Fear and Wrong Assumptions

"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. 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.' Then Abimelech said to Abraham, 'What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?' 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. 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. 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.' Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and he restored Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, 'See, my land is before you, dwell where it pleases you.' 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 was she rebuked. So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife." (Genesis 20:8-18)

Fear is often the motivation that leads us to sin. Fear colors our thinking and can bring about, as it did for Abraham, incorrect assumptions or prejudices. Abraham is obedient to God when he receives instruction from God; as he himself states, God called him to 'wander' from his home and he did so. He believed God when a child was promised to him; even though he took matters into his own hands with Hagar, Sarah's servant. But perhaps he is not quite at the point yet where he can trust God in ALL things. He does not understand that God is taking care of him even when he wanders into what might be ungodly territory. We are witnesses to faith that is still growing in Abraham; we have not yet seen the finished product, but we will soon.

We see here the full measure of God's wrath upon Abimelech and all that is his for the act of taking Sarah from her husband, Abraham. When God said to Abimelech "you shall surely die, you and all who are yours," He began by closing up the wombs of all the females in Abimelech's house, including his own wife and even the female servants. Life was stopped at the womb; and those who were already alive would soon die as well, there would soon be none left; so complete and final was God's wrath upon he who would dare to touch God's own.

Abimelech actually became a God-fearing man, apparently, as he believed what God told him in his dream, and feared God enough to immediately take the necessary actions to remedy the situation. His anger at Abraham and Sarah should have been great, and had he been a different sort of king, one who did NOT fear God, his rebuke of the pair would surely have been much stronger. But, knowing these two were protected by God, his rebuke was actually mild and far less than they deserved after endangering Abimelech's entire household by their lies.

He merely questions Abraham, asking what was he thinking to do such a thing in the first place, and then he sarcastically tells Sarah all that he has done for her 'brother' and that this should in fact vindicate her honor in the eyes of her own servants as well as everyone else involved. And after giving Abraham sheep and oxen and servants and silver, Abimelech allows Abraham and Sarah to dwell anywhere on his land that they choose.

The passage doesn't tell us whether Abimelech told Abraham all that God told him in his dream, such as the fact that Abraham will pray and Abimelech and his household will be healed; but for whatever the reason, Abraham does in fact pray to God and all are healed.

What I think we can safely assume is that Abraham and Sarah both learned something from this second mis-deed; they surely learned how much God had their backs in all situations. Surely their trust in God grew greatly through this trial, even though the error was their own. Perhaps they came to understand how much harm would come to others by their own folly.

It is amazing how little we understand that our sin does affect others, mostly because when we sin we are being so self-involved that we give very little thought, if any, to others. Sin comes about when we are thinking only about ourselves – not about God and certainly not about others – just about us. Even if we think our sin is just against ourselves, we are deceived, for it is never only against ourselves; it is always against God first and then others as well. Even Abimelech's actions, though done in ignorance of the truth and not willfully, brought destruction to his entire household. We are only deceived if we think our sins will not do the same to those we love.