# 178 Take Heed

The Book of Genesis

Day 178

Ge 20:7 "Now therefore, restore 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 who are yours."

 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.

One of the mistakes we make when reading these accounts in the Old Testament, is a failure to apply these lessons to ourselves.Speaking of events in the Old Testament, 1Co 10:11 reminds us, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.  12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Take heed!

Pay attention to the fact that Abimelech’s servants were very much afraid! They took this warning from God concerning Abimelech and “all who were his,” very seriously. They were “very much afraid,” and rightly so! God  had done something in their midst (likely a plague of some sorts) that created great fear, and we’ll get to that later in verses 17 and 18.

But for right now, let us learn from the sin of Abimelech. He had taken another man’s wife and that is the sin of adultery! Unrepentant adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God!  But there is another type of adultery that we need to see in this example…..and that is “spiritual adultery,” Spiritual adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God either!

Jas 4:4 says, “ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Spiritual adultery, idolatry, friendship with the world, whatever you want to call it, is eternally deadly!

Our only hope in the matter of adultery is repentance. Unless you and I repent of it and return to faith in God through Jesus Christ, we, and all others like us, will surely die! That should frighten us to the very core! God wasn’t kidding with Abimelech and his servants and He’s not kidding with you or I.

Our only hope is to turn to the Chief Prophet, Jesus Christ, and ask for His mercy and intervention on our behalf. It is through His intercession alone that we shall live!

Pray: Lord open our eyes to what our love of the world and its ways really is….spiritual adultery. Lord Jesus come into our lives and deliver us from this deadly sin!