Genesis 20:1-2

2007.Oct.09 15:16

Sins that are Known

Read Genesis 20:1-2 | Full Chapter

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
(Genesis 20:1-2, NASB)

Assuming this chapter falls in order chronologically with the chapters near to it, Sarah is about ninety years old. (Her son, Isaac, is born in chapter 21; in chapter 18, God promised Isaac’s birth in a year’s time. In Genesis 17:17, Abraham states that Sarah is–or is about to be–ninety years old.) Which makes it sort of a surprise that Abraham feels the need to pretend she’s his sister, at least so far as keeping anyone from killing him over her. I mean, guys who kill for other men’s wives tend to go for the under eighty crowd, right? I do realize that there are at least some cultural differences here about which I know nothing.

This is not the first time Abraham and Sarah have gotten themselves into this situation. This story is very repetitious of Genesis 12:11-20, in which Abram and Sarai go to Egypt. One way or another, Jehovah does bring good out of these little ploys. I wonder whether he deliberately led Abram to make these–in my opinion, foolish–decisions in order to enable Abraham and Sarah’s opportunities to share about Jehovah’s power and righteousness.

Abimelech, king of Gerar, “[takes] Sarah,” whatever that means. I assume it means he has forced her to be a concubine. It’s not terribly clear to me from the OT what God thinks about polygamy, but from what I know of Jehovah, anything that amounts to sex slavery is sinful. So, when I title this article “Sins that are Known”, I’m meaning to differentiate Abimelech’s apparent habit of taking foreign women to satisfy his lusts for sex and/or power–a known sin–from the sin in ignorance, being that he doesn’t know that one of these women is also married. While I don’t expect Abimelech to have known the Law given to Moses–Moses being, as it were, not yet born–if he is unaware of the immorality in his taking of Sarah, it can only be because he habitually treats other people–probably particularly women–as property.

The sin that he does not know is that were he to actually have sex with Sarah, he would be additionally committing adultery. Jehovah, in my opinion, does not owe Abimelech the chance to correct this sin in ignorance, due to his many premeditated sins. In fact, the more I think about this guy and his harem whence he immediately sends a woman who catches his fancy, the more I am quite amazed by God’s reaction to this situation. Like me, he concludes that this man deserves death. Of course, in his righteousness, he has a moral right to conclude this, whereas I am just expressing my opinions, and doing so warily, aware of my own disobedience. Unlike my inclination, Jehovah warns Abimelech. Jehovah is always doing this. Basically, his modus operandi in regards to sin often runs:

• God: You’re doing vile evil things
• Human: Ha ha, indeed I am
• God: You deserve to die
• Human: Erm
• God: But, I’m going to give you a chance to repent
• Human: [begins litany of excuses]…wait, what? You mean, I have another chance?
• God: Yup.

So, here we have a man who habitually sins, to whom God is going to use the sin he doesn’t know to correct him. My next entry I want to focus on that issue of unknown sins, considering in particular how Yahweh addresses that sin in Abimelech’s case. But I want to make clear, before I look there, that while we probably all have committed sins without realizing it was a sin, I don’t believe that anyone of sound mind over the age of about ten has not committed sins knowingly. I don’t want to hide myself in “I didn’t know” excuses, but rather realize that I am a sinner and that I need the grace of God.

Which, I am glad to say, He is glad to give.