And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And 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, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. And yet indeed she is 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 unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.
Genesis 20
In chapter 19 we saw Abraham in the high places “where he stood before the Lord,” outside the world and preserved from the hour of trial that came on those that dwelt on the earth.
An Old Repeated Sin
In chapter 20 Abraham once again journeyed toward the south country, dwelling on the border of Egypt. In this doubtful position he again acted in a way that brought him under rebuke from the man of the world.
Abraham failed in the same way that he had done some twenty years before, though the circumstances were different. Then, under the stress of famine, he had turned aside from the land and slipped into Egypt. Here, without any such trying circumstances, but simply from the fear of man, he denied the one through whom God had definitely assured him the promised heir would come (18:10). In one case he gave up the testimony of the inheritance; in the other he beclouded the testimony to the heir. As then, so now, behind every failure of the people of God, the enemy is attacking some great truth connected with their calling. Today he is especially attacking the truth concerning the true relationship of the Church to her Head in heaven.
The fact that after so many years Abraham should fail in the same way only aggravated the offense. For it was no mere novice in the path of faith, but one who had walked long in the outside place of separation from the world who broke down. Yet it is true to our natures that there are weak spots in each personality which first show signs of strain when we are brought under pressure. How we need to be honest with the Lord about these areas and seek, as Paul did, to find that His “grace is sufficient for thee” for His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Another great lesson that we can learn from this sad episode is that the flesh in God’s people never changes. This is a solemn truth that we are slow to realize, but that we all have to learn, at times through bitter experience. There is grace to deliver us from the power of the flesh, and to keep us from its evil; but the evil flesh from which we are kept never changes. The flesh may tend to show itself in different forms in different individuals; but whatever form its evil may take, that is the form of evil it will retain from the beginning of our history to the end.
This twice repeated failure on the part of this man of God is surely recounted, not to discourage us or tum us back on our weakness, but rather to cast us on the true source of all confidence and strength. One has truly said, it is only when we have learned that we are “unable to do without God for a moment that we find that He is for us moment by moment.” But it is easy to say that we cannot do without God; it is a harder thing to learn experimentally, perhaps by repeated failure, that we are dependent on God moment by moment.
With the fear of man in him, Abraham lost faith in God. Failing in faith, he fell back on his own resources and acted in the duplicity of the flesh. He said of Sarah, his wife, “She is my sister.” He told the truth to hide the truth, and again exposed his wife to shame to preserve his own life.
A God Ever Faithful
Nevertheless, however great their failure, God does not give up His people. He will never cast away His pearls because of some grit that attaches to them. He will deal with all in us that is contrary to Himself—it may be at painful cost to us—in order to make us partakers of His holiness. And not only does God deal with us after the fact, He acts preemptively for His poor failing people. So in this case God intervened in a marked way to preserve Sarah from the shame to which Abraham’s duplicity had exposed her. Abimelech was kept from wronging Abraham and Sarah, and was even warned that Abraham was a prophet. He was told in no uncertain terms that unless Sarah was at once restored to Abraham, death would surely come to his household. Further, Abimelech was informed in the dream that the very man who had so wronged him was one who was in such a position of nearness to God that he could pray for him. In spite of his failure, he was a prophet and an intercessor with God: and God did not deny these high privileges because of his failures.
A Rebuke Justified
Nevertheless, the privileges of being a prophet and an intercessor only increased the evil of his duplicity. This the world was not slow to appreciate; for at once Abimelech called Abraham, and challenged him as to what he had done. In plain language Abimelech said, “Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.” Not only had Abraham failed in faith in God, not only had he wronged his wife, he had wronged the man of the world. Abraham had sunk not only beneath the height of his calling but beneath the conduct of a decent man of the world.
Further, Abimelech challenged Abraham as to what led him to do this thing. Abraham answered, “I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me for my wife’s sake.” How low this man of God had fallen. Carried away by his own thoughts, thinking only of himself and his safety, he acted with a duplicity that clearly showed that at that moment he himself had not the fear of God before him, however much he may charge others with the lack of it.
A Lame Excuse
As so often is the case when a believer fails there is the effort to palliate the failure, instead of honest confession, “I have sinned.” No three words in human language are so hard for either a sinner or a saint to utter as these words. So Abraham sought to excuse his duplicity by explaining that it was quite true that Sarah was his sister, even though he had held back the truth that she was also his wife. It has been well stated: “When the devil encourages a half-truth, he wants people to believe the wrong half.”
An Unjudged Root of Unbelief
Moreover, it came out that this failure had an unjudged root of unbelief far back in his history. In a false position, he lowered the testimony of God to the apprehension of the world, by saying, “When God caused me to wander from my father’s house.” He did not say, “When God called me to a heavenly country and a city which has foundations,” but he gave the impression that, like any mere prodigal, God had caused him to wander from his father’s house. In these circumstances he and his wife had entered into a compact of unbelieving duplicity.
A Conduct Unbecoming
In spite of Abraham’s failure, Abimelech, man of the world though he was, acted in a righteous and even liberal way that was in striking contrast to Abraham’s conduct. In the day of power and victory over the enemy, Abraham refused to take “from a thread even to a shoe latchet” from the king of Sodom. In the day of weakness and unbelief, he would accept sheep, oxen, menservants, womenservants, and a thousand pieces of silver from the king of Gerar.
Nevertheless, though giving gifts to Abraham, Abimelech did not hesitate to reprove his wife in terms of contempt, for he said, “Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes.” Had she been rightly veiled, as Abraham’s wife, she never would have been seen by Abimelech or taken into his house. The veil spoke of the women being exclusively for the one to whom she belonged.
As believers, if it were seen that we were exclusively for Christ, the world would not wish to have us in its company. Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ.” As a result the world was crucified to him, and he was crucified to the world. Failing to maintain this single-hearted devotedness to Christ, we shall like Sarah lose the respect of the world and come under its just reproof.
The root of their failure being exposed, Abraham once again resumed his true place in reference to the world as an intercessor (vv. 17-18).
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines,
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and will break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble cense,
But trust Him for His grace:
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
W. COWPER