Ever since chapter 13, Abraham has been based at one place: “by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD” (Genesis 13:18). Now, a couple decades later, “from there Abraham set out” (Genesis 20:1). It comes as a complete shock. Why would he leave such a stable place behind? Well, we don't have to puzzle too hard. The last time we stood with Abraham the other week, he was past Mamre at the ridge where the Canaanite hill country rises over the Jordan River Valley, watching the smoke billow up from the ash heaps that used to be Sodom, Gomorrah, and their environment (Genesis 19:27-28). The afternoon that preceded that, Abraham had faced off with the LORD's human face, begging for Sodom to be spared, wheeling and dealing over criteria for giving it a new day. Abraham had been invited into the LORD's secret counsels, so he boldly pressed and pressed as hard as he felt he dared (at the time). But he went home that night in anxiety, wondering if his campaign worked, wondering if he'd done enough, been enough (Genesis 18:23-33).
He'd tossed and turned all through the night, only to walk back after daybreak and find everything in ruins. A complete and total loss. It taunted him, haunted him. That was where Abraham's nephew Lot had lived. Now, even though the city was a goner, the author assured us that, for the sake of Abraham and his prayer, God had made a way of safety for Lot and his family, and Lot and his daughters had gotten out to the east (Genesis 19:29-30). Last week we heard what'll happen with his story, uncomfortable as it was (Genesis 19:30-38). But the bottom line is, Lot lives. We know that, because the author told us. But... does anybody tell Abraham?
The whole reason why Abraham had settled east of Hebron was that to keep a respectfully distant watch over Lot's life down in the basin. Now, the basin must have seemed a scale model of hell itself, and Abraham assumed that Lot was swept away with everything else. To see it, then, to smell it, must've been traumatic. “In his own eyes, he is a failure,” a failure for Lot and a failure for Sodom.1 He failed his late brother Haran's only son, letting him (so he thinks) go up in smoke. He failed the city, wondering if he'd pled its case hard enough. So the Abraham who enters chapter 20 is an Abraham “filled with dread and doubt after Sodom.”2 Having witnessed the destructive powers of God as Judge there, can Abraham look at God the same again?
It so shook Abraham that when he reviews these past few decades of his life, the decades of his purposeful walk with God to a land of promise, he says that “God caused me to wander from the house of my father” (Genesis 20:13). The verb he uses, 'wander,' basically means to get lost – to go astray, to be in error, to be deceived and misled. Abraham is so shaken that, in his bitterness and sorrow, he speaks as if heaven's misled him this whole time, as if God gave him bad directions, as if he'd been hoodwinked into quitting Terah's house, as if he regrets having come this way at all. After all, he believes his father Terah's grandson Lot is now dead at God's hand; so he's got to be thinking, “If I'd never left home, if I'd never set foot here, my brother's boy would still be alive.”
He can't handle the guilt, the shame, the horror – so he runs. He flees nearly to the other side of Canaan. “Abraham set out to the land of the Negeb” (Genesis 20:1). Last we heard of this semi-desert south end of Canaan, it was Abraham's last stop before running away to Egypt to escape a heavy famine (Genesis 12:9-10). Now he passes through again, and then there “he dwelt between Kadesh and Shur” (Genesis 20:1). This is where Hagar ran when she fled from Sarah (Genesis 16:7-14). Abraham has technically poked his way out of Canaan yet again, into the Sinai Peninsula.3
But then he pulled back a bit,4 “and he sojourned in Gerar” (Genesis 20:1), a town whose name starts with the word 'sojourner,' so that's perfect. It puts him in Lot's crispy shoes, since Lot also sojourned in a city just past the edge of Canaan (Genesis 10:9; 19:9).5 Gerar was one of the biggest cities in the area during the Middle Bronze Age, a forty-acre metropolis on the north bank of a modest river, about a 55-mile hike from Hebron.6 Maybe he's gone back up to do business there, to buy supplies and sell milk and wool and other products a man with flocks and herds might bring to market.7 It was a city-state, somewhat independent, with its own town king Abimelech – a common enough name in such parts.
It seems like a normal setting, but only at the end of a later story do we learn that the region around Gerar is “the land of the Philistines” (Genesis 21:32, 34). Gerar is, in fact, just a little bit inland from Gaza, which has a way of recurring in the news these days. But the trouble in this line is, the Philistines were invaders from the Greek world, “the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor” in Crete (Jeremiah 47:4), and God led them out to seize part of the Canaanite coast after Israel's exodus from Egypt (Amos 9:7). This is centuries too early. So either Genesis is just reminding us of the future inhabitants,8 or there are Cretan merchants or mercenaries who set up shop in Gerar, precursors of their Philistine cousins who'll follow them.9 Gerar's military chief Phicol's very un-Canaanite name, plus the Cretan artifacts we've found there from the tail end of patriarch times, say there must be something to that after all.10 Either way, as we read these stories, Genesis wants to surprise us by reminding us of Philistines, those uncircumcised pagans whose reputation elsewhere in the Bible ain't great.
So that's where Abraham's going, and the condition he's going in. “He sojourned in Gerar, and Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 'She is my sister'” (Genesis 20:2). Say, did anybody else just feel “an overwhelming sense of deja vu”?11 This ought to feel like a familiar set-up, because just after our introduction to Abraham and his call, he fled to Egypt, and right as he approached the border, he begged his wife, “Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you” (Genesis 12:13). Hopefully you recall the heartbreak, the chaos, the danger that came of that choice. Earlier, we said Lot was written as a parody of Abraham, wanting to do right but handicapped by a poverty of moral wisdom. But now Abraham seems to be imitating Lot.
Why is Abraham backsliding? Why is he pulling out his old tricks? The excuse he offers later is, “Because I said to myself, 'Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me over the matter of my wife'” (Genesis 20:11). Remember, this is an Abraham who's seen the smoke of Sodom, a city so corrupt not even ten people could be found there who feared God. He might be thinking that they didn't deserve his wasted efforts. Now, as he hops to the other side of the territory, he's cynical enough to see Sodom wherever he goes. For why should Gerar be so different from Sodom or Gomorrah, just because it's here and not there? So Abraham has resigned himself to expecting the worst of every place now, that they'll laugh off moral accountability as flippantly as the Sodomites had. If God 'caused him to wander' in these regions (Genesis 20:13), it implies he's been left to fend for himself, to survive by his own wits – so he'd better be shrewd and tricky to help himself.12
And so, predictably, “Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah” (Genesis 20:2). In the first story where he pulled this, “the Egyptians saw that the woman was beautiful; and, when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh,” and that's when she was taken (Genesis 12:14-15). A couple decades later, the text is almost “pointedly silent about Sarah's beauty.”13 She's nearing ninety now, which may mean Abimelech has different motives. Maybe opening his harem to Abraham's sister is meant as the start of a new bond between them.14 Though if that's the motive, Abraham's crazy to expect danger if he'd just acknowledged her as his wife.
But, come on, we've read this story before, haven't we? We know how this goes, so why do we need to hear the same plot play out twice, even with adjustments? Note the timing. Abraham was ninety-nine when the LORD appeared to him to update their covenant, imposing on him the command of circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14). But with that command came a promise that he'd be fruitful: God pledged him his own son by Sarah, “whom Sarah shall bear to you at this appointed time next year” (Genesis 17:21). The next chapter opens in the weeks to follow, twice reaffirming said appointed time (Genesis 18:10, 14). One year after the covenant, Sarah has to give birth to the promised son – Abraham's own flesh and blood. There's a countdown on it. Now, giving birth tends to follow nine months of gestating the baby in the womb, meaning that in Genesis 17, God was actually promising to let Sarah conceive three months later. Sodom and Gomorrah burn anywhere from a week to a couple months into that time, and so by the time Abraham then makes for the Negeb, settles between Kadesh and Shur, and then comes up to Gerar, we're down to the wire. Either Sarah is already pregnant by Abraham and doesn't yet know it,15 or she needs to get that way pronto.
But now, all of a sudden, Abraham has let her be taken away from him into the harem of King Abimelech. And if Sarah isn't pregnant, then she's about to miss her window with Abraham within the week. If she's already pregnant, then now we have a scandal: nobody will be sure the son Sarah bears nine months later is Abraham's and not Abimelech's. So at least the paternity of the promised son, if not his very existence, is now on the line. Which means, since the timetable is part of God's promises, that the truthfulness of God himself is at stake in this story. It doesn't get much more dramatic than that!
When Pharaoh took Sarah into his house, “the LORD plagued Pharaoh with great plagues, and his house, over the matter of Sarai, the wife of Abram” (Genesis 12:17). Here, we've got to read to the end to hear that “the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech over the matter of Sarah, the wife of Abraham” (Genesis 20:18). It was a fertility shutdown. And since we find out that Abimelech himself needs healing then, later retellers of the story sensibly inserted here “a grievous disease inflicted upon him by God,” such that “the physicians had already despaired of his life.”16 God is acting to protect his promises.
In Pharaoh's case, we were left in the dark as to how he figured out that Sarah was the occasion for the plagues; but here we needn't wonder how Abimelech learns it, since “God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and spoke to him” (Genesis 20:3).17 Abimelech is a rare recipient of divine revelation. What does God tell him by this dream? “He said to him, 'Behold, you are dead because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband'” (Genesis 20:3). At this point, the author interjects to assure us: “Now, Abimelech had not approached her” (Genesis 20:4). He makes sure “to forestall any doubt of Abraham's paternity of the child” whom Sarah is supposed to bear in nine months.18 That son can't be from Abimelech, because Abimelech – whether due to timing, to sleep, or due to an illness – never got a chance to interfere.
Confronted with what seems like a sentence already sure, Abimelech dares to object. “He said, 'Lord, will you slay a righteous nation?'” (Genesis 20:4). It's almost eerie how much Abimelech sounds like the Abraham we knew two chapters ago, who also challenged a threat of judgment on a city with his outburst at God, “Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked!” (Genesis 18:25).19 Abimelech is insisting that Gerar is no Sodom; but will God treat Gerar like Sodom anyway? If Sodom couldn't be spared for a few righteous, will God go even further and condemn a wholly righteous nation for one man's wrong?
And not only a wrong, Abimelech protests, but an accidental wrong. “Did not he himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she also herself said, 'He is my brother!'” (Genesis 20:5). Abimelech pleads invincible ignorance as an excuse for taking a married woman. He didn't know that that's what he was doing. More than that, he just couldn't know; it was deliberately hidden from him. So, Abimelech reasons, “in the blamelessness of my heart and the cleanness of my hands I have done this” (Genesis 20:5). Abimelech presents himself like the psalmist who sang: “Who can discern his errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults! Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins.... Then I shall be blameless, and clean of great transgression” (Psalm 19:12-13).
God accepts that, at least in part: “Also do I know that you have done this in the blamelessness of your heart” (Genesis 20:6). “Abimelech acts very differently from Pharaoh,” to whom God couldn't say this.20 He didn't act from malice or from lust, but from an innocent ignorance. At the same time, God declines to confirm the part about Abimelech having clean hands.21 Just because you have a good excuse, just because you didn't know what you were doing, it doesn't make what you did not wrong, Abimelech. God will later lay down a whole chapter for Moses about what people should do who “sin by mistake” and don't know it until later on (Leviticus 4). Abimelech's in that boat. He might be inwardly blameless, but he's objectively sinned, even if by mistake.
Abimelech in his protest spoke two 'alsos,' so now God adds a second one to his reply: “And also I withheld you from sinning against me; I absolutely did not let you touch her” (Genesis 20:6). By discipline and dream, God made sure that Abimelech wouldn't be an unwitting adulterer; he kindly preserved Abimelech from that degree of escalation. But this means Abimelech can't necessarily take credit for not doing it; he might well have gone on to commit adultery, had God not stepped in to prevent it – it isn't Abimelech's virtue that's credited.22
But now Abimelech knows Sarah's a married woman, stolen from her husband. There are only two things he can do with that knowledge. “And you return the wife of the man, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live; but if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours” (Genesis 20:7). Keeping Sarah means the death penalty – God uses the same words here he used in Eden about the consequences of forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:17). And just like Lot had the chance to rescue “all who are yours” in the city (Genesis 19:12), Abimelech has the chance to doom “all who are yours” in the kingdom,23 to say nothing of Sarah then meriting the death penalty (Deuteronomy 22:22) – nullifying the redemptive plan. Or Abimelech can release Sarah, undoing the wrong he's done.24 If Abimelech sets things right with Abraham, Abraham is positioned to set things right between Abimelech and God, yielding life in place of death.
So ends Abimelech's remarkable dream. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever had a dream like his – one where you hear the genuine voice of God breaking in, undisguised. I have. And while I don't care to share with the public what God told me, I can say that the voice was unmistakable and that the experience definitely has the feel of setting foot on holy ground. Suffice it to say, when Abimelech woke up, he remembered distinctly each and every word God had said; he couldn't not. But what will he do with this awesome message?
We're encouraged when “Abimelech rose early in the morning” (Genesis 20:8), the same way Abraham did to find out the fate of Sodom (Genesis 19:27), a hallmark of an eagerness to obey (Genesis 21:14; 22:3). So “Abimelech acts at once and without hesitation to do precisely as he was instructed” by God in his dream.25 He “called all his servants and told them all these things in their hearing” (Genesis 20:8), unloading the fresh news onto the officials who aid him in administering his little kingdom. It's only fair, since they've been affected and are in the crosshairs too. “And the men feared exceedingly” (Genesis 20:8). Feared what? The God of Abimelech's dream. Now, remember what Abraham says he thought, that “surely there is no fear of God in this place” (Genesis 20:11). But this overturns Abraham's assumption: not just the king but his whole court is God-fearing!26 If Abraham's a Jonah at the moment, Gerar's acting like his Nineveh.
With the royal court informed, “Abimelech called Abraham” (Genesis 20:9). Having lived this before in Egypt, Abe's no doubt got a guess where this is going. As Pharaoh asked Abram three questions, so Abimelech asks three as well. Pharaoh led off with, “What is this you have done to me?” (Genesis 12:18), but Abimelech opens, “What have you done to us?” (Genesis 20:9). Pharaoh was concerned for himself; Abimelech's heart is for his people.27 Pharaoh's second question was, “Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?” (Genesis 12:18), but Abimelech follows with, “How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin?” (Genesis 20:9). Abimelech is more reflective, more theological. He wants to know if there's some way he previously offended Abraham that makes sense of this deception as a retaliation. And he drives home that Abraham's trickery could've been the first domino in a chain knocking down a whole kingdom.
So, where Pharaoh leapt straight to his third question, Abimelech makes a declaration: “Deeds that ought not to be done, you have done to me!” (Genesis 20:9). Now it's personal. So harsh is Abimelech's language here that, on Abimelech's telling, Abraham comes out looking not just like Lot but like a man of Sodom!28 Over the top? Maybe. But it's the cutting correction Abraham needs to shake and shock him from this habit. Now, Pharaoh never gave Abraham a chance to answer, but after a pause to calm himself, Abimelech reaches his third question. “Abimelech said to Abraham, 'What did you see, that you did this thing?'” (Genesis 20:10). Was there something Abraham observed when he reached Abimelech's kingdom that provoked such a response – something it might be Abimelech's job to fix? Or maybe did Abraham, as a prophet, have some vision that inspired his conduct? Is there something he knows that Abimelech doesn't but needs to? What a humble query!
The short answer to that one is no. We've already taken a sneak peak at Abraham's “montage of excuses.”29 He first admits he told himself, convinced himself, that Gerar couldn't possibly be a God-fearing place – that it had to be a twin of Sodom, beyond a shadow of a doubt; he was totally wrong.30 It's himself he needs to examine. Sensing his first excuse falls flat, he claims that, on a technicality, he didn't lie, as he and Sarah are siblings first. Of course, it doesn't make a difference, because Abraham still set Gerar up for a downfall. Besides, admitting his wife and sister are one and the same isn't exactly helping him escape the shadow of Sodom or of Lot!
So he adds a third excuse: that Gerar wasn't special, that this was a habit he built up “at every place to which we come,” a “kindness” he'd requested of Sarah to preserve his life in the land where they were. His phrase here echoes Lot's gratitude for the angels' kindness (Genesis 19:19).31 But Abraham points the finger at God here as “the ultimate cause of his mistake.”32 Abraham's excuses sound as lame as Adam's excuses in chapter 3.33 To make things worse, Abraham abruptly uses a plural – he literally says, “gods caused me to wander” (Genesis 20:13) – thus severely compromising his witness before Abimelech and maybe his entire journey out of Ur.34
Abraham's defense of himself is feeble. His heart is far from blameless. Abimelech could sit in judgment as the king – but Abimelech's hands aren't so clean. He's wronged Abraham unknowingly, even as Abraham wronged him and the whole kingdom unthinkingly. So Abimelech makes a choice. In Egypt, Pharaoh enriched Abraham in advance by giving a large dowry (Genesis 12:16). Here, the gifts enter now: “Abimelech took sheep and oxen and manservants and maidservants, and he gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him” (Genesis 20:14). Recognizing that Gerar is no Sodom, Abraham accepts both Sarah and the gifts.35 What's more, Abimelech tells Sarah that he's also given Abraham “a thousand pieces of silver,” and “behold, it is a covering of eyes for all who are with you” (Genesis 20:16). What exactly that means isn't sure, but presumably this somehow will protect Sarah's reputation and sweep this incident under the rug.
In between those gifts and gestures, Abimelech addresses Abraham's future. Pharaoh, after berating the couple, banished them from Egypt, expelling them as unwanted menaces. But that's not how things play out in this land of the Philistines. In fact, “Abimelech said, 'Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever is good in your eyes” (Genesis 20:15). Which he does, we'll later find, about fifteen miles southeast of Gerar. Instead of an eviction, Abraham has legal resident status. Abimelech is seeking good terms of coexistence.
Of course, he needs something. He doesn't need to show contrition, since his blameless heart incurred no subjective guilt. But in sharing the dream and admitting the truth, he confessed his sin. In returning Sarah to her rightful husband, he amended his sin. In these gifts to appease Abraham, he made reparation for his sin. All that stands between him and absolution is intercession. And that's where the prophet of God comes in.36
So, as God had assured Abimelech in his dream (Genesis 20:7), “Abraham prayed to the God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and concubines so that they bore children” (Genesis 20:17). In spite of all his personal ethical problems here, Abraham's position as a prophet makes him a successful intercessor with God, just like Judas could baptize and exorcise – it's the office that's at work, not its holder. But the result has to change the way Abimelech and his court view Abraham, whose prayer so promptly yields a miracle.37 More importantly, it has to change the way Abraham views Abraham. He entered this chapter bitter and defeated, for his ministry had been a failure. But now, before his very eyes, that's proven untrue: he finally sees the fruit.
In the end, it looks like God allowed all this to happen again, for Abraham to revisit his old bad habits, so that it would cure him of them once and for all. God has meant this ordeal for Abraham's good – not just to enrich him (though it does), but to restore his self-confidence as an intercessor, as a man called to be a man of God. In this risky saga, God permitted all its twists and turns as the means to rebuild Abraham's faith after a trauma. In doing that, “God changed Abraham from an agent of curse to an agent of blessing,” never to turn back again.38
Here's the point where we jump a few years into the future. In between Abraham gains a son, and he surrenders a son to the hands of providence. It's such an eventful few years that we'll spend nearly all next month poking around them. But through them, Abraham is being remolded, reforged. And at the end of those years, Abraham will come face-to-face with King Abimelech again. Only this time, Abraham is a new man, a virtuous man, a man confident and fulfilled in life despite the losses he's known; now he's a man who can look a king in the eye, as he did in the day long before when he chased down emperors and rebuffed the king of Sodom.39
Now “at that time, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his hosts spoke to Abraham” (Genesis 21:22), out where Abraham dwells. The fact that Abimelech brought his military chief to the conversation feels “ominous, perhaps threatening.”40 Abraham has been prospering, and his prosperous presence registers as a potential threat back in Gerar, since Abraham's continued success might have him on track to rival Abimelech in Abimelech's own land or even take it.41 Abimelech and Phicol confess, “God is with you in all you do” (Genesis 21:22). These Gentiles acknowledge the God who is active in Abraham's life, who is revealing himself through the blessings given to Abraham.42 Abimelech both fears this and wants this. “Now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land where you have sojourned” (Genesis 21:23).
Abimelech brings up the memory of their last encounter. It would be fair to say Abimelech found Abraham to deal falsely then, and he doesn't want a repeat. He knows Abraham's a prophet and a blessed man, but doesn't know if Abraham can be trusted. Abraham had asked Sarah for a kindness in helping him deceive to save his life, but Abimelech then did him an honest kindness by granting him legality, safety, freedom. Since Abimelech was kind and merciful, Abraham should return that with loyal kindness to Abimelech and his people. Abimelech wants him to swear an oath in the sight of God to deal faithfully, not just with Abimelech himself, but with his successors – sons, grandsons, you get it. Which means that “Abimelech believes that Abraham will have an enduring posterity” of his own, thriving in the land during the days of Abimelech Jr. and Abimelech III.43
Abraham agrees without hesitation: “I swear” (Genesis 21:24). He has no problem swearing an oath, in the sight of God, to be honest and faithful in his dealings with Abimelech – because Abraham is recommitted to keeping the way of the LORD (Genesis 18:19). At the same time, Abraham has a bone to pick about that alleged kindness of Abimelech's. “Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that the servants of Abimelech had stolen” (Genesis 21:25). No wonder things got so tense Abimelech brought his muscle to the meeting!44 A well was hard work to dig, usually at least seven feet across and maybe a hundred feet deep, sometimes through tough rock, to reach the water table; and even after all that work, you could never be sure you'd hit that water.45 Especially in the Negeb, the general scarcity of water made well access a life-or-death issue for a man of flocks and herds.46 Abraham had dug a life-saving well, and yet Abimelech's own servants had then taken it from him and blocked his access to it. This was the kind of thing wars could be started over.
Now it's Abimelech's turn to be on the defensive, with three excuses built around two 'alsos.'47 First, “I do not know who has done this thing!” Abimelech once again grounds his defense in ignorance. “And also, you didn't tell me!” As before Abimelech's defense is that Abraham withheld information, this time by not reporting the theft. “And also, I haven't heard of it until today” (Genesis 21:26). If Abimelech's servants did this, they must have lost their fear of God and gone rogue. Abimelech implies he would've fixed things if he'd known.
As Abimelech once kindly accepted Abraham's lame excuses, so Abraham accepts Abimelech's defense. Both have striven for moral ground against the other, and both are now better for it: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).48 Now “Abraham took sheep and oxen,” probably children of those Abimelech gave him, “and he gave them to Abimelech,” so that “the both of them cut a covenant” by dividing the animals and walking through them to seal the deal (Genesis 21:27). But also, from the sheep, “Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,” not slaying and splitting them (Genesis 21:28). Abimelech is as confused as we are: “Why these seven ewe lambs that you've set apart?” (Genesis 21:29). Abraham explains: “In order that these seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well” (Genesis 21:30). Abraham wants royal recognition of his ownership rights to the well and its land; Abimelech's acceptance of the lambs, in public, will commit him to guaranteeing that claim. Like the silver that vindicated Sarah's honor, these lambs vindicate Abraham's truth – and it's a generous move by Abraham, since usually it was the thief who was obliged to give seven ewe lambs to the victim.49 These lambs will mean honesty, fair dealing, agreement, good communication, a renewed relationship.50 And Abimelech accepts them.
With that, “both of them swore an oath, and they cut a covenant” (Genesis 21:31-32), “a pact of mutual respect and recognition.”51 Instead of Abraham's one-way oath, now they “swore a mutual oath.”52 This covenant will mean mutual kindness, mutual faithfulness, mutual friendship – the roads where blessings drive to and fro. And this is a template for how things were supposed to be: the nations, seeing God with his holy people in all they do, would seek covenants of peace and friendship, acknowledging the holy nation's destiny, and striving to be blessed by God through fellowship with them.
Peace, kindness, friendship between Abraham and the land of the Philistines – it points to a different way things could've been: a world where Samson and Delilah enjoy a long and happy marriage, where David and Goliath pal around and play board games, where these peoples embrace in the blessing of peace. We know that's not how history later played out, but it doesn't at all lessen the magnitude of what Abraham has here begun. I love the way one rabbi puts it: here, “Abraham converts a moment of confrontation into a moment of covenant.”53 In light of everything we hear about in the news, if there's anything we need to learn how to do today, that just might be the thing.
As a result of their covenant, “he called that place Beersheba” (Genesis 21:31). It's got a double meaning. The words for 'seven' and 'oath' in Hebrew sound so much alike that 'Beersheba' could mean either 'Well of the Oath' or 'Well of Seven. It's the Well of Oath because Abraham and Abimelech swore oaths there to treat each other kindly, truly, faithfully; it's the Well of Seven because it was secured for Abraham through seven ewe lambs. It now becomes Abraham's “first piece of property in the land” he can call his own before God and man.54 With a son, land, peace, and prosperity, “it appears the covenant promises are coming to reality.”55
And so, while Abimelech and Phicol withdraw to Philistia, Abraham “planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba..., and Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days” (Genesis 21:33-34). The tamarisk is a great choice: it thrives in the northern Negeb due to its deep roots, its leaves make soft food for flocks, and they bring precious shade.56 This tree, though, will take years to mature; it's a commitment for “many days” indeed.
And there, at this tree, as if it were an altar, Abraham “called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God” (Genesis 21:34). The last time Abraham faced kings and their armies, he came away with a blessing in the name of El Elyon, 'God Most High' (Genesis 14:15-20), a title emphasizing God's transcendence over space and supremacy over every obstacle Abraham could face. Now, though, he worships El Olam, 'God Eternal,' a title emphasizing God's transcendence over time and his “long-term faithfulness” through the twists and turns of life for Abraham.57 This God will watch over and enforce the covenant through the generations. This God will see to it that Abraham and his seed are a permanent presence in the land of promise, rooted as deeply as a tamarisk tree, as refreshing as a well of water for the world, able to make clean the hands of Abimelech and more.
Where Abraham stands now is that, thanks to God Eternal, Abraham has found healing from his trauma, has forgiven himself for his self-diagnosed failures, has renewed his relationship with God, has learned how to live honestly and confidently and peacefully with human beings. And that's a good word. But the last word is seven – in the original Hebrew, this story uses Abimelech's and Abraham's names each seven times, which is no happy little accident, especially when Abraham then offers seven ewe lambs to secure for himself the Well of Seven!58 Abraham may be sojourning here under a tree of his own planting and by a well of his own digging, but it might as well be a God-given tree of life and spring of living water, because this peace covenant, this fulfillment of promise, is saturated in sabbath. That's where this arc has been driving. Abraham is tasting sabbath enjoyment.
Abraham's security in Abimelech's kingdom was bought with a human oath sworn over seven lambs. But our security in God's kingdom was bought with a divine oath sworn over the Lamb of God, given for us and “made perfect forever” (Hebrews 7:28). “So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9), a Beersheba where we can find our healing and our peace, our forgiveness and our self-forgiveness, our tree of life and our fountain of every blessing. He is God Eternal, who “will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). Amen.
1 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 214.
2 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 283 n.26.
3 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 189.
4 David W. Baker, “The Migrations and Wanderings of the Patriarchs,” in Barry J. Beitzel, ed., Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Pentateuch (Lexham Press, 2024), 114.
5 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 319.
6 Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 336.
7 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 141.
8 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 111 n.1; Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 136.
9 Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 340-341.
10 Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 342-343; Alan Millard, “Did the Patriarchs Meet Philistines?” in Richard E. Averbeck and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., An Excellent Fortress for His Armies, a Refuge for the People: Egyptological, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies in Honor of James K. Hoffmeier (Eisenbrauns, 2020), 226-227.
11 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 110.
12 Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 130.
13 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 141.
14 Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 127; John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 320; Brian Neil Peterson, Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary (Brill, 2022), 187.
15 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 17.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:165.
16 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.208, in Loeb Classical Library 242:103.
17 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 131.
18 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 64, in Library of Early Christianity 1:131.
19 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 244.
20 Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis 6.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 71:123.
21Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 284; Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 247.
22 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 141-142.
23 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 262.
24 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 322.
25 Shaul Bar, Daily Life of the Patriarchs: The Way It Was (Peter Lang, 2015), 105.
26 James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 130; Qiang Fu, How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis (Wipf & Stock, 2023), 88.
27 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 287.
28 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 249.
29 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 191.
30 Terence E. Fretheim, Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith (University of South Carolina Press, 2007), 58.
31 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 262.
32 Qiang Fu, How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis (Wipf & Stock, 2023), 160.
33 Terence E. Fretheim, Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith (University of South Carolina Press, 2007), 58.
34 John C. Lennox, Friend of God: The Inspiration of Abraham in an Age of Doubt (SPCK, 2024), 208.
35 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 111.
36 Mark J. Boda, A Severe Mercy: Sin and Its Remedy in the Old Testament (Eisenbrauns, 2009), 28.
37 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 218.
38 Qiang Fu, How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis (Wipf & Stock, 2023), 163.
39 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 148.
40 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 197.
41 Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 142; Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 19.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:167.
42 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 116.
43 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 299.
44 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 340-341.
45 John A. Beck, “Altars, Tombs, Pillars, and Wells in Genesis: Their Sociospatial and Theological Roles,” in Barry J. Beitzel, ed., Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Pentateuch (Lexham Press, 2024), 151-152.
46 Daniel Hillel, The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures (Columbia University Press, 2006), 64.
47 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 219.
48 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 255, 307.
49 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 308-309.
50 Brian Neil Peterson, Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary (Brill, 2022), 192.
51 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 333.
52 Augustine of Hippo, Questions on the Heptateuch 1.56, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/14:36.
53 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 219.
54 James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 143.
55 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 199.
56 Stephen K. Ray, Genesis: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (Ignatius Press, 2023), 204.
57 Qiang Fu, How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis (Wipf & Stock, 2023), 92.
58 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 304-305.
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