Genesis 20
BBCGenesis 20:1
- Abraham and Abimelech (Chap. 20)20:1-18 It seems incredible to us that Abraham would again try to pass off Sarah as his sister within twenty 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 (Gen_12:10-17). God intervened to work out His purposes in the birth of Isaac, which might otherwise have been frustrated. He threatened Abimelech with death. 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.” (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. Abraham even tried to shift some of the blame onto God for making him wander in the first place. 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. The expression “this vindicates you” (v. 16) is literally “it is a covering of the eyes,” meaning a gift given for the purpose of appeasing. Thus it might read, “It is given to you as a payment in satisfaction as evidence to all who are with you and to all men that the wrong has been righted.”