Genesis 20:17-18

2007.Nov.10 03:41

Barrenness

Read Genesis 20:17-18 | Full Chapter

So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the LORD had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
(Genesis 20:17-18, NKJV)

Quick review:

• Abraham and Sarah go to Gerar.
• King Abimelech: “Hey, that 90 year old lady [referring to Sarah] is H-O-T!”
• Abraham to Sarah: “Say you’re my sis.”
• Sarah: “I’m his sis.”
• Abimelech says, “Sweet, consider yourself my prisoner.”
• God: “Abimelech, Sarah’s married. You’re a dead man.”
• Abimilech: “I didn’t know.”
• God: “Then fix it.”
• Abimelech to Abraham: “Oops.”
• Abraham: “Figured you’d kill me.”
• Abimelech: “Here’s Sarah… and some silver”

So, now Abraham and Sarah are back together, and a bit richer (Although I would not want to be there when Sarah and Abraham first discuss this fiasco). Abraham responds by praying. Yahweh responds by healing. Various women in Abimelech’s country respond by having babies. Chalk up one by barrenness on the OT themes board.

Barrenness as a concept is strange. The relevant entry from dictionary.com here is “not producing or incapable of producing offspring; sterile”. That’s a big “or”. Not producing offspring and incapable of doing so are pretty different. And —-, there’s a lot of questions in that phrase. Is a women only barren if she is actively trying to conceive. Since barrenness is used metaphorically, is a task only barren if it has been attempted? And, aside from trying to parse the definition, there’s ten thousand cultural issues wrapped up in this concept, including stupidities like woman viewed like land, valued only for what they “produce”. Bleh.

It’s an interesting side note that God orchestrated the birth of the Messiah to require a “fertile” woman (the English language occassionally completely sucks) but not a fertile man. I wonder if Yahweh may have been making a statement there?

To this particular passage though, there’s a few implications (not explicit, so I’m guessing here) that I want to consider:

1. The women in the king’s household were barren, possibly since the moment Sarah was brought into the king’s…whatever. (the barrenness is explicit; what I’m trying to highlight is the implication that this had been going on for some time. I guess that is pretty obvious though; it’s not something that becomes apparent in a couple of days).
2. Abimelech was not motivated by this (granted, I’ve been biased against this guy throughout my study of this chapter, so I may be reading in too much), and did not act until he was convinced that his very life was at stake. It’s so important to pay attention to what Yahweh is doing in our lives; don’t wait until you’re at the edge of losing everything.
3. Yahweh’s blessing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the king’s expectation. God heals Abimelech (of what I don’t know), but that’s all of two words. The attention is on Yahweh healing the barrenness of these various women. (sorry, “infertile” and “sterile” are the only synonyms I can think of and I’m not keen on either word).
4. While Abraham and Abimelech are playing these goofy games, Sarah and the women of Abimelech’s court are suffering in various ways – I’m assuming that’s God’s healing implies they were wanting children. I could be quite wrong. God is teaching the “powerful men” some lessons but he’s also focused on Sarah, the queen, and the servants.

So, aside from the ten thousand issues with barrenness here, it’s that subtle thing God does so often in the Bible. Yes, here we’re recording the big events, in the lives of the rich and powerful. And boom, God says, hey, that’s great that you grew up a little, now I’m going to bless…your servants!

Oh, snap.

Come back next entry for the surprise conclusion…