alway. Stand up, thou mite of dust; Lay up treasures which shall not rust. Proclaim the message full and free; As God's oracles thou shalt be. Some Bible References: Psaim 45:2, Genesis 2:7, Psalm 19:1, I Thessalonians 2:4, Romans 3:23, ‘ Romans 5:8, Titus 2:11, Matthew-6:19-21, Ro mans 6:23, I Peter 4:11. — Neville Arroues
is that, in v. 17, Abraham who had been styled a prophet by God (v. 7), prayed for Abimelech. What utter, blat ant hypocrisy! He who had just cheated and lied now folded his pious hands and uttered a sanctimonious prayer for the man he had cheated. Yet, in spite of it all, as a. further evidence of His matchless grace, God heard and answered the prayer (vv. 18, 19). Oh how wonderful is our God to over-rule our stupid, sinful mistakes and shortcomings! How ready He is to right our wrongs and bring divine order out of human chaos. What a joy it is to walk with Him knowing that, though we fall, we shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds us with His hand (Ps. 37:23, 24). T R A C T give away some tracts today— write fo r free samples to : GOOD NEWS § PUBLISHERS Westchester , Illinois Pioneers in modern design of Gospel tracts for a quarter of a century
FEBRUARY, 1963
15
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online