After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham left Mamre. This devotional reading looks at a time of temptation that would had him slide back into old habits.
Nuggets
- God’s Word does not tell us why Abraham moved again.
- Whatever the reason, Abraham first moved between Kadesh and Shur (modern-day Egypt).
- Then, Abraham moved his household to Gerar, which was on one of the branches of Wady Sheri`a.
- Abraham’s dysfunctional family reared its head again as he lied about Sarah not being his wife.
- Abraham didn’t learn the first time in claiming Sarah was his sister.
- We can’t say for certain that King Abimelech was a Philistine – or pre-Philistine, but he probably was.
Jehovah again stepped into stop the deception. - Since Abimelech was a Gentile, we may question how he knew it was Jehovah.
- Jehovah came out playing hardball.
Here we go again. Abraham isn’t trusting that God will protect him. He thinks someone is going to kill him just to get to his wife.
Notice: This ran long, so I had to break it in two at a funky place.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Abraham the Patriarch series
Moving Day
“Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar …” (Gen. 20: 1 NLT)
God’s Word does not tell us why Abraham moved again.
We have to remember that Abraham was a shepherd. In other words, he was a nomad.
Abraham’s herds had to eat.
More than likely, at Mamre, Abraham had used up its resources. He had to move on to find grazing lands and water for his flocks and herds.
Was it a famine as it was when Abraham and Sarah moved to Egypt? Maybe a famine that wasn’t as severe as the earlier one?
Or maybe Abraham now just had too many animals for the pastureland.
We talked when Abraham went to Egypt that we weren’t told that God moved him. We aren’t told that He initiated this move, either. But Bradford thought He did this time.
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We don’t know that for sure. Again, Moses didn’t reference God here.
Between Kadesh and Shur
Whatever the reason, Abraham first moved between Kadesh and Shur (modern-day Egypt).
Bradford had an interesting tidbit. He wrote, “… that the Kadesh spoken of here is the same as the Biblical Kadesh-Barnea.”
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Gerar
Then, Abraham moved his household to Gerar, which was on one of the branches of Wady Sheri`a.
Gerar was in the land that – in the future – would be the land of Philistia, aka the Gaza Strip. Yes, the Philistines are the modern-day Palestinians – the Greek translation of Philistine.
Gerar was on the eastern border.
Abraham Deceived Abimelech
“… While living there as a foreigner, Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, ‘She is my sister.’ So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace” (Gen. 20: 1-2 NLT)
Abraham’s dysfunctional family reared its head again as he lied about Sarah not being his wife.
She Is My Sister
Abraham didn’t learn the first time in claiming Sarah was his sister.
Abraham did it again. He said that Sarah was his sister, not his wife.
Bradford thought Abraham’s take on Egypt was that it came out okay. Hmmm.
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In Genesis 13, we said that Abram was heading home, not just heading home, but was heading home forgiven and favored. Remember all the loot he got – possibly including Hagar – for being deceitful.
I read that favored by Jehovah. But what if it was favored and forgiven by Pharaoh?
Isn’t it easy to forget about what went wrong when it ended up okay? I mean, it had been 24 years since the last deception. Memories fade.
Doesn’t that also show us that, when we think we have learned from one temptation, it will probably come up again to make sure we have learned it?
But since Abraham had been tempted once – and caved – and was being tempted again and caved, wouldn’t that make this sin worse in our way of thinking?
Lathrop said Abraham’s issue was the same as it was in Egypt. He wrote,
“Though Abraham supposed that there was no sense of GOD and religion among the people of Gerar, yet he seems not to have entertained the least suspicion that they would insult the [honor] of his family, either by rape or seduction. His apprehension was that they would kill him for his wife’s sake.”
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Abraham was more concerned about his life in the lawless region – again – than his wife’s safety.
Lathrop reminded us that Abraham hadn’t given a relationship with Abimelech a chance to start building. He just assumed jealousy.
There may have been something worse at play here. We’ll find out in a future verse that Abraham did this because he thought Abimelech was a godless man.
Does Jehovah allow us to throw out His laws and commandments just because we live in the world? A big emphatic NO!
The opposite is true. Jehovah doesn’t want us to compromise His laws and commandments, let alone throw them out altogether. He wants us to be the example in a lawless society.
I think many disciples have done compromised today. We want to be very careful doing that. When we find we have, we need to repent and turn from those actions and thoughts.
We are to be a light to the dark world, not a light that we have blown out.
King Abimelech
We can’t say for certain that King Abimelech was a Philistine – or pre-Philistine – but he probably was.
I know. We’re going to find this first meeting was mostly peaceful.
Abimelech, though, wasn’t only a name. It was also a title that meant my father is king. So, we don’t know if this Abimelech was king or prince. I think the way we should look at it is that this Abimelech’s father the king died making him, the prince, king.
Sarah was taken again. Yep, a 90-year-old woman was taken for her beauty.
Bradford had a thought that I think I can believe more than she was taken for her beauty. She may have been taken to force an alliance with Abraham. Alliances were made through marriage.
I have to process that, though.
Since the visit was mostly peaceful, it wasn’t the kidnapping the Egypt situation may have been.
But if – going into this – knowing it was all about an alliance – a marriage – was Abraham going to give up his wife????
Didn’t Abraham think about his covenant with Jehovah? “Then one of them said, ‘I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!’” (Gen. 18: 10 NLT).
I don’t think this would be a while-you-are-here alliance. Sarah was probably going to have to get pregnant soon – if she wasn’t already as Fuller thought – because she was still 90 when Isaac was born.
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Abraham was gambling with Sarah’s virtue and Isaac’s purity.
Abimelech’s Dream
“But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, ‘You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!’” (Gen. 20: 3-4 NLT)
Jehovah Came to Abimelech
Jehovah again stepped into stop the deception.
Once again God came to deal with the situation. Abraham appears to have been okay with it going on.
God wasn’t.
Abraham had agreed to put his faith and trust in God. He was to rely on Jehovah’s provision.
That went out the window again.
It may interesting to some that Jehovah came to Abimelech. He came to a Gentile.
What? Do we think Jehovah only comes to His children? We’ll find out in the next section how wrong that is.
Let’s see what Bradford had to say about that. He wrote “God is sovereign and He is all-powerful; while God does not often move a man against His own will, He will do so when it serves His purposes.”
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In Elaine-speak, God will use believers and non—believers to further His plan.
Jehovah is going to do what He has to do to get done what He wants done. He will use any of His creation.
In a Dream
Since Abimelech was a Gentile, we may question how he knew it was Jehovah.
Dreams were probably the more common way for Jehovah appears to people.
- “And he [Jacob] slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway” (Gen. 28: 12-13 NLT).
- “But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, ‘I’m warning you — leave Jacob alone!’” (Gen. 31: 24 NLT).
- “One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever” (Gen. 37: 5 NLT).
- “And they replied, ‘We both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean.’ ‘Interpreting dreams is God’s business,’ Joseph replied. ‘Go ahead and tell me your dreams’” (Gen. 40: 8 NLT).
- “Joseph responded, ‘Both of Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do’” (Gen 41: 25 NLT).
- “Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw.” (Dan. 7: 1 NLT).
- “The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and gave messages to Samuel there at the Tabernacle” (I Sam. 3: 21 NLT).
- “That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, ‘What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!’” (I Kgs. 3: 5 NLT).
- “As he [Joseph] considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 1: 20 NLT).
- “When it was time to leave, they [the wise men] returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod” (Mt. 2: 12 NLT).
- “After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,’ the angel said. ‘Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him’” (Mt. 2: 13 NLT).
But that doesn’t tell us how Abimelech knew God was a god.
I don’t think we are going to know. It has to go in our UNR book – understanding not required.
Judgment
Jehovah came out playing hardball.
Abimelech was a dead man because of what he had done.
Fuller had an interesting take. He thought Abimelech hadn’t been charged with the sin yet but was warned if he did sin, he would die.
But Fuller took it a step farther. He wrote, “It is intimated, however, that if he had come near her he should in so doing have sinned against God, whether he had signed against Abraham or not; and this perhaps owing to her being in a state of pregnancy, of which, in that case, he could not have been ignorant.”
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I’m sorry. I’m tripping over Abimelech taking a pregnant woman for an alliance. If she was showing – as much as children, especially sons, were valued – I don’t see him taking someone else’s son if this was a peaceful alliance.
My first thought – until I got to the pregnant part – was what Jesus said. “But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5: 28 NLT).
Making the Connections #1
When we were talking Noah, we said that even the righteous sin. That is because we are still in this impure body.
Abraham is the same way. He was righteous. He still sinned.
Lathrop described it this way. He wrote,
“Even they whose faith is strong must guard against the prevailing influence of fear, and call into exercise that confidence in God which is the best security against the terrors of the world. In times of apparent danger, and threatening temptation, they have need to be peculiarly watchful. We are never so safe as when we invariably follow the path of virtue and integrity. He who walks uprightly, walks surely; but he who perverts his way, shall fall. Duplicity and artifice, to avoid an evil, will but embarrass us the more.”
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- We can’t rest on our salvation to keep us from sin. We must be constantly on guard.
- A source of our sin is fear. We must trust Jehovah to be bigger than anything we fear.
- When things get the worst, we have to watch the most.
- Walking with Jehovah is our best bet to be safe – and to have help when we are tempted.
- The path lined with virtue and integrity means to have the character of Jehovah.
Making the Connections #2
Okay. I have to process what Parker said. He wrote,
“Observe, first of all, that if the Divine purpose was to be turned aside by the fault or blemish found in individual character, the Divine government of man is at an end, and human progress is an impossibility. Adam failed, so did Noah, so Abraham, so did Lot. It was not Adam that sinned, or Noah, or Abraham, it was human nature that sinned.”
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If Jehovah won’t forgive us when we sin – and we are going to sin since Adam. Noah, Abraham, and Lot all sinned – His divine plan would have immediately been shut down when Adam sinned. Not only that, but His government would also have been over.
Making the Connections #3
Lathrop helped us with the laws of the time and Jewish law. He wrote,
“By the ancient laws of Draco and Solon, the husband of an adulteress, if he detected her in her guilt, might immediately kill both the criminals, or [stigmatize] them, or put out their eyes, or might exact of the adulterer a heavy fine. But, by the law of Moses, they were both to be put to death with public infamy; and, in ordinary cases, there was no dispensation.”
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Let’s get this straight. The laws in Abraham’s time gave several options both the adulteress and the man. The Law of Moses took those options away.
So, if I am reading this correctly – which I may or may not be – marriage wasn’t as highly regarded in Abraham’s day. While those laws don’t say that any type of adultery is forbidden, they do make it seem like some instances are more acceptable than others.
If it was the husband giving the wife over to adultery, there would probably be no consequence.
Making the Connections #4
We said that, in this instance, Jehovah accepted Abimelech’s ignorance in the situation. That is not always the case.
Someone’s proclaimed ignorance will not be accepted on the Day of the Lord. If we have not chosen to follow Jehovah, believe Yeshua as our Messiah, and walk with Him, we will have chosen against Him.
How Do We Apply This?
- Do not practice any type of deception.
- Do not revert to sin.
- Express gratitude for God’s provision.
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Father God. Lord, thank You for the story of when Abraham didn’t resist temptation for the second time. In it, You show us how much you truly love us. You forgive us when we haven’t conquered our temptation. Help us to resist Satan.
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