Read Gen. 20:1-8
Abraham is living in the land between Kadesh and Shur. Kadesh means a sanctuary in the desert and Shur means a place of observation. That sounds like a good place to be: where you are in God’s presence and lifted up where you can see the big picture. He travels to the land of Gerar which means to turn something over in your mind. Let’s see if we can figure out why it was called this by what happens. Abraham told Sarah when they reached Gerar to tell people she was his sister since she was so beautiful. He didn’t want to be killed for her. Sure enough, they came and took Sarah for the king, Abimelech because of her beauty. Abimelech means “my father is king”. Little did Abraham know that Abimelech’s father was God Almighty, king of all. Before the king could go and take Sarah as his wife God gave him a dream and showed him that Sarah was Abraham’s wife and he would die if he went into her. Abimelech asked God if he would also slay a righteous nation. Abimelech realized the responsibility he had as a leader. He knew that his sin to take another man’s wife would not only affect him, but his nation would be punished for his sin since he was the leader. David sinned against God and numbered the people and over 70,000 people were killed in God’s judgment. Abimelech explained to God how he had been lied to and he wasn’t willfully sinning. God assured him he knew and that it was him who kept Abimelech from having sex with Sarah. God told him to give Sarah back to Abraham in the morning and to let Abraham pray for him since Abraham was a prophet. Abimelech got up early to obey God. I think it was Abimelech that got his mind over and got his answer.
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