Sojourning Among Philistines

Genesis 20-21

Abraham is one of the heroes of the Bible, but he was far from perfect. He did indeed believe God, and God credited that to Abraham as righteousness – but it was credited, and not earned. Having sex with Hagar and getting her pregnant was not a holy and godly choice – even with Sarah’s consent. Allowing Sarah to abuse Hagar was not right. Putting Sarah in compromising positions with the king of Egypt and later with Abimelech was not a faithful action – to his sister/wife or to God.

Why would he do such things? The easy answer is that Abraham was a sinner and he made sinful choices. This is true. We do well however to scratch the surface a little, though, and see that many of these choices were made in fear.

God promised a child, and in their old age Abraham and Sarah feared it was impossible. Solution? Sleep with Hagar. Sarah feared her place would be diminished or lost after Hagar became pregnant, so she abused Hagar. Abraham feared Sarah’s anger (and probably her sadness and frustration too) so he failed to confront her. God promised to bless Abraham and make him a great nation, but he feared the already established nations around him. In an effort to protect himself, he asked Sarah to speak a half-truth, “Say you are my sister.” Never mind that someone might take her from him, as long as he was safe.

Abraham’s honesty when Abimelech confronts him about Sarah is refreshing, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” When one sojourns among the godless it is quite natural to fear what they might do, even while recognizing that we ourselves are far from perfect.

In this world we are like Abraham, sojourning among Philistines – living as aliens and strangers in a world that is not our own. We can even say that we dwell among the godless as our society bases itself more firmly on secular humanism than on God’s Word. We too will be tempted to fear and to act badly because of our fear. God, grant us courage!

We do well to learn from Hagar in this lesson. Earlier she had named El-roi (El-ro-ee) – the God who sees, now in her desperation she learns that God also hears. Not only does He see and hear, though. He acts. He protects. He defends. Jesus once said we should not fear those who can kill the body, but fear the One who can cast both soul and body into hell. But here is the kicker to that statement: God who is able to cast both soul and body into hell has instead chose to rescue both and has promised eternal life to all who believe in Jesus. The One we really ought to be terrified of has chosen to do us good, to bless us, and to defend us.


Yes, there will be times as we dwell in this world that we will be afraid and we will fail to do the right thing – the godly thing – the faithful thing. But remember, God is on your side. He forgives and renews you, and He will use your life to His glory. So as much as you can, “Fear not!” And then do as Abraham did when he got back on the right track – pray for the Philistines, and all those who do not fear God, so that they may know Him through you. 

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