Devotional: Genesis 20

In Genesis 20, God prevents Abimelech from sinning after Abraham’s verbal denial of Sarah being his wife. Abraham performed this act before in Genesis 12:13 when he instructed the then Sarai to say she was his sister. There are many ideas one can extrapolate from this occurrence. One is the clear tendency of man to revisit things they were previously reproved for. Another is the impeccable loyalty of Sarah respecting her husband even when he was wrong. Here, in this devotional, the idea of God acknowledging innocence, while providing restitution and protection to those in error will be addressed.

Regarding God acknowledging innocence, one can argue God prevented Abimelech from touching Sarah to protect her because she was to soon conceive Isaac in Genesis 21. God is adamant in protecting His will, and he prevails victorious when orchestrating people and things into appropriate places to manifest what He planned. It is the personal nature of Abimelech’s dream that reminds us how God is kind and caring towards everyone. God is generous in that He takes the time to reveal His glory to everyone, yet never withstanding His will and purposes. Instead of striking Abimelech down, God acknowledged Abimelech’s ignorance by speaking to him in a dream and continued to keep Abimelech from sinning against Him by stating he was judged for death. God did not have to explain Himself. God, at any time, can remove any ignorant or cognizant person obstructing His will and purposes. Instead, God used Abraham’s wrong to exhibit how He is a merciful God. God spared Abimelech to show that He is a compassionate God. God explains this same sense of compassion to a bitterly angry Jonah when He says, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 [innocent] persons, who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [and are not yet accountable for sin], as well as many [blameless] animals?” (Jonah 4: 11 AMP). Here, God is explaining to Jonah that He has a heart for everyone; His compassion is not limited to a select few. It is amazing how God continuously works to show us the full breadth of His holy character. He wants us to understand Him so that we learn to love Him for who He is.

In briefly regarding God providing restitution and protection despite Abraham’s error, we see God’s gift of grace. This is not to say we can never do wrong in the eyes of God. However, it proves the extent of His loving-kindness towards us, while portraying how far God is willing to extend His hedge of protection to keep us from exiting His will. It is our duty to humble our hearts and return to God and decide we will never depart from Him or His ways.