Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #8 of Genesis, chapter 20. I am going to read Genesis 20:6-13:

And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

Once again, we are looking at this passage God has spoken. We have been taking a special interest in verse 6 where the Lord stated, “For I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.” I pointed out that 1John 5:18 relates to this whole idea of God’s care for His people in not allowing the wicked one, Satan, to “touch” them. This is one of the reasons Abimelech is a type and figure of Satan.

But there is also another verse that is similar in Psalm 105. It says in 105:13:

When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;

Spiritually, this points to the translation of God’s elect out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s Dear Son; we go from one nation to another – from the nation of Satan to the nation of Christ. It goes on to say in Psalm 105:14-15:

He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Here, again, we see that God has protected His people and no one is allowed to “touch” them. Jesus said, “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” Not one is lost – not even one. Every elect child of God predestinated before the foundation of the world has been sought after and found and safely brought into the fold of the kingdom of heaven. All are safe and secure at this point. We no longer need to concern ourselves with the threat that Satan, in his desperation, might somehow be able to snatch one of the elect away from Christ before the moment of salvation. That never happened and, of course, it could not happen because God had obligated Himself to protect them and save them, so He would never allow Satan to “touch” them.

More than that, however, we are looking at the overall Biblical doctrine or principle wherein God withheld Abimelech from doing greater sin. Yes – this is referring to a situation that had to do with one of God’s elect, Sarah. We could gather from this that God could hold back men whenever one of His elect are in view, but it goes deeper than that and we have the historical record of the world to prove it. Of course, in history the desperate wickedness of man has shown itself, from time to time, in certain historical situations. We can look at Nazi Germany and the concentration camps that perpetuated unbelievable evils and atrocities. The fact that they carried on these death camps to the degree that they did is almost unbelievably evil. You can find that kind of evil emerging here and there throughout history, where there was genocide, especially during a war when one nation would overcome another. There was hostility and there were depths of depravity that would show itself here and there throughout history, but that was not the norm. Typically, the norm was more moderate evil that was more restrained. There would be at least some basic morality in most of the nations of the world. There would be at least basic adherence to governmental laws that had been established. There would be a basic respect for law in general.

And yet, here we are at a time in history when the whole world – not just the United States – has lost a sense of basic morality, more and more. I will not say it is lost completely, as that would be “total depravity,” but it is becoming worse and worse during a time the Bible has pinpointed as the time of the end and the time of the final judgment of mankind. We are seeing a condition in the people of the world that is perfectly in line with what the Bible said would happen when we reached the end. There is one verse that stands out concerning the wickedness that would be in the world. In Matthew 24 Christ responded to the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” It says in Matthew 24:12:

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Iniquity is sin. It is the transgression of the Law of God and sin is the breaking of any Law of God. Here, it is not specifying which iniquities would abound, but it points to iniquity in general, which will “abound.” When Christ speaks of the “abundant” blessings that are in store for His people, it gives us an idea of the meaning of “abounding” in something – it means you have much of it. If you abound in wealth, it means you have a great deal of money. If the world abounds in iniquity, it means there is a tremendous degree of evil that will be in evidence in the world. And the love of many shall wax cold. The Bible defines love as keeping the commandments. If the love of many is waxing cold, there will be a failure to keep God’s commandments. When man fails to keep God’s commandments, he is committing iniquity, so iniquity abounds.

As we look out in the world, where do we begin to describe all the evil? You know, the poor young people of today have never seen anything else. They have never witnessed a world where sin was being restrained by God’s Spirit as He withheld men from many sins. (We will look at a couple of verses where God says this in the New Testament.) If a person is 25 or even 30, their time on earth would go back to about 1988 when the end of the church age came, and the Great Tribulation began. So, if you are 30 years old, it was at that point in time that the Holy Spirit began to lift His hand of restraint off the evil hearts of men, then all you have ever known are things like serial killers, serial bombers and terrorism. All you have ever known is that people run after sexual immorality as if it were nothing for a man and woman to live together outside of marriage; it does not even register in the minds of young people today that this is adultery or fornication in the eyes of God. It does not register with them that abortion is murder of children and it is happening to millions of unborn children all over the world. It does not “sink in” how desperately wicked it is for a woman to be so cold toward her own child that was developing within her.

There used to be the idea that a mother’s love was so great, so deep and so unbreakable, but you do not hear much about that any more. Any woman that conceives is a mother, whether that baby is still in the womb or has been born – you have been blessed of God by the life within you. But today we have untold millions of mothers that have “grown cold” toward God’s commandments. The love of many has waxed cold and we can certainly see that the love of many mothers has waxed cold. Either women do not want to have children or if they do conceive, they are killing the child through abortion. How can this be viewed as normal? How can this be viewed as a right or privilege? It can only be viewed this way by the wicked hearts of men and women. Then, of course, there is more sexual amorality through the sin of homosexuality and gay marriage – men with men and women with women. There are also transgender issues.

Yes – mankind has been sinful in times past, but at least men knew they were men and women knew they were women. But today there is confusion, and that is what sins brings – more and more confusion. There is chaos in the area of morality. There is no correct understanding of “right and wrong” or “good and evil.” It is just a complete mess, unlike anything seen or imagined in history. If you could bring people from any point in history and bring them to our world today and let them have a “window” to the world out there, they would see people walking down South Street in Philadelphia with green hair or purple hair and earrings and tattoos everywhere (even women). They would see “men with men” and “women with women” and transgender people. If they heard the news on TV or read the papers, they would be in enormous shock. It would not be believed, when compared to any century before or after Christ, until just a few decades ago, as God made preparation for the end. It is a different world. And, no, it is not progress. It is anything but progress – it is moral deterioration. It is a falling away from what man had understood, to some degree, as “right and wrong.” And now he does not know. He does not know what bathroom to use or even what to call the bathroom. He does not seem to know right from wrong, because God is lifting His hand of restraint.

Remember, God said that He withheld Abimelech from sinning against Him. We went to 1Samuel 25 where the same word was translated as “kept” (back) regarding David being kept back from sinning. The same idea is found in the New Testament in Romans 1:18:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

The word “hold” is used in Romans 7:6:

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held…

It is the same word. You are “held” by something or someone.

This same word is used in 2Thessalonians 2 in the context of the end of the world. The day of Christ is at hand, as it mentions in verse 2, and then it says in 2Thessalonians 2:3-6:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

The word translated as “withholdeth” is the same word translated as “hold” or “held” in Romans 1:18 and Romans 7:6. Also, the “man of sin” that took his seat in the temple is Satan when he was loosed at the end stage of history in 1988 when the church age ended. He entered the corporate church and ruled there.

This is a big piece of information, but God is also letting us know something further, as it goes on to say in 2Thessalonians 2:7:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work…

This is what I mentioned at the end of our last study regarding the “mystery of iniquity.” If man is desperately wicked and has a deceitful heart above all things, how is it that he can at times be nice and pleasant and not sin at certain times, like Abimelech? Why do some keep the law of the land? Why are all men not murderers, rapists or terrorists or thieves? Some men steal, but most men do not steal, at least outwardly. Some men commit murder, but most men do not commit murder outwardly. How were they held back from these things? Why do they not do these things? Yes – the world is chaotic, but why is it not a thousand times worse, since men are desperately wicked?

It is because of the “mystery of iniquity.” Man was desperately wicked in heart, but God held sin back. Again, it said in 2Thessalonians that the mystery of iniquity was already at work when these words were written in the first century A.D. It was at work in the days of Abimelech in 2068 B.C. So, this is more evidence that the Holy Spirit was operating to restrain sin throughout the whole history of the world. Again, it says in 2Thessalonians 2:7:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

The pronoun “he” refers to the Holy Spirit. The word “letteth” is the same word translated as “withholdeth” in verse 6 and the same word used in Romans. We could read this, “only he who now withhold will withhold, until he (the Holy Spirit) be taken out of the way.” In other words, at the time Satan was loosed, the Holy Spirit would be taken out of the way and there would be a big change in the world. God had been holding back sin…and talk about a job! What a job to hold back the sins of billions of people. God was doing that and, of course, He is enormous in ability and power, so it was not much of a job for Him to do this. And He did so, to a large degree, even though there would occasionally be a bursting forth of an act of desperate wickedness here and there. But, overall, sin was held back.

For example, there was only a high incidence of divorce in Hollywood or some major cities, but everywhere else it was held back. Marriages lasted, and people stayed married – it was not like it is today. Or, we could look at the Sunday Sabbath. I do not know if you are aware of this, given the fact that every sport event today violates the Sunday Sabbath, whether it be baseball, football, basketball or hockey. They have no problem playing on that day. But are you aware that when most of these professional sports teams were founded, they did not play on Sunday? I am most familiar with the Philadelphia sports team, which was founded in the 1870s or 1880s. They did not play on Sundays until the 1940s, so for over forty or fifty years they did not play on Sundays. But, again, things began to change as God was making preparation for the end stage of this world when iniquity would abound. And now it is nothing for teams to play on Sunday, just like the fact that businesses used to be closed on Sundays, but now it is a big shopping day.

You see, God was restraining sin in the hearts of men in marriage, in keeping the Sabbath, and so forth. In everything, there was some restraint. One of the ways God restrained sin was in not allowing the electronic medium to develop until the time of the end of the world. Now the sin of one man in an isolated area of the earth can now become the sin of everyone; everyone can be aware of what he said or did in an instant through the internet and “instant news” and all that goes along with electronic communication. It has sped up the speed of evil. This is God’s working and it is all part of God’s plan.

You know, there is so much to discuss in this area, but, Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study we will discuss this a little bit more. It is a very important teaching from the Bible and it is important that we understand it. Again, anyone that is 30 years old, or under, does not even know that this world is not normal, but it is anything but normal.