Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 20. Again, I will read Genesis 20:1-2:

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we saw how God spoke of Abraham’s travels or journeying, in Hebrews 11:8-10:

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Abraham sojourned in the “land of promise,” the land of Canaan. Did that mean that Abraham would receive that physical land of Canaan as the fulfilment of God’s promise? Would this be his inheritance? No – we know that is not possible, because the physical land of Canaan is part of this world, which will be destroyed and there will be nothing left of it. You see, God uses the land of Canaan as a figure of the new heaven and new earth. as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob traveled around that land, moving here and there. They would set up their tents for a while. Then they would pull them down and travel again and set them up once more.

Just as they did this historically, the elect people of God have been traveling or sojourning in this world throughout history. We are also sojourning in the land of promise, as the Bible tells us, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” God also uses this earth as a figure of the earth to come. Of course, He is not going to give us this present, corrupt earth that has seen corruption because of mankind’s fall into sin; God this earth because of that sin. God is not going to give us a cursed, corrupt earth as our inheritance, but it will be, as it were, transformed or “remade.” This is the reason for the language in Romans, chapter 8 which speaks of the entire creation groaning and travailing in pain together until now. Why are they groaning and travailing? Let us turn to Romans 8:20, where it speaks of the creature or creation, in Romans 8:20-24:

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

The word “creature” can be translated as “creation.” So, the creation is groaning and travailing. It, too, will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, in a sense. It is very similar language to the language of salvation. We were delivered from the bondage of corruption or sin when we were born again by the grace of God. Of course, the creation has no sin, but it is a figure God is using, because when He destroys the world and recreates a new and perfect heaven and earth, He will place his saints within it and we will inhabit it for evermore with God Himself. It is like when God took the desperately wicked heart of His elect and transformed it and turned it into a new resurrected spirit without sin. And He will do something similar with the world. The ugly, corrupt and cursed earth will be gone, and in its place, there will be a new, perfect creation. This is the city we are waiting for, whose builder and maker is God. We have hope for it, even though we cannot see it because it is in the spiritual realm. We know it is guaranteed to come because God has promised; He is faithful and true and He cannot lie. Everything God promises will come to pass, so it is the most certain thing imaginable, even though it is not yet here.

Presently, we are dwelling and living in a cursed creation in our cursed physical bodies among a cursed people in the midst of the Day of Judgment, so we have very unpleasant surroundings (to say the least) and, yet, we are just traveling through. And the time of our sojourning is soon coming to an end. Our time of wandering from place to place and being “homeless” (in a sense) is coming to an end. Our home is not in this world. We are strangers here. We have temporary shelters. Some cities encourage their homeless to come to their “shelters” and people go to the shelter and they set them up with a bed and food and, maybe, some clothing. They can stay for a month or two, and then they have to leave to make room for the next people. It is just a temporary shelter or a temporary home. That is what this earth is to God’s elect children – it is a temporary shelter. It is a place where we will dwell for a little while and then we will leave it. Again, that time is fast approaching.

We read in one place in 1Peter that we are to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. Let us read another passage in 1Peter 2:9-12:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

God is beseeching us (His elect) and He is talking to us as though we are “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He is beseeching His people as “strangers and pilgrims,” or as people that are not citizens of the earth. We are not worldlings. We no longer belong to this world, even though in time past we were children of wrath, even as others. But God purchased us and bought us with the price of His own life when Jesus paid the penalty for our sins at the foundation of the world. He has made us His own. He has translated us out of the world and out of darkness into the kingdom of light. He has given us everything we can imagine, insofar as riches and blessings. Of course, we can imagine earthly riches and blessings and He may not have given us those things, but He has given us something far better, which is spiritual riches and blessings.

God has, indeed, given us these things in a way that we can never measure. How can you measure eternal life that goes on and on without end? How can you measure a body that will no longer experience corruption, pain, or disease? We will no longer be “troubled of mind.” There will be no depression or anxiety or disturbance of thought for evermore. Who can measure these kinds of riches and blessings? And what will the new creation hold in store for us? What kinds of incredible and wondrous creations will God create in the new heaven and new earth? What kind of creatures will inhabit it that we will have dominion over? (God had given man dominion over the creatures of this world, but that dominion was only for a short while, and then sin entered in.) In the new heaven and new earth, we will remain in a perfect and good state forever and ever and the creatures will be good creatures – they will not have a curse placed upon them. That world will be a good world and will not have a curse upon it; it will yield its bounty and fruitfulness (whatever that may be) forever and ever. There will be no famines. There will be no desolate lands. There will be no lack of water. I am just using earthly illustrations, since we do not know the makeup of that new creation.

But, God is addressing us in 1Peter 2 and He is pointing out that we do not belong where we currently reside. We are not citizens of this earth or of this world any longer and, therefore, we are not to act like them. We are not to conduct ourselves as if we were of this world. We are not to speak like the people around us. We are not to think like the people around us. We are not to act like the people around us. They are of a different kingdom. They are under a different influence and power. They are of the darkness, but we have been transported into the kingdom of light and we are children of God. God is our Father. He is our Father which art in heaven. He is a holy God. Again, God is addressing us as the sojourners that we are. It is only a little while we will be sojourning here, so He warns us to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Fleshly lusts do war against the soul. Remember what it says in Galatians 5:16-18:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. There is enmity between the two and we will follow one or the other, so God says to abstain from fleshly lusts that are contrary to the things of the Spirit, or the direction God would have His children to go. What direction is that? We are to keep His commandments. We are to follow the Word of God, the Bible, and to do what it says. We are to pray for help, wisdom and daily guidance to do the will of God. After all, He has placed in us an ongoing desire to do the will of God, plus we have the Holy Spirit with us, so the Bible says that sin is not to have dominion over us any longer; that is, the lust of the flesh ought not rule over the child of God. Abstain from fleshly lusts. If you abstain from drinking, it means you do not drink any longer. If you abstain from smoking, it means you do not smoke any longer. We are to abstain from fleshly lusts, whatever they may be, and to have our conversation honest among the Gentiles. The word “conversation” is an Old English word that means “conduct,” as far as how we conduct ourselves in words and actions. The Gentiles would be referring to the people of the world or the people that are not citizens of that heavenly kingdom, the kingdom of light. They are citizens of the kingdom of darkness. They are at home in a dark world. They are comfortable in the corruption all around them. Our conduct must be honest before them, not because they are going to think we are wonderful and speak well of us. They are not going to say, “Oh, is that person not a faithful person?” No – we are not to expect that.

God goes on to tell us in 1Peter 2:12: “…whereas they speak against you as evildoers.” This is what they will do when you follow God’s commandments in a wonderful way, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If you are faithful as they were, as God moves in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, that is when they will speak evil against you the most. They are seeing the Light and the evidence of God in you, and the world hates that, so they speak of you as evildoers. Then it goes on to say in 1Peter 2:12:

… they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The “day of visitation” is the Day of Judgment, so these verses have application to our present time of Judgment Day. Of course, it would not make sense if the Lord had not left His people alive and remaining on the earth to go through that judgment. In other words, why would He need to give us admonishment to keep our conversation honest, so they could behold our good works in the day of visitation? If we were not here, how could they behold our good works?

Again, this idea of being a “stranger and pilgrim” is found in many places in the Bible. Let us go back to the Old Testament, in Psalm 39:12:

Hear my prayer, O JEHOVAH, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

This is a Psalm of David. Yes – there was a short time when David was on the run from King Saul and he did sojourn for a while in the land of the Philistines, but this could apply to any point in his life, even when He was established as King in Hebron and later as King in Jerusalem. He was always a spiritual sojourner because He was one of God’s true people and, therefore, he never felt at home in this world. It is not possible for one that God has taken out of the world (spiritually) to feel at home here, no matter how much we may be blessed in this life. David recognized that he was a “stranger” as were all his fathers. There was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but it would include everyone of the lineage of God’s elect.

We read in Genesis 15:13-14:

And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

The reference to Abraham’s seed being strangers in a land not theirs is not referring to the physical descendants of Abraham, but it is referring to the spiritual seed of Abraham, which would be every elect person chosen to salvation. It says they would be afflicted four hundred years. We spent time earlier discussing what is in view there and how that could relate to various points in history. We saw how it relates to the time of the end.

It is also significant that God used the figure of “400” years. On one hand, it is related to the 430 years, but the Israelites were not afflicted for the entire 430 years. However, the real focus is the fact that God’s elect will go through a time of testing and temptation throughout the entire time we sojourn in this world. The number “400” is “10 x 40” and the number “40” is a number representing “testing” and the number “10” relates to “fulness,” so the elect people of God will be tested and tried throughout the whole history of the world while we sojourn here. But then we will come out and receive great substance, which points to all the blessings of eternal life once this world comes to an end. We will no longer be strangers and sojourners.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue to look at this idea of being a “stranger and sojourner” in this life, before we move on in Genesis, chapter 20.