[Text: Genesis 21:22-34)

Scripture Intro: At a glance, this story seems to come out of nowhere. But it actually makes perfect sense when we consider that the LORD isn’t just concerned with our relationships with Him. As he transforms our relationship with Him by grace, He begins transforming our relationships with each other, too.

[Read and pray]

The picture painted back in Genesis 3 is of Adam rebelling and running away from God, so that all mankind lost true intimacy with God. More than that, we set ourselves under His justice and curse against sin. And like a Rembrandt marred by knife slashes and splattered with paint, we found that the beautiful life God intended for us was marred and obscured by our own sin. Not only was our vertical relationship with God affected and broken, but our horizontal relationships with each other were broken and twisted, too. We saw it when Adam blamed his wife for his sin. We saw it when all of humanity was running away from God into selfish violence before the flood - everyone except for a single man whom God had kept for himself by grace. We saw it just a chapter ago when Abraham used his wife as a human shield against his own fears and unbelief.

We see how sin affects our horizontal relationships today when our selfish rebellion against God bursts like a dam and floods our lives, carrying our loved ones away in the dark, cold water – like when I’d rather be right than loving to my wife; when I’d rather hold on to an old hurt than forgive like I’ve been forgiven by the Lord; when I’d rather look out for my own interests than pursue the interests of others. That’s the ugly side of how our sinful nature in rebellion against the Lord can affect our horizontal relationships.

The Vertical (God to human) always has an impact on the Horizontal (human to human), for better or for worse. That’s because I’m human and as much as I sometimes act like I can compartmentalize life – keeping my private worship separate from my work life separate from my personal relationships separate from my play separate from my public worship – the reality is this: I can’t.

And yet in the redemption that God promised and began working through the family of Abraham we see the grace of a God who says He wants to be close to His people and is at work in spite of them to restore our relationships – both Vertical and Horizontal – to the way they were supposed to be.

The passage today only mentions the LORD God at the beginning and the end. Most of the text recounts how Abraham and Abimelech interact with each other. But that doesn’t mean that text merely becomes an example text of how the people of God should act. Yes, we’ll see some application points in their interaction, but the point of this sermon is NOT that we should “be like Abraham.” If that’s all you hear then I’ve severely miss communicated!

The transformation that we see in Abraham begins, ends, and in the middle is sustained by the grace of God. And if there is to be transformation in our lives that is pleasing to God it can only come the same way – begun, finished and sustained in the middle by the grace of God.

Look at the grace in the beginning of the passage.

The passage opens and sets the context: it’s been a few years at least since Abraham lied to Abimelech. Abraham has just sent the son of the slave woman away so that he can’t look to his own efforts to move the story of redemption forward. He can only trust that God’s work will continue through the child of the promise, Isaac.

At that time, the same Abimelech that Abraham lied to earlier comes to Abraham bringing the general of his army with him. But they don’t come with war, they come looking for peace. And it all begins with a recognition. They say, “God is with you in all that you do….” Abimelech sees that God is at work and wants to be close to it, meaning he wants to have a relationship with Abraham. Parts of God’s promise from Genesis 12 comes to mind here - “I will bless those who bless you…and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Abimelech recognized the success and greatness of Abraham isn’t because of Abraham. Abraham’s God is the source of blessing and because of the grace of God he sees at work in Abraham, Abimelech wants to be close to Abraham in peace and friendship. But he has a request to make. He wants to make a covenant, a formal relationship with Abraham so that they can live together in peace. God’s grace is the starting point of this transforming relationship.

And this is where we see God’s grace at work sustaining Abraham and changing him in the middle of all of this; the Vertical transforming the Horizontal.

Abimelech says, “…swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity….”

Honesty. No false dealings. Hmmm, that’s interesting considering their first interaction a few years prior when Abraham’s unbelief showed itself in dealing falsely with Abimelech. Abraham had tried to save his own skin through a lie and, but for the grace of God, nearly got Abimelech killed.

But think about what has happened to Abraham since that time. It had been many years since God first promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a miracle child; a child through whom the story of redemption would move forward; a child that they waited a long time to see (sometimes doubting he would ever come!).

But God had not dealt falsely with Abraham. God had promised to bless him and God was doing just that. God had promised to make of him a great nation and the first down payment of that, his son, Isaac, had been born. God promised to make Abraham’s name great in the earth and here was a king of men not summoning, but coming to Abraham, wanting to have a relationship with Abraham! God had promised nothing less than His blessing extending to all families of the earth and the redemption of sinful people had already begun. By faith, Abraham is considered right with God because he believed God more than what his eyes could see. God had not dealt falsely with Abraham and God’s faithfulness to do what He had promised to Abraham was transforming Abraham so that he didn’t want to hide behind an unbelieving lie anymore.

But Abimelech had a second clause to add. He said, “…but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” The word translated as “kindly” here is a big deal in the Story of Redemption. The word is hesed and it appears everywhere in the Old Testament. It’s often translated in our English Bibles as “loving-kindness” or “mercy” or “steadfast love” or “affection” because it contains all those concepts in a single, beautiful word. A few examples: “The hesed of the LORD never ceases…” (Lamentations 3:22); “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in hesed and faithfulness, keeping hesed for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty….” (Exodus 34:6-7). (Also seen in David’s Mighty Men and the well of Bethlehem.)

Abimelech appeals to his own actions toward Abraham as the picture of how he wants their relationship to look. And that wouldn’t be a bad friendship. But I want you to take what we said about the LORD’s trustworthy dealings with Abraham and apply it to this request for hesed as well. If you had to choose just one word to describe the LORD’s actions toward Abraham throughout the Story so far, what would it be? My vote would go to hesed.

The kindness and steadfast love of the LORD has been upon Abraham even when Abraham was trying to do things his own way. Even when Abraham was an idol worshipper in Ur, even when he lied, even when he tried to force God’s promises into reality through sleeping with his slave to get a son, even in his deepest unbelief and sin the kindness and steadfast love of God was set upon him. The grace of God rests on Abraham not because of anything in Abraham but because of God’s covenant with him.

When God established a relationship with Abraham to begin restoring life, first mankind’s vertical relationship with the LORD and then all other relationships, He guaranteed that redemption would happen and confirmed it by His word and by a sign, circumcision. In that covenant, the steadfast love and faithfulness of God was shown to be more powerful than sin because His hesed made sinners right with God through faith as they simply believed God at His word. And the steadfast love of God was shown to be more powerful still as sinners were not only forgiven and restored into a right relationship with the God who made them, but transformed by that same grace into people who began to live in right relationships with other people. For Abraham, the steadfast love and loyalty and kindness that was shown to him by the LORD makes him want to show that to others, too.

That’s why, without hesitation, he says to Abimelech, “I will swear. That’s how we’re going to be with each other – no false dealings, just hesed.” Abraham’s horizontal relationships are being transformed by the grace of God that has been shown to him in his Vertical relationship. He is being made into a promise keeper by The Promise Keeper.

I hope seeing that much grace at work is sufficient to keep us from turning this into a simplistic “be like Abraham” kind of lesson. If you are to hear just one thing this passage says today, hear this: “Receive the One who by grace forgives your sin. Believe the One who says, ‘I love you in your sin and rebellion but I will not leave you in it. I aim to restore your relationship with me and as I do that I’m going to transform every other relationship you have, too.’

The One we are ultimately called by God’s Word to receive and believe is Jesus. He is the fullness of the grace of God become flesh, who came to us to restore our vertical relationship to God by his death in our place on the cross. As we rest in him by faith alone and receive the forgiveness and new life he won for us by his death and resurrection, we are a people transformed. That’s why Paul writes in Philippians 2, “ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:1-5). Paul’s focus here is about how our transformed Vertical relationship in Jesus changes the way we live out not only our worship and work, but our Horizontal relationships with each other. That’s exactly what we’re seeing in Abraham here:

It’s interesting to see that this covenant of honesty and hesed between Abraham and Abimelech does not prevent conflict. There’s this issue of a certain well that some of Abimelech’s men have apparently tried to take over. But even though the promises between the men don’t prevent conflict, it’s beautiful to see the way they respond to the conflict.

Abraham isn’t wrong to ask for justice to be done regarding this matter of ownership. The well was not just some petty little thing. Water equaled life in that time! But as Abraham considers his own interests, he isn’t functioning from a place of selfishness or competition. Gone is the old, cunning Abraham who used deceit to protect himself. Rather than lies, there is mutual respect and honesty. Rather than power-plays and manipulation, there is a mutual concern for peace and justice to exist between the two of them and between their people as well. The giving and receiving of the animals was a public declaration of Abraham’s right to the well and his ownership that the people of Abimelech would have had to recognize.

If you have set you hope on Jesus and rest in him as your Savior, I would invite you to look to your other relationships and see if the reality of grace that has transformed your Vertical relationship is also transforming your horizontal relationships, too. Is there a concern on your part for restoration to happen in broken relationships, both Vertical and Horizontal? Is there a concern for peace to reign not only in your heart but in your town? Is there a concern for wrongs to be made right? If these things are to happen, know right now that it will be a work of God’s grace. No credit will belong to you. But as the people of God redeemed by the blood of Christ, we have a beautiful part to play as the body of Christ! We are his ambassadors, agents of reconciliation as God reconciles people to Himself and then transforms them.

So who is it in your life that needs the grace of Jesus that has been shown to you to be shown to them? Let’s not pretend this is going to be easy. Some people have hurt us very deeply and wounded us for years. But we have a God who has reconciled us to himself in Jesus even while we were enemies and rebels against him. By His grace and the power of His Spirit at work in us, we can start taking steps down the road to reconciliation, even if it takes years. I would encourage you to begin praying now and bring someone else into your story to pray with and for you. Don’t ignore the blessing of God that is the Body of Christ. We’re here to walk with each other as God works on us together.

Part of that means living in repentance and faith because we aren't going to do this perfectly!

So, maybe the person in need of grace is you. The God who was so gracious and patient with a broken sinner like Abraham has come in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, to reconcile you to God through his death. This Jesus said on the cross about that work, “It has been accomplished!” The way we receive that work done for us is simple. Believe Jesus at his word and receive from his hand the grace and steadfast love and kindness and loyalty of God that is offered to you. And then watch, even if it takes the rest of your life to see it, how he transforms everything.

There’s still more grace to see in this passage, however. We don’t have time to look at how the LORD honors the covenant between these two men and, in His time, include even some of these people in those He is redeeming in Jesus.

But consider how the passage ends. The men have formalized the covenant and Abimelech, with his general, returns home while Abraham stays in that place. He does something that has not been mentioned before this point. He plants a tree, a long-lasting, tall-growing evergreen tree, and calls “on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.” The grace of his God is so obvious to him in this situation that his only response is to worship. He understands that this covenant with Abimelech that ensures peace and hesed between them is a work of God partly meant to give Abraham a season of rest. And Abraham anticipates it being a long season, which is why he would take the effort to plant such a long-growing tree. The rest from God is part of His grace toward Abraham. It’s meant to refresh him and strengthen him, even if Abraham isn’t aware of it yet, for a test that is about to come and is unlike anything he has yet endured.

But even though God is giving him a time of rest, Abraham is aware that this place is not his home. The text points out that he remains living in the land of the Philistines for a long time, but not as a citizen. He is a sojourner, a foreigner. Yes, but he is a sojourner whose God is the Everlasting God, unchanging and eternal, who always deals faithfully with His people, who always deals kindly out of His eternal hesed for His people.

That is our God who came to us as a servant; suffering, taking our sickness and sin and giving us instead acceptance and love and forgiveness and son-ship and dignity and ministry and righteousness and peace. In Jesus, God has come and restored our Vertical relationship, once for all on the cross to be received by faith, and is now transforming our relationships with each other by the power of His grace.