School of Prayer No. 1, Part Two: Lessons from Abraham-- Called to Pray for Other People

In Genesis 20 we get the curious story of Abram, King Abimilech and Sarah.

For a while Abraham stayed in Gerar. While in Gerar the king, Abimelech, came to Abraham. Abraham told him that his wife, Sarah, was really his sister. Abimelech therefore took Sarah.

Then God told Abimelech in a dream “You are as good as dead because of the women you have taken: she is a married women.” Abimelech explained that he didn’t know she was married and Abraham told him that they were brother and sister. God said that Abimelech could either return Sarah to Abraham or have he, and everyone he knows, die.

Now Abimelech summoned all of his officials and told them what happened, obviously they were all afraid. Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and asked “What was your reason for doing this?” Abram replied, “I said to myself: ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will surely kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.“‘“

Then Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, slaves, and Sarah, and told him he can live where ever he would like in my lands. Abimelech gave Sarah 1000 shekels for his offense against them.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the Lord had closed up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

We Find Abraham (who would become Abraham), mighty man of God, lying, and seeming to lack faith that God can defend him, so he takes matters into his own hand and lies! Fearing that Abimelech, a Philistine king, was a man who had no fear of God, Abraham played Sarah to be his sister rather than his wife. Once again Sarah found herself being taken to be the wife of a pagan king.

What now of the promises of God? How can God give Sarah a son of Abraham if she is to become the wife of another? And how can Abraham- the patriarch of our faith, who trusts God with his soul, be so unfaithful to God when it comes to trusting him with his physical welfare? The scripture here also reveals a very important piece of information: Abraham had formed this policy back in Ur: Abraham said, "And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is the kindness which thou shalt shew unto me, at every place wither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother."

Abraham had become a new man since that day back in Ur, and had even had his name changed; yet we still see evidence of his old man- the man who feared. He had never address this old sin and now we see it popping up again. But God would be faithful when Abraham was not.

Abraham thought God was unable to change the ways of a pagan man, but as the scripture says, "the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord" God also protected Sarah by keeping Abimelech from her. God then warned him in a dream that he was a man's wife.

And faithful and loving God did not condemn Abraham and take away his recorded righteousness but told Abimelech, "he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." When we would have left Abraham to fend for himself in his own selfish choice, God stepped in a restored him. This is the FIRST CASE OF SOMEONE PRAYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE IN THE BIBLE. It teaches us that God desires us to pray for one another and he will answer such prayers when they are heartfelt and true.

This plight of Abraham should seem painfully familiar to us. How often have we fallen into the same sinful traps time after time? How often have we trusted God for something great only to turn away from him in fear over something small?

How often are our own problems a result of our own bad decisions? But God does not forget us. He waits to restore us, and to use us to pray for those we have hurt. How often he shows us that even the Heathen are in his hand and that he is in control over all things. How often does he call on you to pray for other people?