Jg. 9: Abimelech: Rise and Fall

Judges 9:53 "A woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull."

Gideon's son by his concubine, Abimelech takes power because he is a son of Gideon. Albeit illegitimately. Instead of power being conferred on him, he just takes it.

If that name, Abimelech sounds familiar, it is. It is the name of the person both Abraham and Isaac duped into thinking their wives were their sisters.

To ensure that no one would take it from him, he has his 69 brothers killed on a single stone. The 70th, Jotham, escaped by hiding. Can you imagine lining up to be killed with all your brothers? Yeesh. What kind of goons did Abimelech hire? Anyway, Abimelech is crowned king, and the escaped brother, Jotham climbs up on Mount Gerezim, the mountain of blessing, and tells a parable about trees that basically means that something generally useless, as a thornbush would take power and be destructive, while useful people would be too busy being useful to pursue power. Abimelech had power because he took it...not because he offered Israel any kind of hope or good. Jotham caps it off by implying that supporting Abimelech would be denigrating Gideon.

Then he ran, because this probably upset the majority of the people.

For three years, Abimelech rules Israel, and then God sends an evil spirit (first biblical mention) between Abimelech and the people of Shechem. This evil spirit was used by God to avenge the deaths of the brothers Abimelech had killed. It's another example of God using evil to accomplish his justice. So Shechem rebels and their people go to war against Abimelech. This results in Abimelech crushing the rebellion and pursuing the Shechemites to some tower in Thebez where a woman drops an upper millstone on his head. Abimelech has his sword-bearer run him through to avoid the dishonor of being killed by a chick. Which would have been devastating. Thus ends Abimelech.

The curse Jotham pronounced came true on Shechem as well, because they were not exactly smelling like a rose, either.

Ge. 26: Isaac and Abimelech

Kicking off the second half of Genesis, we find out there is a famine in the land. So Isaac goes and pays a visit to his dad's old friend, Abimelech in Gerar.

Meanwhile, God tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt. Not sure if it has something to do with his stepbrother Ishmael's wife, or that Egypt just sucked. Anyway, God tells him to avoid Egypt. In verse 4, God almost word-for-word reiterates the promise he made to Abraham back in Gen 22:17. But he adds a caveat, saying that Abraham obeyed God, and did everything required of him. This was a challenge to Isaac to follow the same path.

Follow the same path, he did...right down to letting Abimelech think Rebekah was Isaac's sister. When his dad pulled the stunt, it was before he was born, so maybe Isaac thought of it on his own, or maybe Abraham told him about it....I'unno. The point is, we have a husband with a hot wife, fearing for his life in spite of God's promise of preservation, Abimelech (or his cohorts) under the impression hot wife was a sister, Abimelech getting upset because they don't mess with married women, and then a decree going out not to harm the prophet. Maybe this was how Isaac figured it worked. Bring your wife in, let them think she's your sister, and then they protect you and lavish gifts upon you. Not a bad racket, I guess.

Isaac planted crops in that land, and God gave him a hundredfold increase. I'm no farmer, but if I plant one seed of corn or wheat or something, and I get 100 plants, I'd say that's pretty amazing, and a miracle.

So he gets rich. Big time. So much so that the Philistines living in the land got jealous. All they had were their cave paintings and sloping, ape-like foreheads presumably. So what do you do when you're jealous of the new rich guy in town? Go fill in all his wells. Grr...now they've got him.

Abimelech gets word of this, and tells Isaac to move away. He's become too big a fish for the small pond. So he moves away to the Valley of Gerar, which is apparently distinct from Gerar.

Isaac reopened all the wells, but was apparently not far enough away from Gerar, as the Gerarian herdsman argued with him over land and wells. He finally moved far enough away to be able to call a well Rehoboth, or "Room." Then he went to Beersheba. God again reconuts his promise, and Isaac builds an altar.

I'm pretty amazed by how often God recounts his promise to Abraham and Isaac. So far it's been 5 or 6 times. He must mean it.

Abimelech tracks him down, and goes to meet Isaac. Isaac is like, "What do you want? We moved away from your hostility." Abimelech goes, "No, we see that you and the LORD are like...tight. We want to make a deal with you."

Just like Abimelech, trying to get on God's good side without making any effort on his own.

So they have a feast and everyone's happy. They're cool.

Then they find out Ishmael went and married some Hittite chicks. And this really bugged Isaac and Rebekah.

Ge. 21: Huzzah for Isaac...Ishmael is outty-five

OK, Finally! I can rejoice with Abraham, because in chapter 21, Sarah gives birth to Isaac (c. 2038), presumably meaning "laughter." The Bible says it was at God's appointed time, exactly when He said He'd deliver (Gen 18:10). I'm pretty happy for Abe, because he waited a very long time to have a son by his wife, the way it was meant to be. I have only the frame of reference of a few years at the longest in waiting on God to provide an answer to prayer. And when He did, I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving and...well, relief. God consistently shows He is a specific person, not a vague concept. I cannot imagine the joy that Abraham felt. He just wanted to party.

The birth of Ishmael led to pain and controversy and family dischord. The birth of Isaac was unifying, to Abraham and Sarah, and to Abraham and his family.

Ishmael was born pre-circumcision covenant...he had to be brought in after the 8 day rule. Isaac was born, and was circumcised into the covenant exactly as God intended.

Ishmael was a result of man attempting to force God's hand. Isaac was the hand God stacked the deck to play.

Ishmael was a mocker at the feast celebrating Isaac's weaning. Sarah saw this, and was not willing to have Ishmael share in Isaac's inheritance. She told Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham wasn't at peace with that type of decision, so he took it to the LORD. God said, "Listen to Sarah, because like I said, Isaac will be the source of your offspring, and fulfillment of my promise."

What's interesting next is that God says he will also make Ishmael a great nation as well. This is not because God wanted Hagar or Ishmael to feel better, or as some sort of a consolation. It was merely because Abraham was his father. So Abe gives them the boot the next day.

Hagar and Ishmael wander around in the desert until the provisions given them by Abraham run out. Hagar is desperate. In her tears, the Angel of the Lord comforts her. I don't know if this is a new angel, or if its the one that gave her comfort the last time she was in the desert after being banished. The angel encourages Hagar, telling her that God hears her cries, and not to worry. God graciously reveals a well that may or may nor have been there before, and Hagar and Ishmael are saved. The Bible says God was with Ishmael, despite him not necessarily being a part of the covenant. Was this due to Ishmael's father being Abraham, or the fact the God was benevolent to everyone? Maybe it's something else entirely.

Meanwhile, Abimelech is conferring with Abraham, telling him not to pull any stunts on him, as a favor to the nation in which he lives that shows him kindness. After swearing it, Abraham tells Abimelech that maybe his nation isn't so kind. Apparently some of Abimelech's men seized a well dig by Abraham's men. Abimelech is like, "This is news to me." Abraham gives Abimelech seven ewe lambs as a testimony that he is telling the truth. Seven, like on the ark...

Anyway, the well is called Beersheba. Maybe there were a lot Beersheba's back in the day, because Beersheba is where Hagar encountered the angel. Same, different...thats a question for God.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called on the name of the Eternal God.

Questions for God:
1. Is everyone assigned an angel, or what? How does that work?

Ge. 20: Again With the Wife-Sister Thing

Abraham probably needed a change of pace from living near where Sodom and Gomorrah used to be, so he moved to Gerar. I don't know where that is, other than that it is probably in the Middle East somewhere, and is near Kadesh and Shur, according to Chapter 20.

Abraham pulls the same stunt on Gerar's King Abimelech with his wife/half sister Sarah as he did with Pharaoh back in chapter 12. Abimelech sees that Sarah is pretty hot, even for a ninety-year-old chick.

So, Abimelech sends for her to be added to his wifery, and God appears to him to tell him that he is "as good as dead" because he has taken a married woman. Abimelech maintains his innocence, telling God that Abraham told him she was his sister.

In verse 6, God says that He knew Abimelech had a clear conscience, so He kept him from sinning against God. He did not let Abimelech touch her. I find this very amazing, that God would go out of his way to prevent someone from sinning against Him. This is the first time I can recall in scripture of God explicitly preventing sin. So far, God has set his standard, and sort of allowed people to make their own choices. God intervenes here, protecting Abimelech from a mistake that would have meant death (v. 7).

So Abimelech calls in his officials, and confronts Abraham in front of them...probably so they don't suspect the king of any wrongdoing. Abraham confesses that he made an assumption that there was no fear or respect of God in Gerar, and was paranoid that he would be killed and his wife assimilated into a concubine. Ironically, it was Abraham who's faith was questionable, not depending on God, his deliverer multiple times, even back with the Pharaoh in the same situation. He even tries to defend it by saying she was his half-sister. Half truth is still 100% lie.

So, like Pharaoh, Abimelech gives Abraham a bunch of cattle and money and good stuff. Despite Abraham's deception and his essentially not trusting God with his wife, he makes out like a bandit.

I gotta like Abimelech's sense of humor, because he turns to Sarah, and says, "I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver." This is the first time I laughed out loud while reading the Bible. He doesn't call Abraham Sarah's husband...he calls him her brother. Just as Abraham had claimed. Anyway, this gift is meant to vindicate Sarah, in that she didn't do anything wrong, and probably also show that Abimelech was guilty of no wrongdoing as well.

Then we have a happy ending, in which God heals Abimelech and all the womenfolk of his house, because God had shut up their wombs while Abraham made his home there. Craziness.
I don't know how long Abraham was there, but it was long enough that the women of Abimelech's house could not conceive.

Lets Review:
Chapter one: Creation
Chapter two: Eve
Chapter three: Sin in the garden
Chapter four: Cain kills Abel, genealogy
Chapter five: Adam to Noah genealogy
Chapter six: Nephelim, Noah chosen
Chapter seven: The flood
Chapter eight: The flood recedes
Chapter nine: God's covenant: The Rainbow; Ham cursed
Chapter ten: Table of nations
Chapter eleven: Tower of Babel; Sons of Shem
Chapter twelve: Abram is called; Egypt
Chapter thirteen: Abram and Lot separate
Chapter fourteen: Abram goes to war
Chapter fifteen: God promises a covenant with Abram
Chapter sixteen: Ishmael the stopgap
Chapter seventeen: God's covenant of circumcision
Chapter eighteen: Three visitors, Abraham wants to protect Sodom
Chapter nineteen: Destruction of S & G, Lot's daughters
Chapter twenty: Abraham and Abimelech