Abraham, my Friend 47

Righteous Abimelech?

The Bible tells a highly selective story

And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. (John 21:25 NKJV)

And John tells us plainly how he made his selection:

…But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31 NKJV)

It is a foundational part of Bible study to ask, ‘Why was this recorded?’ God has preserved records which have perpetual relevance; whole empires lived and died unrecorded in the Scriptures, but these are written… Genesis 20 is, on the face of it, just a tragic blip in the life of a great man, so why is it ‘recorded’?

The previous devotionals have not only been more of Abraham’s steps of faith; they have also been considering the question of a righteous God and His dealings with an unrighteous world. Genesis 20, to some degree, is continuing that examination.

Abraham is on the move again. Perhaps Abraham could no longer settle within sight of the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah; perhaps he wanted to put some distance between himself and Lot’s incestuous family. He heads south and west and arrives in Gerar. Gerar is in the territory that was later to be known as ‘the land of the Philistines’. The lands now known as Lebanon, West Bank, Israel, and Gaza were all originally known as ‘the land of the Philistines’ — in modern English, Palestine, although modern-day Palestinians are not descendants of the Philistines. Later, in Genesis 26 their king is referred to as ‘king of the Philistines’ but it is unlikely that their king, whose name is Abimelech, was himself a Philistine; this is more likely to be a reference to territory rather than the people we later know as Philistines. His name is Semitic and means Father-King. I know, it makes you think doesn’t it?

(The polymath EW Bullinger identified many different aspects of Bible language or figures. Among them, he listed an aspect of usage called prolepses. I live less than a mile from the river Loddon in Berkshire. It is an ancient landscape although now hidden by a vast housing estate. Suppose I were to tell you that the Romans came along the banks of the Loddon on their westward march. Technically you might call this an anachronism because, so far as I know, the river was not called the Loddon in those distant times. It’s not really an anachronism, it is really a prolepsis — a way of speaking about something in the future as though it were in the past or present, or a way of referring to a thing or location by a later name or description. If I were to say Abraham was born in Ur, that would be a prolepsis. The strictly accurate statement would be to say Abram was born in Ur. If you search for them you will find some examples of prolepses scattered through these devotionals!)

Because I thought…

Abimelech appears on the scene with the same abruptness as Melchizedek and, like Melchizedek, he seems to have a knowledge of God. This was Abraham’s mistake: he presumed otherwise. Abimelech asks what Abraham had seen which caused him to take this action.

And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. (Gen 20:11 ASV)

Ah, ‘I thought’… How much trouble those two words get us into! We find the words on the lips of Naaman (2Ki 5:11) and the troubled Psalmist (Psa 73:16). Of course, it’s not wrong to ‘think’ but in spiritual matters, it is essential to begin with revelation and move on to thought. Reversing this process can be disastrous.

So Abraham misjudges the situation; the fear of God is not in this place. I wonder how often we make the same misjudgement. We react to a circumstance, a place, a person, and conclude, ‘It is God-forsaken.’ This is always a misjudgement; there is no event, no place, no person who is God-forsaken. Only Calvary was God-forsaken.

Abraham’s misjudgement creates a mental scenario: and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. What a well-trodden path this is. We misjudge, we build our expectations on our misjudgement, and we make our choices and preparations for the future on the basis of it all. It happens to the best of us…

…For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. (Gal 2:12 NKJV)

Perhaps when you have read this account you have been tempted to think, ‘Peter, what were you thinking of?’ Well, we know what he was thinking of. He was thinking about those who came from James and no doubt ran his own mental scenarios. A misjudgement, an expectation of trouble, and a course of action chosen to anticipate and head off the problem, which in its turn causes a bigger problem than the original possibility.

Those who have never made such misjudgements and taken disastrous decisions based on wrong expectations will not understand all this; the rest of us will know the feeling only too well. What did Abraham and Peter and the ‘rest of us’ leave out of our calculations? Only God! Often our own plans to avoid trouble get us into more trouble than we could have imagined.

Reinvigorated bodies

Earlier in these devotionals, we spoke of the ‘inbreathing’ of God into Abraham’s and Sarah’s names — the inclusion of the aspirate ‘h’. I think this must have had an amazingly rejuvenating effect on both of them. The scriptural testimony is very consistent, both Abraham’s and Sarah’s reproductive powers were dead:

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. (Rom 4:19 NKJV)

And yet from the age of approximately 137 to 175 Abraham fathered six sons (Genesis 25). Perhaps the rejuvenating word produced physical and visible signs in Sarah; the fact is that Abimelech took her into his harem at 90 years of age. Abraham’s fears seemed to have been justified.

But God…

The account continues with those words so loved by preachers: ‘But God…’ In fact (for those who like such facts) this is the Bible’s first use of the phrase. Against all the possibilities, probabilities, and apparent inevitabilities of our calculations, God intervenes and changes everything. Hallelujah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. (Gen 20:3 ASV)

This is not a threat but an explanation. Moving towards the end of the chapter we find the record that:

And Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants; and they bare children. For Jehovah had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. (Gen 20:17–18 ASV)

It seems as though some near-fatal disease had gripped the royal court; this is the purpose of God’s explanation to Abimelech — the reason he was at the point of death was because he had taken Sarah:

But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. (Gen 20:3 ASV)

It seems that the condition had spread beyond the royal courts; Abimelech pleads for his entire nation:

Now Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay even a righteous nation? (Gen 20:4 ASV)

Righteous Abimelech?

We then have the account of a remarkable dream conversation between God and a heathen king in which the king claims that his nation is ‘righteous’ and God apparently agrees with him, at least in the person of the king.

Now Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay even a righteous nation? Said he not himself unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in the dream, Yea, I know that in the integrity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. (Gen 20:4-6 ASV)

Here is a heathen king with ‘a pure heart and clean hands’ and ‘therefore’ (i.e. because of his integrity) God kept him from sinning against me. How does this fit into our theology? When God sees righteous intention he can preserve even a heathen king from sin. The implication is painful but inevitable — we sin because we choose to.

Abimelech doesn’t know it but he has crossed a line. God must keep this bloodline clear; the purpose of all these workings in the life of Abraham and Sarah is to culminate in the coming of the Seed, and concerning his descent and identity there must be no doubt. The child that Sarah is to bear must have no doubtful paternity. There are consequences which are not direct punishments but which God can use to illustrate truth. Let me explain…

Prophecy and prayer

Abimelech is about to hear something which will set Abraham apart from all others. Sometimes the consequences of our choices bring us into great danger but even here God will use the circumstances to teach us his ways. Abimelech’s family and people stand in deadly danger and there is something that Abimelech must do — and something which another must do.

Now therefore restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet,
and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live:
and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. (Gen 20:7 ASV)

Abimelech must put right what he can put right, but the damage can only be undone and the necessary healing achieved by another — God’s man. Abraham, my Friend.

We are beginning to see a change in the story of Abraham which we shall observe constantly in the next few devotionals. Abraham will begin to be a revelation of God himself and God’s own character. This is how Abraham will bring blessing to others, not in his own inherent ability but as a living revelation of God. Abimelech is now informed that salvation is through another whose relationship to God is now revealed and whose words will bring deliverance. It is an amazing description that God has given to this heathen king.

The man whose wife must be restored is described thus: he is a prophet and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. As we proceed we shall dwell on some aspects of this statement as we continue to discover God’s preparations in the life of his friend, whom he has led to become a praying man. But at this point, we will just take the broad outline.

He is a prophet

This is another Bible first; the first use of the word prophet. We have learned that the first occurrence of a word or an idea is often loaded with significance. Not everyone who gives a prophecy is a prophet. I can drive a truck but I am not a truck-driver. I preach the gospel but I am not an evangelist. A prophet is a person who lives in this realm. His gifting has so saturated his life and character that the two are almost indistinguishable. It is not possible to think of this man without thinking, ‘This is a prophet.’

What is a prophet? Well, in the simplest terms, he is a spokesman for another. He brings, not his own thoughts and solutions, but the words of another. Not information, primarily, but revelation. He lives in such a relationship with his master that he is intimate with the way in which his master thinks.

It is Abraham’s many steps of faith which have brought him to this place of nearness to his Master, and he will need to continue in the steps of that faith to maintain the relationship. He is not an ambassador sent abroad for long periods of time beyond the sound and reach of his Master’s voice; he lives in his presence. He knows his thoughts and has his ear.

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As Jehovah, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. (1 Kgs 17:1 ASV)

The prophet not only hears God; God hears the prophet. He is a prophet and he will pray… How simply the sentence runs with its own sense of divine logic and inevitability. Did you expect it to say he is a prophet and he will prophesy to you…? No, he is a prophet and he will pray…

Genuine prophecy and genuine prayer have a common link; they are both born in revelation. Not speculation, not calculation, but revelation. Many will bring their ‘prophetic words’ arising from their own reactions to the moment, putting into words their own reasoning and conclusions, but genuine prophecy is born in revelation. Here is a neat little definition of a prophet:

Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said, Come, and let us go to the seer; for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer. (1Sa 9:9 ASV).

A prophet sees, but he sees what God has revealed.

Abraham was in this dilemma with Abimelech because his natural sight had misled him:

And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? (Gen 20:10 ASV)

But now Abraham would see beyond his natural vision into the heart and purpose of God, and the vision would be translated into prayer, and this not the prayer of aspiration but of power:

Now therefore restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. (Gen 20:7 ASV)

Thus you may identify all true prophets. In the full sense of the words, prophecy and prayer are indistinguishable. All true prophecy and all true prayer have their source in revelation.