Abraham: Called to Regroup

 

In our most recent episode of God’s One Big Story, found in Genesis 19, we saw how God honored the prayers that Abraham had offered back in Chapter 18 when he pleaded with God to spare the righteous who were living in Sodom and Gomorrah.  We also saw the sad end to which Lot and his daughters came—and the high price to be paid by a righteous person when he compromises his walk with God for the sake of earthly gain…

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Unfortunately, in this episode from Genesis 20 we will be presented with another sad situation—this time involving Abraham himself—in which he will once again jeopardize his witness to the world, not for the sake of earthly gain but out of a long-standing fear and lack of trust in the Lord.

Having followed Abraham for some time now, I think if we charted his journey of faith thus far, it would look something like this…

 

 

As illustrated here, the foolish choices that Abraham will be making in this episode, so soon after the high points he reached in Chapters 17-19 and just before the long-awaited birth of his son Isaac coming up in Chapter 21, will send him spiraling back down to the spiritual pits he was in about 25 years earlier, when he left the Land of Promise and went down to Egypt.

 

Episode #8 of Biopic #1
Cast:  God, Abraham, and Abimelech

Setting the Stage:  When the Lord and HIs Angels made their impromptu visit to Abraham back in Episode #6, he was living by the trees of Mamre. But when the curtain rises on this episode, we find Abraham on the move for reasons that have not been explained…

Narrator:  And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar.  Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him…

God:  Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.

Narrator:  But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said…

Abimelech:  Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?  Did he not say to me, “She is my sister?” And she, even she herself said, “He is my brother.” In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.

God:  Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.  Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

Narrator:  So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.  And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him…

Abimelech:  What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done.  What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?

Abraham:  Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.  But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, “This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, ‘He is my brother.’”

Narrator:  Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him.  And Abimelech said to Abraham…

Abimelech:  See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.

Narrator:  Then to Sarah he said…

Abimelech:  Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.

Narrator:  Thus she was rebuked.  So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the LORD had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

And with that, the lights come up and the curtains go down on this rather curious episode in our story.

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Our Review

It is such a curious episode that it raises all sorts of questions as to what it means and why has it been included in our story. Hopefully, by answering these questions, we will be able to sort some of that out…

1. Having lived in the same place for at least twenty years—the place of fellowship with God under the oaks at Mamre, near Hebron—why would Abraham suddenly “up-sticks” and move to a foreign land? Especially since there is nothing to indicate that he had prayed about it beforehand, or that this was something done in response to a command by God. The move had to come on the heels of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction because at the time of His visit to Abraham, the Lord promised Sarah that she would have a son the next year, and that hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps…

— Abraham was just trying to get away from the scene and the memory of so much destruction;
— Abraham moved to get away from any environmental problems that may have resulted from the catastrophe; after all, the water supply and grass needed for his large herds could have been polluted or destroyed by the inferno;
— Since the last mention we have of Abraham was in Genesis 19:27-28, where…

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace…

…and because he probably didn’t know that there had been fewer than ten righteous people living in those cities, Abraham may have thought that God hadn’t kept His word and honored his prayers. If so, this misunderstanding and potential disappointment with God could have pushed him out of his place of fellowship with Him and sent him off to wander on his own once again.

2. Who was Abimelech and where was Gerar?

At this time, Canaan was pretty much a rural backwater with no major cities. Governments were localized within small city-states where the head of the predominant tribe ruled as king. Abimelech was such a king. It is believed that “Abimelech” was not actually a personal name but a title that was passed on to succeeding generations of rulers—much like “Pharaoh” was in Egypt. As you can see from this map, Gerar was southwest of the place that Abraham had called home for most of the time he was in Canaan—and much farther away from the site of the recent disaster.

 

 

3. Even though in the past (Genesis 12:14), Sarah was regarded as a beautiful woman, why would Abimelech want to take an eighty-nine-year-old woman into his harem, knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to give him any sons and heirs?

In those days, it was common practice for a king to have many wives, not only to produce as many children as possible, but also to validate them as being powerful and wealthy—you would certainly have to be wealthy in order to support such an extensive household. But beyond that, marriages were made between kings and rulers to ratify treaties of peace and economic cooperation between their respective realms. It wouldn’t have taken Abimelech long to find out that a new rich and powerful chieftain had taken up residence in his land, and for him to claim Sarah as a token of his treaty with Abraham.

4. Why was Abimelech a “dead man” in the eyes of God?

Probably because according to the Law of God that we find in Leviticus 20:10…

…The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.

Even though this law wasn’t written down for the Israelites until some four hundred years later, God’s laws are timeless and unchanging.

5. Why could Abimelech claim that his was a righteous nation and that he had acted in the integrity of his heart—and God didn’t disagree with him?

In Romans 2:14-16, Paul explains that there is a “natural law” that God has instilled within humanity, meaning that…

…when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Those who live according to this natural law are often highly moral people who, like Abimelech in this story, can appear to be more righteous than even the best of God’s saints!

5. Although Jude would later call Enoch a prophet, when God called Abraham a prophet, it was the first time anyone had been called that in the Bible. What is a prophet and what made Abraham a prophet of God?

Whereas a priest is someone who represents the people before God, a prophet is someone chosen by God to represent Him before the people. In other words, he is a spokesman for God, raised up to reveal the truth of who God is to the people, while explaining to them their obligation to Him in light of that revelation. As we learned in Abraham: Called to Wander, Worship, and Witness, this was a role that Abraham was called to when he left Ur to go to Canaan. 

6. Who acted more honorably in this situation—God’s Prophet or the Pagan King?

When rebuked by Abimelech, Abraham tied to justify or excuse his behavior by claiming that there was no fear of God in Gerar. But, clearly in this situation, the Pagan King demonstrated far more integrity than the man who had been walking with God for at least twenty-five years.

7. Although Abraham first claimed that Sarah was his sister back in Genesis 12, we get the real scoop on their relationship here. In reality, Abraham was Terah’s son by his first wife, and Sarah was Terah’s daughter by his second wife, meaning that she was his half-sister. So, Abraham’s claim was really only a half-truth!

 

 

8. What was the significance of Abimelech’s gifts?

As an innocent man, Abimelech was under no obligation to make any sort of restitution to Abraham. It is likely that his generous gifts were an offering of thanks to God for keeping him from sinning against Him, with Abraham acting as mediator between him and God.

9. Why would Abimelech offer Abraham his choice of land, rather than expel him from the land as Pharaoh had done when he was in Egypt?

Given that Abraham was a prophet of God and a very wealthy and powerful man in his own right, it would have been wise on Abimelech’s part to do whatever was necessary to keep Abraham as a friend and ally.

10. What do you think is the significance of the thousand pieces of silver (about 25 pounds) that Abimelech gave to Abraham for Sarah?

Since silver is associated with redemption and purity throughout the Bible, this may have been Abimelech’s way of swearing that nothing had happened between him and Sarah, and that she had left his harem with her purity still intact.

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In Summary

Now that we have a better understanding of the events taking place in this episode, let’s see if we can come up with a reason as to why they have been included in our story. As always, the way that we will do that is by identifying…

Any Life Lessons that this episode has to share;
Any Contributions that this episode has to make to God’s One Big Story; and,
Any Revelations of God that this episode has to unveil.

 

Life Lessons

There are so many lessons to be taken from this episode that it is hard to know where to start.

—I suppose the best place to start is with Abraham’s motivation for the move. Did he not know that Lot had been spared? Did he think that God had gone back on His word? Did he even take the time to ask why his prayers hadn’t been answered in the way that he had anticipated? We need to remember that when we act out of disappointment or anger against God, it will always take us out of the place of blessing and fellowship with Him and into the place of sin and compromise, where our witness becomes tarnished, and our enemies are given opportunities to blaspheme God. But God is Faithful—that’s who He is–so even if we don’t understand why things worked out the way that they did, we still can trust in the One who cannot be anything but Faithful! 

—This episode should also be an encouragement to us to…

…not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:9).

Let’s think back to the process that God had laid out for the development of Abraham’s faith, where He started with a revelation or promise and then tested him as to his stewardship of that promise. Abraham had received a number of promises and been through a number of testings in his long walk with God—he had even been visited by the Lord Himself just a short time before this and received the news that he and Sarah would be having a son within the year. And yet, here they are, ready to abandon everything that they have prayed and waited for because of unbelief and/or disappointment with God. How many times have we, just before our big breakthrough is about to come, become so impatient with all of the waiting that we launch out in frustration to take matters into our own hands, aborting our breakthroughs in the process?

 

 

—Like Abraham, when we are confronted with our sins or shortcomings, we tend to justify our actions rather than acknowledge them and repent. Like Abraham, we may offer up half-truths that are nothing more than sugar-coated lies, try to excuse ourselves by saying that it was because we were afraid, or cop out by saying that this is the way that we’ve always done it. After all, Abraham had used this same ploy twenty-five years earlier and not only had he escaped with his life and his wife’s purity intact, but with a lot of riches to boot!

—It should be apparent from this story that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Abraham certainly misjudged Abimelech. Even though his poor witness should have caused Abimelech to reject Abraham’s God, it didn’t, and instead of responding vengefully to Abraham’s deception, Abimelech graciously offered him the best of the land and showered him with gifts.

• •  —In spite of the fact that Abraham had walked with God for so many years, this episode clearly demonstrates that even God’s choicest saints are still human and can be extremely fallible. We can all stumble and fall given the right circumstances. Even though we have no record of Abraham ever really repenting of his sin, God still protected him—and God still regarded him as His prophet. That’s because, in spite of our many shortcomings and failures…

…the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29) 

—This episode should also serve as a reminder to us that Abraham didn’t “lose his salvation” when he sinned; he may have been out of fellowship with God for a time but his covenant relationship with Him was still in force. This is demonstrated by the fact that, in spite of Abraham’s complete lack of responsibility in this situation, God still protected and delivered him and Sarah—not because of Abraham’s faithful commitment to the covenant but because of God’s.

 

Contributions to Our Story

It was God’s commitment to His covenant purposes that makes the greatest contribution to our One Big Story. If God had not intervened when He did, that story would have had a completely different outcome. Abraham and Sarah would not have had the son promised to them by God, and the line leading to the Redeemer that was promised to Eve in the Garden of Eden—the one that God had lovingly watched over and preserved throughout the previous thousands of years—would have been cut off. And where would we be then?

 

Revelations of God

In this all-important episode, we not only see revealed the love, faithfulness, patience, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and restoration of God, but we also see Him revealed in His Sovereignty—as the God who rules over all the affairs of men. As that sovereign, He can and will make Himself known to a pagan king in order to protect an erring servant, fulfill His covenant promises, and preserve His plan for the Redemption of Mankind.

Be sure to return for the next episode in Abraham’s life, when his dreams are finally realized by the birth of his son, Isaac!

 

 

Map courtesy of Bible History Online.
Original image of “Abimelech Restoring Sarah to Abraham,” by Wenceslaus Hollar, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.