Genesis 20

(Gen 20:1-18): Abraham is afflicted with SIMS (she is my sister) again! Abraham implemented the first security information management system back in Egypt (Gen 12:13)! Sarah must have been one good-looking woman for an 89-year-old that the king of Gerar desired her! Abraham had already coached her about claiming to be his sister for fear of his life (Gen 12:12; 20:11, 13). This is a most curious thing and sort of quirky. 

Here was Abraham’s SIMS layout - 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 (Gen 20:13). So we learn that this plan was hatched back in Mesopotamia. God may have caused him to wander but not to wander from the truth! Even when the truth is intentionally sliced into half-truths, it is not a truth/lie but a lie, a deception. This is the danger of our enemy, dealing in half-truths; there is just enough truth to suck someone into believing a lie. A broken clock is right twice a day, but still wrong the other 1,438 minutes. 

Did not Abraham learn anything by employing his flawed SIMS in Egypt? And now he deploys it again in Gerar with king Abimelech. The LORD in neither case rebuked Abraham directly, but he never emerged from either place as honorable but humiliated; because a pagan ruler was nobler in his dealings with Abraham than he was. From a human standpoint, Abraham was correct in his assumption that the kings would covet Sarah; they did, but he was wrong in his presumption that he would be killed over her; in his mind that was a real possibility, but God Almighty Who was on the throne was not a possibility but a reality! God already told him He was His shield (Gen 15:1). 

There is an interesting perspective between Abraham and Abimelech; Abraham was of the opinion in Gerar, surely the fear of God is not in this place (Gen 20:11) and Abimelech had considered his kingdom as a righteous nation (Gen 20:4); he may have been comparing his kingdom as a higher moral standard than the wickedness of the cities of the plain that was destroyed by the LORD. But there is no evidence that Abimelech or his nation was righteous as God considered righteousness (cf. Gen 15:6). 

In God’s sovereignty and plan, Sarah was to give birth to Isaac (Gen 17:19). How serious was Abimelech being innocuously caught up in a lie? 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 (Gen 20:3). But Abimelech appealed to God, in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this (Gen 20:5). God revealed to Abimelech in a dream that He was aware of his innocence in the matter, and did not allow him to touch Sarah to prevent sinning against Him (Gen 20:6)! 

We learn for the first time that God considered Abraham a prophet (Gen 20:7), the first usage of the term in Genesis. Abraham who caused this confusion will pray for Abimelech that he might live. Failure to restore Sarah meant certain death for him and his family. 

The next morning Abraham was summoned to Abimelech’s court and subjected to some very direct line of questioning and rebuking him:

• What have you done to us? (Gen 20:9)
• 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. (Gen 20:9)
• What did you have in view, that you have done this thing? (Gen 20:10) Abraham shared his SIMS….

Like Pharoah, Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham and gave gifts to Abraham (Gen 20:14). But Abimelech was more gracious in that rather than expelling him from his land like Pharoah (Gen 12:20; 13:1); he offered for Abraham to freely dwell in his land (Gen 20:15). To Sarah, Abimelech informed her that he gave a thousand pieces of silver to Abraham – 

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 (Gen 20:16, emphasis mine). 

I like the translation of the NKJV that states she was rebuked; Sarah was complicit in the misrepresentation. The mention of brother possessed a measure of sarcasm and a reminder of the responsibility to tell the whole truth. An offense was committed whether done in the integrity of the heart and innocence of hands or not. All the women in the house of Abimelech were unable to have children because of Sarah (Gen 20:18). 

Abimelech righted the wrong, and payment of silver served notice to all of a wrong being made right toward her. So, Abraham the prophet prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants (Gen 20:17). They started having children again. 

Though God did not approve of Abraham’s SIMS; He still was protective of Abraham and Sarah and blessed them to where they came out of both situations with more possessions, but definitely not with fewer problems for having been there. Abimelech knew God blessed Abraham, but he also knew that this prophet of God was deceptive. Those two facts alone presented a very precarious scenario in any relations with Abraham in the future.

 Father, I am reminded that behind these scenes like in Egypt or Gerar, there is a spiritual battle taking place. The enemy never stops in its attempt to thwart the purposes of God with Abraham and Sarah. Twice Abraham and Sarah gave the devil a doorway of opportunity because of Abraham’s faulty SIMS mentality. How often, LORD, have I rationalized with little white lies, truth mixed with deception, failing to believe in the promises of God Almighty?  

I was guilty of misleading or hurting others, causing more problems for myself than if I had just been straight up and trusting in You! Just knowing You are El Shaddai doesn’t make faith in that reality automatic. It must be applied in every situation. May my walk, Father, be in line with Who You are and what You are about, Christlikeness in every situation is the goal, grounded in the promises found in Your Word. <><