05.025. Chapter 20
It seems incredible to us that Abraham would again try to pass off Sarah as his sister within 20 years of the same blunder with Pharaoh—incredible, that is, until we remember our own perpetual proneness to sin. The incident with Abimelech in Gerar is almost a replay of Abraham’s duplicity in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-17). God intervened to work out His purposes in the birth of Isaac, which might otherwise have been frustrated. He is more than just a spectator on the sidelines of history. He can overrule the evil of His people, even through the lives of the unregenerate. The pagan Abimelech acted more righteously in this incident than Abraham, the “friend of God.” (The word “Abimelech” is a title, and not a proper name.) It is shameful when a believer has to be justly rebuked by a man of the world! “When a half-truth is presented as the whole truth, it is an untruth” (Genesis 20:12). Abraham even tried to shift some of the blame onto God for making him wander in the first place (Genesis 20:13). He would have been wiser to humbly acknowledge his guilt. Nevertheless, he was still God’s man. And so the Lord sent Abimelech to him so that Abraham would pray that his household be healed of its barrenness (Genesis 20:7, Genesis 20:17-18). The expression “a covering of the eyes” means a gift given for the purpose of appeasing. Thus Genesis 20:16 b might read, “It is given to you as a payment in satisfaction as evidence to all that are with you and to all men that the wrong has been righted.”