Genesis 20.3-7-God Overrules Abraham's Bad Decision

Thursday February 16, 2006

Genesis: Genesis 20:3-7-God Overrules Abraham’s Bad Decision

Lesson # 101

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 20:1.

Last night we studied Genesis 20:1-2, which records Abraham telling a half-lie to Abimelech saying that Sarah was his sister, which she was but a half-sister.

As we noted, Abraham fails to tell Abimelech that Sarah is his wife and fails to do this because he is afraid that Abimelech will kill him in order to secure Sarah for himself.

This half-lie endangers not only Sarah but also Abimelech.

Although, he is not mentioned in the passage, Satan is the invisible enemy of God’s people who is behind the scenes influencing Abraham and tempting him to enter into fear, worry and anxiety.

Satan’s purpose for doing this is so that he can prevent the birth of Christ by preventing the birth of Isaac who was to be in the line of Christ.

Up to this point in our study of Genesis, we have seen that the human nature of Jesus Christ would come from the line of Seth (Gen. 4:25-26; Luke 3:38) and Shem (Gen. 9:24-27; Luke 3:36).

Then, as recorded in Genesis 12:3 God informs Abraham that Jesus Christ would be his descendant and now we saw in Genesis 17 that Abraham and Sarah’s future son, Isaac would be in the line of Christ as well.

In Genesis 20, we see another failure of Abraham and yet we the Lord’s unconditional love directed towards Abraham.

We also see the Lord’s faithfulness to Abraham and His covenant, which He established with Abraham whose fulfillment was dependent upon Him.

2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

This evening we will study Genesis 20:3-7, which records God intervening by speaking to Abimelech in a dream prohibiting him from keeping Sarah in his harem and having sexual intercourse with her.

Thereby thwarting Satan’s attempt to prevent the birth of Isaac and ultimately, the birth of the human nature of Jesus Christ who would come from the line of Isaac.

Genesis 20:1, “Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.”

“Gerar” was near the coast about twelve miles south of Gaza and about fifty miles south of Hebron, in the land of the Philistines.

According to archaeological excavations, “Gerar” was a prosperous city, controlling a lucrative caravan route indicating that Abraham was tempted to transact some business there.

Undoubtedly, Satan, knowing that the Lord is about to fulfill his promise and give Abraham and Sarah a child, is going to attempt to thwart the Lord’s plans in Gerar.

Abraham does not get into trouble in Gerar because he is out of the geographical will of God since Gerar is still in the land of Canaan but he does get into trouble for lying.

Genesis 20:2, “Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ‘She is my sister.’ So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.”

On two occasions (Gen. 12 and 20) Abraham placed Sarah in a potentially adulterous situation to save his own life.

He said to those in Gerar that Sarah was his sister but this is a half-truth.

As Abraham later explains to Abimelech, Sarah and Abraham shared the same father Terah but had different mothers (see Genesis 20:12).

Therefore, Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister but Abraham failed to inform the inhabitants of Gerar and Abimelech that Sarah was his wife because he was in fear for his life that Abimelech would kill him and take Sarah.

Now, notice that Abraham’s fear that Abimelech would kill him and take Sarah into his harem indicates that Sarah was still very beautiful even though she was approximately ninety years old at the time.

The custom in the ancient world would not allow a foreign prince such as Abraham and his entourage to live in Gerar without making a treaty or contract.

The custom also was for the foreign prince to give an acceptable daughter or a sister into the Abimelech’s harem to seal the treaty and guarantee the prince’s good behavior while in Gerar.

If no treaty were made, crossing the border into Gerar would be considered an invasion, an act of war.

Abraham was reasoning that if he didn’t make a treaty they would attack and kill him and take Sarah into Abimelech’s harem as a trophy of war, as was the custom.

If Abraham made the treaty she would go into Abimelech’s harem, but at least he reasoned that he would stay alive and be able to take care of those under his protection.

He also expected that Sarah would be treated well because of her great beauty.

The Lord is not happy with this situation since the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ was to come through the line of Abraham and Sarah.

Sarah is an innocent victim of Abraham’s stupidity and therefore, the Lord will intervene and exercise His omnipotence to overrule Abraham’s bad decision and force Abimelech to release Sarah to Abraham.

So we have Abimelech here dispatching his courtiers in order to bring Sarah into his presence in the palace and add her to his harem.

This indicates that Abimelech thought that Sarah’s was a great beauty.

The name “Abimelech” means, “my father is king” and is not a proper name but rather a title for royalty among the Philistines, just as the term “Pharaoh” and “Caesar” were.

Genesis 20:3, “But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, ‘Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.’”

“God” is the noun Elohim, which emphasizes that God has sovereignly determined to intervene to protect Sarah and prevent Abimelech from keeping her in his harem and having sexual intercourse with her, thus ensuring the birth of Isaac and protecting the line of Christ.

God informs Abimelech that Sarah who he had taken into his harem was a married woman and therefore he would be guilty of adultery and deserving of death.

Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.”

Proverbs 6:32, “The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.”

Leviticus 20:10, “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Sarah would not be guilty of the death penalty because she did not choose to be a member of Abimelech’s harem.

This was against her will.

Adultery was not only considered a “great sin” by the Israelites but also it was among many Semitic groups as evidenced at Ugarit and in Egyptian marriage contracts.

A comparison of Genesis 20:6 and 17 indicates that God had already put Abimelech under a curse of some sort since Genesis 20:6 states that God had prevented Abimelech from having sex with Sarah and he was healed as a result of Abraham’s intercessory prayer for him.

Abimelech was prevented from having children and thus implying that God gave him a physical problem that prevented him from performing sexually.

God’s statement that Abimelech was a “dead man” does “not” mean that God was predicting his immediate death but that if Abimelech proceeded to keep Sarah in his harem and did not release her and had sex with her, that he would be guilty of death.

God is warning him in effect by saying this to Abimelech.

Of course, as we read on, Abimelech did not know that Sarah was a married woman and God knew this as well since He is omniscient and in fact had prevented Abimelech from committing adultery with Sarah.

Genesis 20:4, “Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, ‘Lord, will You slay a nation, even though blameless?’”

The statement that “Abimelech had not come near her” means that he had not had sexual intercourse with Sarah.

As Genesis 20:3 states, he simply had added Sarah to his harem but had not had sex with her since Genesis 20:6 records that God had prevented him from doing so.

“Lord” is the noun `adhon (/w{da*), which is a term of respect denoting Abimelech’s awareness of and acknowledgement of God as the sovereign governing authority over the entire human race.

Abimelech’s question and plea, “will You slay a nation, even though blameless” is an appeal to divine justice in this case.

Genesis 20:5, “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.”

Abimelech’s defense before God is two-fold: (1) He had not had sex with Sarah (2) Information about Sarah’s married state was withheld from him by Abraham and Sarah.

Genesis 20:6, “Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.’”

“I know” expresses God’s omniscient knowledge of all the facts in the case regarding Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech.

God acknowledges that Abimelech possesses integrity of heart in that he did not know Sarah was married to Abraham.

Therefore, he was innocent of any wrongdoing.

God counters Abimelech’s first argument by stating that He had kept him from sinning by having sex with Sarah.

“I kept you from sinning” refers to the “overruling will of God,” which indicates that God intervened and did not permit Abimelech to have sexual intercourse with Sarah resulted in adultery on Abimelech’s part making him would be worthy of death, thus God protected Abimelech from unwittingly committing adultery.

God restrained Abimelech in a two fold fashion.

First, God warned him in the strongest terms: “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married” (Genesis 20:3).

Secondly, Abimelech and his entire household were physically restrained from sinning against Sarah, even if they had wished to according to Genesis 20:6-7 and 17-18.

1 Chronicles 16 and Psalm 105 refer to this protection of Abraham and Sarah.

Psalm 105:14-15, “He permitted no man to oppress them, and He reproved kings for their sakes: ‘Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.’”

1 Chronicles 16:21-22, “He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, ‘Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.’”

Genesis 20:7, “Now therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

As to Abimelech’s second argument, God puts Abimelech’s integrity to the test.

Now that he knows the truth, at once he must restore Sarah to Abraham.

“Prophet” is the noun navi (ayb! N*) (pronounced nah-vee), “authorized spokesman for God.”

The first time that the word appears in the Old Testament is Genesis 20:7.

The fact that the noun navi is employed with the Hebrew verb palal, “to pray” in Genesis 20:7 indicates that being a prophet was not primarily predicting the future but rather representing God and speaking the Words of God.

Abimelech was told by God that Abraham was a prophet not that Abraham might predict the future but that Abraham might pray for him!

There were a number of activities that the prophets of God were involved in such as communicating doctrine, issuing judgments, communicating future events, serving in the Temple, performing miracles, proclaiming Messianic prophecies, and interceding through prayer for the people (Hab. 3).

“He will pray” is the 3rd person masculine singular hithpael imperfect form of the verb palal (ll^P*) and refers to “intercessory prayer.”

The Lord won’t listen to the prayer of Abimelech since he is an unbeliever but He will listen to the prayer of Abraham because he possessed divine righteousness.