August 1, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Psalm 90-92

Weekly Memory Verse: Hebrews 4:12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Some feel that this passage is misplaced, and that it should go before Chapter 25 in the historical timing.  The problem seems to be the children in their thinking.  I wonder why that would be an issue, is it that unusual for a woman to have children, especially in the ancient times when poor medicine could claim the life of a husband prematurely.  The argument continues that if it were placed before chapter 25, then chapters 25 and 27 would tie together consistently.  I think that it is a pointless argument, the only way we will ever find out where the chapter should have been placed is to wait until we meet Isaac and ask him about it.

Genesis 26:1-17 (NASB95)
¹ Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. ² The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ⁵ because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” ⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.” ⁸ It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’ ” ¹⁰ Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” ¹¹ So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” ¹² Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; ¹⁴ for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth. ¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us.” ¹⁷ And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.^[1]

As you read through this, there are echo's of Abrahams life.  Isaac had intended to go to Egypt just like his father had.  Then when God told him to stay in the land, he did, but did not trust God enough to trust him, so he claimed Rebekah was his sister.  Abimelech rebuked him after catching him caressing his wife, and this echo's the rebuke of Abimelech to Abraham years earlier.  (Unless Abimelech had an extremely long life span, there had to be two different men with the same name.  The Bible Knowledge Commentary offers the solution that the name was a title of authority in the land.)  In Abraham's story Abimelech stood for righteousness, and in this story he also stood for righteousness.  He afforded protection for Abraham, and in this story, Abimelech offered protection again. 

God approached Isaac different than He approached Abraham.  Isaac had learned from his father to have faith in the Lord and to do according to His leading.  Therefore when God told Isaac to stay put, he stayed.  This is an important lesson for us as parents, when we teach our kids God's way, it comes much easier to them than it was to us.

Isaac's problem here is that he obeyed the Lord, but then he started thinking.  The problem was that Abimelech had made a deal with Abraham that was still in force, so all of Abraham's children were protected by the agreement.  When Isaac lied to Abimelech, he was telling him that the age old agreement between the people was a lie, thus insulting Abimelech.  In this case, the lie regarding Rebekah being his sister was much more destructive than the one Abraham had told.    

Isaac came out of the incident better than Abraham did though since Rebekah was never taken into the Kings concubine.  He also came out better with his earthly possessions, because the Lord blessed him and he grew extremely rich.  Don't miss this, he almost moved because of the famine!  When he stayed where God wanted him, he reaped bountiful rewards, and was much better off than if he had went to Egypt.

He grew in strength to the point that he was a threat to Abimelech.  Then he moved away as requested by the King.  The thing that puzzles me on this is that God had told him to stay where he was at, which is why God had blessed him.  Moving showed honor and respect to Abimelech, but was it God's will?  He had already established that he was afraid of Abimelech by lying to him.  God had told him that he had possession of the land, if he had stood in faith claiming that God had given the land to him, it would have drastically altered history. 

Faith then is a gift, and as we can see from this passage, faith is not always exercised when it should be.  Isaac started thinking, and failed to act according to faith, he acted according to human instinct.  When he was faced with adversity, rather than believe God and stand his ground, he acted according to human wisdom and moved.  Faith in what God had told him should have made him stand his ground.  It's like having a gym membership, it doesn't do you any good if you don't go work out.  If you have faith, but do not exercise it, the muscle becomes weak, and is overruled by the obese fat in your life. 

Genesis 25:18-25 (NASB95)
¹⁸ They settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria; he settled in defiance of all his relatives. ¹⁹ Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³ The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.” ²⁴ When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ^[2]

True to his nature, Isaac was not a fighter, he chose the peaceful way out.  When he met opposition, he generously gave the well over to the inhabitants of the land.  He gave away two wells before finally digging one which did not raise a fight.  Isaac proved to the inhabitants of the land that he was not going to be driven off, and that he was going to keep digging wells. 

God appeared to Isaac and reestablished the covenant that was made with Abraham.  Notice Isaac's response now, he built an altar, pitched a tent, and dug a well.  Isaac was once again sure of the calling of the Lord, and worship was the first thing on his mind.

Genesis 25:26-35 (NASB95)
²⁶ Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. ²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹ When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; ³⁰ and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom. ³¹ But Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” ³² Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³ And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.^[3]

God had made his presence known in Isaac's life.  Isaac had established himself in the land of Gerar, and once again Isaac displayed power beyond himself in the land.  Abimelech considered him to be enough of a threat that he made a treaty with him.  There was evidence in Isaac's life that he was a servant of the Lord.  The evidence was so strong that it made people nervous.

Esau married a woman who was obviously not chosen by his parents.  This brought grief to Rebekah and Isaac, Esau made it clear that he was not going to live the life of faith.  He was going to live life according to his plan.

Questions for thought:

1. Why did Isaac lie about Rebekah?

2. What can we learn from the incident with the wells?

Father, as we consider Your word today, give us the will to listen, and the boldness to have faith in Your leading in our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.