Genesis 20

Ge 20:1-18.

ABRAHAM'S

DENIAL OF

HIS

WIFE.

1. Abraham journeyed from thence . . . and dwelled between

Kadesh and Shur--Leaving the encampment, he migrated to the

southern border of Canaan. In the neighborhood of Gerar was a very rich

and well-watered pasture land.

2. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister--Fear of the

people among whom he was, tempted him to equivocate. His conduct was

highly culpable. It was deceit, deliberate and premeditated--there was

no sudden pressure upon him--it was the second offense of the kind

[see on

Ge 12:13]

--it was a distrust of God every way surprising, and it was calculated

to produce injurious effects on the heathen around. Its mischievous

tendency was not long in being developed.

Abimelech (father-king) . . . sent and took

Sarah--to be one of his wives, in the exercise of a privilege

claimed by Eastern sovereigns, already explained (see on

Ge 12:15).

3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream--In early times a dream

was often made the medium of communicating important truths; and this

method was adopted for the preservation of Sarah.

9. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said . . . What hast

thou done?--In what a humiliating plight does the patriarch now

appear--he, a servant of the true God, rebuked by a heathen prince. Who

would not rather be in the place of Abimelech than of the honored but

sadly offending patriarch! What a dignified attitude is that of the

king--calmly and justly reproving the sin of the patriarch, but

respecting his person and heaping coals of fire on his head by the

liberal presents made to him.

11. And Abraham said . . . I thought, Surely the fear of

God is not in this place--From the horrible vices of Sodom he seems

to have taken up the impression that all other cities of Canaan were

equally corrupt. There might have been few or none who feared God, but

what a sad thing when men of the world show a higher sense of honor and

a greater abhorrence of crimes than a true worshipper!

12. yet indeed she is my sister--(See on

Ge 11:31).

What a poor defense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the

charge of direct and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral

untruth because there was an intention to deceive (compare

Ge 12:11-13).

"Honesty is always the best policy." Abraham's life would have been as

well protected without the fraud as with it: and what shame to himself,

what distrust to God, what dishonor to religion might have been

prevented! "Let us speak truth every man to his neighbor"

[Zec 8:16;

Eph 4:25].