Twelfth Page: Yes I know, Abimelech!

Abraham was a master in relocating. God called him first when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, to a land He would show (Gen.12:1); and even before the movers and packers got wind of his intent, Abram as he was then called, was on his way – with the entire household of his father Terah! No protests about his deep rooted attachment to his home town with all its familiarity and comforts, legitimate apprehension about  an unknown foreign country to which he is being called – no fuss at all. (Tamil speakers will have a problem understanding this kind of  detachment, for the word in Tamil for town or home town is Ur and they take such pride in namba – meaning our –  Ur!)

God called, he moved.

One little problem though; he didn’t know where he was going! Quite naturally he didn’t know the way but that didn’t deter him; so walking long enough, as the Cheshire cat advised Alice, he ended up in Haran which is way up to the north of the land of Canaan. He was like that; ready to move without asking too many questions or stopping for directions. When he was doing this in response to a definite call from God or guidance from Him, he was OK; for although Haran was but a halfway house, it appears there was a purpose in God letting him go there. Abram had to remain there until his connections with his father’s household were completely severed. The past had to be wiped out clean. A fresh beginning had to be made.

Terah died in Haran (Gen.11:32)

But there were also occasions in Abraham’s life when he followed his own heart’s inclinations, wandered about and got into trouble. Not long after he got to the Promised Land, he wandered away to Egypt, got booted out, came back to Bethel and then moved to Mamre once Lot chose to pitch his tent near Sodom. We have to pick up the story from the plains of Mamre where Abraham had a divine visitation that reiterated the promise of God to make him a great nation; that is when God also revealed to him the imminent destruction of Sodom.

Sometimes Abram was tuned in to God and sometimes he was doing his own thing.

Sounds familiar?

It is noteworthy  that  God let him wander (Gen.20:13). He didn’t put a bit and bridle on his servant nor keep him under a tight leash. He was allowed to

Think for himself

Exercise his will

Make his choices

Commit mistakes, repeatedly

I guess that’s the way God trains his servants. He allowed full scope for Abram’s natural humanness and worked His divine purposes in and through it all. Abram’s character had to be moulded and his faith strengthened even as he lurched and lumbered through life. And it took a while. Between Ur and the bushes of Moriah – where Abraham’s faith reached its zenith – passed 37 eventful years. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day! Many a time it looked as though this whole endeavour was purposeless and God was wasting His time. But even as Abram did his best to go astray time and again, a victim of his own wanderlust and wantonness, God was always in control. He didn’t let him go.

His call is irrevocable (Rom.11:29)

But we are wandering ourselves, somewhat away from the topic.

During one of his willful peregrinations, Abraham finds himself in Gerar. Abimelech was king of Gerar. It was accepted in those days for the king to take any good looking woman for his wife or concubine – as long as she was not married with a living husband.

But again in those days, this condition was easily met. It took only one swish of the sword to turn a living husband into a dead one. Adultery was a very bad thing but apparently manslaughter was not!

Different times, different values.

Now Abraham was acquainted with this habit of the ancient kings. Remember, he was experienced. You can read all about it in Genesis 12; and in this blog site http://judahsjottings.com/89/    Whatever else Abraham was unsure about, it was clear that he assessed his wife Sarah to be an attractive woman. It may strain credulity to see our patriarch – often depicted with a flowing white beard -as a romantic, but the fact is, he told his wife that she was beautiful(Gen.12:11)! Never mind that she was ninety or thereabouts! (Wouldn’t we desperately want to know what creams, lotions, cosmetics and salves went into keeping her body supple, her skin smooth, her face wrinkle free, her hair dark and her appearance youthful).

But we are digressing again!

Abraham  had no doubt that Abimelech’s roving eyes would fall on Sarah and the story would end shortly thereafter. So he schemed. And as we noted a short while ago, Abraham had been there, done that and no doubt had a T- shirt emblazoned with the words “Oh Sarah Sarah! What a beautiful sister you are!” just for such occasions. Yes, he regarded himself as something of a wise guy in these matters. Expert, with self-devised solutions to knotty issues.

Are they the right solutions? Who cares?

Ahem…God?

Sorry, who? Did you say “God”? He is nowhere in the picture. He wasn’t sought. He wasn’t consulted. Abraham knew exactly what to do with his human machinations. Please leave God out of this. There is no need for Him to get involved when Abraham was more than capable. Abraham’s plan for such situations was to call his wife his sister and instruct her likewise to let it be known that he was her brother. That was that.

Sounds simple enough but morally a minefield.

Abraham  displayed  no compunctions about trading his wife’s virtue at the altar of self preservation. We know Sarah agreed to this despicable scheme; she was no doubt put in a quandary and found herself between a rock and a hard place. Life of her husband versus forced infidelity. Extreme choices! She cast her lot in favour of Abraham’s longevity knowing full well that it was curtains for their life together conjugally as husband and wife. A terribly twisted plot that could easily be the stuff of a romantic thriller.

Love wins but loses!

In comparison, Kafka is kindergarten.

Oh God, what’s going on? What will become of all Your wonderful promises to Abraham?

 

Not to worry. God was very present and He was watching this wonderful play so cleverly scripted, directed and enacted by His servant. Me thinks He didn’t applaud though! He was concerned nevertheless.

Well, how do we know? We will come to that in a minute. For now let’s move on with the story.

Now, Abraham’s script works perfectly – up to a point. The king of Gerar, Abimelech sets his eyes on Sarah and finds her desirable. He omits to ask her age, does not bother much with Abraham after the latter spoke his well rehearsed lines and pointed  time and again to his T shirt. And before you can say, “what, ho” Sarah is in the palace. Ha-ha, should Abraham be pleased that his plan was working so well?

Now that’s a difficult one.

The stage is all set for the act of adultery, except that poor Abimelech does not know it is adultery. Oh my God!

Enter God.

Not through his servant Abraham but through this strange king Abimelech. God can act any which way. No one can claim exclusive connections. Why, He can take your own script and turned it on its head!

In the meanwhile, the man called of God is unaware that God has quietly replaced him as the Director of his own show. Abraham was breathing a sigh of relief – in blissful (now could that really be so?) ignorance that he still has the breath of life; he doesn’t seem perturbed – at all – about the imminent loss of his wife’s virtue. In today’s world he will probably be labeled broad minded! If what he did was wrong, if what he did was sinful, it didn’t seem to affect him. He had succeeded in the lie once before and he had no qualms employing it again. He was – if you like – quiet dead to sin. Whoops! Not quite in the way Paul meant when he used that phrase in Romans 6 though!

Strange indeed are the ways of Abraham.  He had no compunctions about using the key of expedience to get around a dicey situation. So very myopic. Today I am alive. Tomorrow my wife may still be in the palace. And day after tomorrow, who knows? Remember, he only went to sojourn in Gerar, not to dwell. Future: well, is there one? Never thought about it. “No thought for the morrow” may be a good principle in the sense of ridding oneself of undue worries, but it is definitely worrying when you are not worried about the consequences of your wayward actions. After all God spoke to you, didn’t He? Didn’t He promise that He will make you a great nation and that you will have a son through Sarah? So where is your wife, Abraham?

It is not clear if Abraham was troubled by these big questions, as he breathed in and out again, but God certainly was. And since our man had shut Him out of his life – momentarily at least – God switched channels; He began to work through Abimelech.

He spoke to him in a dream and warned him not to touch Sarah. And unlike Abraham, Abimelech did not take God lightly. He protests his innocence and quotes Abraham. “Why Lord, he even had a T shirt which said ………..” What is more I even heard him humming the words on it to the tune of “key, sara, sara”! And God responds with this most comforting statement:

Yes, I know Abimelech

I know that you are innocent

I know that you were misled

I know that your conscience is clear

You want to tell me something Abimelech, I know it already ( “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” Psalms 139:4)

You feel cheated, defrauded, used or abused and you want to complain to God. He says:

“Yes, I know”

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him (2 Chr.16:9)

In fact, dear Abimelech, I kept you from carrying out your intentions, for sin it would have been (Gen.20:6), even though arising from ignorance of fact.

The Lord’s Prayer “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13) came centuries later but the principle was already in operation in sincere and God fearing hearts. How exactly God kept Abimelech from committing sin in this matter, is not explained but as His children, how many times have we experienced God’s keeping in our lives? Remember that sudden power failure, that insistent telephone ring, that annoying door buzzer, that irritating baby’s cry, that inexplicable break down of car………What is amazing, it is not a one night stand that God prevented, but He kept Abimelech otherwise occupied for probably months, as we may infer from the way the story unfolds.

Can anything be more comforting?  Does “omniscience” mean anything to you? He knows everything, and what is more, He cares. And He works through people who fear Him, revere Him (Gen.20:8). If Abraham had desensitized himself to God’s standards of behavior, He can work through Abimelech, who has not. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance ……… will arise from another place” Esther 4:14. God can find a way to fulfill His promises. The question to be answered then is:

Will you be a part of the plan? Or are you working to thwart His plan? Are you willing? Are you available? Will you be the channel of blessing?

Abimelech answers “Yes”.

Now Abimelech calls his servants and tells them the whole story. It is interesting that they are together with him, of one mind in expressing the fear of God. On the flip side, Abraham’s deception is now widely known.

What a shame!

Time for Abimelech to confront Abraham; and he does so with some well justified hard words. And we see Abraham going on the defensive:

“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)

This was presumptuous!

Oh, the rich irony of it all! Abraham assumes that the Gerarites have no fear of God and devises a plan which smacks of even less fear of God on his own part!

Sometimes we think we are the cat’s whiskers. Others – well, we can’t see them being

as good as us

as God fearing

as righteous

as honest

as spiritual

as morally upright,

and, in our interaction with them we descend to what we imagine to be their (low) level and actually end up being worse than they are.

Is this the way we are going about? “Do not conform to the pattern of this world” writes St.Paul in Rom.12:2, in a sense echoing the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:20 where He says: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”

But we reckon we have to play the same game, by the same rules. More often than not, we are carried away by the adage “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” and decide to join the multitudes in the Broad Way rather than walk alone in the Narrow Way.

To be sure, there is a cost for not playing the game. So before we rush off to castigate Abraham for his lack of uprightness, we will do well to look at ourselves. In Abraham’s case his life was on the line. It could be our children’s education in our case. How quick we are to dig out our past to prove our “backward” credentials in order to avail the benefits of reservation? Or it could be our age. Haven’t we come across the unedifying spectacle of dual birthdays displayed at different times in the life cycle? The earlier date for school admission and the later date to prolong our service in the government? And so on and so forth….

Why? That’s the way of the world. Everybody does it.

Why not rather stand apart?

Abraham was a victim – if you want to be charitable – of wrong thinking and incorrect assumptions; the basis for his actions are founded on falsity. He had settled it in his mind to compromise the truth much before he even came to the test. Note his words carefully. He seemed to have entered into a pact with his wife Sarah to live a lie wherever they go (Gen.20:13).

Surrendered before a single shot was fired. Whither victorious Christian life?

Willful lies. Unreal lives.

And then he rationalizes: “And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”(Gen.20:12)

That’s a bit of impressive verbal gymnastics Abraham. Well done!

Rationalization is such a wonderful device. It allows you room to feel you are doing the right thing when you are actually doing the opposite; it conveniently ignores the fact that you are clinging on to a patently dubious veneer of truth. Now it may not be of serious consequence in dietary matters where for every piece of research that shows that chocolates are bad for your health there is another finding proving how good in fact they are for your heart, but such attitude is dangerous in moral issues. In a world that lacks a moral standard and where diverse well argued and convincingly presented views abound about every issue, you don’t have to search hard for these opportunities. They are available off the counter.

Make up your mind Abraham. What is your primary relationship with Sarah? Wife or sister? Don’t prevaricate. Either she is your wife or she is not. There are no two ways about it. How could you, oh how dare you present this fig leaf, when God Himself has called her your wife, not once but all of four times? And yet you have chosen to quibble, Abraham?

It may be convenient to tergiversate in accordance with the time of day, but playing with half truths is delusional; there is every possibility of a self goal. That is, you end up defeating yourself.

Abraham had made a pact with his wife. That in itself – an agreement between the husband and wife – sounds like a good thing. But it was a crazy pact. The agreement between the husband and wife was to say that they were not husband and wife! You can be sure God had no part in this “covenant”! Together, they had succeeded in the lie once before and they employ it again, a lie that has already lasted fifteen years. In the two incidents recorded for us, how casually the duo let themselves get mired! And how wonderfully God rescues them from the terrible consequences of their deception!

Let’s consider what Abraham lost or forfeited by his actions. He

Lost his witness

Lost the opportunity of exercising his faith

Lost the opportunity of proving God

Lost his moral compass

That the Gerarites did not fear God was not the only assumption Abraham made. He also assumed that God cannot handle this one. His view of God was small. He didn’t think Him big enough or capable enough to address delicate issues of life. He never went to Him. Strange as it may sound, in this instance Abraham simply did not trust God.

What is our view of God? Is He bigger than all our problems?

 

How easily Abraham puts away his wife! Now, there are all kinds of reasons why couples separate.

If Abraham did that because of danger to his life, people are doing the same thing today for a variety of lesser reasons:

Bloated ego

Perceived slight

Super sensitivity

Invidious comparisons

Intimidating inlaws

Work-a-holism

Divergent interests

Debating skills

Rich vocabulary

High pitch

Spilt milk

Burnt toast

Black coffee

………………………

………………………

 

All of them actually par for the course but in an inflamed atmosphere characterized  by  divisiveness arising from growing financial independence of the partners, mutual impatience and intolerance they get unhappily bracketed under a hold-all phrase “irreconcilable differences”! The same two persons who were hopelessly in love with each other cannot now stand the sight of each other. What a strange alchemy that marriage sometimes works!

Once you treat this relationship lightly – as though God had no part in it – you may as well impugn God’s hand in everything else that concerns you. Every step of life becomes open to question. If God’s will is so fleeting, evanescent, tenuous and ephemeral, as you make it out to be, then where will you go seeking refuge for your soul? If the compass is kaput, you begin to flounder, reference less in the sea of life. If somehow you’ve convinced yourself that God made a mistake in this matter, then He is no God at all. Do you recall the solemn vows? Do you remember the sacred charge that “whom God has joined together…..” .If you start playing around with your marriage, pretty soon you will find yourself in a bit of a mess.

Are you submitted in marriage? Or are you, asserting yourself, taking matters into your own hand, wresting control of a sacred relationship instead of leaving it in the hands of God where it is safest?

Abraham was certainly guilty of this kind of cavalier treatment of a married relationship. And God used Abimelech to point it out. When his folly was laid bare, Abraham only went into the defensive, to his credit.

There are some who would pounce on Abimelechs. Question their morals. Or direct them to investigate all others in similar situations the world over before turning to them. They don’t like to be told that they are wrong.

But Abraham was not just any body. He tacitly recognized that Abimelech was but God’s mouth piece. Yes, if someone is coming to correct you, it may be helpful to remember that they are a godsend. Their mission assigned by God is to set things right in your life; they have your interest at heart. The words they speak may be harsh or disagreeable but they are words spoken for your benefit. Do you have the maturity to accept correction? Or are you so bigoted that you shoot the messenger? David displayed great maturity when Nathan confronted him in the matter of Bathsheba. No wonder he could write “Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me —that is oil on my head.”(Psalms 141:5)

 

(credit:sharingknowledge.org)

 

“Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live” (Gen.20:7) says God to Abimelech.

Did you note that God never upbraided Abraham for his folly but in His own way, makes him realize how far gone he is, heaping  burning coals on his head (Rom.12:20).

How does He accomplish this?

First He declares Abraham to be a prophet.

Some prophet this, who completely misread the Gerarites, their fear of God and their standard of behaviour.

And then He announces, “Abraham will pray”!

Gotcha!  It has been a while since you looked to God Abraham; you have been trying to run your life yourself. About time you prayed.

And what can be more effective than prayer in making Abraham realize where he stands in relationship with God, his brilliant stratagem for saving his life thoroughly exposed as a hare brained scheme which at once spelt a snare to his married life and a trap to Abimelech? Absolutely mortifying.

And then through Abimelech, He plies him with wealth (Gen.20:14-16). “He does not treat us as our sins deserve   or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalms 103:10). Imagine being rewarded for your stupidity!

This is the first time in the Bible that God mentions prayer. We might well ask what is the need for it because the narrative makes it plain that God knows everything; we are not adding anything to his knowledge by opening our mouth (“For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” Psalms 139:4). But that’s the way God operates. Remember Jesus’s words, Men ought always to pray (Luke 18:1)…..It is for our good, to bring us into alignment with God, to make us submitted to Him, to quieten our heart and bring us to the point of acknowledging His greatness and sovereignty.

It is interesting God tells Abimelech “Abraham will pray for you”.

Why not the other way around? My thinking would be that Abraham doesn’t come out smelling of roses. It is Abimelech who does. And Abimelech seems to know God quite well, in fact in some respects better than the patriarch himself. And since Abraham was at fault in this instance, Abimelech would seem to be in a better position to do the honours.
Once God says “Abraham will pray”, Abraham has no choice really. He had to face the reality of his miserable position. “So Abraham prayed unto God” Gen20:17. Wonder what his prayer was?

I imagine it was a prayer that acknowledged God’s greatness, His sovereignty, His holiness. It surely was a prayer that included thanks for the restoration of his wife unharmed. It certainly was a prayer of confession of his folly, his inadequate view of God and finally it was, as we know, an intercession on Abimelech’s behalf, for the cessation of infertility in his household.

Now this is a prayer that brings them together, the two children of God and binds them. Had it been Abimelech who prayed, conceivably it would have been a self righteous prayer that would have had the effect of belittling Abraham. But God in His infinite wisdom assigns the praying role to his fallible prophet and accomplishes multiple objectives, not the least being glorification of His name.

 

Yes I know, Abimelech!