Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abraham said, “I will swear.” Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.” Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.”
(Genesis 21:24-27)

Abraham was willing to make a covenant with Abimelech. For three generations there would be peace. God did not interfere in this, because that did not violate His stated timeline (in FOUR generations these two groups would be at war). Abraham did not see an issue, but he also did not inquire of the Lord about it. It would be interesting to know what God would have had him do. We should always inquire of the Lord before making commitments – and we have the advantage of having Holy Spirit dwelling in us, so it takes but a moment to check in (John 14:26; Luke 12:11-12).

Abraham tested this new alliance BEFORE swearing anything, but AFTER he agreed to swear. Abraham wasn’t voiding his agreement, he was bringing into the open a conflict that could have undermined everything. He was making sure they were starting on the right foot. Abimelech, to his credit, was honest and protested his innocence. At the same time, these two men were establishing the precedent that if either of them had an issue, it could be brought directly to the other in order to deal with it. They were establishing dealing with things right away, instead of letting resentment fester into conflict. A wise way to deal together.

The sheep and cattle Abraham brought here were to set the covenant between Abimelech and Abraham. They were the blood price by which the two men swore this covenant between them. These animals had nothing to do with the well situation. This was about the agreement of peace for three generations.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘אנכי אשבע, I will do you the favour to swear such an oath; however, you have not done me any favours as you claim to have done. אשר גזלו עבדי אבימלך, he criticised him precisely in his position of king, seeing that robbery had been tolerated in his country and there was no one to protest this. He also criticised him for the evildoers in his own entourage. He did not act according to the norms of righteous people. Psalms 101,7 suggests that righteous people have no business dwelling in the proximity of people who practice deception. לא ידעתי מי עשה, even now that you have informed me by means of my servants that you have been unjustly victimised, I still do not know who are the ones who could have done this. Not a single one among the people concerned seems suspect to me. Had I suspected any one of my servants of such conduct he would not have been tolerated in my entourage. וגם אתה לא הגדת לי וגם אנכי לא שמעתי, what you have accused me of, that while in my position as king I had condoned violence. A king does interfere such matters only if one of two conditions exist 1) If the party that has suffered robbery complains loudly; 2) if neutral people aware of the robbery raise their voices in protest. In the case of Avraham, neither of such conditions existed until now.’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 25. והוכח, not ויכח. It seems that Abraham had already before made representations to Abimelech about a well that had been taken from him, without specifying (out of discretion) who the robbers were, not telling him that they were his own servitors. Abimelech had taken no notice of the complaint. Now Abraham reminds him of it and tells him who had done it. Abimelech excuses himself by saying that the reason he had done nothing in the matter was because he did not know who had done it. V. 27. It seems peculiar that here, at the conclusion of the agreement, which as a rule is based on mutual relationship, Abraham alone made gifts. This giving at the conclusion of a contract seems altogether to correspond to the idea of the later קנין סודר, and if, in accordance with the accepted Halacha, the symbol of the קנין has to be given by the receiver, it seems that Abimelech should have given Abraham a token as assurance for at least himself and for his own lifetime. Perhaps Abimelech thought this was not required as Abraham was actually receiving his part of the agreement there and then. Or on Abimelech’s side there was no gift called for, as he was to receive nothing concrete at all from Abraham, only an assurance by oath for the future of his descendants.’