SERIES A --- YHVH’S PIONEERS --- LESSON 15

HUMAN FAILINGS

ABRAHAM DECEIVES ABIMELECH

From Genesis 20

Later Abraham left Mamre and moved southward again to the Negeb, settling between Kadesh and Shur. On a visit to Gerar, Abraham said that Sarah was his sister so Abimelech the king of Gerar sent for her. But YHVH appeared to Abimelech in a dream that night. [You are marked for death because you have taken that man’s wife,] YHVH told him. At this time Abimelech had not even come near Sarah. [Adonai will You destroy innocent people?] he asked. [Didn’t Abraham tell me that she was his sister? And didn’t she say that he was her brother? My heart and hands are clean in this matter.] [I know that you are innocent,] YHVH continued in the dream. [But it is I Who restrained you from touching her. Now give her back to her husband, for he is a prophet. He will pray for you and you will live. If you do not return her, you and your household are marked for death.] When Abimelech arose in the morning, he told his servants about the dream and they were very frightened. Abimelech called for Abraham to talk with him. [What have you done to us?] he demanded. [And what sin have I committed against you to cause you to bring this upon me and my kingdom? What you have done is very wrong! Why did you do it?] [I thought that you people did not fear YHVH and that you would kill me because of my wife,] Abraham answered. [She is my sister, for she is my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s. But she is also my wife. When YHVH caused me to travel far away from my father’s land, I asked her to show kindness to me by saying that I am her brother.] Then Abimelech gave Abraham sheep, oxen, and male and female servants and he returned Sarah his wife to him also. [You may settle anywhere you wish in my land,] said Abimelech. To Sarah he said, [I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It will compensate you for whatever trouble I have caused you and your family. You are clear now before all men.] Then Abraham prayed to YHVH and He healed Abimelech and his wife and the other women around them, so they could have children again. For Adonai had caused all of these women to be barren as long as Sarah remained in Abimelech’s household.

COMMENTARY

THE JOURNEYS OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

It is a mistake to think of Bible heroes as different from men and women today. Even those with towering faith still had human failings. Abraham’s weakness was fear. Again, we see Abraham lie about his relationship with Sarah. Why? [I thought these people did not fear YHVH at all.] The people of the land might not know YHVH, but YHVH was there. And His power was unlimited. The journeys of Abraham and Isaac were not tourist trips for pleasure and sight-seeing, but migrations of a tribal leader with his people. Often these were ordered by YHVH. Abraham’s journeys, as recorded in the Bible, began at his hometown of Ur, then part of Sumer. At YHVH’s Command, he and his family went up through the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys to Haran. After some time at Haran, Abraham left for Canaan, where he stayed first at Shechem, in the Plain of Moreh. Bethel was Abraham’s next stop, and then [the south,] the Negeb. But a famine forced him to leave with Sarah and his family for Egypt. After a short stay in Egypt, they returned to Canaan, living first at Bethel, then at Mamre, then Gerar, and finally at Beersheba. Abraham made one other journey, far to the north to Hobah, near Damascus. There he and a select band of armed men defeated a raiding party led by four kings from the north, rescuing Lot. He returned past Salem, which is modern Jerusalem, and gave a tenth of the spoils to its king, who was also a priest. The travels of Abraham’s son Isaac were much more restrictive. As the solid line on the map shows, Isaac never left the general area of his birth. Gerar, Beersheba, and Beer-lahai-roi were the three principal places on his itinerary. When one realizes that journeys such as these meant the movement of herds and flocks, tents and children, often on foot, it is not surprising that people went so seldom.