Genesis · chapter 20 of 50
Updated on
Genesis 20 tells how Abraham travels to Gerar and says Sarah is his sister, so King Abimelech takes her. God appears to him in a dream and warns him that he will die for taking a married woman; Abimelech, who had not touched her, returns her with gifts. Abraham prays for him, and God heals Abimelech, his wife and his female servants.
Genesis 20 repeats an episode similar to Genesis 12: Abraham, out of fear, presents Sarah as his sister. It happens shortly before the birth of Isaac, and it endangers the promise. The chapter shows that God protects his plan even from the mistakes of his servant, and that a pagan king can answer God with more integrity than the prophet.
Abraham journeys toward the Negeb and lives between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourns in Gerar. There he says of Sarah that she is his sister, and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sends and takes her. But God comes to Abimelech in a dream by night and tells him he is a dead man because of the woman he has taken, who is married.
Abimelech had not approached her, and he argues that he acted with integrity of heart and clean hands, because Abraham said she was his sister and she herself said he was her brother. God answers that he knows, that he kept him from sinning against him and so did not let him touch her. He must return the woman to her husband, who is a prophet and will pray for him, and he will live; if he does not return her, he will die with all his own.
Abimelech rises early, tells the dream to his servants, who are very afraid, and calls Abraham and rebukes him for bringing a great sin on him. Abraham explains that he thought there was no fear of God in that place and that they would kill him for his wife; also, Sarah is indeed his half sister, the daughter of his father though not of his mother. Abimelech returns Sarah with sheep, oxen and servants and a thousand pieces of silver, and offers him to live in his land. Abraham prays to God, and God heals Abimelech, his wife and his female servants so that they bear children, for the Lord had closed every womb in Abimelech's house.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
God comes to Abimelech in a dream and tells him he is a dead man because of the woman he has taken, who has a husband. God intervenes directly to protect Sarah, and through her the promise of Isaac.
God acknowledges that Abimelech acted with integrity of heart, and that it was he who kept him from sinning and from touching Sarah. God cares not only for his people but also for the conscience of a pagan king.
God says that Abraham is a prophet and will pray for Abimelech so that he may live. Although Abraham failed, he is still the intercessor God has chosen, and his prayer is the path of healing for those who wronged him.
Abraham prays to God, and God heals Abimelech, his wife and his female servants, who can bear children. His prayer, after being rebuked by a pagan king, shows the grace of God that restores even when we fail.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That she was his sister. — Genesis 20:2
Answer: He sent and took her into his house. — Genesis 20:2
Answer: He spoke to him in a dream by night and told him he would die because of the woman he had taken. — Genesis 20:3
Answer: He thought there was no fear of God in that place and that they would kill him because of his wife. — Genesis 20:11
Answer: Sheep, oxen, male and female servants, and a thousand pieces of silver. — Genesis 20:14-16
Answer: He healed Abimelech, his wife and his female servants so that they could bear children. — Genesis 20:17
Genesis 20 shows how fear can lead even a man of faith to lie. Abraham had already gone through the same thing in Egypt, and he fell again. In a group you can ask what repeated weaknesses we have, and how to seek help to leave them behind, instead of assuming they will not cause us trouble again.
The integrity of Abimelech and God's kindness toward him are also striking. God uses a pagan king to rebuke his servant. Ask what lessons you can receive from people outside the church, and how prayer for those we have hurt or who have hurt us can be a path of reconciliation.
Genesis 20 ends with Sarah protected and Abimelech's house healed, just before the promise is fulfilled. In Genesis 21 Isaac is finally born, the son of Abraham and Sarah in their old age.
The text does not justify it. Abraham confesses that he thought there was no fear of God in Gerar. It is a warning that even great men of faith repeat their falls if they do not trust God fully, and also a sign that God keeps carrying out his plan in spite of them.
According to Genesis 20:12, Sarah was the daughter of Abraham's father, though not of his mother, that is, a half sister. So what Abraham said was technically true, but it was used to hide that she was his wife, which is why it is still a deception.
Because he had taken a married woman, though unknowingly, and the judgment depended on whether he returned her. God gives him the chance to correct it and asks him to acknowledge his error. Abimelech obeys at once and that is why he is spared.