“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.” (Gen. 20:6)
I would ask you to contemplate that verse in the context of our supposed free will, the ability that we have to chose as we might determine for ourselves. The account in the Scriptures is of Abraham, Abimelech, and Sarah, and once again Abraham, the friend of God, (James 2:23) has told what could politely be called a half-truth, telling that king of the land of the Philistines that Sarah was his sister, so that they would not kill him and take her.
The Almighty in some form manipulated the life of Abimelech so that it was not possible for him to have an intimate relationship with Sarah, and thus saved the entire kingdom from His wrath. How He did this we are not told, but there was a fair amount of time that passed from that moment that, to put it bluntly, Abraham gave his beloved wife up to save his own skin, reminding us of Job 2:4 “skin for skin,” and the time that the Lord appeared to Abimelech in that dream, “For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.” (Gen. 20:18)
The non-believer would say that he was a king of a nation, and so therefore was a busy man, his duties over those days kept his mind off of Sarah, perhaps he had many other wives, perhaps the account just slipped his mind for all those months. In either case, the Scriptures are true, in some way, shape or form, the Most High inhibited Abimelech from consummating what he intentionally took Sarah for.
The point that most would dwell on here is the incredulous fact of the promises made to Abraham by the Lord, the disbelief revealed by his actions in this particular account, and the audacity of a man who would sacrifice his wife to save his own skin. But I personally believe that the reason this short account is given to us in the Word of God is that one verse, I withheld thee from sinning.
It is God that rules in the kingdom of men, (Dan. 4:17) and it matters very little to Him how any would react to that truth, all that is, is His, He is no respecter of persons, (Romans 2:11) and He does all that He desires according to His will, not ours.
What is it in your life that you have desired that you know for a fact was, or is, against the Lord, not just something that would cause Him to be displeased with you, but would necessitate a serious chastisement, and one that you were not able to accomplish, for what the world would call “unforeseen circumstances.” I have found out over the course of my life that if I want something bad enough, I can usually attain it, in one form or another. It is called tenacity, fortitude, a fervent, burning desire to get what I am after. These were all done of course for the sake of self, for vain glory, and when accomplished, nothing eternal was gained, in fact, many of them caused suffering within my soul, for they were against the will of God.
It will be interesting at some point in the future to be able to see just how often the Lord intentionally kept me from sinning even greater against Him by His act of withholding me from those things that I strove for. Abimelech was in no way at fault, that is quite clear in verse 20:6, but for us, it is different, Satan deceives us, and we intentionally deceive ourselves at times, seeking the pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:25) for a time, believing that in all aspects of our lives, we have the free will to do all that we please to do.
The Lord God will not allow His name to be besmirched in such a manner by His servants, His children. He has kept us from doing that in more ways in our lives than we may ever know, and all for His glory.
