Almost Ruin: Genesis 20:8-13
It is a wonder God invites us into His plan as much as He does! God can create the universe out of nothing. He can breathe perfection into existence just because He made it. There is nothing He cannot do perfectly, yet He wants us to come into His work and participate. He knows we’ll probably not deliver perfection, but He wants us to come alongside Him and join His work anyway.
After God’s visit, Abimelech gets a counsel together of his servants and they become afraid. He pulls Abraham in and explains the situation. He also gives Abraham an opportunity to explain his actions. Abimelech could have been quite angry about coming this close to ruin, but he chose to have a rational discussion rather than respond out of anger.
Abraham gives one of the most questionable responses we hear from him. He tells Abimelech that Sarah is his sister – or what we would call a half-sister today. Sarah has the same father as Abraham but a different mother. Abraham claims he didn’t tell a lie.
This is human logic at its worst. Abraham attempts to rationalize his behavior away and escape the blame. Instead of laying out the facts, like Abimelech did when God approached him, Abraham winds his way through half-truths to make himself not look as bad. Instead of owning up to his poor decision, Abraham rationalizes away his guilt. Fortunately, Abimelech will have nothing to do with it. Abimelech returns Sarah to Abraham.
This story is significantly deeper than it appears. Upon a first reading, this story seems like a repeat of the Abraham in Egypt story. The reality is this story is a hundredfold worse. God’s point in coming to Abraham prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was to proclaim Sarah would have a child within a year’s time. The time for Sarah to conceive and bear a child was at hand. We don’t know exactly when this story appears in the timeline, but it could be that she had already conceived and the child was growing in her womb. How the story of Genesis would be different if Abimelech had taken Sarah and consummated the marriage!
If Abimelech had consummated the marriage, there would always be a shadow of doubt upon Abraham’s offspring. If Abimelech had truly taken Sarah for a wife, when she gave birth to Isaac there would always be a question about whether Isaac was Abraham’s child or Abimelech’s child.
Abraham’s choice almost ruined God’s plan completely. It is humbling to realize how much work God had put in to setting up this moment in Abraham’s and Sarah’s life and in a single human decision Abraham risks it all. Naturally, God protected Abimelech and protected His work. In this moment, God wouldn’t permit His work to be undone by human hands. From this perspective, it is a wonder God invites us into His plan as much as He does!
