Passing Judgement on Others

Genesis 20

How quick I am at passing judgment on others.   How about you, do you make judgments on how a person eats, dresses, talks, or where they live?  If you are exempt from this group of people judgers, that is a good thing, but many of us do it almost as easy as taking a drink of water.  Often, we the judges, miss out on the joy and knowledge of the person or group we are passing judgment on, and that’s what Abraham has done in Chapter 20 with Abimelech king of Gerar.

In 1922 the site was partially excavated by W.J. Phythian-Adams and in 1927 by Sir Flinders Petrie and four city levels were found, extending from the patriarchal to the Roman period.  More recent surveys have led many of the best authorities to believe that Gerar is about eleven miles southeast of Gaza.   The mound covers about forty acres, and on its surface are an abundance of potsherds indicating that the city enjoyed considerable prosperity during the Middle Bronze Age – the age of the patriarchs.  Taken from page 4376 Archaeological Supplement of the Thompson Bible.

Often while reading the Bible, I am reminded that Abraham and others mentioned were not that much different than you and I.  Yes, they had fears, faults, ups and downs just like you and me, and they made judgments based often on fear or uncertainly of the people and their culture and customs.  Remember, Abraham has not met that many people who know God, and even fewer who have any fear of God.  So Abraham is doing what I have done, he is making judgments on what he fears, and what he sees, without exploring the facts.

It is also a fact that Sarah is a beauty, she was a (12) in a world where the best looking  woman could only be rated a (10), and she was blessed to get better looking as she aged.  So Abraham who was her half-brother ask her to tell people she was his sister, when they entered a new area.  When Abimelech saw Sarah and heard she was Abraham’s sister he took her for his wife, and before he could sleep with her, (may have had to send the current wife on a shopping trip) God spoke to him in a dream.

Picking up the story in verse three, “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”  Now Abimelech had not approached her.  So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?  Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’?  And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’  In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”  Then God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me.  Therefore I did not let you touch her.  Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.  But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you, and all who are yours.”

Proverbs 1:7, states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  King Abimelech was not a fool, he feared God and though he had used his power to get what he wanted, he heard God and obeyed.  Both he and Abraham were operating out of fear; Abraham, out of fear of man, and Abimelech, out of fear of God.  To fear God brings blessing into our lives, blessings like knowledge and wisdom.  To fear man only brings fear!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice