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Like many of us Abram was capable of committing a sin and repeating it over and over again. What he did before in lying about his wife and saying she was his sister; he has just done again. This produces some real serious problems if we think about what God has promised to do with Abraham and Sarah. If God is in this situation He will need to intervene again, and that's exactly what he does. Let's pick up the Story again in verse 3.

But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman. ”Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.

(Gen. 20: 3-5)

What happens at this point is God intervenes and the intervenes by giving Abimelech a dream. The point being is by saying he had not come near her was that he had not had sexual relations with her, and he says, look Lord, I didn't know anything about this. As a matter of fact, he goes on in verse five to say, Abraham said to me she is my sister and even she herself said he is my brother, therefore, I am innocence of this. In other words, I didn't know I was doing something wrong, and I haven't touched her. I'm innocent I didn't have any prior knowledge and surely you don’t mean to tell me the penalty for this is death. He's pleading ignorance. Is that true are you innocent because you're ignorant  If going down, the road and the speed limits is 50 and you're doing 60 and a policeman pulled you over. You can say I didn't know the speed limit but that wouldn’t mean you wouldn't get the ticket. The legal position in UK law has always been ignorance of the law is no not excuse. So, while what Abimelech is saying is true doesn't make any difference in relation whether the law of God was broken if he had slept with her. He would have committed a sin even if you don't know it.

The story continues in verse 6.

“Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

(Gen. 20: 6-7)

God then says, “it was I who prevented you from touching her” Later in the passage there are indications that Abimelech got sick that night and for that matter a whole bunch of other people around him got physically sick so many Bible experts suggest, and I think rightly so, that God prevented the situation being carried further simply by making Abimelech unwell. Why did God get involved in all of this? I God trying to protect one woman’s reputation. I'm sure that's a factor but in the context of the book of Genesis that's not the real point here. God is not protecting her reputation; he is protecting his promise. He said Abraham you are going to have a son through this woman. In spite of the nonsense with her slave Hagar God still says that Abraham will have a son through Sarah. What he's doing is protecting the promise he made he and he steps in a speaks to Abimelech in a dream. We will find out how this all works out this time.