|
Gen. 26:1 "And there was a famine in the
land, beside the first famine that was in
the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto
Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said,
Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in
this land, and I will be with thee, and will
bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy
seed, I will give all these countries, and I
will perform the oath which I sware unto
Abraham thy father; 4 And I will make thy
seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and
will give unto thy seed all these countries;
and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham
obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
As children of God, trials are always a part
of our lives. Isaac was no exception. A
famine in that day placed peoples' lives in
danger. The decision you made had better be
the right decision or you and your family
could starve to death. Isaac did that which
is right. He followed the direction of the
LORD: "And the LORD appeared unto him, and
said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the
land which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn
in this land, and I will be with thee, and
will bless thee;" If you recall, Abraham had
had some dealings with this Abimelech, king
of the Philistines. Abimelech proved himself
to be a king that feared the Lord. The Lord
always knows what is best for us. He will
always send us to the best place for us. He
has the answers for us in the midst of our
trials. As we will see later, The Lord was
indeed with Isaac and did indeed bless Isaac
in the land that he sojourned according to
the direction of the Lord.
The covenant promise of the LORD passed in
this passage from Abraham to Isaac: "for
unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give
all these countries, and I will perform the
oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;
4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as
the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy
seed all these countries; and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my
voice, and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws." The LORD had
previously made these promises to Abraham.
Now the torch is passed unto his son Isaac.
However, the LORD points out to Isaac that
the promises were not made to Isaac based on
his merit, but because of Abraham's
obedience to the voice, charge,
commandments, statues, and laws of God. God
passed this great covenant promise on to
Isaac by grace through the obedience of
another. Likewise, the covenant promises of
the covenant of redemption are passed along
to the elect family of God not because of
their obedience, but because of the
obedience of Jesus Christ. It is strictly by
the grace of God through Christ's obedience
that we are called into spiritual life,
justified by the blood of Jesus and that we
will be raised and fashioned like the
glorious body of Christ in the resurrection.
Gen. 26:6-11 "She is my sister."
Gen. 26:6 "And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 7 And
the men of the place asked him of his wife;
and he said, She is my sister: for he feared
to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the
men of the place should kill me for Rebekah;
because she was fair to look upon. 8 And it
came to pass, when he had been there a long
time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines
looked out at a window, and saw, and,
behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his
wife. 9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and
said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife:
and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And
Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I
die for her. 10 And Abimelech said, What is
this thou hast done unto us? one of the
people might lightly have lien with thy
wife, and thou shouldest have brought
guiltiness upon us. 11 And Abimelech charged
all his people, saying, He that toucheth
this man or his wife shall surely be put to
death."
No matter what our background may have been
or what we may have heard others say, we all
have to experience growth in faith if we are
to become the kind of disciples that we
ought to become. Isaac had Abraham for his
father. The scriptures tell us that Abraham
is the father of the faithful. That is he is
the example that we should follow in our
faithful walk. Abraham, no doubt, told Isaac
many of the experiences of the Lord's
dealings with him and the many deliverances
he had from the Lord. Isaac had been privy
to the experiences of the faithful servant
who had been blessed to find a wife (Rebekah)
for Isaac. Yet, now, Isaac is called upon to
trust in the Lord and go to the land the
LORD showed him. He had the promise that the
LORD would bless him and be with him in that
land. Isaac believes God and goes to the
land, but then does not believe God about
the promise of the LORD being with him and
blessing him!
We know that Isaac showed doubt because when
the men of the place asked him of Rebekah,
"he said, She is my sister: for he feared to
say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men
of the place should kill me for Rebekah;
because she was fair to look upon." If Isaac
had trusted in the promises of God, he would
not have feared to say that Rebekah was his
wife. Yet, his fleshly doubt led to his lie
about Rebekah being his sister. Moreover,
this showed that Isaac had not yet reached
the point of being the kind of husband that
he ought to have been. A husband should be
willing to die for his wife: Eph. 5:25
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for
it…" Christ died for the church; therefore,
a faithful husband should be willing to give
his life for his bride.
Another lesson taught us in this passage is
that parents set examples for their children
and often the children follow those examples
even if they are bad examples. Abraham and
Sarah had done this same thing about telling
a lie about their marital state twice. Now
Isaac and Rebekah have followed their
example. We should be very careful about the
type of examples we set for our children.
"And it came to pass, when he had been there
a long time, that Abimelech king of the
Philistines looked out at a window, and saw,
and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah
his wife." We can be sure that sooner or
later our lies will be discovered. Abimelech
looked out of his window and saw Isaac
sporting with Rebekah his wife. This
sporting was a sexual flirtation that
husbands do with their wives, not with their
sisters. Abimelech had been warned and
chastened of the Lord for his looking upon
Sarah and had learned his lesson well. He
had made no such advances to Rebekah and
rebuked Isaac and Rebekah for their foolish
actions: "And Abimelech called Isaac, and
said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife:
and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And
Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I
die for her. And Abimelech said, What is
this thou hast done unto us? one of the
people might lightly have lien with thy
wife, and thou shouldest have brought
guiltiness upon us. And Abimelech charged
all his people, saying, He that toucheth
this man or his wife shall surely be put to
death." At this point in time, Abimelech
proved himself to be more faithful that
Isaac. However, that would change.
In this, the LORD proved his faithfulness to
his promises even though Isaac had not fully
trusted in the LORD. The Lord is gracious
towards his people.
Gen. 26:12-16 The LORD Blesses Isaac
Gen. 26:12
"Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received
in the same year an hundredfold: and the
LORD blessed him. 13 And the man waxed
great, and went forward, and grew until he
became very great: 14 For he had possession
of flocks, and possession of herds, and
great store of servants: and the Philistines
envied him. 15 For all the wells which his
father's servants had digged in the days of
Abraham his father, the Philistines had
stopped them, and filled them with earth. 16
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us;
for thou art much mightier than we."
In this modern day of mechanization and
heavy and specialized equipment in farming,
the farmer is able to break up his soil much
more than his predecessors were able to do.
Also, the farmer has fertilizers available
to him that maximizes his production.
Today, if the farmer gets a 30-40 fold
return he thinks he has had a good crop.
Yet, without all this, Isaac sowed in the
land and received in the same year a
hundredfold return. He did this because the
LORD blessed him. The scriptures are plain
that the LORD richly blessed Isaac and that
is the reason that he waxed great, and went
forward, and grew until he became very
great. When the LORD blesses a man he can
do great things. The key is the LORD's
blessings. The LORD had promised Isaac that
he would bless him and now we have the
abundant evidence of the LORD's blessings.
"For he had possession of flocks, and
possession of herds, and great store of
servants: and the Philistines envied him. 15
For all the wells which his father's
servants had digged in the days of Abraham
his father, the Philistines had stopped
them, and filled them with earth." When the
LORD blesses a man, those who are not
following the LORD often become envious of
that man who is being blessed. Envy
invariably leads to jealousy and ultimately
persecution. The greatest example of how
this happens is illustrated for us by the
envy of the Pharisees and Sadducees and
chief priests against Christ:
1. Matt. 27:18 "For
he knew that for envy they had delivered
him."
2. Mark 15:10 "For
he knew that the chief priests had delivered
him for envy." The Philistines envied the
prosperity of both Abraham and Isaac.
During Abraham's day they were afraid to do
anything against Abraham, but after the
death of Abraham they stopped the wells that
Abraham's servants had dug with earth. Now
their envy had turned upon Isaac.
"And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us;
for thou art much mightier than we." We
have before shown that Abimelech feared
God. Yet, he was a man subject to much
political pressure. No doubt, this pressure
was great for Abimelech to ask Isaac to
leave and go from them. Abimelech succumbed
to that pressure. |
