20:11
Abraham gives a rather honest answer, though not one likely to endear him to Abimelech. He says he thought there was surely no fear of God in the place. In reality it was Abraham who was not fearing God in the matter. He sought to deceive Abimelech and put Sarah in danger. If Abraham had feared God in the matter he would not have done this. We need to have a general fear of God, and a fear of God in particular situations. And a fear of God shows itself not in a cringing attitude, but in life lived in accordance with the ways of God. It means living as if God is the one with the final say, which the current incident demonstrated that God did have the final say! There times when we all fall down on this matter.
20:12,13
Abraham then continues to show up his failings. We get the old “she really is my sister” routine, see back in Gen 12 for an explanation of this is technically true, but what the message he wanted to convey was that she was not his wife. He also got Sarah embroiled in the subterfuge. Abraham does not come out of this well. Later on we will see that Isaac had the same failing.
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