Read about Abraham and Abimelek. (Genesis 20)
Every so often, despite my efforts to maintain a sober and prayerful attitude as I carry out my self-mandated Bible reading exercise, I cannot help but chuckle. A lot!
You may accuse me of apostasy, but I often think that our Forbear in Faith, one Abraham ne Abram, may have been lacking on occasion in the guts and qualities that make for true leaders. One such instance happened while I was reading Genesis 20. After moving into a "new neighborhood", the Negev region, Abraham goes around telling his new neighbors that Sarah, his wife of many years, is his sister. His sister!
"Took her." Does not sound like there was any mutual consent going on with this tryst.
At what cost does Abraham save his skin? A pretty steep one, in my mind.
How can Abraham sleep with himself?! This question screams in my head all through my reading of this passage. How can he look Sarah in the eyes, ever again? Another question that plagued me is, how can Sarah even look at Abraham without wanting to spit in his face or pluck out his eyes with all the fury that I am sure welled up inside her? Evidently, Sarah forgave Abraham because she remained with him until her death.
End of story, right? Hardly!
Abraham's son Isaac - remember him, the almost-sacrificed-to-God-boy? - pulls the very same stunt with his wife, Rebekah. For the very same reason as dear old dad: “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.” (Gen. 26:7)
Guess who outs them? Abimelek. He calls them on their charade and , even though he is obviously peeved (understatement), he protects Isaac and Rebekah by issuing orders to his men to back off. I'm guessing that he was still burning with some serious guilt over the whole sleeping with Isaac's mom interlude.
This almost Shakespearean comedy of errors drives home to me a pretty potent point that focuses on a couple of key issues with marriage partners (NB, I choose the word partner quite deliberately):
[Yeah, I know, I messed up that whole counting thing again.]
Or as my dad and his cronies, rather indecorously, advised my buddies and me: "If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, make an ugly woman your wife". Politically incorrect (really?!) but my dad and his crew were, if nothing else, men of their time.
There is another really important lesson to take away from this passage. Indeed, it is one that is proven over and over. God does not use perfect people to teach, admonish and lead us. For one thing, there ain't no perfect persons. And if there were, how likely would we be to identify with and want to follow them?
Unlikely...
But, come on, guys. Your sisters?!
Every so often, despite my efforts to maintain a sober and prayerful attitude as I carry out my self-mandated Bible reading exercise, I cannot help but chuckle. A lot!
You may accuse me of apostasy, but I often think that our Forbear in Faith, one Abraham ne Abram, may have been lacking on occasion in the guts and qualities that make for true leaders. One such instance happened while I was reading Genesis 20. After moving into a "new neighborhood", the Negev region, Abraham goes around telling his new neighbors that Sarah, his wife of many years, is his sister. His sister!
Why? Because evidently Sarah is so hot that Abraham fears he will get his butt kicked, or worse, by those dudes who want to steal his wife. So, Abraham's life is spared, but the big local kingpin, Abimelek comes along and decides to sleep with Abraham's sis. Look at how the author worded this scenario: "Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her."
"Took her." Does not sound like there was any mutual consent going on with this tryst.
At what cost does Abraham save his skin? A pretty steep one, in my mind.
How can Abraham sleep with himself?! This question screams in my head all through my reading of this passage. How can he look Sarah in the eyes, ever again? Another question that plagued me is, how can Sarah even look at Abraham without wanting to spit in his face or pluck out his eyes with all the fury that I am sure welled up inside her? Evidently, Sarah forgave Abraham because she remained with him until her death.
End of story, right? Hardly!
Abraham's son Isaac - remember him, the almost-sacrificed-to-God-boy? - pulls the very same stunt with his wife, Rebekah. For the very same reason as dear old dad: “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.” (Gen. 26:7)
Guess who outs them? Abimelek. He calls them on their charade and , even though he is obviously peeved (understatement), he protects Isaac and Rebekah by issuing orders to his men to back off. I'm guessing that he was still burning with some serious guilt over the whole sleeping with Isaac's mom interlude.
This almost Shakespearean comedy of errors drives home to me a pretty potent point that focuses on a couple of key issues with marriage partners (NB, I choose the word partner quite deliberately):
- Be faithful
- Be true
- Be honest
- Be courageous
[Yeah, I know, I messed up that whole counting thing again.]
Or as my dad and his cronies, rather indecorously, advised my buddies and me: "If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, make an ugly woman your wife". Politically incorrect (really?!) but my dad and his crew were, if nothing else, men of their time.
There is another really important lesson to take away from this passage. Indeed, it is one that is proven over and over. God does not use perfect people to teach, admonish and lead us. For one thing, there ain't no perfect persons. And if there were, how likely would we be to identify with and want to follow them?
Unlikely...
But, come on, guys. Your sisters?!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Reminder: if you have a prayer need, please click on the Share a Prayer? tab and send it my way. I will respond.
Have a wonderful day!
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