When You Least Expect It

When you least expect it.  Abraham traveled to a place called Gerar and met a king by the name of Abimelech (Genesis 20:1-2).  As he had done previously, Abraham said that Sarah, his wife, was his sister.  He did so because he was afraid they would kill him because Sarah was his wife (v.11), and she was so beautiful.  King Abimelech, thinking that Sarah was Abraham’s sister, had Sarah brought into him.  Then we read, “God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, ‘You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman’” (v.3).  King Abimelech recognized who God was?  If God came to him in a dream, we know by his response that he did not just dismiss this as some crazy dream.  This dream completely changed Abimelech’s direction and he gave Sarah back to Abraham and confronted Abraham as to why he would even bring such an enormous guilt on his kingdom (v.9).  And this is what Abraham replied, “I though, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place’” (v11).  Abraham assumed that these people could not possibly fear God, so that is part of the reason why he did what he did.  We must be careful.  We have no idea who we are dealing with and, therefore, must always act in a way that reflects who God is.  A person who fears God might appear when we least expect it.