Genesis 20

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:31utc

From the tragedy of Lot's life we move on to another tragedy in the life of Abraham. Abraham's sin may not have been as serious as the failure of Lot, but we can hardly say that we make spiritual progress if we move from chapter 19 into chapter 20. Abraham's accountability was greater than Lot's because he knew God so much better.

It would make more sense if the record of chapter 20 could be placed earlier in Abraham's life, but there is no indication that there is a reversal of chronology. So we take it that these events took place after God had appeared to Abraham and Sarah to announce the coming birth of Isaac. Sarah was probably pregnant at this time.

Adam Clarke suggests that the destruction of the cities may have been such a depressive sight that the patriarch could not stand it any longer there. Abraham moved away from the Dead Sea area towards the South in the direction of the Negev desert. But the main story of this chapter plays in Gerar which is closer to the Mediterranean coast in Philistine country.

While in Gerar, Abraham tells the same lie as when he was in Egypt. Some critics therefore believe that this story is a double of chapter 12. There we read in vs.11-13 "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.'" The settings of the two events are so different from one another, that this theory does not hold at all unless we allow for a major fraud in Scripture. We suppose that Abraham told the same story because he had the same fears. Abraham admits so much to Abimelech in vs.11.

Several questions pop up in relation to this account. It is hard for us to imagine that Abraham's life would be in danger because of the beauty of his ninety year old wife. But then the Bible tells us that Sarah lived to be one hundred twenty seven. So it is quite possible that at the age of ninety she was still a striking beauty.

The big problem though is the complete moral failure of Abraham at this point. It is as if his supernatural encounters have left no trace on his character.

In earlier stages the excuse has been that the Lord would not allow Abraham to be killed because of the promise of offspring. But now that Sarah is pregnant, Abraham may have thought that he had become disposable. If this is what Abraham thought, he must have ascribed a certain callousness to God, a callousness which he would have condemned in himself.

Abraham's second mistake was that he supposed that there was no fear of God among the Philistines. Gerar was not like Sodom. We get the impression that Abraham was received courteously since he was even treated well after the discovery of the fraud. It amazes us to see how much knowledge of God there still was in the land. Melkizedek and Abimelech may not have been the only ones to have a certain knowledge of the true God. The fact that Abraham had been on such good terms with Eshcoland Aner, as we read in ch. 14:13, indicates that these people may not have been the exception. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah may have given Abraham the idea that soon the whole country would be turned upside down because of similar conditions.

But the worst thing was of course Abraham's selfishness and his complete disregard for Sarah's safety and honor, which should have become even more important to him if Sarah was indeed pregnant. It may be significant that in this case it is Abraham who says "she is my sister" and not Sarah who says "he is my brother." Sarah may not have been willing to play the game any more, but Abraham forced her in to it.

Satan must have played a part in this also. He plays a part in every sin, but he would have been especially interested in letting Abimelech have sex with Sarah since that would have thrown doubt on the child she would bring into the world. And we see several times that the devil tries to cut the line which leads to the coming of the Messiah into this world. In the days of Esther he tries to exterminate the whole Jewish race. And after the captivity in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, he entices the returned captives to intermarry with the heathen nations, so that the Jewish identity would be wiped out. He had the same purpose in the days of Malachi. From Malachi 2:11,14,15 we understand that the coming of the Messiah according to the line God promised was endangered by Israel's practice of divorcing their Jewish wives and marrying heathen ones. The last belated effort was of course the massacre of the infants in Bethlehem.

Probably none of these thoughts played through Abraham's head at this time. His only concern was his own safety. How truly, says the author to the Hebrews, the fear of death makes us slaves of the devil. Heb.2:15 - "And (Jesus came to) free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

We do not know any of the details of what happened. Abraham must have had an audience with Gerar or with some one of his officials, maybe even with Sarah present. So Abimelech heard of Sarah and sent for her. There seems to have been no remonstrance from Abraham's side. Yet the whole atmosphere of the chapter seems to be one of respect for Abraham; there is nothing that sounds life- threatening. The lie seems to have been a matter of routine.

Verse 3 through 8 recount Abimelech's dream in which God warns him of the impending judgment. In the dream we find a mixture of moral concepts that are both acceptable and unacceptable to us. Adultery is presented as a deadly sin, but nothing is said about polygamy. Even in the New Testament we do not find any condemnation and then only implicit, of polygamy. In I Tim 3:2 Paul says: "Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach." It is this implied condemnation that makes us understand that a Christian should only be married to one women.

It would of course be quite wrong to built a dogma favoring polygamy based on an omission in these verses. But it strikes us as strange that polygamy is one of the "gray" areas of the Bible.

Another strange thing is the lack of condemnation of Abraham's sin. The dream only condemns Abimelech. It is true that it is his dream and his conscience. Here again we cannot draw the conclusion that God's chosen ones would be free to sin as they please. The key to understanding this dilemma is probably in the fact that God protected Sarah and Isaac, not so much Abraham. Abraham told the lie in order to protect himself. His life may have been much more in danger by his telling of the lie than without it. Of this side of the problem we read nothing though. This chapter deals mainly with Abimelech, not with Abraham.

We do not read how long Sarah was in Abimelech's harem. As we read in connection with the similar incident at Pharaoh's court in chapter 12, the time of preparation for a woman who was to be led to the king could be quite lengthy. In this case we only read that God appeared to Abimelech in a dream "one night." This must have been at least several weeks after Sarah moved in to Abimelech's, long enough to discover that a sickness was going around in the harem and maybe in the men's quarters too.

As we said, God does not condemn Abimelech for his polygamy; but he warns him about the consequences of committing adultery. In verse 7 we read: "Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." There is a touch of irony in the fact that God sends Abimelech to Abraham to be prayed for. This must have pricked Abraham's conscience deeply. His deceit is exposed, and God orders him to pray for those whom he deceived so that they will be healed. It would have been impossible for Abraham to pray effectively without confessing his sin before God and probably before Abimelech first. As Ps 66:18 says: "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."Abraham needed as much healing as Abimelech, and God provided this for both of them through Abraham's prayer.

Abimelech's following conversation with Abraham in vs.9-15 is very interesting. The king asks for an explanation and Abraham gives a rather lame one. Here we learn that the arrangement between Abraham and Sarah had been made in the beginning of their marriage as they set out together to follow the Lord's call. Abraham's excuse here was that he thought there would be "no fear of the Lord in this place." It turns out that Abimelech fears not only the Lord and obeys Him promptly, but behaves more 'like a Christian' than Abraham. Verse 15 is proof of this: "And Abimelech said, 'My land is before you; live wherever you like.'"

The Bible gives no further explanation about the blood relationship between Abraham and Sarah. Abraham calls her the daughter of his father but not of his mother. In mentioning this, Abraham says to Abimelech that he did not really tell a lie. Adam Clarke asks the pertinent question: "What is a lie?" In the literal sense of the word Abraham was right in that he had not said anything that was not true. But in keeping part of the truth back Abraham meant to deceive. A lie is made up not only of words but of attitudes and intentions also. Obviously Abraham had lied to Abimelech. But the problem went much deeper. The lie had been part of Abraham's marriage ever since the beginning. Truth is first of all "truth in the inner parts," as David puts it in Psalm 51:6.

There are situations, however, when we are dealing with evil people, where telling the whole truth would endanger people's lives and bring about disaster. I have to think of cases during World War II were it would have meant the death of Jews if the Germans had been told the truth about Jews being hidden at certain places. Some Christians have been able to save lives without telling lies - and yet they did not tell the whole truth either. All the ethical applications of such things have never been worked out yet.

Abimelech's reaction is quite different from Pharaoh's. In Ch. 12:19,20 we read: "'Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!' Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had." But Abimelech wants Abraham to stay. Ch. 20:15 tell us: "And Abimelech said, 'My land is before you; live wherever you like.' "Abimelech must have seen something in Abraham that made him jealous. He may have had other, more down to earth reasons for his request too. It could be that Abraham's presence with his wealth and prestige would mean a boost to the image and economy of the country. Most likely Abimelech was afraid after what God had told him in the dream about Abraham. He may have thought that he would incur the wrath of the Lord upon himself and his people even further if he expelled Abraham.

It sounds ironic that Abimelech, speaking to Sarah, calls Abraham "your brother." There may be a whole world of ancient politeness hidden behinds those words. In some cultures any reference to a marriage relationship cannot be mentioned by a man in front of a woman.

Another interesting feature is Sarah's public vindication. Abimelech pays a fine, much in the same way as some of the mountain tribes people in Irian Jaya would pay in similar cases. It makes one wonder if some of the same animistic superstitions that are customs in Indonesia were already alive here. Then Sarah is pronounced free of any blame in the affair although she is reported to have told the lie also according to verse 5. The only innocent party, according to the culture of that time, was Abimelech; and he is the one who has to pay! If a comparison with the above mentioned tribal philosophy is correct, Abimelech must have believed that Abraham could have used his spiritual powers to harm the Philistine king and his people. If that is true, it would explain why Abraham is treated with so much respect. Pharaoh, who was considered a son of the gods himself, possessing spiritual powers, had no reason to fear Abraham, the Nomad. That is why Abraham was expelled from Egypt.

If the above is true, it shows how much the religion of Canaan had deviated from the truth, such as Abraham knew it. God was still known and there were pockets of true service to God as we found in the story of Melchizedek, but generally speaking; the God the Philistines knew was not the God Who had revealed Himself before in history. That is probably why four centuries later the moral practices of the Canaanites have made the country ripe for destruction. Prov.29:18 says: "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law." Mans' knowledge of God is dependent upon God's revelation.

Then Abraham prays for Abimelech, his wife and his concubines, and they are healed of their infertility. As The Pulpit Commentary suggests, probably a sickness that was known to cause infertility had broken out in the king's palace. It would have taken several months to discover that the women were barren and under the circumstances, with Sarah being probably pregnant, she could hardly have spent more than a couple of weeks in the king's harem, without giving birth or showing signs of pregnancy.

As we mentioned before, Abraham's prayer must have been a moral chastisement for himself. His relationship with God must have been broken during this episode. Abraham's prayer was meant to bring healing just as much to Abraham as to Abimelech.

Linked to this event is the treaty between Abraham and Abimelech, which is mentioned at the end of the next chapter.