In this episode we continue studying the Book of Genesis. In this episode Abraham leaves his homeland and arrives in the land of Gerar.

Abraham and Sarah tell Abimelech, king of Gerar, the same story they told Pharaoh, that Sarah is his sister.

Proverbs chapter 21 verse 2 says, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts.

God knew Abraham's heart, he knew he didn't lie out of malice but out of fear and continued working on his behalf.

God appeared to Abimelech in a dream and told him he was a dead man because he had taken another man's wife. That he was to return Sarah to Abraham and Abraham would pray for him and he would be healed because Abraham was a prophet. Whatever the affliction was, it prevented Abimelech and everyone in his household from having children.

God gave Abimelech a dream but not Pharaoh. Pharaoh quickly recognized the trouble he was having in his kingdom, started when he took Sarah but Abimelech didn't. So God had to appear to him in a dream, in a stern, direct, threatening manner.

Abraham said, he told Abimelech that Sarah was his sister because he assumed there was no fear of God in his kingdom.

But by giving Abimelech a dream and having him return Sarah based on the dream, God revealed to Abraham he’s sovereign, even over people who don’t fear him.

So he should fear no man, even wicked, godless men.

We also note that Abraham the prophet prayed for the wombs in Abimelech’ s kingdom to be opened. And after his prayer Sarah’s womb was opened and she gives birth to Isaac in the next chapter.

Once again scripture reveals that children were the things people desired most. As the king and his staff were devastated about the possibility of not having children.

People in those days, saw procreation as a divine act. Especially God’s people, they realized they could bring a being into the world that came from their own bodies.

They were in fact, acting like God creating and bringing forth life, beings created in their own likeness and image.

When a man fathers a child it is in this work that he is more like God than any time. And God designed it this way. Genesis chapter 5 verse 3 says.

Genesis 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

And a woman resembles God in this divine process as her body forms and brings forth a living soul. The formation of the human body in a woman's womb is indeed a miraculous process and a divine act of creation that God bestows upon the people he created in his image.

Solomon briefly refers to the miraculous process in Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 5.

Ecclesiastes 11:5  As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Many are running to and fro and creating things, creating content, creating trinkets, cups and mugs and t-shirt's and the birthrate is down.

There is a subtle devil working in our midst, robbing people of the only gifts or blessings that last or endure forever.

We will leave everything else behind. The only thing we create that will cross over to the other side of heaven when we die are our children and grandchildren.

Everything else we create is vain and worthless compared to the enduring reward of the womb.

Some may stand at the gates of heaven empty handed and ashamed because they viewed as nought the reward of the womb, as they spent their lives, creating and chasing vain things.