USED BY GOD (Abimelech) 

You may not know who Abimelech is. We know all these famous people of the bible that we learn about in sunday school growing up, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, John the Baptist, and a really famous one Jesus himself, but who is Abimelech? Well, he is important, so important, that God decided to preserve his name. 

Abimelech was the King of Gerar, we can also know him as the King of the Philistines. This group of people ends up being Israel’s long-lasting enemy. The Palestinians of today are the descendants of the Philistines of Abraham’s day. They hate each other today, but back then there was actually a covenant made between Abraham and the King of Philistines. We see this covenant get made in Genesis 21:22- 34. This covenant was a peace agreement they made with each other over the water wells. This is interesting because we could go deeper and talk about how this is an economic peace agreement since the water wells watered the cattle and in those days cattle were their own economic monetary exchange of doing business. Like today, we see whoever has the most dollars in the bank is the richest, in those days, whoever had the most cows, donkeys, sheep, etc were considered wealthy. So this peace agreement is an economic peace agreement. This will actually tie into the end time’s prophecies when the Jews and Palestines with many other countries will sign another economic peace agreement again which the Anti-Christ will confirm, which will begin the 7 year countdown to the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. President Donald Trump has actually been the only president to get some of this deal signed, now the Palestines are trying to get the UN to assign the last part of the agreement to someone else to confirm the deal in the early parts of 2021. 

So not to get off-topic, that was important I wanted to talk about really fast. So now that we have a background of who Abimelech is, how did God use him? What is so important about him? 

In Genesis 20 Abraham, this guy that is being called by God and speaking directly to God, he is scared of this earthly ruler.  This is weird honestly, you got the God of creation speaking directly to you and you’re scared that this guy is going to be able to kill you? Well, we know the story, Abraham lies and tells everyone his wife is his sister and this king comes and tries to take Abraham’s wife as his own. The conversation this King has with God is interesting. In verse 3 God warns this King that the woman he is sleeping with is already married. So we see this side of God that he warns people of the sin, even in dreams. We see the reply of the king saying that he did this without knowing. He calls himself an innocent man and a man of integrity. God agrees with the king and says, (in my word) “Yeah I know men, but return the men’s wife back to him or you will die”. See we seem to think the God of the old testament is an evil, unrighteous, unjust God, but he isn’t, God is being patient with this king and warning him, and showing compassion and understanding.  

Later on in Genesis 26:6-11, we see that Isaac, the Son of Abraham, does the same thing to Abimelech, but this time the king doesn’t fall for it, he actually makes an order that if anyone touches the wife of Isaac, they will be put to death. This shows that Abraham wasn’t teaching his son a few things, like don’t try to trick the king of Gerar. 

God used this king to first protect his people and also he used him to show us that God is able to use unbelievers. God uses people who don’t even serve him. I see comments on facebook posts about Trump all the time, “No way God is using Trump, he must be getting used by the Devil, God would never use evil men like Trump.” Well, it’s just not true, God used Abimelech the King of the Philistines. God also used these men to make Abraham’s descendants wealthy. We see that this king gives Abraham cattle and he later gives Isaac time to grow his cattle and people before sending him to the Valley of Gerar. 

So we see God use his enemy. His own enemy and have compassion and understanding on him too. God even gives him a chance to repent. What an amazing God we serve. 

In your 21st Century Walk With God, are you displaying this amazing love and grace towards those who hate you? Are you showing compassion and understanding towards those who might need your voice of understanding? 

One more thing, judging someone’s faith is not cool. Abraham judged Abimelech’s faith, we see this take place in  Genesis 20:11, “I thought” was Abraham’s reply to this king. “I thought”. Don’t judge another person based on culture, color, people, that what Abraham did and it almost cost the life of the King of Gerar. I had a boss in Walmart once that told me, “Assuming makes us both look like jacka**’s”. That was his own words. Don’t assume someone else’s faith.