What do the words of the Sovereign Lord to Abimelech, when the latter took Abraham’s wife, Sarah, mean: ” I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.” (Gen. 20:6) Was this something against the human being’s free wi
God has given man freedom, but it is not absolute freedom.
If this freedom is diverted towards something evil, which endangers the eternal life of that person, or someone else, then God can intervene to put a limit to this evil, or to punish the wrongdoer or stop him, and that is because God is the Almighty.
If God were never to restrain on this freedom, but left it alone to do absolutely any evil, it would simply sweep away the poor and weak.
In fact God set a limit to the evil of Satan himself, as is clear in the story of the righteous Job. (Job 1:12; 2:6) And in Psalm 125 it also says: ” For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest On the land allotted to the righteous ” (Ps. 125:3) God also intervened to set a limit to Pharaoh’s cruelty. And how beautiful are the words in Psalm 12: ” For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.’ ” (Ps. 12:5).
God gives freedom even to sinners and if they go too far, in such a way that threatens the righteous, then He will intervene to save the righteous and also to establish justice.
There are countless examples of this in the Bible and throughout history and they go to prove God’s care and concern.
In the story of Abimelech, though, God intervened out of His grave concern for Sarah’s chastity and for the feelings of Abraham, and also to save Abimelech from committing an enormous sin. This was because Abimelech had taken Sarah in all good faith, since Abraham had told him that Sarah was his sister, not his wife. (Gen. 20:11-12).
We do not call this, intervening to limit someone’s freedom, but rather intervening in order to save that person from sin. Don’t let us forget that Sarah was the wife of a prophet, and from her descendants the Messiah would come!
