Genesis 20:14-16

2007.Nov.07 02:03

Sacrifice by numbers

Read Genesis 20:14-16 | Full Chapter

Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, “See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” Then to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.” Thus she was rebuked.
(Genesis 20:14-16, NKJV)

Yay. Abimelech obeys. Took longer than I thought it should, but he obeys! It is one thing to make a moral commitment. It is altogether another thing to pay a price with that commitment. As Jesus says in Matthew:

You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won’t you sit down and figure out how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? Otherwise, you will start building the tower, but not be able to finish. Then everyone who sees what is happening will laugh at you. They will say, “You started building, but could not finish the job.”
(Luke 14:27-30, CEV)

And Abimelech does pay a price, in addition to releasing Sarah. He gives Abraham a thousand pieces of silver and invites the family to stay wherever they’d like in his lands. This was not specifically required by Jehovah in the dreams in which he instructed Abimelech; the king might have saved his life without this gesture, but it would have been dishonoring to Sarah and Abraham, because Abimelech had sinned against them.

Abimelech also does not give an insulting gift, but rather something of value. A small half-hearted sacrifice when seeking forgiveness, either from other humans or from Yahweh, is insulting. Better to just ask forgiveness and not offer anything. Remember that when offering something to a friend you have hurt that whatever you give symbolizes the value you place on that relationship. Abimelech is showing to Abraham and Sarah that he values their forgiveness, if “only” for the sake of his life and kingdom.

I suppose I’ll have plenty of opportunity to discuss sacrifices later, but when Jehovah dictates specifics in what a sacrifice should be, as in "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats" (Exodus 12:5, NASB) , I don’t believe its an implication of what he values but rather that we must give something we value. Even when accepting Christ’s sacrifice, we implicitly sacrifice at least a portion of our pride. Getting off point, a bit. Actually, I think I’ve made my point, so I’ll foray into another tangent and then finish without repeating my thesis (it’s like a treasure hunt; see if you can find it).

As it happens, I picked the NKJV to quote, which includes this fascinating line: “Thus she was rebuked.” It’s “reproved” in the King James (and 21st Century KJV) and largely absent from my random checks of other version; Young’s Literal goes, “and by all this she is reasoned with.” Anyway, I have no particular point to make about this line, but it was very unexpected. If I knew the history behind why this passage is included in some and not other versions, I might start in on some critical analyses.