Gen. 20:01-18 – Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech – Part 2 – Held on Sunday, November 11, 2012

Gen. 20:01 – 18 – Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech

Background

As the notes on USCCB website http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/20 inform us, this is the second story of Abraham passing his wife, Sarah, off as his sister.  The first occurred in Gen. 12:10 – 31:01 and a third version of the story involving Isaac and Rebekah occurs in Gen. 26:06 – 11.

The passage itself is built around three dialogues: Abimelech and God in vv. 03-07, Abimelech and Abraham in vv. 09-13, and Abraham and Sarah in vv. 15-16.  There are number of things to note in this story.

1. Abraham is revealed in a rather failed character light.  Despite this fact God protects him, requires Abimelech to obtain Abraham’s intercession, and listens to Abraham’s intercession.
2. God engages Abimelech even though Abimelech is not a member of the community of faith.  God acknowledges Abimelech’s innocence.  Despite his innocence God states that he is a dead man and later we learn that the consequences of his act could affect his entire family and kingdom.
3. For me the most significant message is that there exists a moral order that is not dependent upon the innocence of the person but the immorality of the act.  Consequences follow irrespective of the innocence or guilt of the person who has performed the act and that sin has a social nature to it.

One of the newest members of our group pointed out that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation [Confession] by telling the priest our sins we are acknowledging the social dimension of sin.  I thought that her comments were especially on target.  The comments also reminded me of the decline in the celebration of  this Sacrament which I believe is better expressed in terms of reconciliation, confessing our sins is an important part of the Sacrament but only a part.  The heart of the matter is celebrating the saving grace of Christ Jesus who in dying reconciled all of us to his Father in Him.

1. In comparison to Abraham, Abimelech, the outsider, is much more appealing, even magnanimous in his response to what Abraham has done.

Our Questions – The fourth question seems to me to be the most critical; answering it undoubtedly will elicit a wide range of responses and probably differences of opinion amongst us.

For the sake of completeness I will include in our blog the basic questions that guide us in hearing the passages we study each week.

1. First who are the characters and what role does each play? To the extent that we can identify
   1. what the characters say and do, or
   2. don’t say and do but we would expect them to do so, and
   3. finally when they enter into the passage and leave it

We can more easily and more accurately know what their role is from the point of view of the author and / or the editor of the passage.

1. The “when” question is quite complicated and again for the sake of completeness; there is
   1. The “when” within the story / passage itself,
   2. The “when” of the editor, and most importantly,
   3. The “when” of our life at the time we are actually reading / studying the passage.
2. What is the plot, the point of the passage?
3. Finally, because each passage is at one and the same time the word of human beings and the Word of God, there is revealed the values that are part and parcel of the human beings in their time and place and there is the values revealed by God for the believer.  Our final question is to discern which values in the passage are attractive to us, we are drawn to and which are we repulsed by, inclined to reject?  The more difficult task, if we do identify these two responses in us of the values revealed, which are of God and we are being challenged to embrace and which are not of God and we are being challenged to correct and develop.

My Refrain

Before we read though, let’s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from the background, our questions and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.

Reading of the passage http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/20.

Discussion Gen. 20:01 – 18 – Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech

As is quite common our group took off with their own thoughts and reflections before we had a chance to respond to our list of questions. Carol wondered who the author was and Faryl referred to the notes which state, “[20:1–18] Abraham again passes off his wife Sarah as his sister to escape trouble in a foreign land (cf. 12:10–13:1, the J source). The story appears to be from a different source (according to some, E) and deals with the ethical questions of the incident.”

Michael pointed out that this second account makes more sense.  God talks with Abimelech, tell him that Abraham is a prophet, and that gives some rationale for why Abimelech was so generous with Abraham.

Ken was interested in “getting into the mind of Abraham.”  I wondered if Ken found Abraham appealing in this story and, of course, he didn’t.  Yet Abraham did intercede for Abimelech and God responded favorably to Abraham’s intercession.  This highlighted for me that God listens to us even if we are sinners.  It recalls a phrase that often comes to mind for me, God loves us not because of us but because of who he is.

When we return next week, perhaps we should spend a little more time on this passage.  There are a number of issues in the passage but the one that continues to capture my attention is the fact that even though innocent and acknowledged to be so by God, Abimelech’s innocent act violated the moral order and would have consequences.

Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.  See “comment” link below.