What Does Genesis 20:17 Mean?

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again. The prophetic function identified in verse 7, "he is a prophet and he will pray for you", is now enacted. Abraham prays for the pagan king who correctly handled the moral crisis that Abraham's own deception created, and God heals the entire royal household. The intercessory prayer of the covenant prophet on behalf of the surrounding nation is the covenant's blessing function in its most direct form: through Abraham, all nations on the earth will be blessed, and in this moment the Philistine royal household is blessed through Abraham's prayer.

The healing that results from Abraham's prayer includes Abimelech himself, his wife, and his female slaves; the scope of the healing follows the scope of what had been closed (verse 18: the Lord had closed all the wombs in Abimelech's household). The fertility of the entire household, royal and servile, is restored through the intercession. The covenant patriarch who arrived at Gerar with a deception that almost cost the king his life leaves with the king's household healed through his prayer. The same man whose fear created the crisis becomes the channel of the healing that resolves it.

The intercessory prayer that brings healing to the surrounding nation through the covenant patriarch is the most direct realization of the Genesis 12 promise, "all nations will be blessed through you", in the patriarchal narrative to this point. The blessing is not abstract but specific: the wombs of the women in Abimelech's household are opened; children can be born again; the family lines of the Philistine king are restored. Jesus's healing ministry, which touched everyone who came to Him regardless of their covenant status, was the Genesis 12 blessing arriving at its fullest personal and universal expression. The prophet's prayer and the Messiah's touch both accomplish the same thing: the blessing of the nations through the one God sent for exactly that purpose.