We Are Slow Learners! – Genesis 20:1-18
Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising
Genesis 20:1-18; August 2, 2026 Sunday PM
We Are Slow Learners!
We come this evening to the final narrative that precedes the storyline of the birth of Abraham and Sarah’s promised son.
After the LORD came to Abraham and Sarah and pinpointed the birth of the promised son, we learned about Lot’s troubles and the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In spite of Lot’s worldliness and family problems, God spared him from the destruction that came to his homeland of Sodom.
Last evening we saw the sad story of how the family of Lot was preserved in the children that would become the nations Moab and Ammon – nations that would become thorns in Israel’s side as they would make their way toward the land.
Tonight we see another hurdle that God would enable Abraham and Sarah to get over in a story that sounds all too familiar.
If you ever get down about your spiritual progress, just read the bible. God uses ordinary people with problems to accomplish His purposes. Pray.
1. Journey to Gerar
20:1 And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar.
As we follow the whereabouts of Abraham and Sarah, we see they move farther south now. Verse 1 says they “journeyed from there to the South” – there, where?
Abraham was noted in 19:27-28 where he could see the destruction and smoke from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now he journeys to the South and lives in a place that is between Kadesh and Shur, staying in Gerar – a place near where Hagar had fled (16:7, 14).
Abraham is seen as a wanderer of sorts, and there are several words here that emphasis that by sound (Ger, Alien; Gur, sojourned; Gerar, etc). It is not known exactly where this is, but it is likely near Gaza as the southern border of Canaan.
And so the story is centered in Gerar.
2. Abduction of Sarah
2 Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
Here we go again. We don’t have any lead-up to the critical moment, but we see Abraham telling the king the same story as he told in the end of chapter 12 as they fled to Egypt because of the famine.
His fear there was that they would see Sarah’s beauty and take her and kill Abraham.
We know how that turned out, and so we would expect – right? – that Abraham would have learned from that and would act right … just like we do all the time!
We see here in verse 2 Abraham telling a half-truth to the king: she’s my sister. We know she was his half-sister, but he was not trying to be cute but to hide the fact that Sarah was his wife. That was the critical point.
We must add that she is also a pregnant woman bearing a particular son of promise.
According to 17:17, she is now 90 years old. This taking of someone’s wife seems to be a common thing by a powerful king.
Here the king is Abimelech which means ‘my father is king’ – probably title like Pharaoh.
And so Sarah is taken. What now? Will God’s promise vanish?
Can you imagine the emotions at this point?
Notice that God has not missed noticing what has taken place:
3. God’s revelation to Abimelech
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
Can you imagine receiving a dream like this from God at night: you are a dead man. You have taken someone else’s wife.
God highlights the importance of the marital relationship by telling Abimelech that he was treading on thin ground.
This would have been a very unsettling situation, and so notice now he responded:
4 But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”
Abimelech tells the LORD he had not been intimate with Sarah, and makes his case for innocence.
The king’s initial response reminds us of Abraham’s intervention with Lot regarding Sodom.
It looks as if he understood the “dead man” warning as an indication of the Lord’s judgment that would fall upon his nation. Perhaps news of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached him and he was concerned. He pleads his case.
He further pleads his case by saying that he was told they were siblings. Yes, they were, but more critically, they were spouses.
We can only imagine their conversation with Abimelech as they tried desperately to find a way to save their own lives. Whether Abraham was seeking to preserve his, it appears that he did want to keep Sarah in good health and this is how he did it.
Abimelech pleads his innocence and the LORD responds:
6 And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Still in a dream, the Lord responds and acknowledges what the king has said and agrees with it. Even more, the king realizes now that the LORD was the One who prevented him from being intimate with her, thus saving him the trouble. God did not let him touch her.
This points to the providential care of the Lord in ways that we must recognize. God prevented the king from sinning against Him.
I think we need to understand this as a great illustration of how God was demonstrating to Abraham and to all that He would keep His promises. Nothing could prevent the birth of that child of promise.
The LORD tells Abimelech to give back Sarah to Abraham who is noted here as a prophet. Prophets speak to the people for God, but notice he is described here as a Priest – one who will pray for him so he will live.
This interceding ministry of Abraham was demonstrated in the story leading up the destruction of Sodom as he pleaded with God to spare the city if as few as 10 righteous were found.
Here, this king – who pleads with God to spare this ‘righteous nation’ – is told that now Abraham would pray for him so he would not die but rather live.
We don’t often think of Abraham as a prophet, but he is noted here as such.
The LORD warned him that if he would not give back Sarah, that he would die. Not only would he die, but his family as well – ‘all who are yours’.
It appears that Abimelech had a healthy fear of the LORD. Notice his response:
4. Abimelech’s response to God’s dream
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.
The LORD gives the king His word and now he is passing that word to all who needed to carry out the transfer back.
They were afraid. The king was fearful.
Fearing the Lord is an important part of our lives. Proverbs 1 shows us this.
On the one hand, we should not live in fear – scared as though the Lord is going to zap us if we goof up. On the other hand, we need to have a healthy fear of God, knowing He is Almighty and we are not.
Abimelech through dreams received word from the Lord that he was innocent, but he would not be innocent if he did not respond now to the revelation of God.
Notice how he response, verse 9:
5. Abimelech’s conversation with Abraham
9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done.” 10 Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?”
We see three questions here the king asks with a statement between the second and third question. The three questions are all related and are the kinds of questions we might ask also. What have you done to us? That is, their lie has led the king and nation to be in the crosshairs of the Lord.
The second question probes the motive for Abraham, as if there was some previous offense the king had done to Abraham that this would be considered payback of sorts. The king had been deceived and the Lord had held him back. But he would be sinning if he did not give her back.
The king lectures Abraham and tells him that he should not have done what he did.
This is very ironic. Here is the father of faith, the recipient of God’s amazing promise, and he is being lectured about right and wrong by this king of Gerar.
When we sin against the Lord, we become a child who needs a lecture. And sometimes that lecture comes from someone to whom we should be giving instruction. Sin makes us small and light.
The final question here asks Abraham what he had hoped the outcome of all this would be? The NET asks it like this: “what prompted you to do this?” ESV “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
We often do things as a reaction to what we perceive. This is the king’s question. Notice how Abraham responds:
11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. 12 But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
Abraham’s answer is a window into his heart and mind. Abraham responds to the questions, but in particular the final one. Abraham said that he answered the king about Sarah as he did because he and that particular nation was not a God-fearing nation. He was concerned that they would act on their own principles rather than respect the ways of the Lord.
We could say this seems like a fair line of thought, for the world does what the world does. But when we press it further, we really are illustrating our propensity to live by sight as we try to figure things out on what we perceive to be the entire situation.
We might be quick to criticize Abraham, but we can find ourselves living out that same line of thought more often than we might like to admit.
“Who knows what the world might do, so let us take things into our own hands and shade the truth a bit.” Really?
Abraham and Sarah already did that (Genesis 16), but they seem to have forgotten about it.
In verse 12 we now see the reference that explains that the half-truth they were now repeating for the second time in their life was really not a lie but rather something very useful when needed. Abraham and Sarah had the same father, but different mothers.
Marriage within the family (endogamy) characterizes the practices of the patriarchs. For example, Nahor married his niece Milcah; Isaac married Rebekah, his second cousin; and Jacob married sisters, Leah and Rachel, who were his cousins. The early practical effect of endogamy is preservation of the family’s religious tradition (chap. 24). Mosaic legislation, however, repudiated certain forms of endogamy, such as a man’s marriage to his sister and marriages to sisters (Lev 18:9, 11, 18; Deut 27:22). From Israel’s later perspective, the marriage of Abraham to his sister was unlawful … The passage does not mention the name of either wife of their father Terah, emphasizing solely their common father.[1]
And so they had this plan in place wherever they might go, whenever they might need it. They were unusual in that they were both husband and wife and also half-brother and half-sister.
This half-truth was used in Egypt and now it was used here in Gerar.
Notice the language Abraham uses for Sarah to go along with this half-truth: “This is your kindness that you should do for me” NKJV.
“you can show your love to me.” “Love” translates the word ḥesed which here means to help out a troubled party; relational loyalty is assumed in a family environment. Although the force of law was not operable in this case, the power of custom encouraged Sarah’s concession (cf. 1 Pet 3:6).[2]
[1] Mathews, K. A. (2005). Genesis 11:27–50:26 (Vol. 1B, p. 258). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Notice what Abimelech thinks of this, verse 14:
6. Abimelech’s response to Abraham
14 Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 Then to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.” Thus she was rebuked.
Abimelech not only gives Sarah back to Abraham but he gives Abraham animals and personnel. On top of this, we see he gives them free range to dwell in his land, wherever he wanted.
This reminds us of Abraham’s offer for Lot to choose whatever land he wanted for himself. Now it is a foreign king offering land to Abraham.
The king seems to think that having them in town would be a benefit because this man was a prophet of God (21:22-32). We’ll see more about this in the chapters to come.
Now he speaks to Sarah and notice how he frames his comments to Sarah. He says that to her brother he has given money. That was the way both Sarah and Abraham framed their relationship, and so the king repeats it here. One wonders if the king is taking a little swipe at them by not saying that he was her husband.
The amount of a thousand pieces or shekels of silver is said in the commentaries to be an enormous amount of money. In 33:1, one hundred shekels bought a piece of land in Shechem.
The king says that this payment, this give-back, this kindness is ‘vindication’ before everyone – essentially a public apology.
Given the context and what unfolds later in time, this is important for everyone to understand that the child that Sarah will carry is not this king’s child.
She is exonerated before all, and thus there is no future potential public shame.
The ESV translation of verse 16 makes this clear: “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”
And so the king has done what the LORD told him to do, and now notice once again the intercession work of Abraham for the king:
7. Abraham’s intercessory prayer for Abimelech
17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
These verses shed light on what had happened to Abimelech and his wife and associates as a result of his abduction of Sarah. God had caused all the women to be barren, and now we see God reverse this through the mediation of Abraham.
The promise of God to the king that he was about to die may also now be seen in what could have been a slow death to the kingdom because of no future. It’s hard to perpetuate a city without people.
Abraham prayed – as with Sodom – and God intervened – as with Sodom. Here we have the reversal of barrenness at the request of Abraham, and now this kingdom of Gerar could expect future children.
As we think of how chapter 20 ends, we are reminded of the larger context of all of this – the pregnancy of Sarah and the soon birth of the promised son.
As you study these texts and notice the similar themes, it helps tie them all together. God is at work, and even with this trip to Gerar we are reminded yet again of God’s abundant grace to Abraham as observed even in this account with Abimelech.
God preserved Sarah, and thus preserved His promise.
There are many things we can consider as we seek to apply this text, but the theme that strikes me in all of this is what I distilled in the title: we are slow learners! Here is Abraham, on the eve we could say, of the birth of that promised son, and he – and Sarah – are still working out their own plans to protect themselves.
Should Abraham and Sarah know by now that God will keep His promise, and that Sarah will have a son? In other words, the episode here with Abimelech should have been very different if he was trusting the Lord and waiting upon Him.
I think stories like this are here to remind us that God knows our weakness. He knows we trust him, but we also doubt Him far too often. Abraham and Sarah are yet to understand faith fully. They will see the fruit of God’s promise in the next chapter.
May God help us to trust Him each and every day.