Will the Real Pagan Please Stand Up?
If you read Genesis 20 in isolation, knowing nothing about either of the main characters, Abraham and Abimelech, I don’t think you would correctly guess which one had the stronger relationship with God. For instance:
Which one do you find speaking to God?
Which one do you find listening to God?
Which one do you find obeying God?
Which one do you find acting in God-honoring ways?
Until the last paragraph of the chapter, the correct and only answer to all of the above is Abimelech.
Abraham and his eventual son Isaac, two of the big three patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) consistently prove that God’s call has little to nothing to do with our faithfulness. God makes them promises, and they seem to trust Him in the big picture. But in the details, they make stuff up that’s hard to even read. Abraham twice — and then later Isaac — ask their wives Sarah and Rebekah, respectively, to pretend to be their sister so that the pagan kings in foreign lands will treat them well. They seem to be quite okay with their wives taken to be part of the kings’ harem, just so long as it protects their own skin. And in ancient cultures, their wives of course had no say in the matter. Truly horrifying.
The most telling verse of the chapter, in so many ways, is verse 11. Abraham’s response to Abimelech was, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. (NIV)’”
The ironies in that statement are numerous. Abraham “says to himself.” That would be a perfect description of prayerlessness. Like last week’s article on prayer and planning, when we act like our plans are far superior to the Lord’s, the results can be tragic. Abraham never bothers to consult God; he just relies on his own “wisdom” which is worse than the wisdom of the “godless” regions in which he’s sojourning. And then he tells Abimelech straight up that he assumed there was no fear of God there.
And yet which of the two prays? Abimelech is the one to whom God speaks in a dream. Abimelech is the one who refers to God as Lord. Abimelech is the one who stands before God with a clean conscience (and tells the Lord this). Abimelech is the one whom God protected from falling into sin. And Abimelech is the one who repents (for trusting Abraham), confronts Abraham for his lying, and then at personal expense gives great gifts to both Abraham and Sarah to atone for the appearance of sin.
When I read this story again last week, God provided two very strong reminders. When we make things up as we go, flipping Proverbs 3:5-6 inside out by relying exclusively on our own understanding and trusting only ourselves, we’re acting like godless pagans. Trusting God in the big picture but not in the details can make us look and function worse than the world around us. And secondly, never assume that “those people out there” to whom we’re called to shine the light of Christ, have no relationship with God or any spiritual sensitivities. It’s quite possible God could use them to teach us a thing or two.
Dave Drum, Founder