3
¶ But God came to Abimelech in a dream
by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which
thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. 4
But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay
also a righteous nation? 5 Said he not
unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in
the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. 6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know
that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee
from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for
he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou
restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are
thine.
There are other times that God speaks to men in dreams
as to Jacob, Laban the Syrian, to Joseph, etc.
Abimelech is not the sort of man that the previous
Pharaoh that Abram and Sarai encountered was. God dealt with that Pharaoh by
visiting sickness on his house to cause him to bring no shame on Sarai/Sarah
while God kept Abimelech’s household from conceiving as revealed later in verse
18. But, Abraham has misjudged Abimelech. God reveals to us that this king has
integrity and wants to do right. He had not touched Sarah and truly thought she
was Abraham’s sister. So, God moved in him to prevent him from having any
relations with her. It was God who prevented this sin of ignorance that was
possible but not completed.
God made provision for dealing with sins of ignorance,
just not realizing what you were doing, in the Law given to Moses. You can read
examples of this in the context of Leviticus, chapter 4, for example. But God
does restrain us from following our “natural” impulses at times, our desires,
as He did when he kept David and his men from killing, as Abigail believed,
even though David considered it and felt justified by Nabal’s treatment of him
and his men.
1Samuel
25:26 Now therefore, my lord, as the
LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from
coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let
thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
God has restrained you from doing things that you
thought were the right thing to do because you didn’t have all of the facts.
How often have you thanked Him for that mercy? You have held your tongue when
you really wanted to blast someone with your words only to find out that you
were operating off incomplete understanding. We should always be careful and
not to repeat the errors of Job’s friends in assuming we have knowledge we do
not. A friend may get a serious illness, lose their job, have marital
difficulties, or have a rebellious child and you assume there must be some
secret sin in their life that they are being judged for but, if God is merciful
to you, you managed to refrain from the evil of misrepresenting God and telling
your friend what you think before you have all the facts. Of course, you may
never have all of the facts so it is a good idea just to shut up and minister
to your friend in their grief.
But, remember, as here, you may have some difficulty
related to your intention to shoot your mouth off and hurt your friend. Think
about what God is telling you. Abimelech’s household were having some problems
with Sarah around. Something wasn’t right. Before God’s dream came to the king
came the problem with conceiving. As you were intending to speak out of turn
someone was saying things about you they had no knowledge of and this should
have been a warning as God eventually prevented you from damaging your
relationship with your friend. To see how God works in our lives we have to be
sensitive to His guidance. This is very hard for you if you have adopted the
modern sense of God not participating in your life on a moment by moment basis.
My problem has always been about assuming I knew
someone’s intentions and motives when I did not. If that is your problem have
you found yourself on the receiving end of someone accusing you of motives that
you did not have as you contemplated the same error on someone else, even the
same person? Did God prevent you from speaking your mind or, perhaps, did you
not speak your mind in this instance and not realize that God had prevented
you?
Think about when you don’t say something, did you
really prevent yourself?
In God’s warning to Abimelech He refers to Abraham as
a prophet. As Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel, and
Israel itself went about doing God’s will, even if they had to be steered by
God because of their stubbornness in not completely trusting and doing things
their own way they received God’s protection.
Psalm
105:8 ¶ He hath remembered his covenant
for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his
oath unto Isaac; 10 And confirmed the
same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of
Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: 12
When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in
it. 13 When they went from one nation to
another, from one kingdom to another people; 14
He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes; 15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my
prophets no harm.
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