Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

SOJOURN IN THE NEGEB 20: 1-21 :34
(Judg. 7:13-15), tlie’wife of Pilate (Matt. 27:19), ex-
perienced significant dreams,) (Cf. also the vision granted
Isaiah of the “Lord sitting upon a throne’) (Isa. 6:l-J) ;
Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9-11) ;
the visions of the Living One, of the Door opened in
heaven, of the Temple of God in heaven, and of the New
Heaven and New Earth, all vouchsafed John the Beloved
of the isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:18, 4:1, 11:19) 21:1), all of
these together, in their various details) making up the con-
tent of the Apocalypse.) The fact that God communicated
with Abimelech in a dream is sufficient evidence that the
latter was in some sense a believer, one who apparently
feared God; however, he must have had only a limited
knowledge of God, because the dream, as stated above,
was “a mode employed for those standing on a lower level
of revelation)) (EG, 582). Note the conversation which
occurred by means of this dream: (1) God explains that
Abimelech had done a deed worthy of death, viz., he had
taken another man’s wife from her husband for his own
purposes) whereas he should have honored the sanctity of
the marriage bond (nothing was said about the other
members of the king’s harem, but God’s silence must not
be taken as approval) cf. Acts 17:30); (2) Abimelech
answered by stating his fear that lie, or even his subjects)
however innocent in this case, might as a consequence of
his sin (cf. 2 Sam. 24:17, 1 Chron. 21:17, Jer. 15:4)) be
destroyed as the Sodomites had been destroyed; he then
protested his innocence) in view of the fact that both
Abraham and Sarah had represented themselves to him as
brother and sister; (3) whereupon God recognized the
fact of the king’s innocence and explained why he in turn
-as an act of benevolence-had ihposed a physical afflic-
tion on him to prevent his laying hands on the mother of
the Child of Promise. (4) Finally) God ordered Abimelech
to restore Sarah to her husband, “for he is a prophet, and
he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live,” etc. Note
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