In yesterday's passage the Lord revealed to King Abimelek that Sarah is a married woman. Abimelek had intended to marry her himself. Abraham lied and said she was his sister, so Abimelek took her into his harem until a convenient time to make the marriage legal and consummate it. After the Lord revealed the lie to him in a dream, Abimelek gets up early in the morning to set things straight.
"Early the next morning Abimelek summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid." (Genesis 20:8) We can safely assume that Abimelek and his people are pagans who likely worship some of the gods of Canaan, but that doesn't mean they don't also fear the God of Abraham. In pagan cultures where more than one god is worshiped, the worshipers are usually willing to accept the existence of gods they haven't already heard about. For example, when the Apostle Paul visited the very pagan city of Athens where statues to various gods stood on practically every street corner, Paul observed an altar upon which was inscribed this dedication: "To The Unknown God". (Acts 17:23) The heathen culture of Athens was so afraid of offending a god they had not heard about that they made an extra altar in the city to appease any god who was not already represented. King Abimelek and his officials are willing to accept the existence of Abraham's God. They've already heard about how this God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the excessive wickedness of the citizens of those cities. Now this same God has revealed to Abimelek that he has come close to unwittingly committing adultery with Abraham's wife. No wonder he and his officials are so frightened! The God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and everyone who lived there could just as easily destroy them if they don't handle this matter in a way that pleases Him.
"Then Abimelek called Abraham in and said, 'What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.' And Abimelek asked Abraham, 'What was your reason for doing this?'" (Genesis 20:9-10) Abimelek is rightly hurt and offended by Abraham's actions. The king has never done anything to deserve being deceived by Abraham, yet Abraham's lie put the king and all his people in danger. I don't blame him for asking, "Why have you behaved so poorly toward me when I've been nothing but hospitable and welcoming to you? How dare you treat me this way? You've done something to me that a man shouldn't do to his worst enemy. You almost made me run afoul of a God so powerful that He can rain down fire from heaven! Why have you repaid my kindness with such treachery? What is the matter with you?"
Abraham ought to be ashamed. Twice now he's had a pagan king scold him for his lack of morals. Nothing should shame any of us more as believers than to have unbelievers confront us with our hypocrisy and sin. Whenever that happens we ought to immediately apologize to them and confess that we are in the wrong and ask them to forgive us for our mistake. Even an unbeliever can respect an attitude like that. But when we make excuses for our sin and try to justify our behavior, we are going to turn them off, and the sad thing about that is we may turn them off from Christianity as a whole. Why should they want to hear about Christ if Christians aren't practicing what they preach? Unfortunately, Abraham takes the wrong approach and tries to justify his sin. "Abraham replied, 'I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.' Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, 'This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, 'He is my brother.'" (Genesis 20:11-13)
His reply is insulting to the king and to the people of his kingdom, plus it reveals a lack of faith on Abraham's part and a willingness to bully his wife into lying for him. He's saying, "When I arrived in your heathen country and observed your pagan ways, I didn't expect anyone here to fear my own God enough to spare my life. I figured someone would lust after my wife enough to kill me in order to have her. So I ordered her to go along with the pretense that she is only my sister. I emotionally blackmailed her into it by saying, 'If you love me, you'll do this.' Besides, it's not really a lie that she's my sister because we have the same father." He's accusing the people of Gerar of being so lacking in morals that they'd think nothing of killing a man to take his wife. He's revealing his failure to fulfill his God-given role as the husband to be the spiritual leader of his household, for he set a poor example for Sarah to follow. In addition, he more or less forced her into going along with his lie by playing on her emotions. On top of all this, he failed as a husband by not protecting his wife from the sexual advances of another man who wants her for himself.
It should not have mattered that Abraham was entering a region where his God was not worshiped or feared. What should have mattered was that Abraham worshiped and feared his God. Abraham knew his God was real and that his God had the power to protect him wherever he goes. This same God already got Abraham out of a mess in Egypt when he previously told a lie about Sarah in Genesis 12. This same God already helped Abraham and his men win a battle where they were vastly outnumbered in Genesis 14. This same God answered Abraham's prayer for his nephew Lot and rescued Lot from the destruction that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. After the Lord has displayed His power and His love time and time again, why did Abraham feel the need to tell a lie in Gerar? Why didn't Abraham trust the Lord to protect him?
On the one hand I feel quite critical of Abraham at this point. He's messed up both as a believer and as a husband. On the other hand I can relate to feelings of doubt and fear. The Lord has rescued me from many trials and troubles so far. Some of these problems were of my own making and some of them were things that just naturally happen in a fallen world. And yet when the next big problem comes along I tend to fret about it and toss and turn during the night wondering how it's going to work out. There seems to be this thought in the back of my mind that maybe I've already used up all the mercies allotted to me. But this is unscriptural, for the Bible assures us that our God's mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23) The Lord's mercies don't depend on us; they depend on who He is, and the Bible promises us that a part of His character is that He begins every morning with a fresh batch of mercy for each of us.
Abimelek is so afraid of Abraham's God that he goes above and beyond what he needs to do. Really all he needs to do is release Sarah back into her husband's care and allow them to live in peace. But even though Abimelek is innocent in this whole matter, as a way of honoring Abraham's God he gives gifts to Abraham. "Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelek said, 'My land is before you; live wherever you like.'" (Genesis 20:14-15) When Abraham was in Egypt and lied to Pharaoh about Sarah, Pharaoh threw the couple out of Egypt. Pharaoh had no fear of the Lord. Pharaoh lived in a time before the Lord punished Sodom and Gomorrah for their dreadful sins, so he could have cared less about Abraham's God. But Abimelek doesn't want to get on the bad side of a God who judges and passes sentence, so he invites Abraham to choose the best of the land if he wants it.
"To Sarah he said, 'I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.'" (Genesis 20:16) This heathen king shows Sarah far more respect than her own husband showed her. The king is the one who declares her a virtuous woman in front of a great assembly by showering Abraham with a thousand shekels of silver to prove that she is still as pure now as she was when she arrived in the country. A virtuous woman was considered so valuable that the Bible declares she is priceless. (Proverbs 31:10) In the days when the book of Proverbs was written, the ruby was considered the most valuable of gemstones, but the author of Proverbs 31 states that a man who has a wife he trusts is wealthier than a man who owns a fortune in rubies. By declaring Sarah innocent before her husband and before a great assembly, the king is saying, "I have not laid a hand on her and she has not made any advances toward me. Her reputation is not to be besmirched in any way and she is to be accepted back by her husband with the full assurance that she has been completely faithful to him in every way. To somewhat compensate Abraham for the terrible inconvenience of having been without her invaluable presence in his home for a time, I pay this large sum of silver to show him how highly I esteem the moral character of his wife."
"Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek's household from conceiving because of Abraham's wife Sarah." (Genesis 20:17-18) Abimelek already has a wife, so he certainly doesn't need Sarah, but the wife mentioned here was probably his chief wife and queen who would be the mother of the heir to his throne. Men like him often had secondary wives in a harem, which is where Sarah would have been. To show that God meant business when He commanded Abimelek to return Sarah to her husband, the Lord struck all the women with infertility.
Why does Abraham have to pray for Abimelek and his household? Maybe because Abraham would need to make things right with God when he enters into prayer with Him. Maybe because it will help Abraham make things right with Abimelek. It's hard to harbor bad feelings toward someone you are praying for and it's hard for the person who is being prayed for to harbor bad feelings toward the one who is praying for him. Or this may have been necessary as a testimony to Abimelek that the God of Abraham is real and that He is holy and powerful and to be obeyed and feared. When Abraham asked God to heal the women of Abimelek's household, and the women were healed, this would have been proof to Abimelek that God is God. Whether or not he ever turned to God and turned away from idolatry, we do not know, but he was given the opportunity.
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