In fact, it is Abimelech who is declared righteous (God says, "I know you did this in the integrity of your heart") in this situation, not Abraham. I repeat, Abraham was not righteous in this narrative.
Sorry, Jonathan. I don't buy it. While you certainly are correct in noticing a bias I have to justify Abraham and David, your bias to find Abraham a sinner in this case appears to me to be working overtime.
Look at the text:
Genesis 20:3-7
(3) But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
(4) But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
(5) Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
(6) And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
(7) Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Abimelech is the one who declared himself righteous. God told Abimelech to repent. God was going to kill him for doing something that he did not know he was doing. God had mercy upon him because of his ignorance. He gave him a chance to repent. When he says that he did it in the integrity of his heart, this does not mean that Abimelech was righteous, but that he was ignorant of the facts and therefore not sinning presumptuously and in rebellion. Abimelech still had some repentance to work out. The anger of God was against Abimelech, not Abraham. This fact appears to elude your attention, perhaps because of your bias to find Abraham to be a sinner.
God never told Abraham to repent. God told Abimelech to repent. Furthermore, he told Abimelech that his fate was in the hands of Abraham. He told Abimelech to ask Abraham to pray for him. Perhaps this is why Abimelech was so nice to Abraham after this.
For the record, I do recognize that Abraham and David were both sinners in need of a Savior. It is not my intention to try and make them "perfect." If John had simply said that Abraham had sinned by saying that Sarah was his sister, I might have let it go at that. When he ascribes an evil motive to Abraham's heart, that Abraham was willing to let men sleep with his wife so that they would not kill him, that is an entirely different matter. Perhaps my knowledge of the customs of that day regarding adultery, marriage arrangements, etc. influences my perspective, but even lacking such knowledge, a person should be careful in ascribing such evil motives to anyone when the text does not plainly say it. What he did to Abraham is the same thing many of you do to my posts. Some will misunderstand what I write and read between the lines, ascribing evil motivations. We should beware of what the Bible calls, "evil surmisings."
Peace be with you.
David Miller.
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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