Genesis 20

Abraham experienced many events over the course of his life, events that changed him, shaping him into the man he would become. A number of those events concerned the people around him, especially his nephew, Lot, and Sarah, his wife. This chapter describes an event involving Sarah, an event so strikingly similar to one that took place in Egypt in Genesis 12, that we might wonder how it is possible that this man could still be living in fear rather than in faith after God has shown him so much. Abraham was the leader of God's chosen ones. He had seen the Lord's destructive power over the cities of the plain. How could he not be moved by the power of that display to follow God in a better way than he did when he first began this amazing journey of hearing the Lord?

We should not be so surprised. The Lord's best servants may fall into the same sins repeatedly. The reason for this lack of progress is that the same idolatry still has a powerful hold over us. What is more shocking than a repeated pattern of sin is when the power of God rids us of our faithless fear and causes us to walk in the joy of the Lord. That is astounding! Through the entire pathway of familiar sin, God is with Abraham, and He continues to bless him as the chosen man of faith, despite his obvious failings. That is good news!

This passage contains the first use of the word “prophet” in the Bible. God identifies Abraham as a prophet, even though it is someone else who has a special dream from the Lord. That dream was a frightening word of caution and correction, and the man who received it was the King of Gerar, who had the common royal name Abimelech, which means “my father is king.”

This Abimelech had taken Sarah into his harem. Abraham, in fear that he might have been murdered if people knew that he was Sarah's husband, asked her to go along with the half-truth that Sarah was his sister. God warned Abimelech, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” It is Abimelech who converses with the Lord, defending himself in the dream, but it is Abraham who is God's prophet, His chosen spokesman. The king pleads his own innocence and integrity, yet he will have to go before the Lord's chosen man, Abraham, the man behind this problem, in order to be saved from the wrath of God. Abraham will pray for him, and the death that had come among his people will be turned to life. This king must humble himself before the Lord's prophet. If not, he will die.

The king hears and obeys the voice of God, and he speaks of what he has heard to those around him. They are all filled with the fear of the Lord. This story is not given to us primarily as a guide to our morals. Of the two men, was Abraham the more honorable? Yet God will not turn away from His promise to this man.

Here we have powerful grace. The lower man is lifted up as the Lord's chosen mouthpiece; the one through whom the blessing of God will flow to the nation of Gerar and to her king. The man who was higher in the eyes of his people, Abimelech, will be frightened before Almighty God and before the agent of God's Word, Abraham. The first will be last, and the last will be first. No one can stop this. No one is in a position to judge it. It is the sovereign will of the Ruler above all rulers. Everyone must bow before Him and receive the blessing that He provides through His appointed representative.

Abraham admits the truth of his fears of what would happen to him as he journeyed among the kingdoms of the world. He has not been a great protector of his wife. Someone else has stepped into that holy place to be the good husband. Abraham did not bring that dream into the heart of Abimelech by night. God did. Abraham did not fill the hearts of the people of Gerar with fear. God did. Abraham did not save Sarah, the future mother of Isaac, from disgrace and danger. God did. God showed Himself to be the Husband of the church. He was her Protector. He was the Being who filled the hearts of dangerous men with fear.

Shouldn't Abraham be disciplined by the Lord who had instructed him in another place to walk before Him and be blameless? Shouldn't he face some consequence for trying to save his own neck at the cost of serious danger to Sarah? Shouldn't he face some calamity that would be an example to us of the danger of idolatry, since he seemed to fear man more than God? Yet there is not a word of this in the account that we have in Genesis. On the contrary, the entire episode ends with Abraham alive and safe, Sarah alive and safe, and their estate more bountiful on the way out of Gerar than it was on the way in. And Abraham's prayers for the healing of the nation of Gerar were heard and answered.

God loves the church. He is her great Husband. Where Abraham failed to show sacrificial love for his bride, Jesus has more than made up for what was lacking. He gave the full measure of devotion for us, and He has spoken peace to the nations through the merit of His life and death. His Word is sure. He is the true Man of God. Everything that is lacking in Abraham, and in you and me, is more than made up for in the perfections of the great Husband of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ.