Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. (Gen 20,2)

Abraham certainly could not have been proud of the way he acted, but he justified it to himself by trying to minimize the danger. Scripture does not always offer an interpretation of the events described that is easily detected after the first cursory reading. At this point we are shocked to see Abraham telling a half-truth, and so we make a snap judgment: what a patriarchal dictate, what inequality, he protected himself at the expense of the weaker sex, nothing happened to him, but what about Sarah? What arrogance over the fate of those closest to him when his own wife ends up in the harem of the local king. He should be ashamed of himself!

But we need to go a little deeper to understand and perhaps gain some grace for him. For some places in Scripture tell a story, but not an evaluation of it (and certainly not primarily to us who live in a world so far removed from the one in which these stories took place that certain things are harder for us to understand).

We find two clues that can guide us to be clearer about the extent of Abraham's guilt. The first is this: 'Abimelech sent for Sarah'. Abraham was in foreign territory where he was a guest and felt threatened. It seems that Sarah was simply taken away by Abimelech's messengers. At that point, it was simply no longer possible to take up the fight against the outnumbered inhabitants of Gerar, especially since Abraham was forced by circumstances (probably lack of water) to remain there.

The second clue is even more obvious. Note that God did not reproach Abraham about this unfortunate episode even afterwards. On the contrary, we will see that He strikes Abimelech and affirms Abraham in relation to him - He has him pray for the miraculous healing of his house!

Abraham was certainly aware that this situation was caused by his fear and his resulting half-lie/half-truth. We are not always proud of ourselves... but we can be sure that God understands our weaknesses and the pressures we are under. (After all, who knows how many of us who are critical of him would act differently in his place?)

One thing we can be sure of, however, is that Abraham was aware of his mistake, and in the end he came to the right conclusion in his heart. How can we be sure of that? Because God then stooped to him in even greater power than he had ever known before. Abraham was later not farther from God, but nearer than he had ever been before.