God and Abimelech: Genesis 20:3-7
God wants to uphold righteousness and be fair at the same time. He understands we cannot know every detail about our life and sometimes we must make the best decision under the circumstances we know. Fortunately, when we need guidance, He is always there to walk through life with us personally and through His Word.
Abimelech takes Sarah to become a wife, but he does not consummate the marriage. Sarah becomes a part of his harem. There may be several reasons Abimelech rationalized his delay. If he had an established harem, then he would likely work his way through the harem before getting to the new girl to make sure he reinforced the internal power structure of the family. If God visited Abimelech quickly after Sarah joined his harem, he may not have had an opportunity. We do know that regardless of Abimelech’s reasons, God prevented Abimelech from sinning. God watched over his decision-making process.
It's a good thing that God had Abimelech’s back. God isn’t willing to accept ignorance as an excuse. Lack of knowledge about a situation is not an acceptable defense. It may change the level of guilt from a human perspective, but in God’s eyes sin is sin regardless of intentionality. Sin always breaks relationship; sin always requires restoration. Lack of intentionality does not make restoration unnecessary.
When God visits Abimelech, Abimelech isn’t afraid to have conversation with God. Abimelech stands up for himself. Abimelech knows his heart is pure and he had not officially transgressed. He also knows he was told a half-truth, which we’ll look at tomorrow.
This reinforces how much God cares about relationship. He wants to dialogue with us. He does not want straight obedience. He doesn’t want rote and meaningless sacrifice. God wants to talk to us about life. He wants to be a part of who we are and how we make decisions. He wants to teach us to become righteous, not simply demand righteousness from us.
God explains to Abimelech that he had not sinned and there is no need for repentance. What error happened was to be placed at Abraham and Sarah’s feet. Abimelech does need to act appropriately in the future. Now that he knows the truth, he needs to act accordingly. He needs to give Sarah back to Abraham. He needs to play his part in teaching Abraham the lesson Abraham needs to relearn. Abimelech is out of the woods so long as he takes a righteous path regarding the truth.
In the end, this comes down to a no-harm, no-foul situation. Abimelech didn’t do anything wrong, but he did need to have conversation with God about how his future could be affected by his choices. He was on the cusp of error. God wants to uphold righteousness and be fair at the same time.
