But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art [but] a dead man, because of the woman that thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
Abraham had moved to Gerar and passed his wife off as his sister, and King Abimelech took her. That night God spoke in a dream — to the foreign king, not to His own failing servant.
Before there was any written Scripture, God spoke to people one by one. He did this even with people who knew little about Him.
In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that the only revelation of God was what He gave to each person. God made His mind known this way to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who knew little of Him, such as Abimelech and Laban. A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation… The same truth holds even more fully now. We do not need revelation by dreams and visions. We have it in the written word of God.
The reason God gives is that the woman belongs to a husband. No law had been written down yet, but God still holds a foreign king to the marriage bond.
Marriage was God's provision for His creatures. He set it up before the Fall and kept it after the Fall. Before the law He upheld it as something no one may break (Gen. 12:17; 20:3). Under the law He guarded it with clear commands (Ex. 20:14, 17). The Lord confirmed its sanctity again (Matt. 19:3-9). And the New Testament declares it honourable for all (Heb. 13:4).
Abimelech hears the words as a threat of execution and protests that his nation is innocent. But the words describe where he already stood. They were not a sentence God had passed.
Abimelech had Sarah in his house, but he had not come near her. So he protests to the Lord: would He kill a nation that was blameless? The Lord had not said He would kill the nation, or even Abimelech. He said that Abimelech's condition was one of virtual death, because he had Sarah in his house.
Abraham had used this trick before in Egypt. This time Sarah was about to bear the promised son, so his failure put God's own word at risk.
He moved to Gerar and before Abimelech the king he used the same trick he had used years before in Egypt. This time it was even more serious, for Sarah was just about to bear the child of promise. Abraham's failure might have compromised what God had promised and was about to perform. So God took what we may call drastic action to protect Sarah, not dealing with Abraham who had failed, but with the heathen king.
God says nothing to Abraham here. He lets the rebuke reach him through the man he wronged.
God stepped in again in mercy. This time it was not by plagues, as He did with Pharaoh, but by speaking to Abimelech in a dream… Why did God not reprove Abraham Himself? Was it not because Abimelech's rebuke would make him feel ashamed before the man he had wronged?
Abraham is in the wrong, yet God moves against the king on his behalf.
In the case of Abraham and Abimelech, it was divine care over one He had called out to walk before Him. "He rebuked kings on their account, saying, 'Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!'" (Ps. 105:15). God cares for those He calls to walk before Him. Abimelech had taken a member of Abraham's family by tyrannical power. God shows that no one can touch His people on earth and go unpunished.
Abraham lied, and God still calls him a prophet who can pray for the king.
However great their failure, God does not give up His people. He will never throw away His pearls because of some grit that clings to them… God tells Abimelech that the very man who had so wronged him stands so near to Him that he can pray for him. Despite his failure, he is a prophet, and one who prays to God for others, and God does not withdraw these high privileges because of his failures.
- Warning — God comes at night to a king who hardly knows Him. He can make His mind known to anyone.
- Reason — the woman has a husband. God held marriage binding long before any law was written down.
- Danger — "a dead man" describes where Abimelech already stood while Sarah was under his roof. It was not a sentence God had passed.
- Protection — Sarah was about to bear the child of promise. God acted to guard what His servant's failure had put at risk.
- Grace — God rebukes a king for Abraham's sake. He still calls Abraham a prophet who can pray for others. Failure does not cancel that place.
But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou also kill a righteous nation?
A king takes a woman into his household, and that same night God tells him he is a dead man. The king answers that he never touched her, and pleads for a people he calls innocent — but does a clean record before people settle anything before God?
Commentators point out that Abimelech is answering a threat God never made.
Abimelech had Sarah in his house, but he had not come near her. So he protests to the Lord: would He kill a nation that was blameless? The Lord had not said He would kill the nation, or even Abimelech. He said that Abimelech was as good as dead because he had Sarah in his house — even though, as Abimelech said, both Abraham and Sarah had deceived the Philistines.
Abimelech does not plead for himself alone. God does not brush the plea aside — but it does not change Abraham's place.
The Philistine king, though, could plead that his heart was sincere and his hands were clean. He counted his people as one with himself. "Lord, will you kill an innocent people?" Abraham and Sarah were both guilty of deceit. Yet note this: God allowed the plea, showing that He had kept the king from actual sin. Even so, He maintains the special place Abraham held.
A clear conscience does not cancel the sentence God has already spoken. The better-behaved man ends up in debt to the man who deceived him.
Yes, with all "the integrity of his heart and the innocence of his hands," the king of Gerar was "but a dead man." What is more, he had to depend on the prayers of that erring and inconsistent stranger to get his household's health restored.
The timing explains why God acted so sharply. Writers point out what Sarah was about to bear, and whom God dealt with.
In Genesis 20 we get a glimpse of Abraham on a much lower level than he was in Genesis 18. He moved to Gerar, and before Abimelech the king he used the same trick he had used years before in Egypt. This time it was even more serious, for Sarah was just about to bear the child of promise. Abraham's failure might have put at risk what God had promised and was about to do. So God took what we may call drastic action to protect Sarah. He did not deal with Abraham, who had failed, but with the heathen king.
Commentators differ over how much blame Abimelech carries. Some allow his plea of innocence. Others call his taking of Sarah an act of tyrannical power. On God's reason for acting they agree.
With Abraham and Abimelech, God was not displaying justice. He was showing divine care over one He had called out to walk before Him. "He rebuked kings on their account, saying, 'Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm'" (Psalm 105:14-15). God cares for those He calls to walk before Him. Abimelech had recklessly used tyrannical power to take a member of Abraham's family. God shows that no one can touch His people on earth without consequence.
- Failure first. Abraham repeats an old trick at the worst moment, just as the promised child is due. The trouble starts with the believer, not the king.
- Danger named. God's word to Abimelech was no threat to wipe out a nation. It said that a man holding another man's wife is already as good as dead.
- Plea heard. God allows Abimelech's appeal to a clear conscience, made for his people as well as himself. He had kept the king from actual sin.
- Plea not enough. Integrity of heart and clean hands still leave him "a dead man." He needs the prayers of the very man who wronged him.
- Care decides. God is not weighing which man behaved better. He guards the man He called, and rebukes kings so that no one touches His people without consequence.
Did he not say to me, She is my sister? and she, even she said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and in the innocency of my hands have I done this.
Abimelech, king of Gerar, has taken Sarah into his house and God has told him in a dream that he is a dead man. He pleads a clear conscience: both Abraham and Sarah had told him the same story — so is an honest heart the same as safety before God?
Abimelech can quote both Abraham and Sarah back to God. Neither of them had said anything false, and that is what makes the deception so slippery.
With the fear of man before him, Abraham loses faith in God. Failing in faith, he falls back on his own resources and acts with the deceit of the flesh. He says of Sarah, his wife, "She is my sister." He tells the truth to hide the truth. Once again he exposes his wife to shame to save his own life.
The king's moral sense in this scene looks finer than the believer's. Yet God had already called him a dead man before he opened his mouth to plead.
In this scene the man of the world seemed, for the moment, to have a finer moral sense than the man of God… But notice how God enters the scene to vindicate His servant. He says to Abimelech, "Behold, you are but a dead man." Yes, with all "the integrity of his heart and innocence of his hands" — with all his fine moral sense of right and wrong, he was "but a dead man." It only had to become, for one moment, a question between him and even an erring child of God. In His grace, God was looking at His dear servant from a completely different point of view than Abimelech's. All Abimelech could see in Abraham was a man guilty of an obvious piece of deception. God saw more than that.
Abimelech's protest is not brushed aside. God's answer deals with both men at once.
But the Philistine king could plead the sincerity of his heart and the innocence of his hands. He counted his people as one with himself. "Lord, will You slay also a righteous nation?" Abraham and Sarah were both guilty of deceit. Yet notice this. God allowed the plea, showing that He had kept the king from actual sin. At the same time He kept Abraham in the special place where he stood.
God Himself had kept the king from touching Sarah. That mercy, though, is not a licence.
It was true enough that Abimelech had not done wrong in the way he treated Sarah, and God acknowledges this to him. But God adds that He Himself had kept Abimelech from sinning against Him, by not letting him touch Sarah. How gracious our God and Father is! He protects us even when we put ourselves in compromising positions. Yet this is no excuse for our failure, and we must not dare to count on God's protection when we deliberately do wrong.
Abraham was a prophet and could pray for others. That standing did not soften what he had done to a man who had wronged nobody.
Still, the privileges of being a prophet and an intercessor only increase the evil of his deceit. The world is quick to notice this. At once Abimelech calls Abraham and challenges him about what he has done. Abimelech is right when he says plainly, "You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done." Abraham had failed in faith in God. He had wronged his wife. On top of that, he had wronged the man of the world. Abraham had sunk, not only beneath the height of his calling, but beneath the conduct of a decent man of the world.
- Half-truth. Abraham told the truth to hide the truth. Abimelech now repeats that half-truth back to God as his defence.
- Integrity. A man can act with a whole heart and clean hands and still stand condemned. His fine moral sense left him "but a dead man."
- Allowed. God does not dismiss the plea. He grants it, and tells the king that He Himself had kept him from actual sin. Even so, Abraham keeps his place as prophet and intercessor.
- Protected. God guards His people even in trouble their own unbelief created. That is grace, not permission to presume on it.
- Exposed. A believer can sink below the conduct of a decent outsider. The world is quick to notice when he does.
And God said to him in a dream, I also knew that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, and I, too, have withheld thee from sinning against me therefore have I not suffered thee to touch her.
Abraham has moved to Gerar and called his wife his sister. King Abimelech has taken Sarah into his house, and God speaks to him in a dream at night. God's answer is startling. He grants the king a clear conscience, but He claims the clean hands as His own work.
God agrees with Abimelech's protest and then adds something the king did not know. The restraint he thought was his own turns out to have been God's work in him.
It was true that Abimelech had done no wrong in the way he treated Sarah, and God says so to him. But God adds that He Himself had kept Abimelech from sinning against Him, by not letting him touch Sarah (v. 6). How gracious our God and Father is! He protects us even when we put ourselves in compromising positions. Yet this is no excuse for our failure. We must never dare to count on God's protection when we choose to do wrong.
The timing explains how strongly God acted. Sarah was about to bear the promised son, so Abraham's lie put God's own promise at risk.
In Genesis 20 we see Abraham on a much lower level than he was in Genesis 18. He moved to Gerar, and before Abimelech the king he used the same trick he had used years before in Egypt. This time it was even more serious, for Sarah was just about to bear the child of promise. Abraham's failure could have put at risk what God had promised and was about to do. So God took what we may call drastic action to protect Sarah. He did not deal with Abraham, who had failed, but with the pagan king.
Writers trace this episode back to a longer campaign. Sarah in a foreign king's house was not a random misfortune; it was one of several attempts to mix the chosen family into the nations and so stop the promised Seed from coming.
Apart from a faint hint in "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem," nothing showed which line the promised seed would come through. Then Abram was called, and Satan fixed his eye on him at once. On three different occasions Satan tried to swamp the separated line with the nations outside. Twice Sarah was put at risk: first in the house of Pharaoh (Gen. 12:14), then in the house of Abimelech (Gen. 20). His third try, with the same aim, was with Rebekah (Gen. 26)... All this was to prevent the coming of the true Seed.
The chapter puts two men side by side. God's verdict on each reverses what anyone watching would expect.
So in Abraham's case, he might lower himself in the eyes of Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Abimelech might have to rebuke him. Yet when God comes to deal with the case, He says to Abimelech, "Behold, you are but a dead man"; and of Abraham He says, "He is a prophet, and he shall pray for you." Yes, with all "the integrity of his heart, and the innocence of his hands," the king of Gerar was "but a dead man." What is more, he had to depend on the prayers of this failing, inconsistent stranger to get his household well again. This is God's way. He may have many a private dispute with His child about his practical ways. But as soon as the enemy brings a charge against him, the Lord always pleads His servant's cause.
God works here ahead of a sin, not after it. Such care draws far less notice than forgiveness.
I do not know anything in scripture which gives a greater idea of the preventive watchfulness of God. We all know that He restores our souls when we fail. But do we think enough about the little things in our daily life that He has prepared and arranged so that we may not fail? It is "lest I should be exalted above measure" — not bringing me back after failure, but preventing its occurrence.
- Kept. Abimelech's hands were clean because God held them. The innocence was real, but God gave it; the king did not earn it.
- Kept for a purpose. Sarah was about to bear the promised son. So God acted to protect her, even though the failure was Abraham's.
- Kept against an enemy. Sarah in Pharaoh's house, then in Abimelech's, then Rebekah. Three tries to blend the chosen line into the nations and block the coming Seed.
- Kept, and still honoured. God corrects His servant in private, yet defends him in public. The honest king is a dead man; the man who lied is a prophet who must pray for him.
- Kept before the fall, not only after it. God restores us when we fail. He also arranges the things that keep us from falling. That mercy is for leaning on, never for presuming.
And now, restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and will pray for thee, that thou mayest live. And if thou do not restore [her], know that thou shalt certainly die, thou and all that is thine.
God speaks to Abimelech in a dream. Abraham has passed off Sarah as his sister, yet God calls him a prophet — and warns the king he is a dead man unless he gives her back. Why the title of honour for the man whose lie caused the trouble, and why does the king's life hang on that man's prayer?
This is the first time the word appears in the Bible. It does not mean what most people assume.
It is clear from this that "prophet" does not mean only someone who predicted the future. That was not the question here. A prophet is someone who told out the mind of God. He spoke by the evident guidance of the Spirit what no one could know by natural means, and so he put the soul all the more before God and His light. So Abraham is a prophet (Gen. 20:7), and the patriarchs generally (Ps. 105:15).
The verse joins two things that look unrelated — being a prophet and praying for someone else.
Being a prophet means having the mind of God communicated to you. That places a man in — and assumes — an intimacy with Him. Such intimacy lets him ask of God, and receive, and get what he asks. By its very nature it produces and implies a confidence, a claim in grace that comes out of intimacy, a possession of His mind that lets him intercede... And note this. The Christian is in the same position, so far as he values his place in Christ: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
Abimelech had the stronger case. Abraham had deceived him, and he said so, pleading the integrity of his heart.
Notice how God enters the scene to vindicate His servant. He says to Abimelech, "Behold, you are a dead man." Yes — he was a dead man, for all "the integrity of his heart and innocence of his hands," for all his fine moral sense of right and wrong. He was a dead man the moment it became a question between him and even an erring child of God. God, in His grace, was looking at His dear servant from a different point of view than Abimelech's. All the king could see in Abraham was a man guilty of an obvious piece of deception, but God saw more than that... What dignity is put upon Abraham here! God Himself vindicates him before the world! Not a syllable of reproof! Not a breath of disapproval!
At this moment the pagan king looks like the more godly of the two.
The whole story suggests that at that time Abimelech the Philistine had more godly fear in his mind than Abraham the Hebrew — "the friend of God." Yet Abraham was a prophet, and had power to intercede such as Abimelech did not have! We may learn from this in passing that God does not take away our privileges as saints and priests even when our spiritual condition is low. For the time being, though, we are not enjoying them and cannot use them for the blessing of others.
But the honour cuts both ways.
Still, the privileges of being a prophet and an intercessor only increase the evil of his double-dealing. The world is quick to see this. Abimelech at once calls Abraham and challenges him about what he has done... Abraham had sunk not only beneath the height of his calling, but beneath the conduct of a decent man of the world.
The verse is not only comfort. It ends with a warning.
Then the Lord tells Abimelech to restore Abraham's wife to him. Because Abraham was a prophet, he would pray for Abimelech. This itself would humble Abraham and teach Abimelech. Even a man caught up in a wrong without knowing it needs the grace of God. But the Lord also tells him this: if he would not restore Sarah to her husband, he would die, together with his household. Now that he knew the truth, he had to act on it.
- Prophet — the word's first appearance in Scripture describes a man who carries God's mind, not one who predicts the future.
- Nearness — holding God's mind brings a man close to Him, and out of that closeness comes prayer for others. The same is true of the believer who abides in Christ.
- Vindication — God defends Abraham before a king who had every right to complain, without one syllable of reproof.
- Privilege — a low spiritual state does not cancel our standing, but it can leave us unable to enjoy it or use it for others. Nearness to God makes the failure heavier, not lighter.
- Obedience — sincerity did not shield Abimelech; once he knew the truth, he had to restore the wife or die.