Isaac and Abimelech
Genesis 26:1-34 “There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.” Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”
And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.
Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, (Quarrel) because they quarreled with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah (Enmity.) And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,(Spaciousness) because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.”
Like father, like son! Isaac has moved westward into the land of the Philistines to escape a famine. The drought is on and there seems to be more grazing in Gerar. But now Isaac is pulling the same stunt his father pulled and in the same place-claiming Rebekah is his sister so that someone won’t kill him to get Rebekah. Talk about cowardice. But King Abimelech has already learned his lessons about Isaac’s family and watches long enough to see Isaac embracing Rebekah as if she is his wife and not his sister. Quickly, Abimelech puts out the word to his people to leave this man and his family strictly alone! Isaac moves away from the Philistines but remains close to them and his servants open up the wells that Abraham dug when he was in Gerar. Evidently, the Philistines have stopped up these wells out of spite, a short-sighted move in a land where water is at a premium. Finally, Abimelech, one of his close friends, and Phicol, the commander of the army, make a treaty with Isaac because they realize that God is blessing Isaac and they don’t want to mess with God. Ironically, the pagan Philistines appear to have more regard for God and His power than does Isaac. The final statement in this chapter describes Esau’s two wives as troublesome women who are giving Isaac and Rebekah nothing but problems. Neither of these marriages are arranged; Esau has gone out and done whatever he wants with no regard for his parents.
Why would Isaac pull the same stunt that his father pulled previously? Don’t either Abraham or Isaac trust God sufficiently to tell the truth and allow God to protect them? Even though God has promised to make a great nation of both Abraham and Isaac, they continue to attempt to lie and manipulate others. The account is silent about Rebekah’s response or what this cowardly act does to Isaac and Rebekah’s relationship. Poor Rebekah! For the rest of her life, she must live with the fact that her husband was willing to sacrifice her to save his own skin.
It is tempting to criticize Isaac, but are we any better? How far do most of us really trust God when we feel threatened? Sadly, most of us would probably make some attempt to protect ourselves rather than trust in God. We would tell ourselves that we are merely being prudent, but in fact, we are being faithless.
If anybody ever had the right to try to help himself, it would have been Hudson Taylor. Sent as a missionary to China by a small mission group, Taylor found himself in a desperate situation with scanty funding. The group that originally sent Taylor out had no idea of the actual costs of securing a dwelling or purchasing food, assuming living costs in China must be quite cheap. Not only did Taylor struggle to care for himself, but the same group sent out a doctor and his family and demanded that Taylor find an appropriate accommodation for them without sending adequate funds. Taylor’s struggles to survive his first mission term are the stuff of nightmares, and yet, Taylor learned from all these trials and founded the China Inland Mission, based solely on voluntary contributions from individuals. At its height, CIM had more than 1500 mission stations throughout China and was one of the most successful mission groups. One of Taylor’s favorite sayings was that “God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
We work in a small mission hospital in a remote area in a country with a soft currency that is steadily devaluing. Prices of goods and services are rising daily; meanwhile, payments from the national insurance scheme, our major source of reimbursement, continue to delay. Some of our patients and their relatives can scarcely feed themselves while in hospital. We too are supported by voluntary contributions. There is no way we can manipulate this situation; we can only beg God to intervene on our behalf.
The most amazing thing about the story of Isaac is that God knows all of Isaac’s shortcomings and uses him anyhow. There are no perfect people, so God must use imperfect people to do His work. But in our search for peace, we must remember that peace will never come from lying or manipulation, no matter how we attempt to disguise it. The mark of the Holy Spirit is peace, and the Holy Spirit knows more about us than we know about ourselves.
Today, let us ask God for His perfect peace and then be prepared to obey when He points out some area in our lives where we have fallen short by attempting to lie or manipulate. God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. We praise You, that You are the Peace-giver and the Peace-maker, and that through You we can have perfect peace. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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