Why did God let Abraham, that great man, say that Sarah wasn't his wife?

Now, if we notice in this, there's many things that happen sometime, and we wonder why they happen, and we question ourselves, and we question others. But finally after while, we find out that if we're Christians, it all works out just right. 

And how... You've seen that; all Christians see that. We wonder why we did it. I wondered sometime, when I first read the Bible, "Why did God let Abraham, that great man, ever stand there and say that Sarah wasn't his wife?" And how that He let him stand there and lie about that, and the things that he did. And then how did He ever let Abraham leave the promised land where He told them not to leave? Any Jew that leaves the promised land is backslid because God gave that to them and promised them to stay there (See?), and they left it. 

 So he went down into Gerar. But if it hadn't have been for that... And then Abimelech, that king down there, in that Philistine country, fell in love with Sarah and was going to marry her, and was a good man, a righteous man. And after he had probably... (This sounds ridiculous but to make it so real to you). After he'd had his evening bath, and put on his pajamas, and said his prayers, and went to bed, the Lord appeared to him and said, "You're just as good as a dead man," and the man had done nothing. (See?) He was absolutely deceived by both Abraham and Sarah. That's right. He said, "You've got another man's wife (See?), and I--I won't hear your prayer, no matter how much you pray. You're as good as dead. But that man is My prophet." See? 

See, it's hard to understand that (See?), but if it wasn't that, we wouldn't know what grace was. Why did he go and marry Hagar after having a lovely wife like Sarah? And he didn't want to do it (See?), but Sarah told him, and then the Lord told him, "You listen to what Sarah told you." Why? There had to be an Ishmael that the bondswoman and her child would not be heir with the free woman and her child. See what I mean? All these things are types. 

Why did that prophet have to marry a prostitute and have--with these children--have two children by her? That was a sign. Why did one lay on his right side for three hundred and forty days and then lay so many days on the other side like that? It was a sign. One stripped his clothes and walked before the--Israel. And I... All those things, it was types and shadows. See? And we have to have those things to fill in. And many times things happen to us that we wonder why it is. It's God foreshowing us something..........

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WMB - Souls that are in prison now