The Beginning 20

Abraham - about 99 years old, repeating the lie from Genesis 12 out of fear. Sarah - about 89, taken into a king's house while carrying the promise of Isaac. Abimelech - name means my father is king, a Philistine king of Gerar, shown as upright and God-fearing. God - intervenes in a dream to protect Sarah and preserve the promised line. Abimelech's officials and household - witnesses to God's warning and later healing. In the ancient Near East, a king could take any woman he wanted into his harem, and husbands were often killed. Calling Sarah his sister was a half-truth survival strategy, she was his half-sister. Taking a woman required a period of preparation, so God intervened before consummation. Dreams were a respected form of divine warning. A prophet was an intercessor whose prayer could bring healing or judgment. Paying a thousand shekels of silver was a massive legal compensation to restore a woman's honor publicly. Closed wombs were understood as direct divine judgment. Abraham left Mamre near Hebron and moved southwest into the Negev, a dry semi-desert region. He stayed between Kadesh, an oasis in the Sinai wilderness, and Shur, the desert along the border of Egypt. Gerar was a major city-state in that area, located in what is now southern Israel / Gaza region, controlled by the Philistines. It was a place with wells and pasture, where nomads and city people interacted. Abraham migrated to Gerar and once again said Sarah was his sister out of fear that he would be killed. King Abimelech took Sarah, but God warned him in a dream at night that she was married and that he would die if he kept her. Abimelech pleaded his innocence, having acted with a clear conscience. God told him to return her and have Abraham the prophet pray for him. In the morning Abimelech confronted Abraham, Abraham admitted he acted out of fear and justified the half-lie that she is his half-sister. Abimelech returned Sarah, gave Abraham flocks and servants, paid a huge honor payment of silver to vindicate Sarah, and offered him land. Abraham prayed for Abimelech, and God healed Abimelech's wives and servant girls who had been made barren because of Sarah.