The story with Abimelech raises many questions. On the one hand, there is the very desire to pass off one's wife as one's sister in order to protect oneself from trouble. On the other, there is God's intervention in the situation on the side of a person who behaves, at the very least, strangely and cowardly...
The story with Abimelech raises many questions. On the one hand, there is the very desire to pass off one's wife as one's sister in order to protect oneself from trouble. On the other, there is God's intervention in the situation on the side of a person who behaves, at the very least, strangely and cowardly. How should all this be understood? What is Abraham so afraid of? Why does he not hope for God's help? It is quite natural that Abraham, if he thought badly of Abimelech, had to fear for his life. The only way to enter a lawful marriage with a married woman was to make her a widow. One may marry a widow, and formally the law would be observed. By passing Sarah off as his sister, Abraham quite obviously wanted to avoid precisely that scenario. This was simply a matter of survival at any cost, even at the cost of a feigned violation of marital faithfulness.
Feigned because it was forced: under no other circumstances would either Abraham or Sarah, of course, have agreed to such a thing. Abraham does not rely very much on God here, because he still does not know how and when God will want to intervene in his life. Abraham has his own experience of communion with God, but he does not yet have stable ideas about relationship with God. Today we know, at least theoretically, that God never leaves us. In antiquity people looked at this differently: no god was obligated to remain beside a human being constantly. Gods came and went, appeared and disappeared. One could ask one's god for help and hope for his intervention, but it was impossible to be sure of it. Abraham had to look at his God this way too, because he was a man of his time. He did not yet know in practice what God's omnipresence means. Pagan gods were not like that; they appeared and disappeared precisely because they could not be everywhere at once.
The God of Abraham was different. The One is not like pagan gods; but Abraham did not know this yet. He still had to become convinced that for his God there are no distances. As for Abimelech, he knew even less and acted, according to his own testimony, with a pure heart and without any hidden intention. That is why God stops him with a simple warning: there was no guilt at all in Abimelech for what was happening. The main lesson here was for Abraham, not for Abimelech. It was a lesson that may seem completely obvious to us today, but that was new for Abraham, like everything connected in his life with his God.
20 We have here,
accepts his plea, Gen 20:4-6.
and directs him to make restitution, Gen 20:7.
and Abraham excuses it as well as he can, Gen 20:11-13.
and Abraham by prayer prevails with God for the removal of the judgment Abimelech was under, Gen 20:17-18.
20:1 And Abraham sojourned in Gerar - We are not told upon what occasion he removed, whether terrified by the destruction of Sodom, or, as some of the Jewish writers say, because he was grieved at Lot's incest with his daughters, and the reproach which the Canaanites cast upon him for his kinsman's sake. The king of Gerar sent and took her - To his house, in order to the taking of her to his bed.
20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream - It appears by this that God revealed himself by dreams, which evidenced themselves to be divine and supernatural, not only to his servants the prophets, but even to those that were out of the pale of the church; but then usually it was with some regard to God's own people.
20:4 Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation - Not such a nation as Sodom.
20:6 I withheld thee from sinning against me - It is God that restrains men from doing the ill they would do; it is not from him that there is sin, but it is from him that there is not more sin, either by his influence on mens minds checking their inclination to sin, or by his providence taking away the opportunity. It is a great mercy to be hindered from committing sin, which God must have the glory of whoever is the instrument.
20:9 Thou hast done deeds that ought not to be done - Equivocation and dissimulation, however they may be palliated, are very ill things, and by no means to be admitted in any case. He takes it as a very great injury to himself and his family, that Abraham had thus exposed them to sin, What have I offended thee? - If I had been thy worst enemy, thou couldst not have done me a worse turn, nor taken a more effectual course to be avenged on me. Note, We ought to reckon, that those do us the greatest dislikedness in the world, that any way tempt us or expose us to sin, though they may pretend friendship, and offer that which is grateful enough to the corrupt nature. He challenges him to assign any just cause he had to suspect them as a dangerous people for an honest man to live among.
20:10 What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing - What reason hadst thou to think, that if we had known her to be thy wife, thou wouldst have been exposed to any danger by it?
20:11 I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me - There are many places and persons that have more of the fear of God in them than we think they have; perhaps they are not called by our name, they do not wear our badges, they do not tie themselves to that which we have an opinion of; and therefore we conclude they have not the fear of God in their hearts!
20:13 When God caused me to wander from my father's house - Then we settled this matter. It may be, that God denied Abraham and Sarah the blessing of children so long to punish them for this sinful compact they had made to deny one another: if they will not own their marriage, why should God own it? But we may suppose, that alter this reproof they agreed never to do so again, and then presently we read, Gen 21:1-2, that Sarah conceived.
20:16 Thy brother is to thee a covering of the eyes - Thou must look at no other, nor desire to be looked at by any other. Yoke - fellows must be to each other for a covering of the eyes. The marriage - covenant is a covenant with the eyes, like Job's, Job 31:1.