CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 20:1. Kadesh; Shur; Gerar.] All lying near the southern borders of Canaan. Gerar was the chief city of the Philistines. It is now called Khirbet-el-Gerar, i.e., the ruins of Gerar. The site is still pointed out near Gaza, where traces of the ancient city remain.
Genesis 20:2. Abimelech.] Father of the king. Probably the standing title of the kings of Gerar. Took Sarah, i.e., into his harem.
Genesis 20:3. Behold, thou art but a dead man.] “Thou art dying, or on the point of dying, if thou persist. A deadly plague was already in the body of Abimelech, on account of Sarah.” (Murphy.) Perhaps it was merely intended that he was dead as regards progeny. (Genesis 20:17.)
Genesis 20:5. In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands.] Heb. “In the perfection, sincerity, or simplicity of my heart,” etc. Comp. Psalms 26:6; Psalms 73:13.
Genesis 20:7. He is a prophet.] One who speaks on behalf of God. “Enoch had prophesied before this, as we learn from Jude, and Noah had uttered a prophetic blessing; but Abraham is the first one in the O.T. who is called a prophet.” (Jacobus.) He shall pray for thee. Intercession was a special work of prophets. (Jeremiah 27:18. Compare also Jeremiah 14:11; Jeremiah 15:1.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 20:1-7
ABRAHAM’S REPETITION OF HIS OLD FAULT: THE POWER OF FORMER TEMPTATIONS
I. Their power may slumber long. Twenty-four years had passed away since Abraham committed this same fault. He then distrusted the king and people of Egypt, as he does Abimelech in this instance. One would have thought that so long an experience of such extraordinary favours, on the part of God, would have so strengthened the faith of Abraham as to make him superior to all temptations which imply distrust in his Divine Director. He must have seen, by this time, that God had a way of deliverance when all human resources were at an end; and, therefore, that all carnal expedients were vain. Surely, the temptation to employ devices which had been proved to fail would now have no power over him! But this incident teaches us that the force of this old temptation was not destroyed, but only slumbered for awhile. We are never safe from the invasion of temptations which have once vanquished us. They have discovered our weak part, and this must always be a source of danger—a chronic infirmity of the soul which is but imperfectly healed.
II. Circumstances may arise which will revive their strength. Abraham was again placed in similar circumstances to those in which he had once fallen, and the old temptation assaults him with all its former strength. Science considers two kinds of energy, one in which it is active, and the other potential. The energy of a cannon ball is active: we can see the effects of it; but the energy of a heavy body in an elevated position, or that which slumbers in gunpowder, is potential. There it is, though to all appearance most harmless; and by fitting means can in a moment be called into action. Such is the power of old temptations. They watch us like a tiger his prey, silently and in ambush, and then spring upon us in an unguarded moment. In the particular instance of Abraham there were several causes which, at this time, contributed to render him weak against the assault of his old temptation.
1. Reaction after great spiritual excitement. He had seen that terrible instance of God’s judgment upon the cities of the plain—his kinsman scarcely saved—silence, desolation, and death reigning over a land once beautiful and full of busy life. The sight of these things must have filled his heart with conflicting emotions. The kind of excitement hence arising may strengthen the soul, but it is that intermittent strength which is succeeded by intervals of depression. Hence it is that retirement and watchfulness are most necessary at such times. The soul is too weak to trust herself abroad—to go out into the open field of conflict. The man out of whom Jesus had cast the devils wished to continue with Him. He was transported with joy and gratitude—in a most excited state of feeling, and ready to make any sacrifice. But Jesus discouraged his over-confident zeal, and told him that a state of retirement, the quiet and obscure ways of life, would be best for him. “Return to thy own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee.” (Luke 8:38-39.)
2. Experience of social corruption. Abraham had seen all around him the worst forms of wickedness. He might well be tempted to consider that no truth, no high justice, could be due to those who were so irrecoverably bad. Such crooked ways of iniquity could only be combated by the cunning of the serpent. Abraham thought that the people were extremely wicked, and devoid of all religious thought and feeling. (Genesis 20:11.) He was under the temptation that he must not deal with them upon high principle and an open sincerity. Thus the very corruptions of mankind are dangerous to the virtues of saints. Besides, Abraham might reflect that he had escaped out of his former difficulty in Egypt with little hurt to himself, perhaps advantage, on the whole. The scheme had succeeded once—at least it had brought him no real damage—and why should he not try it again? The experience of long years had not shown him that mankind was growing better; it rather seemed as if corruption was increasing more and more. The state of society was such as to tempt even a righteous man to renounce ideal truth and integrity, and employ a compromised or qualified veracity.
III. The results of yielding again are most disastrous. Abraham found to his sorrow that his policy did not succeed, but only brought him into trouble.
1. The distress of anxiety. After Abraham had made the representation that Sarah was his sister, how anxious he must have been as to the success of that device in giving them both any real protection. Carnal policies of this kind, while on trial, fill men with anxiety, and should they fail they bring confusion. Whatever is of doubtful virtue may well make us anxious, however good the end may be after which we seek.
2. Possible loss to ourselves. There is always some moral loss. But we may suffer temporal loss. That very good thing for which Abraham contrived—the safety of his wife—he failed to secure. It would have been better for him had he trusted in God, and left all events with Him. It is only by faith that we can fight an honourable and successful battle with the world, for the moment we attempt to fight the world with its own weapons we lose dignity and ensure failure. We must conduct this strife “lawfully.”
3. The shame of reproof from worldly men. (Genesis 20:9-10; Genesis 20:16.) There are men of the world possessed of some strong moral principles, of great natural sagacity, and who are therefore keen to discover faults in others. They expect consistency in those who make a high profession, and are not sparing in indignant censure when they do not find it. When they catch a saint of God using doubtful means they quickly assume a moral superiority, and thus put him to shame.
IV Those who fall under them are only delivered by the special interference of God. Through all his faults God had a regard unto His servant. He was still His “prophet,” the interpreter of His will, the intercessor with Him on behalf of sinful men. He was the representative of faith in a faithless world; and, according to the flesh, the beginning of that line along which God’s purpose of love and mercy should move towards full accomplishment. Therefore God had a special regard unto him, and miraculously interfered to preserve him from the consequences of his fault. God always deals the same way, in principle, with His tried servants.
1. The infirmities of believers appeal to the Divine compassion. God knows the strength of our temptations, the difficulty we have to stand upright in this sinful world. He has regard unto those who have fought bravely against its evils, who have striven hard to obey their heavenly calling. He will put a difference between those whose faith shows occasional infirmity and weakness, and those in whom faith is wanting altogether. The attainments and habits of a life of godliness help the soul to return after the lapses of her infirmity. They appeal to the compassion of God, who is not unmindful of His former mercies. If, as the God of nature, He has regard to the work of His hands, surely, as the God of grace, He will have regard to the work of His new creation.
2. God is concerned to maintain the promises made to faith. A son was promised to Abraham who was to perpetuate the race from which Messiah should spring. The time of fulfilment was now drawing so near that Abraham by his conduct, in this instance, was endangering that promise. But God was guiding all events, and accomplishing His will and purpose. The interests of a magnificent future had to be considered as well as those which belonged personally to Abraham. Promises were made to the patriarch’s faith, and God delivered him for His honour. And even in the case of saints whose lives are obscure, and who are not called to take the chief parts in history, yet so many important interests are bound up in them, that the Divine grace is rich in resources to complete their salvation.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 20:1. Abraham removed from the doomed district, for it was painful for him to look upon the desolations of God’s anger. The contemplation of acts of Divine judgment is awful and terrible, even though our faith in the righteousness of them may be strong.
Abraham journeyed from thence, either as grieved at the sight of Sodom, or as annoyed by the ill air thereof, or as loathing Lot’s incest, or driven out by famine, or desirous of doing good to many. Whatever it was that occasioned his removal, we find him ever and anon journeying from one place and sojourning in another. God’s people are a brood of travellers. This was Abram the Hebrew, of Heber, which signifieth pilgrim or stranger. They look towards Heaven as their home, as Ulysses is said to do towards Ithaca, as a bird looks to her nest on the highest rocks.—(Trapp).
He had now sojourned many years in the Plains of Mamre (ch. Genesis 13:18, Genesis 18:1), and he had seen much of the Lord’s goodness, as well as of the Lord’s terror, there. But still greater things await him ere his pilgrimage finally closes. The last stage of his earthly journey is to be the most signally blessed and the most remarkably tried of all. He passes, therefore, now into a new scene, where, in new circumstances, he is to see the salvation of God.—(Candlish).
Genesis 20:2. Lies that are not altogether such, but have some truth mixed up with them, are the most dangerous to the interests of mankind.
It is impossible to acquit Abraham of the sin of gross unbelief. For the space of twenty-five years he had experienced the faithfulness and loving-kindness of his God. He had recently received the promise that he should have a son by Sarah, who should be the progenitor of the Messiah. But on coming to Gerar, his heart fails him for fear that the people will kill him in order to gain possession of his wife. This was a practical distrust in the protection of Jehovah. In what had God failed him that he should begin now to doubt of His faithfulness and power? Besides, it ought to have occurred to him that he had once before been guilty of the same dissimulation, and had been reproved for it. The repetition of so gross an offence, after such a warning and such a deliverance, increased its sinfulness a hundredfold.—(Bush).
How difficult it is, even for the best of saints, to forego the suggestions and guiding of their own wisdom and to trust entirely in God!
The calamity from which Abraham sought to shield his wife by sinful evasion fell upon her. Thus was he chastened for his evil counsel. All devices arising from practical distrust in God must fail, and bring their penalties upon all who have recourse to them.
This is the second time he thus sinned. So Jehoshaphat was twice taken tardy in Ahab’s amity (2 Chronicles 19:2; 2 Chronicles 20:37); Jonah twice reproved for rebellion; and John, for angel-worship; Samson, twenty years after he had loved the Philistine woman, goes down to Gaza, and went into Delilah (Judges 15:20; Judges 16:1). But what shall we say to that example of the Apostles (Luke 22:24), amongst whom “there was a strife who should be accounted the greatest?” And this was not the first, but the third time they had thus offended by ambition. But the last time most unseasonably, after that He had foretold His passion to follow within two days. See the incredible perverseness of corrupt nature! How strongly do the best still smell of the old cask, taste of the old stock, though ingrafted into Christ, and though poured from vessel to vessel (John 5:14). “And this have ye done again,” saith the Lord (Malachi 2:13). A great aggravation, as numbers added to numbers, are first ten times more, and then a hundred, and then a thousand. “How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert” (Psalms 78:40).—(Trapp.)
Genesis 20:3. The crisis was serious, and worthy of the special interference of God. Miracles are not recorded in Scripture as having been performed on frivolous occasions, as if intended merely to astonish. God interposes when the time is momentous.
The evil that men propose to do has often a gracious issue, for God interferes that He may prevent sin. We know not how much of the Divine dealings with men have this special object in view.
In the night sleep, the spirit of revelation comes nearer to the heathen, as is shown in the dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. It is a medium of revelation also for children (Joseph, in the old covenant), and for labourers with the hand (Joseph, in the new covenant); and the prophetic disposition, enduring into the night or extending itself through its hours (Isaac, Jacob, Paul). Moreover, Pharaoh’s butler and baker (ch. Genesis 40:8); the Midianites (Judges 7:13-15); the wife of Pilate (Matthew 27:19, compare Wis. 18:17-19), had significant dreams.—(Lange.)
Evil is overruled for good. Abraham’s fault procured for Abimelech the advantage of a Divine visitation; which, though marked by severity, was kind in intent and issue.
The king thought he was innocent, but God interposed to show the true bearing of his conduct. So Saul on his way to Damascus thought he was doing God service, but the Divine voice suddenly alarmed him with a view of the real tendency and meaning of the act in which he was engaged.
Man’s wisdom leads him into a pit, and God’s wisdom must draw him out. (Fuller.)
Genesis 20:4. How carefully are all the essential particulars regarding the genealogy of the Messiah preserved in the sacred records! The Holy Spirit marks this fact lest anyone should say that Isaac was the son of Abimelech.
Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? A reference, probably, to the recent event of Sodom’s overthrow, which must have greatly impressed the surrounding country. It is as if he had said, “I am aware that thou hast slain a nation notorious for its filthy and unnatural crimes, but we are not such a nation, and in the present case all that has been done was done in perfect ignorance; surely thou wilt not slay the innocent as if they were guilty.” The language, evidently carries with it the implication, which is abundantly warranted elsewhere in the Scripture, that from the close connection existing between them the sins of rulers were often visited upon their people. See this illustrated in the case of David (1 Chronicles 21:14; 1 Chronicles 21:17).—(Bush.)
A heathen king knows how to address the Supreme. Thus the knowledge of the true God had not at this time entirely perished from among the Gentiles.
Genesis 20:5. The servants of God stand reproved by a heathen king.
Abimelech vindicates his conduct by undeniable facts which (to say the least) partly justify it.
With this example before us it is not too much to believe that some among the heathen live according to the dictates of conscience.
The saints of God often fail in those very graces and virtues for which they are the most remarkable. Abraham was famous for his faith, and Sarah for not being “afraid with any amazement” (1 Peter 3:6), and yet they both manifest distrust and fear.
Genesis 20:6. God admits the integrity of this heathen king. He had not committed that foul crime of which he was here in danger. Men who, as regards the whole law of God, are sinners, may yet be innocent of some particular forms of transgression.
1. The reason why he could yet claim innocence of “the great transgression “was God’s restraining power and grace.
2. What a hell on earth would there be but for God’s various restraints in conscience, the Scripture, the Church, the civil law, education, and society, and, most of all, the Holy Ghost.
3. How thankful should every man be for God’s restraints.
4. What infinite need have we of a Saviour from sin.
Augustine says: “We see a sin is done against God when it is in the eyes of men of small moment, because they treat lightly mere sins of the flesh.” (Psalms 51:3.)—(Jacobus.)
Who that knows anything of his own heart is not conscious that he has at some times tampered with sin, and laid such snares for his own feet that nothing but God’s grace and unlooked-for interference has preserved him!—(Bush.)
Genesis 20:7. Wrong may be done even when we have not reached the limit of actual transgression.
We are only safe when we cut off the occasion of sin, and place ourselves in the condition of the least danger.
Abimelech had sinned against one who was the ambassador of the Heavenly King—both the aggravation of his offence and the ground of his hope of pardon.
Life and death hang upon our treatment of the message of God’s prophets.
As with every sacrifice there was incense, so should every ministerial duty he performed with prayer. St. Paul begins his epistles with prayer, and proceeds and ends in like manner. What is it that he would have every one of his Epistles stamped with his own hand, but prayer for all his people? (2 Thessalonians 3:17-18.)—(Trapp.)
Abraham is here designated by the Lord a prophet. This is a step in advance of all his previous spiritual attainments. A prophet is God’s spokesman, who utters with authority certain of the things of God. (Exodus 7:1; Exodus 4:15.) This implies two things:
1. The things of God are known only to him, and therefore must be communicated by him.
2. The prophet must be enabled of God to announce in correct terms the things made known to him. These things refer not only to the future, but in general to all such matters as fall within the purpose and procedure of God. They may even include otherwise known or knowable by man, so far as these are necessary to the exposition of the Divine will. Now Abraham has heretofore received many communications from God. But this did not constitute him a prophet. It is the divinely authorised utterance of new truth which raises him to this rank. And Abraham’s first exercise in prophecy is not speaking to men of God, but to God for men. He shall pray for thee. The prophetic and the priestly offices go together in the Father of the Faithful. These dignities belong to him not from any absolute merit, but from his call to be the holder of the promise and the father of that seed to whom the promises were made.—(Murphy.)