In Genesis 12 & 20, there are two stories of Abraham telling a king that Sarah was his sister. In each case, the king took Sarah into his harem and found themselves under the judgement of God. And evidently, this was Abraham’s regular practice as he explained to Abimelech, “…when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”‘”
I have always wonder at this choice that he made a regular practice of making. And throughout, I’ve basically just taken this as an example of where Abraham failed in his walk with God, not trusting God to take care of him and his extremely beautiful wife. And this is true. Abraham was not a perfect name with perfect faith, and yet it was still “credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4.8). And in Hebrews we are told, “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land… For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…. [He] died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth…. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” His faith was weak and flawed, but God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham.
Back to the point. Is that the only reason these stories are told? To show us the flawed faith of Abraham? I think there is one more very important reason for telling these stories. Abraham was weak. But Sarah did not sin and commit adultery as she was taken from her husband and put into the harems of these kings.
In each case, it was firmly established that these kings did not have sex with Sarah. And in the case of Abimelech, in Genesis 20, he took it a step further, declaring before all his people that he, King Abimelech, was not guilty of adultery and that Sarah remained pure. This time, above all, it was especially important that all know for certain that Sarah had not had sex with Abimelech so that none would question that Abraham was the true father of the child she would have that year.
God had promised that it was the bloodline of Abraham and Sarah specifically that would bring great blessings upon the world. And God made certain that all would know there was no doubt about the parentage of Sarah’s child.
Faith Gym 