Let us start reading in Genesis 12. Genesis 12:10-20 says:
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee. And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And JEHOVAH plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
This is a strange little story, and we wonder what sense this makes. Where is the Gospel in this? This same type of story is found two more times in the Bible. This happens again to Abraham when he goes into the land of Gerar, which would be the land of the Philistines, a little east of where Judah’s inheritance was in the land of Simeon.
Turn to Genesis 20:1-18. There we read:
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister?…
So Abraham did the same thing again.
…and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 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. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For JEHOVAH had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.
And this happens one more time with Isaac.
Turn to Genesis 26. In Genesis 26:1-8, we read:
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And JEHOVAH appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
This word “sporting” means “affectionately playing with her.”
Then we read in Genesis 26:9-12:
And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and JEHOVAH blessed him.
Here are three stories similar in nature, but they are strange. I am not sure that I understand all of the spiritual principles that are going on here, but let us try and look and see what is happening a little bit.
In the Bible, Abraham is a prominent picture of Christ, one of the more obvious pictures of Christ in the Bible, just as David was and as Jacob was and as Joseph and Isaac were.
Let us look at Genesis 18. We know that God took Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, which would become actually the land of Babylon, and told him that he was going to inherit the land of Canaan, which became the nation of Israel. The physical nation of Israel became a picture of the Kingdom of God, and God told him that he would multiply him exceedingly. In Genesis 18, God is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and in Genesis 18:17, we read:
And JEHOVAH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
He is getting ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
Then we read in Genesis 18:18-19:
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of JEHOVAH, to do justice and judgment; that JEHOVAH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Abraham is a picture of Christ. All the nations are going to be blessed in him.
Let me read Genesis 12:1-3:
Now JEHOVAH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Finally, look at how this is expounded upon in Galatians 3. In Galatians 3:5-7, we read:
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Here He calls all the true believers “the children of Abraham.”
Then we read in Galatians 3:8:
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Then Galatians 3:9 says:
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
We work this all out by the time that we get to the last verse of Galatians 3. Let me read from Galatians 3:27-29, which says:
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
This is speaking of the true believers.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
All the true believers are spiritually the seed of Abraham.
So Abraham is a very prominent picture of Christ in Genesis 12, and if Abraham is Christ, then he is leaving and going down into Egypt.
In the Bible, God uses Egypt as a picture of being under the bondage of sin. He refers to it as the “iron furnace.” He also refers to it about eight times in Exodus and Deuteronomy as the “house of bondage.” It is a picture of being under the bondage of sin.
God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. When they could not come out by their own strength, He led them through the wilderness for forty years and fed them with that miraculous bread from heaven, that manna, which was a picture of the Word of God. At the end of those forty years, He brought them into the land of Canaan, a picture of salvation, a picture of the Kingdom of God.
So Abraham now is going down into Egypt with his wife Sarah. If Abraham is a picture of Christ, Sarah has to be a picture of the true believers. If we work through the Bible and study Sarah, we can certainly see this.
Let us now look at Isaiah 51:1-2. It says:
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek JEHOVAH…
Again, this is speaking of all the true believers:
…ye that seek JEHOVAH: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
Do you see how this speaks of Abraham as being “your father” and Sarah “that bore you”? If we study this principle out, we know that through the union of Christ and His true church, more believers are begotten. Again, this is the same picture.
If you look at Genesis 17:15, this is when God came to Abraham and told him that he was going to miraculously have a son, because Sarah was past the age of childbirth. He again tells him that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, would come through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all the way down to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in Genesis 17:15-16, we read:
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Actually, the word “mother,” is not there. It literally says, “she shall become nations.” This is because she is a picture of the Bride of Christ.
We read in Genesis 12:11:
And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
This word “fair” is again another word that applies to the Bride of Christ.
Let us look at one verse where this is used. Look at Psalm 48; it is speaking of the beauty of the Bride of Christ. Psalm 48:1-2 says:
Great is JEHOVAH, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth…
This word “beautiful” is the word that is translated as “fair” in Genesis 12:11.
Psalm 48:2 continues:
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion…
This word “Zion” is another word for Jerusalem. It is a figure of the Bride of Christ. We know that the New Jerusalem comes down adorned as a Bride for the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
In Genesis 12:11, we read that Abraham told Sarah:
…I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
Then he says in Genesis 12:12:
Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
What is happening here is that he is telling a half lie. Sarah was his half-sister.
We read about this in Genesis 20:12 where he is speaking to Abimelech:
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.
I believe that the spiritual principle here is that Christ is always with the true believers. We read this in verses like Hebrews 13:5. Hebrews 13:5 says:
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
The true believers are going down to Egypt, out of the Promised Land, and back into Egypt, and God is with them. The Husband is with them.
In the end of Matthew, it says the same thing. In Matthew 28:19-20, Christ says:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
So here, Abraham as the bridegroom is going into Egypt with his wife Sarah. Yet he is telling Sarah to lie to the Egyptians. She is to tell them that she is his sister and not his wife.
I think that the spiritual principle here is that the unbelievers do not see Christ. When he came to dwell on this earth, they did not see Him as the Messiah, as the Son of God, as God Himself, whom He really was. They saw Him possibly as a brother. We also know that Christ established the principle of referring to the believers as “brethren.”
Turn to the Song of Solomon. I want to show you a verse that I think is kind of a key to all of this. This whole book speaks of the love of Christ for His church. In the Song of Solomon 4:9, Christ is speaking to the church and says:
Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
Then in Song of Solomon 4:10, He says:
How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse…
He says this again in Song of Solomon 4:12, as well as in Song of Solomon 5:1, and the true believers are spoken of as the “sisters.” We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and yet we are also the Bride of Christ. Again, as he goes down into Egypt, I think that is what is happening.
We are told this also in Matthew 23:8. Again, it is the same thing, a brother and sister relationship. Christ said in Matthew 23:8:
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
But a sister is also spoken of as a true believer. A female true believer is spoken of as a sister in 1 Timothy 5:2 and in Matthew 12. Look at Matthew 12:47-50:
Then one said unto him…
That is, “unto Christ.”
…Behold, thy mother…
This is His literal mother Mary, His earthly mother.
…Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
So he uses these three different terms for the church. But again, let us go back to the principle that the unbelievers did not see Christ when Christ was on this earth.
Turn to Matthew 21. The Lord says in Matthew 21:33-38:
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir…
Here they recognized Christ. Those who were under the influence of Satan recognized Christ.
…This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And the true believers, the true church, are spoken of as the inheritance of Christ.
Look at Psalm 28:9. It says:
Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
And we could look at other verses of the Bible that would say this same thing, that the true believers are the inheritance of Christ.
Let us continue in Matthew 21. Matthew 21:39-45 says:
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
They knew within themselves that He was speaking of them. He was calling them wicked and saying that they were not of God.
But look at Matthew 21:46. It says:
But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
The multitude of the people who were around Christ when He was on this earth, many of them believed that He was a prophet. They believed that He was something special. Because of this, the Pharisees were not able to take Him and kill Him at this point.
I believe that this is kind of like the same principle that we see in Genesis 12 where Abraham tells Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she is his sister and not his wife so that they would not kill him. Actually, God is controlling the whole thing, but I believe that this is also what we are seeing in this parable here.
Look at Genesis 12:13:
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
What does this mean? Well, I believe this speaks of how the church is Christ’s body, and the Bible speaks of nurturing the body of Christ.
Look at Ephesians 4. You could also look at 1 Corinthians 12 where it speaks about the different parts of the body and how God relates that to all the different people among the children of God who have different gifts, different abilities—God puts them all together to make one body. But in Ephesians 4:10-13, we read:
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
So this is speaking of the body of Christ being nurtured by each other until we reach that fullness.
Again, when Abraham said to Sarah in Genesis 12:13:
…my soul shall live because of thee.
I think that Matthew 25 is in view there. We are all familiar with this passage where it speaks about the separation of the sheep and the goats. Matthew 25:34-41, says:
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand…
That would be the true believers.
…Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred…
Christ was speaking of Himself.
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me…
And so forth. He is speaking of the true believers, that when we go forth into the world with the Gospel and minister to each other in so many different ways, we have done it unto Him.
I believe that this is the principle in Genesis 12:13 where we read:
…my soul shall live because of thee.
He speaks of Himself as having His life in the body of believers.
Let us just look at another verse or two about how the unbelievers cannot see Christ. Look at what Christ told Peter in Matthew 16:13-14:
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
They recognized Him as something special, but they do not see that He was God Himself or the Son of God.
Then we read in Matthew 16:15-17:
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
If we see Christ, it is only because God has revealed Him to us through His Word.
In Proverbs 20:12, it says:
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, JEHOVAH hath made even both of them.
We do not see spiritually and we do not hear spiritual unless the Lord opens our eyes to understand these things. We could do a whole study just on this principle.
In Psalm 119:18, we read:
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
This word “wondrous” is formed from the same word that we find in Isaiah 9:6 where we read, “his name shall be called Wonderful.”
So again, I believe that this is the principle here in Genesis 12 where Abraham tells Sarah, “You tell them that you are my sister and not my wife.” This is in order that they will not recognize him as the heir, as Christ. He is telling a lie; certainly he is telling a lie. He is trying to take care of himself, but I believe that this is the spiritual principle here.
There is one other principle here that we can see in these stories. Turn to Genesis 20. There are also other principles here because, in the first account, Abraham goes into Egypt with Sarah, and God uses Egypt in a couple of different ways in the Bible. Then in the second account, he goes into the land of the Philistines. Then Isaac goes into the land of the Philistines in the third account, and Isaac told a flat-out lie because Rebekah was not his sister. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel, who was Isaac’s cousin. So let us look at Genesis 20 where we read of Abimelech pleading to God. We read in Genesis 20:3-5:
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Well, he has not harmed her, but I do not know about the integrity of his heart or the innocency of his hands. The next verse might take away from this a little of bit because we read in the next verse, in Genesis 20:6:
And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
This teaches us a very important principle, which is that God restrains sin in this world. With the wickedness that is in man’s heart, if God lifted His hand of restraint completely from off of men, it would be horrible beyond description because all the thoughts of our hearts are only toward evil continually.
God says that before He destroyed the world with a flood, they would have all killed each other. But here He is teaching a very important principle, which is that God restrains sin in this world.
There will come a time when the true believers are taken out of this world. At that time, God may lift his hand of restraint, which is just speculation and is too horrible to contemplate. However, as we can think of these things, this gives us more of a desire to get the Gospel out to our loved ones. We do not want them to go through this. But again, this is just speculation.
We also read that God brought judgments against the Egyptians and against Abimelech for taking Sarah. In Genesis 20:16-18, we read:
And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For JEHOVAH had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.
There is probably a deep spiritual principle in this, but I cannot develop this at this time. Also in the Genesis 12 account, it says that He plagued the Egyptians for Sarah.
Turn to Psalm 89. In Psalm 89:20-23, we read:
I have found David my servant…
This is speaking of Christ.
I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
This word “plague” is the same word used in Genesis 12 where God told us that he had plagued the Egyptians because of Sarah.
So I really believe that these are the principles in these three accounts that tell of Abraham and Isaac lying about their wives and telling the heathen that their wives were their sisters in order that they might live through that lie.
But again, how God speaks of “my sister, my spouse” in the Song of Solomon really opens this up for us. It is all the same Gospel. Christ is with us always, even to the end of the world, which is a comforting thought, comforting beyond description. He has paid for the sins of His people. He endured the wrath of God for us.
Again, this is something that we cannot contemplate, but the Bible tells us this. As we read the Bible more and more, we get this assurance from God’s Word.
We read in Romans 8:16:
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
The Spirit witnesses to us through His Word, so it is always the same story. We are sinners and we need salvation. We cannot stand before God in our own righteousness. We must stand before Him in the righteousness of Christ. It is by the mercy of God that it is still the day of salvation and that we can still beg God constantly that He might have mercy on us.
1st Question: All I can say is, “Wow!” Guy, this opened up the whole idea to me that this is a picture again of leading to this present time of judgment, because His church is His Bride, and the Bride and Christ are all children of the Father.
Along this line, I wonder, can you give me a citation to show that Abraham indeed lied when he told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister? To arrive at this, I would think that we would need to have this Scripture reference. It is an omission of truth.
Isaac lied. Yes, I would think so. And that could parallel going into Babylon. So the last issue is that I did not know that Isaac traveled, so I do not know where that fits in.
But this opened up so many possibilities for me to think of. Wonderful, thank you.
Guy: Well, we cannot say that it is an utter lie, can we? It is a half truth. Yes, it is an omission of truth. Isaac lied. And when you are speaking of that as judgment, there is more to it than I could see, especially in the way that God uses the land of Egypt and how He speaks of the church as Sodom and Egypt in the end. He is leaving the Promised Land and going into Egypt. Then He left the Promised Land and went into Gerar, the land of the Philistines, the enemy. That may have to do with the end of the church age, too, but that is speculation. The principle is that He is always with His people.
2nd Question: Do these stories of Abraham and Isaac have anything to do with the revealing of the Gospel or how Christ has revealed the end of the church and the knowledge of the end?
Guy: Yes, that is what I was just speaking to Howard about. It is probably in there, but I did not see it, especially going into Egypt and going into the land of Gerar, which is the Philistine’s land. It was not in the land of Canaan. It was west toward the Mediterranean. Yes, there are probably more spiritual pictures in this, but I cannot answer that. Probably yes, but I cannot answer that.