Your Moment at the Well
The Lord’s insight. People typically act according to what they see in you.
Genesis 20:10-11: “Then Abimelech said to Abraham, what did you see in me, that you have done this thing?”
Micah 7:2: “The faithful man has perished from the earth and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood.”
The night Jesus was betrayed by Judas, He sat at dinner with His disciples. He told them that one of them would betray Him. Scripture says that each of them asked “is it I?” Am I the one who will betray You? They wanted to know what Jesus saw in them that would make Him say that.
Abimelech was a king. Abraham had settled in Abimelech’s land. He told Abimelech that Sarah was his sister rather than telling him she was his wife. He did this because he feared that Abimelech would take Sarah for himself, but if he did so, he would spare Abraham’s life because he was just her brother.
Abimelech did indeed take Sarah but before he did anything wrong with her, God intervened and told him that Sarah was Abraham’s wife. So, Abimelech asked Abraham, “what did you see in me that would cause you to hide the fact that Sarah was your wife?”
Abraham saw something in Abimelech that Abimelech did not see himself. Abraham did not see a man who feared God. That was enough for Abraham to act with great caution around this man. Abraham said he did what he did because he thought that surely the fear of God was not in the land and that the people would kill him for his wife.
Abimelech was unaware of how he was perceived. But he also cared about how he was perceived so he asked Abraham to tell him what he saw. Many of us are like Abimelech in one way. We are unaware about how we are perceived by others. But today, many of us do not care about what others think about us because we like ourselves just as we are more than we care about how others see us.
So, I wondered about myself. What do people see in me or what is missing in me that would cause them to act the way they do when I am around? Do they see a healthy fear of God, or do they see a prideful confidence that I have in myself?
The people in the prophet Micah’s time had this problem too. He speaks in a time when things are difficult. The time between harvesting and planting. The time between dry land and plentiful rain. These times are the reason many of us veer off on our own to make a way for ourselves. We do what is right and best in our own eyes.
Micah 7:2 says “the faithful man has perished from the earth and there is no one upright among men. This is what Micah saw in people and so this is how people reacted and responded to one another.
When God is removed from our lives, we no longer have the ability and awareness to know who we are and what we are capable of being and doing. We have no mirror in which to look into our own lives and see ourselves. And worse, we have nothing inside us to make us care about the things that might be missing in our lives.
So, I asked myself, do I look for ways to condemn and or bring my justice to my brother? Am I ready to do evil and harm to those who I believe are against me? Do I look for others to give me more than I give them? Am I easily persuaded to do something for personal gain? Am I ready to get revenge against those who cross me? Do I dishonor my parents? Are my worst enemies those who are in my family?
I could go on but I can clearly see that I must be the type of person who does not just make room for the Lord to live in my life; that would be just saying what I don’t mean. I must make sure the Lord has my life. If I do that, then I will be aware of how I am perceived and what others see and don’t see in me.
And when I see that, then I know I have within me the ability to change my ways and my behaviors so that others are not fearful that the fear of God is not in me.
So, what about you? Is the fear of the Lord alive and well in your life? Look at how others respond to you. You may see the answer there.
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