My Sin, Your Consequences - Genesis 20

Bible Study Lesson for October 14

Introduction:

Following the saga of Lot’s family after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of Genesis returns to Abraham and Sarah. In an interesting turn, we have a story that echoes 12:10-20. In chapter 12, Abram and Sarai went to Egypt to avoid a famine, and Abram pretended that Sarai was his sister so that the Egyptians wouldn’t kill him in order to marry her. Here, in a different setting with a different king, Abraham repeats his earlier strategy of endangering his wife for the same reasons. The main difference in this story is God’s role. God is more active and shows up in surprising ways here. While at first glance God seems to act in this story in judgment and wrath, if we look closer, we can see the grace of God at work.

20:1-2 The Setup

The beginning of this story is familiar if we remember Genesis 12:10-20. Once again Abraham enters a new place and fearfully pretends that his wife is really his sister.  The only thing surprising is that Abraham is up to his old tricks again. As we mentioned in our study of chapter 12, one of the things we can interpret from Abraham’s actions is that he is still having difficulty trusting God to keep the Promise. A lot has happened since that story, but here Abraham shows his doubt and an unwillingness to risk himself to protect his wife. It is also worth noting that Abimelech, the king introduced in this passage, will reappear in Genesis 21:22-34, in the context of a dispute over water. In between these passages we will have the birth of Isaac and the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, which also repeats or mirrors the earlier story from chapter 16. Abraham and Sarah have not dealt with the problems from earlier and therefore, those problems have not gone away. 

20:3-7 God and Abimelech

In Pharaoh’s story from chapter 12, Pharaoh learns of Abraham’s deceit because he is afflicted with diseases. In this story, God directly comes to Abimelech. God tells Abimelech that he is about to die because he has sinned by taking a married woman from her husband. Abimelech, in words strikingly similar to those of Abraham defending the city of Sodom (“Will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked?”), protests his innocence. His logic is sound: he didn’t know that Sarah and Abraham were married, and besides, he and Sarah hadn’t slept together. Abimelech’ s defense is that he acted with integrity according to the facts as he knew them and that he hadn’t sinned with his actions yet.

God’s response indicates that Abimelech has answered well. God wanted to speak to Abimelech now to keep him from sinning by sleeping with Sarah. God tells Abimelech how to make things right. If Abimelech will return Sarah to Abraham, Abraham will pray for Abimelech and he will live. God characterizes Abraham as a prophet; this is the only use of the word “prophet” in Genesis. The prophetic action of Abraham here is in his prayer to spare Abimelech from harm.

20:8-15 Abimelech and Abraham

Abimelech has a problem with Abraham, so he goes to Abraham for an explanation. He asks Abraham why he would pretend that Sarah was his wife. Abraham explains that, as before with Pharaoh in Egypt, he thought the king would have him killed in order to take his wife from him. In light of Abimelech and his servants’ response to God, it is somewhat ironic that Abraham attributes his fear to a suspicion that “there is no fear of God in this place.” Abimelech and his servants have demonstrated a prominent fear and willingness to listen to God.

In this passage we also have Abraham defending his attempt to pass of Sarah as his wife. He says that it isn’t really a lie, because Sarah is in fact his half sister; they share a father. This type of marriage is forbidden by Leviticus 18:9 and is taboo in many cultures. At any rate, it is a thin excuse because Abraham knew he was endangering his wife and ultimately endangering Abimelech as well.

Once again Abraham walks away from the encounter richer than he went into it. Like Pharaoh before him, Abimelech presents Abraham with gifts and safe passage. Unlike Pharaoh, Abimelech and Abraham will continue to be neighbors in the land.

20:16-18 Sarah and the Women

As the story winds up, Abimelech pays Abraham in order to “vindicate” Sarah. This seems to be evidence that Sarah did no wrong, and that Abimelech bears no ill will toward her. After this Abraham prays and God heals Abimelech. We also learn that part of the consequences of Abimelech having Sarah as his wife was that none of the women could have children while Sarah was with Abimelech.

Conclusion: Grace

Where is grace apparent in this story? First and foremost, grace is present in God’s warning to Abimelech. We do not have evidence in the passage that Abimelech and his kingdom worship the Lord. But God knows that Abimelech is a victim of Abraham’s fearful trick and so God warns Abimelech before he goes too far.

More deeply, this story teaches us something about being God’s chosen people. Abraham is certainly not worth imitating in this story. We should not endanger our spouses in order to keep ourselves safe. We should not lie. But, God protects Abraham anyway. Once again we have God helping Abraham and Sarah out of a sticky situation that is mostly of their own making.

As before, I am reminded that my sin often endangers other people besides myself. We tend to think of our religion in vertical terms— “between me and God,” but the Bible is full of reminders that our religion has a horizontal dimension as well. When Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is that you should “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind,” he follows that up with a second, “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” These are not separate commandments; they are interconnected. We do not have the luxury of pretending that we are alone in the world. Our actions and inactions have tremendous impact on the people around us.

How does my sin hurt other people? Who do we sacrifice in order to preserve our safety or comfort? Who do we step on in order to get ahead? We need to not be so focused on ourselves that we miss out on how our actions affect other people. We have to pay attention to other people.

Abraham’s sin almost costs King Abimelech his life. Without the intervention of God, Abimelech would have slept with Sarah, another man’s wife, without his knowledge. How often do we fool ourselves into thinking that our sin is between us and God? How often do we assume that we are the only people who will have to pay for our mistakes? This story reminds me that we need God’s grace at every stage of our lives, because we so often act out of fear and self-preservation, and sometimes well-meaning people pay the price.