To Sarah he said, "I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated." – Genesis 20:16

Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2021): Genesis 20

"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do." Or so the French philosopher Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, believed. It is not just the evil that we do that should bother us; it is the good that we could have done but didn't that should keep us up at night. All those times when we could have done something but didn't and all of those words of encouragement that we could have uttered, but that we held back, might be the things for which we are truly guilty. After all, our wrongs are often committed at the moment, and sometimes without recognizing that we were in the wrong, but the good that we could have done but refused to do is often held back purposefully and with much thought.

Abraham has introduced his wife, Sarah, to Abimelek, the King of Gerar, a Philistine town in what is now South Central Israel, as his sister. Because Sarah was beautiful, the King decides to take her as one of his wives. But before anything else could happen, God speaks to Abimelek and warns him that the woman he has taken is actually the wife of Abraham and that if he proceeds with his plans, he will die.

Abimelek immediately goes to Abraham and asks him why he has lied to him and, in the process, endangered his life. Had Abimelek committed some offense against Abraham of which the King was not aware? And then the King makes restitution to Abraham for the sin that he almost committed, including giving him a thousand shekels of silver.

But what is most remarkable about the story is that Abimelek has done nothing wrong; the sin all belongs to Abraham. It was Abraham who had lied, and Abimelek who believed the lie. It is a point that Abimelek presses with Sarah as he comments, "I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver," and not "I am giving you're your husband a thousand shekels of silver." The statement is loaded with irony; if Sarah were really Abraham's sister, then there would have been no offense that would need to be covered.

The last comment that Abimelek makes to Sarah the NIV translates as "you are completely vindicated." And that is indeed one of the possible translations. The King James Version translates the same comment that "she was reproved." Both translations are struggling with the Hebrew word "yakah," which means "set right." The reader is left with the question of what did the writer of Genesis intend with the use of the word. It could mean that Sarah had been properly rebuked for her part in the deception, or it could indicate that she was vindicated through her humble submission. And in a way, both are correct, and maybe both are intended. But although Abimelek may not have been guilty through his actions with Sarah, he was also approved by the way that he handled the situation and through the good that he did do.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis 21