Abraham and the king

Over the past few years, I've had the opportunity to get more familiar with parts of the Old Testament. Notably, the Wisdom literature, the Patriarchs, and the pre-king history of Israel. These sections form the bedrock for so much of the Old and New Testament, but honestly I tended to skim over a lot of it. There was much that was difficult and confusing and honestly not very edifying. But I have come to really enjoy a lot more of it, and recommend it to others as edifying.

But a lot of discussions on the material, whether in sermons or commentaries, tend to overemphasize certain interpretive tools. These tools are often very helpful, but when overused can be barriers and stumbling blocks to a deeper understanding of the Lord and scripture. The two most notable ones I'll call "personal faith journeys" and "references to Jesus".

For example, in Genesis 20, Abraham lies about Sarah being his wife, and the Lord appears in a dream to warn king Abimelech. If this is supposed to be a story about Abraham's personal faith, it's very confusing, because he's not rebuked, Abimelech is. Abraham is, in a certain respect, rewarded for his deception. And if we're supposed to learn something important about Jesus here, it's even more of a stretch. Both of these lead to some painful contortions of the scriptural passages.

So is there another way to understand this? Well, in the wider context, the Lord works through his people, to extend His dominion to the surrounding peoples and nations. And so in this story, even unintentionally, Abraham brings king Abimelech face-to-face with the Lord in a dream. Judgement is announced, Abimelech repents, the Lord relents. It has parallels with the story of Jonah and the Ninevites, and with Jesus and the Caananite woman. And thus the knowledge and fear of the Lord is extended into another territory. So there's nothing wrong with interpretive tools, but now we can add a new one, "the Lord working through his people to bring salvation to the surrounding nations". This brings a new perspective, like a new color suddenly turned on, lighting previously dark passages. And this isn't the only tool to add, obviously, but we discover them by getting familiar with the Old Testament, by really filling ourselves up with it, and being patient with what we might find.