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14 Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, "See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you." 16 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 she was rebuked. 17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. ~ Genesis 20:14-18
Today, we close out our study of Genesis 20 where Abraham and Sarah have gone to the city of Gerar and King Abimelech took Sarah into his harem without knowing that she was Abraham's wife. Subsequent to that the Lord visited King Abimelech in a dream informing him to return Sarah to her husband or he would die.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him."
Abimelech was now convinced that the true God had included Abraham on His side, so he chose to give Abraham certain parting gifts. Exactly the opposite of what happened in Egypt happened here. When the same thing had happened there in Egypt as here, Pharaoh gave to Abraham gifts first as a payment for Sarah. These gifts that were given to Abraham by King Abimelech were parting gifts.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And Abimelech said, 'See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.'"
When Abraham was in Egypt and similar events occurred, Pharaoh sent Abraham away from them back to Canaan. But here King Abimelech offers him not only to stay in his land, he allowed Abraham to choose any place he wished to live. The providential hand of God can be clearly seen here in Abimelech's dealings with Abraham and how God was setting up the borders of the land establishing a permanent marker in the Land of Israel which exists to this day some 4000 years later. God used these real events, with real people, to ensure that His chosen people would rightfully have access to the land of Israel that He long ago promised to Abraham.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "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.'"
In the culture of that day, this payment was a way of having everyone involved overlook the solution to the situation. By doing what he did, Abimelech subtly rebuked Sarah. This was Abimelech's way of showing Sarah that he disapproved of what she had done. And, in order to get the matter resolved and forgotten, money was paid. In addition, Abraham was given sheep, oxen, and male and female servants and his choice of place to live to cover Abimelech’s sin of having Sarah in his harem for the time that he did. Once Sarah was taken, it was Sarah's obligation to tell the truth to the king that Abraham was her husband.
In v.17-18 of today's passage we read, "17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife."
Once again, the term ha-elohim or "the God" is used here. Abraham prayed to "the God" on the behalf of King Abimelech. Abraham's prayer reveals that God had removed the ability for conception to occur. It is suggested that they may have developed some type of venereal disease, or tumors, or something else that kept them from being able to come together. And this is how God kept Abimelech from uniting with Sarah. It appears that God kept Abimelech from touching Sarah because he was physically unable to do so.
Interestingly, the name Lord here is YHWH who took this action. For the first time in this chapter, the divine name is brought in to show that He is the God of the work of salvation of humanity. The malady on the people came about to prevent any hindrance of God's plan of salvation by having Isaac come from Abraham through Sarah. God did all of this, even keeping these people from the ability to procreate, to protect His plan to bring Isaac and eventually the Lord Jesus into the world. Every detail was minutely handled by a loving and observant God so that our Savior would come, without whom we would be eternally condemned. Without the Lord Jesus, there is no hope for any of us. What happened to Sodom and what would have happened to King Abimelech and his kingdom is what would have happened to us as well. But in these two stories we are given two pictures; The first is a picture of what unforgiven man will get, hell. The second, a picture of what the forgiven man will get, restoration to a relationship with God.
An underlining point to this story is that Abraham wasn’t some sterling, spiritual superstar that God wanted on his team. Abimelech was the righteous man in this story while Abraham was the guy who struggled with the self. This story shows us that God’s purposes will come to pass by His sovereign grace, not by our righteous choices. Nothing can thwart God from fulfilling his purposes, not even our sin.
The sovereignty of God is key to the development of our faith. There are times when we find it very difficult to understand why certain things happen to us or even to those whom we love. Recently I had the privilege of counseling a lady whose grandson was brutally tortured and then murdered. We had prayed for this grandson a lot and she was struggling before God with the events as she learned of them. At one point when she was crying out I asked her, "Suppose he went through all of that torture so that he would cry out to God for salvation. And as a result he entered into a personal relationship with God. And, when we get to heaven we will see your grandson there. Will it be okay that he went through the suffering?" The lady responded by saying, "Well, if you put it that way, then yes." Oh the preciousness of the sovereignty of God! Because of it we can trust a little bit more today and the days to come.
