Three Little Words

Another strange bit of Christian preaching on the radio this morning, on the subject of the story in which Abraham, in his travels, tells everyone where he's staying that his wife Sarah is his sister, and the king, Abimelech, therefore thinks it's okay to bring Sarah to his harem, because she's very beautiful. God comes to him in a dream and tells him that he has sinned by stealing another man's wife, so Abimelech goes to Abraham and asks why he lied about Sarah being his sister. His answer occurs in Genesis 20:11-13:

11 Abraham said, "I did it because I thought, 'There is no fear of Elohim at all in this place. They will kill me because of my wife. 12 Besides, she is my sister anyway, the daughter of my father (though not the daughter of my mother), and she became my wife.' 13 When Elohim made me leave my father's house, I said to her, 'This is how you should show your loyalty to me: everywhere we go, say of me, 'He is my brother.'"

The preacher suggested that we take notice of the words "because I thought" in Abraham's speech. Do you notice, said the preacher, that Abraham doesn't say "because I prayed"? That's why Abraham, and the rest of us, get into trouble - we think when we ought to be praying, because compared to God even the wisest of us is a moron. (Okay, I don't remember whether he used the word "moron", but you get the picture.)



Sorry, preacher - wrong, at least from a Jewish perspective.

The ancient rabbis tell us that God wants our prayers, all right, at least in the sense that He can be said to "want" anything - that is, God wants us to pray because doing so bring us closer to Him, and that's good for us. On the other hand, God also wants us to think, learn, and gain wisdom, rather than relying on Him for absolutely everything as this preacher seemed to advocate. A midrash tells us that when the Hebrews found themselves at the shore of the Red Sea with the Egyptians closing in from behind, Moses prayed to God for deliverance, and God's answer was "This is no time to pray - get moving!" Whether Abraham's thought was correct or otherwise, inferring from the words "because I thought" that all thought leads to error is just plain foolish. Besides, if God disliked Abraham's thoughts, in this case or any other, why didn't He punish Abraham for his mistake? Instead of punishment, Abraham gained great wealth from this incident - Abimelech gave him sheep and goats and money and let him live in the best part of his kingdom. "Because I thought," indeed...

Benshlomo says, Keep talking, preacher.