Abraham and Abimelech (Gen 20)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Genesis 20.

In the history of Genesis, we’re doing what a good number of TV shows and movies do—we’ve just watched the account of Lot and his family as they were pulled from Sodom and Gomorrah sans Lot’s wife. We then learned about a disgustingly vile and wicked plan plotted by Lot’s daughters to perpetuate their familial lineage, which led to multiple sins and the lineage of the Moabites and Ammonites who continuously plagued the people of Israel for several generations until seeing God’s redemptive purposes played out in Ruth.

We’re now panning out from that account and we’re focused back on Abraham and Sarah to witness an event that honestly feels like we have deja vu in—Abraham does something that ought to surprise us a bit, but maybe not so once we remember the habit of believers to fall back into unbelief.

Regardless, let’s read the text together and I’ll explain how we’ll break it down.

Genesis 20 ESV

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” 14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) Abraham’s Foolish Decision (1-2), (2) God’s Mercy and Abimelech’s Right Response (3-10, 14-16), and God’s Grace on Abraham and Sarah (11-13, 17-18). What we’ll see as we work through each section is Abraham again falling back on his old ways; however, in this instance, God intervenes in a miraculous way, and Abimelech (who as far as we know is an unbeliever) responds rightly to God despite Abraham and Sarah’s foolishness. The text concludes essentially by reminding us of God’s mercy and grace for His people. Our goal today is to see God’s mercy and grace despite the foolish decisions of His people, which hopefully will cause us to give thanks and praise Him for all the times that He shows us mercy and grace despite our own foolish decisions.

Prayer for Illumination

Abraham’s Foolish Decision (1-2)

Our text starts by refocusing our attention on Abraham and his wife Sarah and what’s going on in their lives.

We’re told that Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb.

Negeb is the Hebrew word for the South or southern portion and we’re told that he lived between the cities of Kadesh and Shur while sojourning in Gerar.

That places him somewhere north of Africa; possibly just south of modern-day Gaza, but it’s a little difficult to pinpoint where exactly it is.

You might ask why he’s sojourning in Gerar and I’d suggest it’s probably because he has large flocks of livestock that needed food and so, he’s probably sojourning wherever there’s more food available.

The issue is that as he sojourns in Gerar, he makes a dumb decision. He makes the decision to call Sarah his sister rather than clarifying that she’s his wife.

This is not the first time he does this—think all the way back to Genesis 12 when Abraham was still known as Abram.

Abram and Sarai decide to sojourn in Egypt because the famine in his land was severe—he tells Sarai to lie and say that she’s his sister because of fear that the people of Egypt would murder him and take her.

It turns out, he does the same thing here in Genesis 20 for the same reason, v. 11 says, “11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’”

Out of fear, Abraham decides to again lie about who his wife is.

And, be aware that Abraham’s decision to react out of fear, yet again ties into last week’s issue of Lot’s family acting in fear, but we’ll get back to that a little later.

Abraham lies and says that Sarah is just his sister.

That’s an important distinction because we’ll later see in this passage that Sarah is legitimately his half sister, but it doesn’t change the fact that his half truth is no more better than a whole lie.

Abraham lies because he’s fearful of Abimelech king of Gerar.

Now, you might ask, why is Abraham so fearful of Abimelech—who is this Abimelech; and unfortunately, we don’t have much information about who he is.

He’s the king of Gerar, which is a Philistine nation (we learn that in Genesis 26 when Isaac does the exact same thing Abraham does.

And we know from v. 11 that Abraham assumes that there is no fear of the Lord in Gerar.

But otherwise, we don’t know much about Abimelech—our only speculation is that Abimelech must’ve been such a powerful political entity that Abraham (as essentially a shepherd) feels inadequate and unable to protect himself and his wife.

So Abraham lies. And oddly enough, things don’t go as poorly as you might think. Rather, God intervenes and fixes the situation for Abraham and by doing so, God shows mercy and grace to not only Abraham, but Abimelech.

God’s Mercy and Abimelech’s Right Response (3-10, 14-16)

Genesis 20:3–10 ESV

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”

Genesis 20:14–16 ESV

14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”

vv. 3-7 show us this dream that Abimelech has in the middle of the night. In this dream God confronts him.

And the confrontation between Abimelech and God doesn’t start off well, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

Now, of course, Abimelech doesn’t know that Sarah is someone’s wife because Abraham and Sarah lied to him and thankfully, he though he took Sarah presumedly to make her his wife, didn’t follow through on that yet.

And so, Abimelech gives a defense for himself to God—in v. 4, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did [Abraham] not himself say to me, ‘she is my sister?’ and [Sarah] herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

Personally, I think Abimelech is right to say this—to do this because everything told to him by Abraham and Sarah was false.

That fact really juxtaposes Abraham and Sarah with Abimelech.

Whereas Abraham and Sarah believe in Yahweh, Abimelech never claimed to.

Whereas Abraham and Sarah knew that lying would be wrong and did it anyways, Abimelech tells the truth.

Whereas Abraham and Sarah act and react without integrity here, Abimelech acts and reacts with integrity.

Abraham and Sarah are guilty, Abimelech is truly innocent.

And, of course, God knows this, in fact, v. 6 shows us that God was already working in Abimelech’s life because of his integrity—the Bible says that it was God who kept Abimelech from sinning.

Of course, God wants Sarah to be returned to Abraham and v. 7 holds that command, “return the man’s wife . . . and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

Abimelech wakes up the next morning in vv. 8-10 and confronts Abraham for what he had done; and he doesn’t really beat around the bush with it. V. 9 says, “Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, ‘What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done . . . What did you see, that you did this thing?’”

Or, in more modern English, Abimelech goes to Abraham and essentially says, “what did I do to you for you to treat me this way?”

Again, I think Abimelech is fair in his confrontation with Abraham—this could’ve gone a lot worse for Abraham and Sarah—Abimelech is the king, of course—he really could’ve done whatever he wanted.

And yet, we know why he didn’t from v. 8, “Abimelech rose . . . and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.” So again, consider this in light of who Abraham and Sarah are.

Abraham and Sarah very much have a relationship with God; whereas Abimelech and his men didn’t.

Abraham and Sarah know enough about God to know that they ought to fear the Lord and obey the Lord; whereas Abimelech and his men didn’t.

Again, Abraham and Sarah despite all this, are sinning; Abimelech and his men despite all this, are obeying.

So, Abimelech confronts Abraham and before we look at how Abraham responds to the confrontation, I just want to point out that Abimelech does make things right in vv. 14-16.

In vv. 14-16, Abimelech takes sheep and oxen, male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham. Abimelech returns Sarah to Abraham along with a thousand pieces of silver. In addition, Abimelech tells Abraham that all his land is available for Abraham and Sarah to dwell wherever it pleases them.

I’d actually argue that not only does Abimelech reconcile and make things right—he goes above and beyond what Sarah and Abraham actually deserve.

I can understand the giving of the silver as a sign of Sarah’s innocence—because of the culture that they live in, but the giving of livestock and servants and even allowing Abraham to use any bit of his land, is a bit surprising after all that Abraham and Sarah did to him.

Personally, I think it’s indicative of his own conscience—he wanted to make things right so that nothing could come back to haunt him in the future.

So, we see God confronting Abimelech and the Abimelech confronting Abraham before doing everything he can to make things right. As part of this, we saw God being absolutely merciful to Abimelech and we witnessed Abimelech respond rightly to that mercy.

What we haven’t looked at yet, is Abraham and Sarah—they are actually the guilty parties in all this and so, let’s go back through to vv. 11-13 and 17-18.

God’s Grace on Abraham and Sarah (11-13, 17-18)

Genesis 20:11–13 ESV

11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

Genesis 20:17–18 ESV

17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Vv. 11-13 fall directly after Abimelech confronts Abraham and Abraham responds to Abimelech with essentially an excuse.

Which oddly enough is how many people throughout the Bible respond when they’re called out for things.

Just think about it—the prime example for me is Adam and Eve—when Adam and Eve sin against God, they don’t actually own up for their sin. God confronts them—Adam blames Eve, Eve blames a serpent, but in reality, Adam and Eve both actually blame God.

Even consider later when David sins with Bathsheba—he doesn’t even acknowledge his sin until Nathan confronts him about it.

And truthfully, if we consider our own lives—we do essentially the same thing; we make up excuses all the time whenever we sin and we don’t own up to our own sins unless we absolutely have to.

Abraham gives an excuse and his excuse that he was worried that there was “no fear of God at all in this place.”

We would actually call this—maybe, a fear of man. Abraham is so fearful of what the people might do that he’s made God small in his mind and man large in his mind.

And in his fear, he decides to act sinfully—to lie to and to trick Abimelech.

Again, if we consider our own lives—we do exactly the same thing. We often fear man rather than God to the extent that we disobey what God has said and what God has commanded

Though, we might point out the fact that Abraham hears directly from God, whereas we don’t in the same way.

I do find it interesting that in defending himself, Abraham sorta tries to justify himself by saying that he didn’t completely lie.

That Sarah is technically his half-sister—and thus, when they told Abimelech that she was his sister, they weren’t entirely lying.

Again, this is not the first time that Sarah and Abraham did this—so, don’t think that it was just a random idea that they had to protect themselves—they did it before at least one other time.

And it is worth noting, that Abraham doesn’t necessarily blame Sarah—he mentions in v. 13 that he told her to lie for him.

It’s also worth noting that Abraham does repent in vv. 17-18, “then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” The last two verses informs us of two significant points:

Abraham, though he does make some excuses for his sinful behavior—does repent and even prays for the well-being of Abimelech as he prays to God.

You might ask how we know Abraham repents, and the reasoning is really simple—the response from God is to rectify the situation concerning the physical malady that Abimelech and his people suffered and after this point in history, God continues to work within and through Abraham and Sarah despite current predicament in a positive way.

In addition, these last two verses remind us that it is God who is in charge of pregnancy, of bearing children.

Which ought not surprise as—as David reminds us, God knits us within our mother’s wombs—thus, it makes sense that God would be in charge of conception itself.

And yet, in our current culture and society, I think it’s worth reminding ourselves of this truth—despite modern advances in healthcare and science; despite what people pushing abortion, infanticide, euthanasia claim—it is God who determines who lives and who dies, it is God who determines the conception of children, it is God who measures out the length of a life because He is the Creator of all things and He is absolutely sovereign in all things.

Why didn’t Abimelech and his people have children during this whole mess with Abraham and Sarah—because God declared that they wouldn’t. Why did Abimelech and his people suddenly have the capability to have children afterwards—because God declared that they could.

The beauty of this account is that it reminds us that despite our own sinfulness, God still loves His people and cares for His people. Despite our inability to keep straight who God is, who man is, and who we are—God is still good and He still providentially works all things for the good of them who love Him.

With that in mind, let’s take the last few minutes to discuss some application.

Application

Abraham goes about this whole situation like a fool and his foolishness is all based on the fear that he has about people—and as I said today as well as last week, this misplaced fear in man often leads to sinful and foolish decisions.

So, let’s think about the misplaced fear of man in our own lives—when do we see ourselves either disobeying God or just acting foolishly in our own lives? I can think of several instances:

We all know that God has called us to make disciples of every nation—how many of us neglect the evangelism portion of the Great Commission because we worry what the other person will think or say?

We all know that God has called us to confront sin in our unrepentant brothers and sisters—how many of us neglect this aspect of church life because we think that the other person might dislike us or think of us differently?

We all know that God has called us to mutually build up one another—how many of us neglect this idea of discipleship because we’re worried that someone might think we take these things too seriously?

Let’s talk about some more outright sinful issues:

We know that drinking to excess is sinful—how many of us when in public would drink to excess simply because of peer pressure because we’ve made God small in our lives?

We know that lust and covetousness are sinful—how many of us still make foolish decisions concerning members of the opposite sex because of lust or covetousness because we’ve made God small in our lives?

We know that idolatry is sinful—how many of us still make idols of sports, relationships, children, cars, money, or whatever else that we can think of because we’ve made God small in our lives?

Abraham makes foolish decisions in Genesis 20 because he made God small in contrast to Abimelech much like how we make God small in contrast to people, objects, and so on in our own life.

Abimelech on the other hand makes the right decision to fear the Lord rather than to fear man—as seen in his response after the dream from God—isn’t that intriguing?

So, let me ask you a question about the way that you’re living your life—are you living in the fear of man or in the fear of God?

You can often tell which way you’re living by the choices that you make

Are you obedient to what Jesus has commanded us? To eschew sinfulness, to seek holiness, to make more disciples?

Or are you disobedient to what Jesus has commanded? Are you jumping into sin, are you rejecting holiness, are you refusing to make more disciples?

Just considering yourself in light of those questions will cause you to consider whether or not you’re living in the fear of man or in the fear of God.

Are you living like Abraham—in the fear of man? Or are you living like Abimelech—in the fear of the Lord?

If you’re like me, you’ll recognize that you often jump between the two—you’ll live life in a way that you think you’re doing phenomenal and that you’re walking in the Spirit, you’re obeying the Great Commission, you’re making disciples, and you’re seeking holiness; just for it to all fall apart as you trip up and find yourself in the bog of despondency or distracted by Vanity Fair. It can be very disconcerting, but Genesis 20 has something to say about all that:

God still loves His people; and thus, if you are His, He still loves you.

And as part of His love for you, He is working all things in your life for your benefit—even when you stumble and fall into sin.

Now, occasionally, I hear from believers that they’re worried that they’ve simply sinned so much or too much that God cannot possibly use them or want them or love them.

And I get that concern, but the beauty of the Gospel and seeing the Gospel throughout the Old Testament is that God’s love for His people is that we have absolutely no ability to change His love for us or His desire to work in us and through us because of the Gospel itself.

Because our salvation is completely by faith through grace in Jesus Christ, who saves all who call on His name—what that means is that you cannot unsave yourself or lose that salvation simply because you fall back into sin or make foolish decisions.

Of course, that isn’t reason to keep on sinning, but it is reason to have hope when you do sin.

Your salvation isn’t based on what you do or your struggle with sin—it’s completely based on what Jesus has done and His ability to keep you until the Day of Redemption through the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

So, the question is, what does Genesis 20 teach us when it comes to struggling and falling into sin? It teaches us this:

That all God’s people struggle with sin even Abraham who became the father of the Jewish people.

We shouldn’t despair or throw ourselves a pity party or anything like that.

Rather, we simply keep repenting and keep throwing ourselves at the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ who saves all who repents and believes.

You need to make sure that your life is lived in the fear of the Lord rather than the fear of man; and you need to make sure that when you do fall into the fear of man, that you repent and believe.

Pastoral Prayer