Genesis 26
Do you ever forget…forget important matters? The busyness of life fills your mind, the challenges pile up, the frustrations accumulate, and then, after a while, the most important things get put on the back burner. Immersed in the present, you forget about God’s promises for the future. Check out today’s story about Isaac. Dealing with famine, fear, a powerful ruler, and family issues, God reiterates to Isaac that his promises are trustworthy and that he will always be with him.
In Genesis 25, we considered the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau and Esau’s impulsive transfer of his birthright. At the end of Genesis 26, Esau, who was forty years old, married two Hittite women. Remember Abraham’s insistence that Isaac should not marry a Hittite. Isaac and Rebekah felt the same way about their sons. Esau’s decision “made life bitter” for them (Genesis 26:35). Here is a reminder that bad decisions of our children, even older children, weigh heavy on our hearts. But Esau’s choice of wives was only one of Isaac’s problems.
Famine hit the area where Isaac and his family were living, so he had to move to find food and water. When famine occurred earlier, Abraham had taken his family to Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). Evidently, Isaac was going to follow his father’s lead and head back down to Egypt. But God intervened.
Genesis 26:2-5
And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Amid a famine, uncertainty, and instability, at a time when Isaac had to pull up roots and find food and water for his family, God said that he would be with Isaac and bless him. He assured Isaac that the promises given to his father, Abraham, now belonged to him. Through Isaac, a great nation would come and bless all the nations of the earth. We know today that Jesus came through the nation of Israel, and all the people of the world are blessed through the Savior. And one more thing in this passage: God reminded Isaac of Abraham’s obedience. This serves as a not-so-subtle challenge for Isaac to walk in obedience as well.
Isaac moved to Gerar, an area close to the Mediterranean Sea, ruled by the Philistine king, Abimelech. We are not sure if this was the same king that Abraham encountered in Genesis 20-21. Kings often passed down names in the ancient Near East. For instance, between 1307 and 1070 BC—a span of 237 years—Egypt had eleven kings named Ramesses.[1] But here in a new area, a familiar scheme is repeated.
Rebekah was a beautiful woman, and Isaac feared that the men of the land would kill him to take her. Isaac told the men of Gerar that Rebekah was his sister and kept his distance from her except on the day he needed to see her and be with her. Abimelech looked out his window to see Isaac and Rebekah fondling each other.
Genesis 26:9-11
So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because 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 warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
Fear causes us to depend on irrational solutions. Isaac put his wife at risk to protect himself. That’s not one of the characteristics of servant-leadership we find in Scripture, but here, we learn an important lesson about God. Even when we fail miserably, God is still with us. God blessed Isaac, and “the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy” (Genesis 26:13). God blessed Isaac to the point that the Philistines, who had been deceived by Isaac, now feared him! Abimelech told Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we” (Genesis 26:16).
Isaac moved on and settled in the Valley of Gerar. Water has always been the source of life. Where water is present, a group of people can live. The rest of Genesis 26 is a story of water. The Philistines had stopped up the wells that Abraham had dug in the area, so Isaac reopened them and “gave them the names his father had given them” (Genesis 26:18). Unfortunately for Isaac, there remained a constant struggle for control of these wells between the herdsmen of Gerar and his herdsmen.
While Isaac was moving around trying to find water and perhaps becoming discouraged, God reminded Isaac that he was on his side.
Genesis 26:23-24
From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
God’s great blessing on Isaac did not go unnoticed. One day, Abimelech showed up with the commander of his army.
Genesis 26:27-29
Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.”
God continued to write his story in Isaac even through his disappointment, fear, sin and family challenges. Aren’t you glad that God still works with imperfect people? He will always be with us. He will never leave us. He will provide what we need when we need it. Because of Jesus, I can tell you today, “You are now the blessed of the Lord.”
PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Read Genesis 26. As you read this passage, reflect on the challenges of Isaac’s life. And don’t miss the constant reminders that God is with Isaac and will never leave him.
Talking to God
Maybe you are discouraged today. Ask God to remind you through his Word and his Spirit that he is on your side and will never leave you.
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[1] The Archeology Study Bible (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2017), 49.
THANK YOU for today’s Devo. It was very much what I needed to hear!
They are all rich in advice and truth and promises to bless me from God’s word.
So grateful!!