Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #10 of Genesis, chapter 20. I am going to read Genesis 20:7-14:

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. And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.

Once again, this is a lovely historical picture of God’s salvation program. We suspect it points to the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit because this was the second time Sarah was taken. The first time she was Sarai and the second time she was Sarah. We have talked about how God had two major programs to stretch forth His hand to recover the remnant of His people with two outpourings of the Holy Spirit: the early rain and the Latter Rain. Both events are past at this time, but that is what is in view here.

God says in Genesis 20:7:

Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet…

Again, the man was Abraham, representing Christ, and his wife Sarah, representing the elect. Abraham was a prophet. This is true of Abraham, historically. A prophet is someone that God communicated with and moved to say and do certain things. Of course, all God’s people are prophets, in the sense that we declare the Word of God. Abraham is representing a far greater prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Deuteronomy 18:15-18:

JEHOVAH thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of JEHOVAH thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of JEHOVAH my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And JEHOVAH said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

This “Prophet” is not named here, but He is known to be the Messiah. Of course, there is the religion of Islam that claims Mohammed is that prophet, but it is not possible. The Bible was completed in the 1^st Century A.D. and Mohammed lived several hundred years after that. God did not send a prophet after He completed the Bible, except the fact that all God’s people are prophets in the sense that we declare the Word of God. This Prophet that was to come was the Lord Jesus. It says in John 6:14:

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

The miracle was the multiplication of loaves to feed the multitude with a few loaves of bread and a few fish. They said, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world,” and they were correct in their understanding. It says in John 7:37-40:

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.

They were (definitely) referring to the prophesy in Deuteronomy 18. They were convinced it was Jesus. And who would not be convinced when they saw all the miracles He did in His ministry by healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, ears to the deaf, legs to the lame and even bringing the dead to life? Regarding His Words, it was said, “Never man spake like this man.” Of course, Jesus was the Word made flesh. We are sinful men that God has saved and when we speak forth the Word of God it is coming through a “vessel” that is still in the flesh and has seen corruption. But this was not the case with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was perfection – God in the flesh. So, there was never a prophet that spake like Him. He prophesied all manner of things. He knew what people were thinking. He told Peter to go cast his net into the sea and the first fish he would bring up would have a piece of money in its mouth to pay the tax. What a tremendous Prophet! He is the one in view. It says in Acts 3:20-24:

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

Jesus Christ is that Prophet. He was the promised prophet that would be like unto Moses. Of course, he exceedingly surpassed Moses, but the Lord Jesus is that Prophet that was in view.

Again, it said in our verse in Genesis 20:7:

Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet…

You see, the bridegroom is the husband of the bride, the elect, and He is a Prophet. It is Christ Himself. Then God goes on to say to Abimelech, in Genesis 20:7:

… and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live…

Here, we also have a reference to something that Christ does on behalf of His elect people. God is using Abraham, a prophet, to pray for Abimelech, and Abimelech would live, historically, meaning that God would not kill him. This was true in the historical sense, but we should not read more in to it and assume that Abimelech was a saved man. But there is a tie-in to the fact that the Lord Jesus prays for His people and they “live.” It says in John 17:8-10:

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

This can only refer to those God had chosen to save out of the world. Notice it says, “I pray for them,” and it also says, “I pray not for the world.” This is a major stumbling block for all the people that have developed gospels that claim that Jesus loves everyone, and He died for everyone, and so forth. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates this. God does make statements that people “grab and run with,” as they only consider the surface or plain meaning, which is bound to get people in trouble with the Bible; they fail to recognize that God has hidden truth and they do not carefully search the Scriptures to make sure a verse harmonizes with the whole of the Bible. Therefore, they read things like, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” but they do not examine that statement carefully to make sure it fits with everything else the Bible teaches. Then they reach erroneous conclusions like, “Christ loves everybody,” and “Christ died for everyone.” Both statements are untrue. Christ died for a specific people, chosen out of the whole of mankind. The Bible calls them a remnant of the whole, so it is only a minority of people that Christ saved in the atonement. These are the people Christ is talking about in John 17 when He says, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world.”

There is the hint of that idea here in our verse when it says, “for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” Again, Abraham would have prayed for Abimelech that he not die. So, it was a true statement on the historical level, but on a deeper level it does not follow through that Christ would pray for Abimelech as far as giving him spiritual life; the indication is that Abimelech was not a saved, so he would not be the object of Christ’s prayer.

Then God goes on to say in Genesis 20:7:

… and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

When God bound Satan, Satan entered in to the condition of death. The language of the Bible is that he was cast into the “bottomless pit,” which identifies with “hell” or the grave, which is death. It is as though Christ slew Satan at the cross. Of course, it was all figurative. He entered in to the condition of “hell.” This is the language used in 2Peter 2:4:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

This refers to the devil and all the fallen angels or demons. They were “cast down to hell” in chains of darkness. And “darkness” and “death” are synonymous in the Bible, so he did enter in to a condition of “death.” This is the reason that at the end of the church age at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, God said this of the beast (Satan) as he came up out of the sea, in Revelation 13:3:

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Figuratively, one of his heads had been “wounded to death,” but it was healed, so his deadly wound did not mean he was seriously injured, but he had been “killed” or “cast down to hell,” spiritually. It was a condition, because we know that he continued throughout the church age to go about as a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. So, he continued to exist, even with “his deadly wound.”

Again, that is the reason for the language God used in Genesis 20:7:

… and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

It was not God’s purpose to destroy the King of Gerar and the Philistines in the way that He had destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God alluded to destruction and death, and that was sufficient to paint the spiritual picture.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 20:8-10:

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?

Then Abraham responded that it was because he had thought the fear of God was not in this place. Then he explained that Sarah truly was his sister on his father’s side, but not on his mother’s side. We have covered that spiritual picture – we are the bride of Christ when we are saved; and we are also His “sister” when we do the will of God.

One other thing we need to discuss is why Abimelech was so offended, as he said, “What hast thou done unto us? And what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me on and on my kingdom a great sin?” In other words, it was as if he was blaming Abraham. Why did he do this to them? Why did he cause these circumstances that almost brought on Abimelech’s death and damage to his kingdom? It is interesting how he used this language. As we think about it, if Abimelech is a picture of Satan and his kingdom is a picture of the world, it would relate to the idea that when God came for His people as the Holy Spirit was poured out, the world no longer had a covering for their sin. Their sin was exposed. It is as though this “great sin” is coming to light. It is all related to God’s salvation program.

But we will have to get in to this in more detail, Lord willing, when we get together for our next Bible study.