Genesis 20:1-18 NKJV
20 And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. 2 Now 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, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
4 But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”
6 And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid. 9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done.” 10 Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?”
11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. 12 But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
14 Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 Then to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.” Thus she was rebuked.
17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Abraham is known as a man of faith and as the “father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11). But his faith was not perfect. Since Genesis 12 we have seen the pattern repeat itself: Abraham receives a promise from the Lord, he believes the promise, and then he proceeds to rely on himself and his own reason and devices when faced with a challenge. He practiced deception in Egypt. He schemed with Sarah to have a child with Haggar. And now, in today’s reading, we see him practicing deception again—an even worse deception than the first, because the Lord had recently promised him that he and Sarah would finally have their promised son within the year. That couldn’t have happened if Sarah had become the wife of Abimelech.
But the Lord showed mercy to Abimelech, and also to Abraham and Sarah. He was determined to fulfill His word to Abraham, in spite of Abraham’s failings. The Lord would see to it that the child of Abraham and Sarah was born, and that the rest of history played out as it needed to so that the Christ, the Seed of Abraham, would be born and would inherit the blessings promised to Abraham, which He now gives to us Christians.
Abraham stumbled in his walk of faith, as nearly every believer did throughout the history of the Bible, including the prophets and apostles. Not only did they stumble, but God made sure that their stumblings were recorded for us. By their examples, both good and bad, the Lord would teach us about His own mercy and faithfulness. He would teach us also about ourselves, that we are not immune to temptation but are prone to fall back into relying on ourselves and our own devices. We must constantly be on our guard against this sin, above all others, because if the saints of the past could so easily stumble, why would we think of ourselves as immovable rocks? Instead, as Paul warns the Corinthians, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Let us live each day in repentance and faith, like the faith of Abraham, who, in spite of his human weakness, remains a positive example for us all. Let us pray: O God, our immovable Rock, guard us from the temptation to rely on ourselves, strengthen our faith, and have mercy on us when we stumble, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.