Reverence for God — Zac Poonen

Job as the First Written Model of Godliness

I want to turn today to the first book that God wrote, and that's the book of Job. That may surprise some of you, but it's my firm conviction that Job was written before Genesis. The book of Genesis was written by Moses 1 ,500 years before Christ, about 500 years after Abraham lived, and the book of Job is the only book in the whole Bible which has no connection with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

Every other book has some connection, except this one is unique among the 66 books. It's written by a man who never knew Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, had no connection with them, was not a part of their descendants, and therefore, I believe, he was outside of that stream, and it appears as though these things were written very soon after they happened, because there's such details of the conversation between people, word for word.

I mean, I can hardly write word for word conversations I heard last week, and here is a detailed description of conversations that went on for some time, which means it was written pretty soon after it happened, and so therefore, if he was part of the tribe of Israel, it would have been mentioned.

So if he was outside the tribe of Israel, it must have been before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because after that, we read from that time onwards, God dealt only with the people of Israel from the time of the giving of the law.

God didn't deal with people outside after that, and it's after the giving of the law that Genesis was written. So that's why I believe that Job was the first book that God wrote when he was writing scripture.

It's very interesting to study Job with that in mind, that when God was writing a book for man, the first chapter in that book was about Job, and that teaches us that the first thing God looks for on earth is a godly man or a godly woman.

He's not looking for a nation, he's looking for a man or a woman, and you'll find throughout the history of Israel that it was lone individuals that changed the history of the nation. When Israel was declining and going down badly, one Samuel, one Moses, one Joshua, one Samuel.

Throughout history, it's like that. When 600 ,000 Israelites worshipped idols, that golden calf, one man, Moses, turned them around. One man, Samuel, changed the face of that nation. One man, David. One man, Isaiah, Jeremiah, it was always like that.

One man had a tremendous influence on the nation. Once you come into the New Testament, God's perfect will was that it should be a body of people now that is his witness, not an individual, it's not a lone Isaiah or Jeremiah or Elijah, it's the body of Christ, the church.

There was no such thing in the Old Testament like a church, but now local churches like little lights in the darkness all over the world are God's plan to be, to proclaim his witness in every generation.

The Church’s Need for Faithful Leadership

But you read in the New Testament and in 2 ,000 years of church history, what is it that preserves a church as a light? Usually one man. Again, Paul once told the elders in Ephesus, I've been with you three years, he said in Acts 20.

And during all those three years, you can read that in the latter half of Acts 20, not one wolf could come inside this church, but now I'm leaving, I've got to go, and I know what's going to happen after I leave, all those wolves who've been waiting outside are going to come right in.

And not only that, you fellas who are elders of this wonderful church, Ephesus, you're going to seek your own. You didn't dare do that when I was around here, but you're going to do that once I leave.

And you're going to get your own following, and things are going to go haywire. That's exactly what happened. You read the second letter to the Ephesians in Revelation chapter 2, and you find churches lost its first love, and it's so bad that the Lord says, that was the finest church in Paul's time, because he spent three years there, but they didn't take Paul's warnings seriously, they said, oh, we'll be okay.

That's how the Israelites were. They never took the warnings of the prophets seriously, they said, we'll be okay. And the Ephesians said, we'll be okay, and they were not okay. And they drifted, they lost out, and finally they lost the lampstand itself.

And there's no witness there in Ephesus today. It's a Muslim nation today in Turkey, and that's the state of affairs. So God begins with a man, and that's in his first book he talked about a man, and he talked about a man who had a number of qualities.

Here's the first sentence, listen to this, the first sentence when God writes a book for a man, for the world, read it. There was a man in the land of Uz, see this is how it begins, there was one man.

This is how God's book begins. There was one man. I mean, what about the creation of the world? Yeah, that we'll write later, we'll write Genesis later. But first, we'll write about a man. There was one man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job.

That man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. The first thing that God writes about this man is his character. Not his gifts, not his intelligence, I'm sure he was a very intelligent man, but that's not first.

He was a man who feared God, he was upright, that you couldn't find a single thing to blame in his life, and he turned away from evil, and it says in the Message Bible, he hated evil with a passion. You know what that means?

Hating evil with a passion means a fierce desire to hate evil. And he was a family man. Can family men be godly? Sure. The first man God wrote about was a family man, and he didn't have just one or two children, he had ten children.

Seven sons and three daughters. And as far as we know, he brought them up in a godly way. We certainly know he prayed for them regularly. We see there. The other thing we see here is, he was a rich man.

He had 7 ,000 sheep, 3 ,000 camels, those were the ways people counted riches those days, oxen, donkeys, and very, very many servants. Now a lot of people think that if you're rich you can't be spiritual.

Who are the people who think so? Those who are not rich. They're usually jealous of somebody else who is rich, and they have this prejudiced mind which says rich people can't be spiritual. Well, the first person God wrote about was a rich man, and he was the most spiritual man in the world.

It doesn't mean that all rich, I think very few rich people are spiritual, that is true, but because the Bible says God has chosen the poor of the world, rich in faith, and 1 Corinthians 1 says not many rich, not many clever are in that crowd, but you can be rich and you can be spiritual.

A lot of people think the opposite of that, that you've got to be poor to be spiritual. If that were true, then the most spiritual people in Bangalore should be living in the slums, and this church should be full of slum people, because we want to be a spiritual church.

Is it true? How many of you believe that? No, you don't believe that. You believe that the middle class are spiritual. Why do you believe that? Because you're middle class. You see how conceited we are.

You know, there are lots of elders in our churches who believe that. People who live at my level economically are spiritual. People who are richer than me cannot be spiritual. I straight away look at them with a prejudiced look and say they are not spiritual.

It's because of fantastic conceit and arrogance and pride that makes people feel I am the standard. Who said you're the standard? Jesus is the standard, and he was poorer than all of us. It's good for all of us to humble ourselves.

Riches or poverty have got nothing to do with spirituality, just like the color of your skin has got nothing to do with spirituality. Your height has got nothing to do with spirituality. Your weight has got nothing to do with spirituality.

The number of children you have has got nothing to do with spirituality. The size of your house doesn't have anything to do with spirituality. What job you have, what country you belong to, whether you're white or yellow or black makes no difference to spirituality.

You believe all that? It's exactly the same with upper class, middle class, lower class, but you can't believe that because you don't read the Bible. We have to get out a lot of prejudices from our minds, and the only way to get prejudices out of our mind is by reading the Bible.

But I'll tell you another thing. The Bible says, charge those who are rich in the world to be generous. If a rich man is spiritual, he's very generous. That's for sure. He cares for the poor. Job did.

If he doesn't, then he's not spiritual. And another thing, it says here, this man, the Message Bible says, was the most influential man in the East. Now a lot of people think also, okay, forget riches, if you're influential, you can't be spiritual.

Who said that? You haven't read the Bible. This guy was the most influential man in that entire area, and he was the most spiritual man. Oh, what a lot of prejudices. We have to get out of our carnal minds before we ever become spiritual.

Whether you have influence or no influence makes no difference to spirituality. So why am I saying all this? That in future at least, when you look at people, do not pass a judgment that this fellow can't be spiritual because he lives in a slum, or this fellow can't be spiritual because he lives in a palace, or this fellow can't be spiritual because he's too influential, or this fellow can't be spiritual because he's got no influence.

This is crazy stupidity, thoughts that come from people who haven't read the Bible. Spirituality is completely independent of all these human factors. Okay. Now the other thing we see here is that this man, when his children, you know, they used to have, they were all living in their own houses, they were grown-ups, so Job was like a grandfather almost, his children were married, they were living in their own house, and they would have feasts on their birthdays, which would last a number of days, and then when the days of feasting for their birthdays were over, verse 5, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering.

That was the way those days they, you know, atoned for sin, for each of his children. This is for my oldest son, Lord, and this sacrifice is for my second son. He didn't sort of pray a general prayer, God, I pray for all ten of my children.

No, no, no, no, no. He prayed for each of them by name, this one, now I pray for this one, and now I pray for this one. You see, godly men do that. Godly men pray for each of their children by name. For each one, he offered a burnt offering, and the reason was, he said, perhaps during this time of feasting, they may have sinned.

He doesn't know that they have committed any sin, perhaps they sinned and may have fought something against God in their hearts. Look at this man's concern. He's not talking, perhaps my children went and fell into adultery.

No, no, no, he hasn't got that far. He's starting with the heart. He says in verse 5, perhaps my children sinned in their thoughts. Boy! How many of you pray that type of prayer, Lord, my children may have sinned in their thoughts, will you please forgive them?

This guy lived 4000 years ago, without any Bible, without any fellowship, without any Holy Spirit, without any knowledge of Jesus or Calvary. How did he learn all this? Because he had one characteristic by which we learn everything, the fear of God.

The Fear of God as the Beginning of Wisdom

It says he feared God. That means he reverenced God. And when a man reverences God, the Bible says that is the ABC of wisdom. The reverence of the Lord or the fear of the Lord is the beginning or the ABC of wisdom.

It's like when children go to school, they don't learn geography and physics first because they can't learn that before they learn their ABC. We have the great tragedy in Christendom today of a whole lot of people who are trying to stuff their heads with Bible knowledge, but who don't have wisdom for daily life because they have not started with ABC.

I mean, if you had a school in Bangalore where you sent children and they straightaway started teaching them physics and geography and history without teaching them ABC, they're going to fail for 25 years.

They'll sit there and fail every year because we tell that stupid school, please start with ABC. Don't start with physics and geography and chemistry. That's what we need to tell many churches. Please don't teach them about the rapture and the tribulation and the coming of Christ and justification and sanctification before you teach them the ABC.

They say they're so ignorant, they don't know what the ABC is. It's written in your Bible. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the ABC of wisdom. Teach them to fear God, to reverence God.

Then they'll understand everything else properly. If they don't learn the reverence of God, they will have a lot in their heads and pretty close to zero in their hearts. That's the condition of a lot of Christendom today and I've been around Christendom a lot more than you.

That's the reason why we have so many lovers of money in Christendom. That's the reason why we have so many divorces, in Western countries anyway, in Christendom today. That's why, that's the reason why so many fine young believers are defeated by the lust of the eyes 365 days of the year.

That's why there are so many believers who are involved in internet pornography. You think they lack Bible knowledge? They got Bible knowledge oozing out of their ears, but, and their tongue especially, but they haven't learned ABC.

They haven't learned the fear of the Lord. I blame their teachers. I mean, if a teacher doesn't teach them, how will they learn? You know, David said in Psalm 34, come my children, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

There are very few teachers who can teach the fear of the Lord because there are very few teachers who fear God themselves, who reverence God. Job was a man who feared God. And a man who fears God is concerned about his children, concerned about sin in the heart.

Notice how in the first paragraph of the Bible that God wrote, he spoke about sin in the heart. He was afraid that they have sinned in their hearts. This guy was really an amazing man. He says in another chapter, in chapter 31, he says, I made a covenant with my eyes.

Think of that for a moment. I made a covenant with my eyes never to gaze at a young woman. How old did we say Job was? 25? He's a grandfather. Do 65 year old people have to make a covenant with their eyes?

He made it when he was a young man, but he maintained it all through. Long ago, he says, I made a covenant with my eyes. Who taught him that? Was Matthew chapter 5 written there in those days that if you lust with your eyes, you will commit adultery?

No, you don't need Matthew chapter 5. You don't need the Bible when you have the fear of God. When you don't have the fear of God, you can study all these verses. You'll never get anywhere. See what this man had long before the Bible was written.

I made a covenant with my eyes that I will not gaze at someone who's not my wife because I'll be tempted. And he goes on to say, I wouldn't hang around some other woman's house. What a man he was. He spent his time thinking of how he could help the widows and the orphans instead of thinking how he could lust after women.

See, because of the fear of God, there was only one thing that kept him from all this, the fear of God. There's another place there. I don't have time to show you where he says, I did not make gold. My God, where did he learn that gold can become your God, that money can become your God?

Who taught him that? Was it written in Luke 16 about what Jesus said about mammon? That wasn't even written in those days. When you have the fear of God, you don't need any of these verses. When you have the fear of God, it's not only the beginning of wisdom, it leads you all the way to the end of wisdom.

You don't have the fear of God, you learn nothing. This man feared God. He reverenced God. He became sensitive to sin. He knew mammon is a tremendous power that can draw me away from God. He knew that he must use the resources God has given him to help those who are more needy than him.

He used to help blind people cross the street. Is that Christianity? Sure it is. Total stranger, the blind man, he helped him cross the street. Yup. And it says here, one day, you know, various angels and Satan were also there.

Satan couldn't come into the third heaven, the immediate presence of God. He'd been cast out from there. But from the second heaven, he could speak to God. The other angels were in the third heaven. And it says here, the Lord said to Satan, where do you come from?

Verse 7, Satan said, I've been roaming around the earth and walking around on it. And he's still doing that. Satan is alive and well on planet Earth. He's moving around all the time. And the Lord says, you've been moving around all the earth.

God’s Testimony About Job

OK, let me ask you a question. Have you considered, have you seriously looked at my friend, Joe? My servant, Joe. Have you looked at him? I know you moved around the earth, Satan, and you found a lot of ungodly people.

A lot of people who claim to be religious and spiritual. And who live hypocritical, double lives. You've met a lot of people who gossip and backbite and talk a lot of rubbish at home. And lust with their eyes and love money and claim to be spiritual.

I know there are thousands and thousands of people like that on the earth, Satan. But, in the midst of this crowd, have you thought of this man? I know there are few only, but have you thought of this one man, Joe?

He's different. And what does God say about him? There is no one like him, verse 8, on the whole earth. Why? Because he's got so many camels? God doesn't care one bit for it. He doesn't even mention that.

Do you know that God doesn't care for your bank account or the size of your house or your job? I mean, that may swell your head with pride, but God doesn't care two hoots for that. But he says, there's a man who's blameless and upright.

According to the light he has, he's absolutely upright. In certain areas, he doesn't have light yet, because the Holy Spirit is not living in him. But according to the light he has, he's absolutely blameless and upright.

A man who fears God and hates evil with a passion. There are a lot of other things written about Job in the first paragraph, but God doesn't mention any of them. He doesn't say how many children he has.

He doesn't say how much wealth he has. Those things don't mean anything. The man fears God. Satan, have you seen a man like that? There's no one who fears God like him in the whole earth. What do you long for?

A better job? A higher salary? A more comfortable life? A bigger house? Yeah, nothing wrong in these things. Provided those are not your priorities. But if those things become priorities, then you go astray.

If you rejoice more in an increment in your salary than in victory over some sin, you got it all wrong, brother. You got it all wrong. It's like a dog getting excited that he got another bone to bite.

It's really like that. It's crazy. I'm not talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about believers. The thing that excites them. They got such a huge salary, but they're still defeated by lust. Is that great?

That you got a better salary, more opportunity now to love money and waste it on yourself. And sin. You're defeated in your life. You got it all wrong. God is looking for those who fear him. I tell you from the time I first was gripped with this passage, many, many years ago as a young man, this came to my heart and it hasn't gone away.

More than 45 years it hasn't gone away. Lord, I want to be a man like that. I want to be a man like that. The cry rings from my heart even today. I want to be a man like that. I want to be a man whom you can boast about to Satan.

I do not want to be a man whom human beings praise. I couldn't care less for the empty praise of man whose breath is in his nose. God takes away that breath. You hold a man's nose for five minutes, he's dead.

That's all he is. His breath is in his nose. All his intelligence, everything disappears. If you hold his nose and mouth for five minutes, he'll become retarded. Don't try it, but anyway that's the way it's done.

It doesn't mean a thing. The Bible says that. The last verse of Isaiah 2. Man's breath is in his nose. Don't care for him. I love that verse. Many years ago the Lord gave it to me. Isaiah chapter 2, I think it's 22, last verse.

Man's breath is in his nose. Don't care for him. I said, Lord, I won't care for him. Care for what God thinks about you. Care for whether God can boast about you to Satan. And say, there's a man. Have you gone to Bangalore?

Have you gone to that street? Have you gone to that house? Have you seen that man? Have you seen that woman? He's different. I know there are lots and lots of hypocrites in the churches in Bangalore, but have you seen this man?

Have you seen this woman? I want to ask all of you sitting here, how many of you have a burning desire as you hear this? Lord, I want to be one like that. And I'm willing to pay any price if you can boast about me to Satan.

I couldn't care less what the church thinks about me or what people think about me or anything, Lord, but if you can boast about me to Satan, I don't care if I'm the most insignificant, unknown person in the world.

I tell you honestly, that's my desire. God is my witness, that's my desire. I hope it's yours. If you are like that, you as one person can make a tremendous difference in this world for God. You'll be able to do what 10 ,000 people cannot do.

It's true. You'll be able to do more than 10 ,000 people. One man who fears God and hates sin with a passion will be able to accomplish more in his life than not only 10 ,000, a million compromising Christians.

But God finds so few whom he can boast about to Satan. Those who fear God, hate evil, are blameless and upright. What else did God say? What else does he say? Blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil.

God doesn't say, Do you know, Satan, how much of the Bible this fellow knows? Satan will say, I know more than him. And he's right. You know, Satan knows more of the Bible than you and me. He knows every verse and he knows exactly the right verse to quote to lead people astray.

He even quoted a verse to Jesus in the temptation to try and tempt him. Can you imagine how much he knows the Bible to quote exactly the right verse to lead you astray with a scripture. He knows he can't lead you astray with some other religious book, but he can lead you astray by quoting scripture.

Aha, he knows that. He tried it with Jesus, but he didn't succeed because Jesus knew another scripture which countered what he said. And you may not know that other scripture because you're not so careful in studying the scriptures.

So Bible knowledge is not the thing. It's the fear of God. Coming regularly to the meetings. Do you know that the demons are more regular at these meetings than you are? It's true. I don't believe there's a single anointed meeting anywhere on the earth where the demons are not present.

I mean, if he knows of some dead church, some dead meeting, ah, forget that. The devil says, don't send anybody there. Nothing will happen over there. But if he sees a place where people are going to be delivered from sin, and people are going to overcome Satan and put him under their feet, boy, he'd send a pack of demons there.

I believe there are a pack of them here right now. Isn't that great? I want to always be in a meeting where there are a pack of demons sent by the devil because he's scared of what's going to be preached there.

I don't want to go to a meeting where the devil says, ah, don't send anybody there. Nothing's going to happen. So don't glory in coming to the meetings. Don't glory in Bible knowledge. The devil exceeds you in all of these things.

I'll tell you where he cannot excel you to be blameless, upright, fearing God, and hating evil with a passion. Okay, do you know the demons can sing better than you? Do you know that? Do you know who influences the rock musicians of the world?

Who teaches them all the back-masking that goes on in their songs? Demons. They sing much better. They play the guitar much better. They play the drums much better. Don't glory that you can play the guitar or drums or keyboard or anything.

Demons can do that ten times better than you. It's stupid to get your head swollen up with these type of things. Preaching, the devil can preach better. But I'll tell you what God looks for. Is there a man who fears me?

Who hates evil with a passion in his private life? Who's careful about sin in the heart? Who's careful about sin in the hearts of his children? That is the type of person God is looking for in this church and all over the world.

And he finds so few like that. But where there is such a man, God will boast about him. But I tell you, that man will be the target of the devil. His family will be the target of the devil. That's what you read in the book of Job.

The devil will be after that man. The devil will be after his family. But, the devil won't be able to touch a hair on his head without God's permission. That the devil knows. He says there, Ya, you have put a hedge around him.

He says, in verse 10, You have put a hedge around him. You have put a hedge around his family. You have put a hedge around his bank account and his property. That devil can't touch one rupee of mine without God's permission.

He cannot make my business run into loss without God's permission. I know that. I've earned my own living doing a business for 30 years and the devil's never been able to touch it. I'll tell you sometimes, I've lost large amounts of money and I said, Lord, why?

And the Lord said, to free you from the love of money. Praise the Lord, that I want. So, God allows it to teach us a lesson like he allowed Satan to put a thorn into Paul's flesh to make him humble for a good purpose, yes.

Otherwise, he can't touch anything without his, he can't touch sickness. When sickness comes into our home, okay, that is to manifest the power of God there. How Jesus can heal. So, it's tremendous to be one who fears God.

You can be attacked by Satan, but he'll never be able to overcome you. And much more today when Satan has been defeated. Satan was not defeated in Job's time. So, he didn't have as much power as I have today, as you can have.

Job lived 2000 years before Satan was defeated. So, he didn't have the authority. He couldn't use the name of Jesus to drive Satan away. Today, we can. We're living in a time when they were defeated. Satan's been defeated.

Jealousy, Judgment, and God’s Final Accounting

And the other thing you read is, when a man fears God, others are going to be jealous of him. You see those three preachers, jealous of Job, and who were so happy, that he lost his property and became sick.

If you're a man who fears God, others will be jealous of you, and they'll be happy when something bad happens to you. They won't say that openly. They'll come and cry like they did before Job. Oh, we are so sorry, brother, that we heard this thing happen to you.

But inwardly they'll say, we're thrilled. This guy was better than us spiritually. And he was rich too. But God didn't spare them. He waited a long time. Then he called the three of them up and said, I won't spare you fellas, unless you humble yourself and go and ask Job to forgive you.

Because you spoke against him. It's a very dangerous thing to speak against a man who fears God. God will hold you for that a hundred years later. Unless you go and apologize and said it right with that man.

You read in the book of Job chapter 42, just you fellas, you spoke against Job, go to him and apologize. And ask him to pray for you, otherwise I won't spare you. And they had to do that. Job had to offer an offering for these fellas who criticized him.

Then they were forgiven. See, God keeps his accounts. He may take a long time to straighten out those, to get people to pay their bills. Sometimes he waits two thousand years. I mean those Pharisees who killed Jesus, they haven't paid the bill yet for two thousand years.

But you think they've escaped? Even though Jesus said forgive them for they don't know what they do. Jesus only forgave the horizontal part. As a human being, I forgive them. But what about their responsibility before God, the vertical part of their sin?

That was not forgiven. That's never forgiven. Even if somebody says, I forgive you. Doesn't release you from the vertical part of it until you repent. And they did not repent. The bill has been waiting two thousand years, but one day they'll have to pay for it.

A lot of people who escaped justice on the earth, who cheat and rape and commit crimes and who escape because they got influenced, but they haven't escaped. The bill is waiting. They'll have to pay for it one day.

Every single sin that you've committed in your life, there's a bill that's waiting to be paid unless you have repented, confessed it, forsaken it, asked the Lord Jesus to forgive you, cleanse you in His blood and gone to the people whom you hurt and asked them also to forgive you.

Then it's gone. Then the bill is destroyed. That's how these guys destroyed their bill. The other thing you read in the book of Job is a man who fears God can sometimes have a very difficult wife. Sometimes we think God-fearing men will always have godly wives.

Not Job. First book in the Bible, we read about a difficult wife who made life hell for him. Told him to commit suicide. You thought your wife was bad. Look at this guy's wife. She told him to commit suicide.

She actually told him that in Job 2. Go and commit suicide. Curse God and commit suicide. He was a godly man. I'm not foolish enough to do something like that. I'll accept what God says. He wasn't like Adam.

Loved Eve more than he loved God. Anyway, what does this fear of God mean that made this man such a wonderful man that he came out triumphant at the end that God blessed him double? You know, the first time in the Bible the other day we took a study on three words that occurred first time in the Bible.

Fear of God and Sexual Morality

Now I'll tell you the first time in the Bible the word fear of God occurs. It's a very interesting study. Whenever you see the first time in the Bible a certain word occurs. Have you done that study for example?

Where in the New Testament does the word grace occur for the first time? I don't mean in terms of books but in terms of time. In terms of time, just by the way, the first time the word grace occurs is in relation to Jesus.

That grace was upon him as a child, Luke 2 .40. That's why he never sinned. That's just by the way. Just a few hints for Bible study. Take a concordance. I bought a concordance 45 years ago. That's how I studied the Bible.

And the first time the word fear of God occurs in the Bible is very interesting. It's in the book of Genesis in chapter 20. It is in relation to sexual sin. Very interesting. Fear of God comes first time in the Bible in relation to sexual sin.

Abraham had gone up to a certain place we read in Gerar. The name of the place was Gerar, verse 1. While he was there, his wife who was 85 years old was still pretty good looking. I mean, remember, they lived up to 200 in all those days.

Sarah was like what we'd say a young 25 year old girl today. And the king of Gerar looked at her and said, Hey, he took her. Because Abraham said, She's my sister. Oh, sister. That's great. I thought she was your wife.

She's your sister. I'll take her. But Abraham told a half-truth because he was, she was a sort of a cousin sister of his. And he lost his wife because he told a lie. Anyway. Abimelech, God protected Sarah from being raped that night.

Somehow. And the next morning God spoke to Abimelech and said Restore the man to, verse 7, restore the man's wife because he's a prophet. Prophet who tells lies? Unfortunately, yes. But he's a prophet.

But restore the man's wife to him, verse 7. If you don't restore her, you'll die. I tell you, God takes care of his servants. He takes care of his prophets. So Abimelech restored him. Restored her to Abraham and said, Here is where an unbeliever can rebuke a prophet.