Sometimes God confuses me in the Old Testament. For instance, take the whole chapter of Genesis 20, about Abraham and Abimelech. Here we read that for the second time Abraham gives his wife away as if she were his sister. It seems as if God's wrath is toward Abimelech. Yet he was marrying her with a "clear conscience" (v5). God comes to Abimelech in a dream and says, "Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live" (v7). God never mentions Abraham's sin in the situation of deceit and giving his wife into potential adultery for the second time. But God does mention that Abraham, his prophet, will pray for Abimelech, who had a clear conscience. It just seems backwards to me. Maybe you can shed some light to the passage. -- Abby Collins (Atlanta)
The Bible certainly tells the story of all its characters without whitewashing. You are right: here it is Abraham who is weakening in faith, telling a lie (or a half-truth, as Sarah was technically his half-sister). And Abraham is reproached by the pagan king's behavior. Isn't it like that sometimes even for us in our Christian lives--times when non-believers may behave more righteously than we do? This is only to be expected, as we are all sinners, pagan and Christian alike. So it does indeed feel backwards, for standards of conduct have been reversed.
But as for Abimelech's innocence in the sight of God, he was on the verge of marrying a woman who already had a husband. Having a clear conscience does not exempt us from guilt or responsibility (1 Corinthians 4:4). Abimelech took Sarah into his harem presumably based on external values; had he got to know her, he might have soon discovered the truth of the matter.
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