Genesis 20:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Even though Abraham has lied under the pressure of the situation, God does not desert him. Abimelech has taken Sarah for himself and therefore he is warned personally, and he is warned in the strongest possible terms. The Lord’s intervention has come before the king has acted and Sarah is violated, for he still has an opportunity to avoid death, and the Lord explicitly says in verse 6 why he did not let Abimelech touch her. He understood the warning given to him and the sinfulness of what he was about to do, for he defends himself by saying that he had not known she was a married woman. ‘But Abimelech had not come near her.’ That is obviously by the overruling of God, because it was God that worked this restraint. It is partly, if not wholly, because God has made him infertile, possibly through illness in which all desire has left him. Whatever form the illness took, it is not only him but his household that are affected, and even his servants. Everybody has got the same problem, so we learn as the chapter goes on. And he said in this dream – there was two-way communication in this dream between God and Abimelech – ‘Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?’ That is very interesting. He addresses him as Lord. He does not, as you might expect him to do, address his tribal god, because it turns out that while Abimelech does not have much light when it comes to taking another wife into his harem, he has considerable moral light concerning taking another man's wife, and he believes in the one true and living God. Astonishing! Among the Philistine tribes, here is a man who believes in the one true God and fears him and sees him as the Judge of all the earth; Abraham could not have come to a more sympathetic local king. It was God’s mercy that brought him down to such a place where he could have Isaac and bring him up in these more congenial surroundings.‘And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also righteous nation?’ Certainly, he and his household and his tribe and his laws were sound and good. Where did he get light from? We don't know, but he had it, and he is clear and he responds to this conviction in an ideal manner. He makes this excuse before the Lord, ‘Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.’ According to the light that he has, he protests his innocence, for he knows that he is dealing with the Judge of all the earth.