Read: Genesis 20
This chapter
sort of feels like a deja vu of Genesis 12:10-20. It starts with Abraham journeying through
several regions, ending up in Gerar (v. 1).
It is here where Abraham says that Sarah is his sister and she is taken
by King Abimelech (v. 2) – you would have thought that he would have learned
his lesson! I guess old sins die
hard. This is a crisis of HUGE
proportions! The woman who is to bear the
seed of the nation of Israel CAN NOT lie with another man! So, God intervened! God comes to Abimelech in a dream to ensure
that Sarah did not have sexual relations with the king (v. 3). Abimelech
asserts his innocence of the entire situation (v. 4-5), which God affirms is
true (v. 6). It is written in verse 6
that God did not let Abimelech touch Sarah, in other words, they did not have
sex. It is extremely important for the
nation of Israel to know that they were birthed from Abraham’s seed and that
Abimelech did not touch Sarah! Abraham
is called a prophet, by God, in verse 7.
This is based on his ability to intercede, pray and make supplication
which we saw in chapter 18. God warns
Abimelech that the consequence for not returning Sarah to Abraham would be
death to him and those in his kingdom (v. 7).
Abraham’s prayers would play a part in removing this consequence. Abimelech then admonishes Abraham for
bringing this great sin into his kingdom (v. 9). He then asks Abraham why he did it (v. 10). Abraham then admits that he was afraid that
they would kill him because they wanted his wife (v. 11), and admits to telling
a half-truth (v. 12) and that he told Sarah to tell people that they were
siblings (v. 13). Basically, Abraham was
making excuses for his conduct. The king
then restores Sarah back to Abraham, including gifts of sheep, oxen and slaves
(v. 14). He offers Abraham residence in
any part of his lands (v. 15) and gives money as a sign that he did not act
inappropriately with Sarah (v. 16). The
king is making sure that everyone knows that he is not the father of any child
that she may have! The chapter ends with
Abraham making intercession for Abimelech and his household. As a result, God healed Abimelech, and his
wife, and his female servants and so they could have children (v. 17). This was because the Lord had closed up their
wombs because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife (v. 18).
It seems necessary to imply that Abimelech and his household were
afflicted with some sort of disease that would have made it impossible for them
to have children. This may have been
another way of protecting Sarah from being defiled by Abimelech.
Prayer and Journaling
1. By
this time in his life, Abraham had experienced much in his relationship with
God and was slowly maturing into a man of God.
He is even called a ‘prophet’ by God.
Yet Abraham was still susceptible to sin and in this case he lied
because of fear. Sin is not something
that we deal with once and then move on, never to sin again. We must carefully examine our hearts,
attitudes and actions regularly and confess any areas of sin. Ask the Lord to reveal to you any attitudes
or actions in your life that are sinful.
Confess these things as sin and ask the Lord to forgive you. Then ask Him if there are any steps you can
take to make these wrongs right.
2. God
intervened! He prevented Abimelech from
sinning (v. 7) by not letting him touch Sarah.
Part of God’s intervention was to cause a great distress on the king’s
entire household (v. 18). Sometimes
God’s interventions don’t make sense to us, in fact, sometimes we may think
that He is being mean or unfair or even attribute His interventions to the
enemy. Ask the Lord to show you a time
in your life where He intervened in order to help you. Maybe you misinterpreted this as a
punishment? Dialogue with God about
this. Ask Him to show you the truth of
how He has intervened many times in your life.
3. Praise
and thank God for His character. He is
active and He intervenes because He cares!
He loves! He is good! He is merciful! He is slow to anger and abounding in
love! Ask Him to show you 5-10 things
about His character that you can be thankful for today. Worship and praise Him for these things.
