Genesis 20:5, commentary and pictures

Abimelech protested his innocence because both Abraham and Sarah had told him they were brother and sister, so he had taken her believing she was unmarried. God answered him in a dream by night, confirming he had acted with a pure heart and declaring that He Himself had held him back from touching her and sinning. His fear of bringing great guilt and punishment on himself and his kingdom by taking another man's wife shows the law against adultery was already known and binding long before Sinai. The whole encounter reveals that right and wrong by the principles later written in the Ten Commandments were understood from Creation, with God Himself making His will known even to those outside His chosen family.

Plea And Historical Setting

Abimelech's plea is that he took Sarah with integrity of heart and innocency of hands because Abraham told him she was his sister and she herself told him he was her brother. His appeal rests on having been misled by both of them into believing they were brother and sister. The words for integrity of heart mean with a pure or clean heart. God himself confirms that Abimelech acted with such a pure heart and declares that He restrained him from sinning.

God spoke directly to Abimelech king of Gerar in a dream to warn him concerning Abraham's wife. He kept him from touching her and so kept him from committing sin. This shows God continued after the fall to make His will known by speaking in person, to the wicked as well as to the righteous, and that knowledge of God existed and was understood in Gerar at that time. God is thus present even when a man entangles himself with a married woman, to meet him there, warn him, and restrain him from sin so he can still be saved. Yet taking Abraham's wife would have brought dire punishment upon Abimelech even though he did it unwittingly.

The encounter belongs to the second of two times Abraham deceptively said Sarah was his sister. His dealing with Abimelech shows lack of truthfulness. The deception came from fear and lack of trusting faith in God's protecting care. It shows his faith was not yet perfect but weak and mixed with unbelief, acting contrary to faith even while claiming integrity and innocence.

The verse forms part of the Genesis 12 to 26 account of God's providential dealings with the family of Abraham as the chosen progenitor of the promised Seed. It therefore belongs to the history of the beginning of things and of God's dealing with the Seed in the face of attempts to thwart God's plan. God may recognize purity of heart even in a person considered a heathen. People should not judge another's heart from outward circumstances, since God alone knows the heart and its motives.

Law Known Before Sinai

Abimelech's plea of integrity of heart and innocency of hands rested on the claim that Abraham had told him Sarah was his sister and Sarah herself had said Abraham was her brother, and his appeal shows he believed he had acted with an honest, innocent and clean heart and hands. That defense itself proves he already knew that to take another man's wife would be sinful, for he called the danger a great sin against himself and his kingdom and against God, recognizing it would bring great sin and guilt upon himself and his people. God had kept him from touching her and from committing that sin, which confirms that people knew sin before the law was given to Israel.

The account therefore proves the principle of the seventh commandment against adultery was known, understood and binding long before Sinai, even though no express prohibition of adultery to the early patriarchs is recorded. Abimelech knew the prohibition, and God directly instructed him about it, while the whole of Genesis 20:1-9 shows adultery was sin in Abraham's time and the law forbidding it was already in force before Moses. The principles of the Ten Commandments, including the wrongness of sexual wrongdoing, were thus known from Creation, and conduct before Moses was judged by that moral standard of right and wrong. The warning given after Abraham was called into Canaan proves God continued after the fall to make His will known by speaking in person, to the wicked as well as to the righteous, and that the knowledge of God existed and was understood in Gerar at that time.

Abimelech's taking of Abraham's wife would have brought dire punishment upon him even though he did it unwittingly. The same incident also shows violation of the tenth commandment before Sinai, in that Abimelech coveted another man's wife, proving that commandment was already known. It stands listed as a violation of both the seventh and ninth commandments before the law was proclaimed at Sinai, an instance of adultery and of falsehood showing those moral precepts were already known and operative.

Warnings And Life Application

The plea of integrity of heart and innocency of hands after taking another man's wife shows that God is present even when a man makes his bed in hell through entanglement with a married woman. He meets him there to warn him and to restrain him from sin. That restraint is given so that he can still be saved. The encounter in which Abimelech acted with an honest heart and innocent hands when he took Sarah, believing the statement that she was his sister, was used by God to administer a stern rebuke to Abraham.

Coming to the Maker in integrity of heart means coming in sincere prayer. Frequent, solemn, and serious prayer interrupts a custom of sin and by degrees weakens the old man. It makes a strangeness between lusts and the soul, so that even when sin adheres as close to the heart as skin does to flesh, that employment causes the lusts that were most dear by degrees to become strange and loose to the soul.