Living with the Ring of Truth

Scripture: Genesis 20

Sermon: Living with the Ring of Truth

Topics: Truth, Lies, Faithfulness

Preached: July 7 pm, 2002

Rev. Mike Abma

Genesis 20

From there Abraham journeyed towards the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien, ²Abraham said of his wife Sarah, ‘She is my sister.’ And King Abimelech of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, ‘You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman.’ ⁴Now Abimelech had not approached her; so he said, ‘Lord, will you destroy an innocent people? ⁵Did he not himself say to me, “She is my sister”? And she herself said, “He is my brother.” I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.’ ⁶Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.’

8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants and told them all these things; and the men were very much afraid. ⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, ‘What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that ought not to be done.’ ¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘What were you thinking of, that you did this thing?’ ¹¹Abraham said, ‘I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. ¹²Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, “This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.” ’ ¹⁴Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵Abimelech said, ‘My land is before you; settle where it pleases you.’ ¹⁶To Sarah he said, ‘Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; it is your exoneration before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.’ ¹⁷Then Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. ¹⁸For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

INTRODUCTION

By any standard, these qualify as distressing times:

Clergy preaching virtues but practicing vices.

Firefighters starting fires

rather than preventing them and putting them out.

(like what happened both in Colorado and Arizona)

Large corporations somehow turning loses into profits

and profits into loses.

(first Enron now Worldcom)

Historians devoted to uncovering the truth about the past embellishing the truth about their own personal history.

(like the Pulitzer Prize winning historian Joseph Ellis who was caught inventing a Vietnam War record for himself).

One of the underlying problems is a lack of truthfulness, a lack of integrity. Chuck Colson, in an article in Christianity Today not so long ago (March 11, 2002) called this the Post-Truth Society. According to him, post-modernism has filtered down so that even the man on the street sees little wrong with lying. Perception has become more important than reality — the way we are perceived matters more than what we actually say and do.

Perhaps this sounds overly dramatic. However, on Thursday, June 14, NPR (National Public Radio) interviewed Robert Feldman, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts. Feldman had just published an article in the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology about a study he had run. He had conducted a number of interviews with University of Massachusetts students. The interviews asked these students questions about themselves, their backgrounds, their accomplishments. The interviews were videotaped. Later, the interviewees were shown the videotape of their interview. They were asked to identify any time they lied. The students were surprised at how many times they had embellished events and accomplishments in their past and had lied. In fact, over 60% of the students lied within the first 10 minutes of the interview, and over 90% of the students had lied at some point in the interview.

Now we may think, “Yeah, those east coast university students, you can’t trust them.” The distressing thing about Robert Feldman’s studies is that they simply corroborate other studies in this area. James Patterson and Peter Kim, authors of the book, The Day America Told the Truth, write that 91% of us regularly embroider the truth. The problem, they write, is that we lie and don’t even think twice about it. Lying has become part of our default operating system.

ABRAHAM — the Liar

What we should realize, however, is that this is not a new trend or a new phenomenon. The challenge to live truthful lives has been with us since the day Adam and Eve began hiding in the bushes from the Lord. Lying has been our way of hiding from the truth ever since.

In our passage this afternoon we are faced with the lies our Father Abraham told. What compounds the problem of his lying is that this was not the first time. Already, soon after entering the land of promise, Abraham was forced by famine to live in Egypt. Already there he passed Sarah off as his sister. That lie almost spelled disaster. Here, Abraham tells the same lie to the King of Gerar, Abimelech.

But what makes this lie in Genesis 20 particularly distressing is its context.

In Genesis 15 God says to Abraham “Do not be afraid, I am your shield.” God then promises to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens.

Then in chapter 17, God again confirms this promise by changing Abram’s name to Abraham, father of many nations, and Sarai’s name to Sarah, the mother of many nations. Then in Genesis 18 the Lord himself brings the message that Sarah will be with child in a year’s time. Sarah thought this was a joke and laughed. When asked, “Why did you laugh?” Sarah suddenly became afraid and lied. She said, “I did not laugh.”

But the Lord said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

It is in the context of all these covenant promises on the verge of being fulfilled that the story of Abraham and Abimelech is told. Abraham moves into the territory of Gerar and he does what he has been doing in all his wanderings — he passes his wife, Sarah, off as his sister. King Abimelech takes Sarah. Is it because Sarah is still quite stunningly beautiful for her age? Is it a politically motivated move, taking Sarah to help form an alliance with the growing power of this wanderer, Abraham? We aren’t sure why Abimelech takes her. What we do know is that in taking her, all the covenant promises were hanging in the balance. What we do know is that the ship of God’s blessings was about to sink if something didn’t happen quickly.

The passage is structured in such a way as to determine who was at fault in jeopardizing all the covenant promises: Abimelech or Abraham?

Abimelech is first put on trial in verses 3-8. God comes to him in a dream and tells him he and his whole nation is on the verge of disaster. Why? Because the new woman in his harem, Sarah, is a married woman. Abimelech is stunned. He had no idea Sarah was Abraham’s wife. He pleads with God that he has a clear conscience and clean hands. And God agrees. Abimelech is acquitted. Nevertheless, this woman must not be touched and must be returned to her rightful husband or there would be dire consequences.

Next Abraham is put on trial in verses 9-13. God had come to Abimelech and now it is Abimelech who comes to Abraham. The implication is that Abimelech is more godly in this episode than Abraham. Abimelech then asks Abraham a string of questions ending with the most pressing one: “Why? Why did you lie?”

WHY DID ABRAHAM LIE?

Where Abimelech could say he had a clear conscience and clean hands, Abraham can only give a string of weak excuses. His excuses resonate with why many of us lie:

1. Reason # 1 Fear and False Assumptions:

I said to myself, “Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will surely kill me because of my wife.”

We know this was an empty reason, a false assumption, because the text is very clear in verse 8 that Abimelech and his people “were very much afraid of God.” And instead of wrongly assuming he will get mistreated, this story will show how Abraham is treated much better than he deserves.

Fear and false assumptions remain some of the biggest reasons why lying. We lie to protect ourselves; we lie because we think someone else doesn’t deserve the truth or can’t be trusted with the truth. But as in the case of Abraham, lying often reveals not a lack of fear and trust in God in others but a lack of fear and trust in God in ourselves.

1. Reason # 2: Half-truths

Abraham’s next reason is somewhat of a shock. He says, “Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother.” This may be so, but again this excuse is merely that, an excuse. The half-sister is a half-truth. The most important thing Abimelech needed to know was that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, not his sister. All the covenantal promises were based on the reality that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, not his half sister.

Our lying also often comes in the form of half-truths. We reveal only part of the truth and we hide the most important part.

1. Reason # 3: Habit

Abraham ends his defense by saying that when God made him wander, he had made Sarah say that she was his brother. In other words, lying had become a conspiracy between them and it had become habitual. Abraham and Sarah had trapped themselves in this dangerous and potentially destructive deceit.

Again, once we begin with a lie, we trap ourselves in that lie. And sometimes we get so used to a lie, we begin believing it ourselves.

Where God had exonerated Abimelech, there is no exoneration of Abraham. Abraham is not acquitted.

THE GRACIOUSNESS OF ABIMELECH

And yet, and here is the absolutely gracious part of this rather grim story, Abimelech treats Abraham and Sarah better than they deserve. He not only returns Sarah to Abraham, but he gives Abraham sheep and cattle and servants. Then with a magnanimity that is quite astounding, he says to Abraham, “My land is before you; live wherever you like.”

Then with a flourish that is to Abimelech’s credit and Abraham’s shame, Abimelech turns to Sarah and so as not to add insult to injury, says, “I am giving your brother 1000 shekels of silver.” Why? Because he wants to clear Sarah’s name, restore her dignity, and acknowledge her as Abraham’s wife, even if Abraham had refused to acknowledge her as his wife.

ABRAHAM PRAYS

We are then told that Abraham prayed to God. Incidentally, and I think quite importantly, this is the only time Abraham is described as praying to God. What does he pray? We are not sure. But I can’t help but think his was a prayer of confession, a prayer for forgiveness, and a prayer to bring healing to Abimelech and his household. You see, the detail that Abimelech and his whole household had been infertile because of this incident is now revealed.

Once Abraham prays, once he confesses his lies and acknowledges Sarah as his wife, not only is Abimelech’s household healed so that they can again have children, but notice what is said in the very first verse of the very next chapter (21:1):

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah

what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his

old age.

Lies can never bear fruit pleasing to God. Only the truth can.

CAN WE NEVER LIE? OUR CALLING AND OUR COMFORT

You may be thinking that, yes, in this case Abraham was wrong to lie. But there are enough places in the Bible where it seemed okay for people to lie, aren’t there? Think of those Israelite midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who protected those little baby Israelite boys from the murderous Pharaoh in Exodus 1.

Think of Rahab who protected those Israelite spies in Joshua 2.

Think of the prophet Elisha who first lied to a blinded Syrian army then led them straight into their enemy’s capital, Samaria.

You can’t tell me it is always wrong to lie.

The other week I visited someone in our church who lived in the Netherlands during the 2^nd World War. She had 5 brothers, all of whom spent the war years hiding from the Germans. Her family was also hiding Jews in the home. She said she was stopped and questioned by Germans many times. Then she smiled rather mischievously and said, “I became a very good liar.”

Was it wrong for her to lie? No, it wasn’t. I think we all know that God calls us to a life of faithfulness. That faithfulness involves not only speaking the truth but also loving our neighbor and honoring the sanctity of life. I think we all can affirm that living a life of faithfulness to God will mean balancing these three things: speaking the truth, loving our neighbor, and serving life. And I think we can all affirm that there are times, exceptional times, when lying is justifiable in order to show love to our neighbor and to honor the sanctity of life. But I think we should also agree that even though such lies may be necessary, they are still tragic reminders that we live in a horribly broken world.

THE EXCEPTION BECOMING THE RULE

The problem is that it has become too easy for us to make the exceptions the rule. It has become too easy for us to justify lies as harmless, necessary, even loving. It is too easy to think that our lies are protecting someone else when really we are only protecting ourselves. In other words, we need to always be on guard for easily and quickly we can defend our lies.

I was reminded of this again while researching this sermon. I found a rather good article in the September 1998 edition of Christian Century by Donald McCullough. The article was called “White Lies, Hard Truths.” In the article, McCullough notes our tendency to deceive ourselves by referring to the Graham Greene novel, The Heart of the Matter. In this novel a police officer has an affair, and in an effort to “protect” his wife from the pain of knowing the truth, walks down the road of falsehood that leads to disaster. McCullough summarizes by writing this:

“It’s easy to convince ourselves we’re guarding the feelings of others when we’re only trying to protect our own hides – and this sort of deception often ends in more complication, lying, and pain than we ever imagined.”

When Donald McCullough wrote this article, he was President of San Francisco Theological Seminary. He is no longer President of that Seminary. The reason is that, even as he was writing this article, he was carrying on two extra-marital affairs with two different women that he was hiding from his wife. This all came to light two years later.

But it shows how well we can know the truth, know what we should do, and yet live a lie.

TRUTH-TELLING IN A LYING WORLD

In his convocation address at Calvin a couple of years ago, Neal Plantinga noted that “when we tell a gracious truth, stand for an unpopular truth, and keep a promise to people who do not keep promises to us, we aren’t just good doobies; we are like God.” Speaking the truth, loving our neighbor, honoring life, this is how we fulfill God’s calling. This is how we follow Christ. This is our vocation in the world.

We know all too well there will be times when get lost along the way in trying to follow this calling. Times when we get trapped in our own lies, caught in our own deceits. Like Abraham of old, there will be times when, in spite of our great calling, we risk it all to live a lie. Those are the times we need to remember that though we are faithless, God is faithful; though we can be full of lies, God is full of grace, mercy and truth. Though we don’t deserve to be blessed, God blesses us through Jesus Christ his Son. And though we may think there is no fear of God in this world, this world is in fact pregnant with a truth, a beauty, a wonder more glorious than we can even imagine or conceive.

Amen.