God’s Promise to Isaac. 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;
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Gen 26:4-5
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
II. GOD AND THE CHOSEN FAMILY, Genesis 12-50
2. The History of Isaac and Jacob, Genesis 25:19-35:29
45. What sin of his father did Isaac weakly repeat?
GOD’S PROMISE TO ISAAC
Now there was a famine in the land [of Canaan], besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
The LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I will tell you.
Live temporarily [as a resident] in this land and I will be with you and will bless and favor you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will establish and carry out the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. [Gen_22:16-18; Psa_105:9]
I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, [Gen_22:18; Act_3:25-26; Gal_3:16]
because Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and [consistently] kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Isaac and Abimelech
So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
The men of the place asked him about his wife, and 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, since she is very beautiful.”
It happened when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife.
Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “See here, Rebekah is in fact your wife! How did you [dare to] say to me, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might be killed because of her [desirability].”
Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the men [among our people] might easily have been intimate with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us [before God].”
Then Abimelech commanded all his people, “Whoever touches this man [Isaac] or his wife [Rebekah] shall without exception be put to death.”
Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the LORD blessed and favored him.
And the man [Isaac] became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and extremely distinguished;
he owned flocks and herds and a great household [with a number of servants], and the Philistines envied him.
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 dirt.
Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from here, because you are far too powerful for us.”
So Isaac left that region and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.
ISAAC IS BLESSED AND GROWS RICH
There was no harm in Isaac’s going to Gerar, as he had a distinct command to that effect, Gen_26:2-3. But he does not seem to have been strong enough to stand the test of residence there. He might have received into his soul that sufficient grace which is always within the reach of tempted men; but, like so many of us, he looked down and not up. What could have been more reassuring than the promises of the divine presence and blessing! But he was guilty of incredible meanness to the woman who had come so far to be his wife, and of deceit to Abimelech. Notice how the sins of the fathers repeat themselves in the children! It was a disappointing lapse from the glorious height on which he had stood when he yielded himself to God’s call on Mount Moriah! But we have experienced the same contrasts within ourselves. Now on the mount of transfiguration, asking to live there, and then in the valley, quarreling for pre-eminence. But, notwithstanding all, God’s loving-kindness does not fail. See Gen_26:12.
Comments by
WILLIAM MACDONALD
Believers Bible Commentary
On
Genesis 26:1-17
II. THE PATRIARCHS OF ISRAEL (Chaps. 12-50)
B. Isaac (25:19–26:35)
2. Isaac and Abimelech (Chap. 26)
26:1-6 Isaac reacted to famine as his father had done (chaps. 12 and 20). As he journeyed south, the Lord appeared to him at Gerar and warned him not to go to Egypt. Gerar was sort of a halfway house on the route to Egypt. God told Isaac to stay temporarily in Gerar but instead Isaac dwelt there. God also reconfirmed to him the unconditional covenant that He had made with Abraham.
26:7-17 Isaac reacted to fear as his father had done. He misrepresented his wife as his sister to the men of Gerar. It is the sad story of a father’s weakness being repeated in his son. When the deceit was exposed and rebuked, Isaac confessed. Confession leads to blessing. Isaac became wealthy in Gerar—so wealthy that the Abimelech who was then reigning asked him to leave. So Isaac moved from Gerar to the Valley of Gerar, not far away.
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