Genesis 26

Have you ever gone to the Bible Bookstore and tried to find a new Bible? There are so many choices today. There are many Bible translations available to us today. There’s the King James Version, American Standard Version, English Standard Version, New International Version, Revised Standard and many others.  There is the study Bible, to help you understand what you are reading. There is the life application Bible, to help you apply what you are reading. Reading through Genesis I wish there was one called, The Interactive Bible, where with modern technology you could actually pause and ask the characters questions as you go along. “Abraham, did you ever tell Sarah what almost happened on the mountain with the binding of Isaac? “Why was Sarah out of town when she died? Had she moved away from you or was she just visiting friends and shopping? Did Isaac try to get away when you were trying to bind him? Did you have to drug him or knock him out with a rock? All we have is a skeleton of a story, with little flesh, few facts, many unanswered questions.

Let’s go back to this idea of a human sacrifice. We know that in Leviticus 20:4-5 it says, “If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech and they fail to put him to death, I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech.” Molech was an Ammonite god who required child sacrifices. Children would be burnt on a metal idol of Molech and this was supposed to ensure financial prosperity for the family and future children. I guess the Prosperity Gospel preached today is just the same old lie that goes back to at least Abraham’s day. So, how would a just and loving God order Abraham to perform this heinous act? Obviously, He never intended Abraham to go through with it. What if he refused to even go up to the mountain? God had already made an unconditional promise to Abraham and so the promise was not at risk.

There is no evidence that Isaac resisted Abraham. Why would he passively go along with this “crazy stunt?” Jewish commentaries say that Isaac’s binding was not only a meritorious act of Abraham, but one of Isaac as well. The father was willing to sacrifice his son to do God’s bidding, and the son was likewise prepared to give up his own life. Why? Because he knew his Father’s righteousness and trusted him completely. I guess you could say that they were both tests and both passed the test of faith.

As we have read, God entered into an unconditional covenant with Abraham and his descendants. This agreement meant a certain piece of land, many descendants and through one of them, all the world would be blessed. The last promise refers to the coming of the Messiah. Now just because God chose Abraham does not mean that all areas of his life would be blessed. The covenant did not guarantee that he would have a peaceful personal life, a happy marriage, wonderfully close and caring children, etc.  As we continue to read Genesis, we see the makings of a soap opera. From the outside, people may have been envious of Abraham and his extended family because of the wealth that they had acquired. In fact, in this lesson we will see that the wealth of Isaac led to envy and hostility on the part of his neighbors. But, behind closed doors, all was not well in the Abraham household. The lives of the patriarchs remind me of the poem, Richard Cory by Edwin Robinson:

Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So, on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Yes, everyone wished they were Richard Cory, but he was not at peace, in spite of his outward appearance. Abraham was blessed, rich, a faithful man of God. Yes, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, were all great people of faith and are mentioned by name in the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, yet they all had personal problems. Being faithful is not a guarantee that you will live a life of smooth sailing without any drama, troubles or heartaches. This makes our own families appear to be pretty normal, or at least, typical.

Let’s move ahead with the narrative in chapter 26. Here we see God reaffirming the Abrahamic Covenant to Isaac, just in case he forgot or wasn’t paying attention earlier when God promised Abraham.

Many of our presidents, Polk, Coolidge, Hayes, etc. were all effective presidents, but they governed during a period of time when little was required of them. Lincoln, Roosevelt (notice I have one Republican and one Democrat) were president during very trying times and they were presidents of great consequence.

Isaac, like many of our presidents, was a rather passive person, a caretaker patriarch, if you like. Here he comes out from the shadow of Abraham, and he did live longer than Abraham or Jacob, yet there isn’t much to write about concerning his accomplishments.

In verse 1 of chapter 26 we find that there’s another famine in the land (sound familiar). So, Isaac goes to Abimelech, who is identified as king of the Philistines.  But the Philistines weren’t living there, not yet. Why would the people be referred to as Philistines if there weren’t any there yet? That would be like me saying that I am living in Indiana before I had moved here from Iowa. Sometimes, we find in Scripture, something spoken of in the present tense when it is, in reality, in the future. This is referred to as speaking proleptically, which means in anticipation or in the future. The Philistines weren’t there, but it would be their future home. It is speaking of something that is future as if it is current. Here’s another example, in Judges 6 we find Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress to keep the crop from being stolen by the Midianites. Imagine him cowering in a wine press, threshing wheat. Verse 12, the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” The angel is not mocking Gideon, hiding from the enemy. Gideon was no mighty warrior, but he will become one, in time. The angel is speaking proleptically, of what he will become. If a mobster threatens you and says, “You’re a dead man!” he is speaking proleptically and you are in big trouble.

The Lord tells Isaac to remain in the land, rather than consider going to Egypt like his father did. God tells him to remain in the land and that He would bless him. Then God repeats the blessing that he gave to Abraham, beginning in verse 4, “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.”

Like father, like son. When neighbors started to ask about his lovely wife, Rebekah, he told them that she was his sister. Then, one day, Abimelech, the king was looking out his window and saw Isaac was “sporting with Rebekah, his wife.” Now there’s a term you don’t hear very often, “sporting.” This is the American Standard Version 1902 translation. The NIV uses the term, “caressing.” There are many words for this affectionate touching; patting, canoodling, cuddling, embracing, hugging, nuzzling, necking, coddling, cosseting (never hear of that one), toying, tickling, snuggling and snoozling. My favorite on this list is canoodling. I hadn’t heard that term in years. I’d better stop there. I’m getting distracted.

Back to the king. He admonished Isaac and issued an order that no one was to bother Isaac or his wife, under penalty of DEATH. So, I guess some good came from this incident, the couple had security from others bothering them.

Notice how Isaac made his living in verse 12. Rather than being a nomadic rancher, he took up farming. And why not? He was in the promised land and he was to stay there, so he took up farming. He did quite well, with God’s promised blessing. His crop reaped a hundredfold and he became rich, then he became very wealthy. Not just rich, but very wealthy. This sounds like Jeff Bezo and Bill Gates level of riches. The kind of wealth that poor Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof could only dream of having. It got to the point that his neighbors became envious and started to sabotage his operation by stopping up the water wells his father had dug (verse 15). Doesn’t that sound juvenile? Maybe if they spent as much effort earning a living as they did sabotaging Isaac; they would be better off. If they had known that in Gen. 12:3 God promised, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you,” they wouldn’t have plugged up those wells. What did the earlier Abimelech do when he recognized God was blessing Abraham? He made a peace treaty with him. He wanted to be Abraham’s friend.

The peace-loving, passive, easy going Isaac submitted patiently to these persecutions until Abimelech encouraged him to relocate, Gen. 26:16, “move away from us, you have become too powerful for us.” In spite of the fact that he had become “too powerful for us” Isaac moved over to Beersheba rather than fighting over the wells. Do you think Abraham would have just moved away? Or would he have put together an army, as he did when he rescued Lot, and fought for his wells?

At Beer-sheba, God appeared to him and said, “Fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.” This is the second reaffirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant to Isaac.

All settled in at Beer-Sheba, he has a visitor, Abimelech, the king who suggested that he relocate. “Now what?” Isaac must have thought. He didn’t come to ask Isaac to relocate, again, but to seek peace with him. People could see that Abraham and Isaac were somehow blessed by God. They didn’t want to be on the wrong side of either of them. Verse 28, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you, so we said, “There ought to be a sworn agreement between us. . that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the Lord.” Is that an accurate account of what happened? “Just as we did not molest you but always treated you well”? Really? I think Abimelech was a bit anxious. Isaac, I think, had the upper hand in these negotiations.

Meanwhile, let’s see what his brother Esau is up to. Oh, verse 34, he got married, to two Hittite women. Mom and Dad did not approve, verse 35, “they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.” His marriage to these women is another example of his unfaithfulness. Does Esau appear to be a very angry person, doing some of these things just to irritate his parents? Not that our kids would ever do anything like that.

Next, in chapter 27, we’ll see Isaac bless Jacob, creating more problems in the family, leading Jacob to flee.