abraham and sarah

[Rachel72]

Why did God allow Abraham to tell the king that Sarah was his sister and not his wife? I will leave it at that.

If God created the world in 7 days, where do dinosaurs fit in? Were they hear when we Adam and Eve were created?

Why did God allow every firstborn son to be killed?

Thankyou,

Rachel72

[Guest LadyC]

i haven't much time, but i wanted to address your first question.

God "allowed" abraham to say that in the same way that we "allow" our children to make mistakes after we've told them not to. abraham was not doing what God wanted, he was being disobedient. he was telling a partial truth... sarah WAS his half sister. he was lying by omission of the fact that she was also his wife.

[Eliyahuw]

Technically, Abraham didn't lie, as Sarah WAS his sister. He just didn't tell Abimelech all the facts. Yes, I know that's incest, but all of the patriarchs practices incest. The family of Abraham married into itself generation after generation. Isaac married his first cousin. Jacob married four women, three of whom were both his first and second cousins on one side of the family, and second cousins on the other side!

I've never heard this claim before. I had to go back try to find it in scripture, but couldn't locate the source of the claim above (Sarah being Abraham's sister). What verse(s) did you see this in WSB? Not just once, but twice Abraham claims Sarah is his sister, but isn't that just a part of the story? It's not like Abraham was incapable of telling a lie for selfish reasons. In fact, it seems to me that it is a crucial part of the story that he in fact did not tell the truth.

I'm no expert in Abraham and Sarah, but am definitely interested how you came to the conclusion that Sarah was his sister according to scripture.

Sarah was his half sister.

[Guest LadyC]

Technically, Abraham didn't lie, as Sarah WAS his sister. He just didn't tell Abimelech all the facts. Yes, I know that's incest, but all of the patriarchs practices incest. The family of Abraham married into itself generation after generation. Isaac married his first cousin. Jacob married four women, three of whom were both his first and second cousins on one side of the family, and second cousins on the other side!

not to derail the topic, but cousins are not incestuous by Biblical standard.

abraham did not know God when he married his half sister. once he was called by God and knew Him, God recognized abraham and sarah as husband and wife, not as half siblings.

[eric]

From LadyC'

not to derail the topic, but cousins are not incestuous by Biblical standard.

That's true for 1st cousins LadyC, but I don't think it applies to 2nd cousins, not as far as the Anglicans are concerned,but I could be mistaken.

[Eliyahuw]

Technically, Abraham didn't lie, as Sarah WAS his sister. He just didn't tell Abimelech all the facts. Yes, I know that's incest, but all of the patriarchs practices incest. The family of Abraham married into itself generation after generation. Isaac married his first cousin. Jacob married four women, three of whom were both his first and second cousins on one side of the family, and second cousins on the other side!

not to derail the topic, but cousins are not incestuous by Biblical standard.

abraham did not know God when he married his half sister. once he was called by God and knew Him, God recognized abraham and sarah as husband and wife, not as half siblings.

I don't think that it really mattered at that time. It wasn't wrong. There was no law against it. It wasn't a pagan practice either since it was being practiced by Adams children and maybe even Adam himself.

[Guest Biblicist]

Marrying siblings in the early days of the earth is really no big deal. After all where do you think Cain got his wife?

Dinosaurs were indeed created by God during the six literal days of creation. And were also on the Ark with Noah.

For any other information you might want just go to Answers in Genesis.

[RCruise]

Why did God allow Abraham to tell the king that Sarah was his sister and not his wife? I will leave it at that.

If God created the world in 7 days, where do dinosaurs fit in? Were they hear when we Adam and Eve were created?

Why did God allow every firstborn son to be killed?

Thankyou,

Rachel72

Hi Rachel,

It looks like you got a lot of answers in here and I really cannot add anything to some of the wonderful insights and Biblical knowledge put forth. I noticed an opposing view or two on Abraham lying to Abimelech about Sarah. The answers to any Biblical Question usually lie within The Word of God itself. As WhySoBlind pointed to, Abraham did not see himself as lying yet, it was deceiving in that Sarah was his wife and he kept that from Abimelech for fear of his life. He had told her when God called him out from his father's land that they were obviously going into strange lands that did not fear God. So he asked her to say he is her brother (not a lie) to protect his life. Abraham obviously had no Supernatural Faith that if God called him out, God would keep him safe and be with him just as God promised.

God's Promise to Abraham (Abram):

Genesis 17:1-9 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

Abraham's Fear:

Genesis 20:11-13 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.

Amazingly, when you read all of chpt. 20, we see that Abimelech DID fear God...may not have served God but, when God spoke to Abimelech, he listened, made a defense of not knowing and did not touch her to which God replied He knew he did it honestly but that God kept him from touching her. And in a dream, God instructed Abimelech to restore her (plus warned total anihilation of him and his kingdom if he did not) and revealed Abraham was a prophet and to have him pray for him and then, God would stay his hand. Which Abimelech and his men (who also feared when they were told what God had said) restored her to Abraham plus menservants, womenservants, riches, gold, animals and offerred him total peace anywhere Abraham wish ro reside in the whole land. Now that's fear!

When we get into much Study and reading in all of God's Word, we find that God has a purpose from the beginning and that is to make His Glory known throughout the Earth and All nations. When we read the words of Jesus and His promises to do whatever we ask, He will do not for much anything else than to reveal His Glory by which the Father is Glorified in the Son:

John 14:13-14 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

God suffered iniquity and "winked at sin" before Jesus to make His Glory known. (Acts 17:30)

Biblicist posted a site I always defer to about evolution and dinosaurs: Answers in Genesis

I'm not an arcaeologist or scientist of any sort (have a degree in Computer Science) but that's it. I used to debate the evolutionary and dinosaur stuff but, God says HE will prove man's wisdom to be foolish so I left that up to Him and He is doing a marvelous job using their own sciences to prove them wrong! lol! The biggest lie behind evolustion is the theory of assigning "Time" to their measuring tools. They themselves freely and honestly admit that the only way to assign a date to fossils is to have been there right when it died and fossilized, take a measurement, take stepped and precise measurements at regular intervals from that point forward up to today and they could be about 50% accurate on dating. (no way to account if there was a missed measurement during huge barometric pressure changes, changes in earth pressures or movements, etc..) So, we can see by their own admission, they really do not know how old anything really is or how long dead except stuff they have measured and checked since the tools were available....about 20 years at best.

[RCruise]

Quote.

Abraham obviously had no Supernatural Faith that if God called him out, God would keep him safe and be with him just as God promised.

Hebrews 11:8-19 say's all that Abraham did was by trust.

Actually, "by faith" but, I never said he didn't have faith. It takes a lot of Faith to offer up your only son knowing God will keep the Promise He made on that son. But, the Abimelech incident was early before Isaac. And, it is obvious Abraham "feared" (he said he did to Sarah and the king) not knowing as yet or understanding the Promise God made to him when God called him out of his father's house and land. I did stiplify "Supernatureal Faith" which did grow later and exceedingly so.

[EricH]

It is interesting that not only did Abraham lie about Sarah to Pharaoh, Isaac did the same thing with Abimelech in regards to his wife