Recap: (For Genesis chapters 1-18 see Genesis 18 recap).
So far in the second section of Genesis, we have looked at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham’s move to the area between Gerar and Beersheba, the birth of Isaac and the driving out of Ishmael, the offering of Isaac, the death and burial of Sarah, Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah and Esau’s attitude to his birthright.
Read Genesis 26:1-33
1 Now there was a famine in the land – besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time – and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 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, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.’ 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ because he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.’
Here we go again! Why didn’t Isaac learn from Abraham’s mistakes?
Actually that is a good question: why do we often fail to learn from other people? Why do we have to copy their mistakes before we learn?
Often we believe that we are better or stronger than the next person: we say ‘I would never tell a lie to get myself out of trouble’ – and then we find ourselves being ‘economical with the truth’ and we are no better than them after all.
So it was with Isaac. Here it seems that his sons are now grown up enough to leave at home, with probably enough grazing and crops to feed themselves and their own servants, herdsmen and animals, but the famine that had set in meant that the bulk of the family herds needed new pasture.
Now, for the first time for many years, the Lord appeared: and this time to Isaac. What was so important that the Lord should personally intervene now?
Although eventually the children of Israel would spend long years in Egypt, for now it was important that Isaac remained within the borders of Canaan (and he could stay in Philistine territory ‘for a while’ v3). The Philistines were still mainly centred on the island of Crete, although some families had moved to mainland Canaan and begun to establish themselves in what is now referred to as ‘the Gaza strip’.
Gerar was about 20 miles inland from Gaza. The king, Abimelek, was probably not the one of the same name that Abraham had stayed with (a hundred years earlier): his son could well have been given his father’s name.
So it looks like everything is now going well - and then
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ because he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.’
Isaac was 60 when Rebekah had the twins (Genesis 25:26) and now they were old enough to be left behind in Canaan. Assuming they are at least 20 years old, Isaac would be 80 and Rebekah at least 60. But like Sarah before her, she too was still beautiful.
The Philistine men were intrigued by Rebekah. What exactly was the relationship between this beautiful, seemingly unmarried woman, and Isaac?
So again thy lie is repeated (see Genesis 12:13, 20:2) ‘She is my sister’. Obviously this knowledge got back to the King.
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, ‘She is really your wife! Why did you say, “She is my sister”?’
Isaac answered him, ‘Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.’
10 Then Abimelek said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’
It is assumed that the Patriarchs were a nomadic people, living in tents. Here we have the first indication that the Philistines had buildings – as Abimelek ‘looked down from a window’. And what did he see? The Hebrew word literally means that Isaac was ‘having fun’ with Rebekah – so she was obviously his wife.
It seems that the Philistines had high moral standards and here again they were affronted that Isaac should have lied to them. Why on earth should he have done that?
And worse – one of the men might easily have assumed that Rebekah was available, and adultery was obviously a sin that would have affected the whole community.
It seems that Abimelek ignored Isaac’s protestation that he might have been killed so that one of the men could legally take Rebekah. For a moral community, that possibility was ridiculous – especially as Isaac and Rebekah were people of high standing. (They had been allowed to pitch their tents next to the royal palace.) But the greater concern was that Isaac’s action had already put his whole nation in jeopardy. And Abimelek seems to have found that hard to understand: ‘What is this you have done to us?’
11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: ‘Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.’
True to his noble character, Abimelek commands that Isaac and Rebekah be kept safe and he allows them to stay. I can only imagine that the Lord had gone ahead and caused Abimelek to have such a generous attitude to Isaac – otherwise surely the best he could have hoped for would be to have been sent packing!
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.
It is interesting to see the difference between how we react and how the Lord reacts. Probably our natural reaction to Isaac’s deception would be sadness and possibly anger that such a man could do such a thing. Maybe we would add a reprimand to that, from our righteous perspective. We might even insist that he would promise not to act so foolishly again.
I’m sure the Lord’s reaction to sin is sadness and anger too, but his reaction to repentant sinners is to forgive and bless them! He knows that we may well fall into the same sin again but that does not prevent his response of love.
When something perhaps goes badly wrong, is it right for Christians to think that the Lord is punishing them for their sins?
A Christian is someone whose sins have been paid for by Jesus in his death and resurrection. ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). But there are sometimes consequences that are inescapable (e.g. prison for wrongdoing).
13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
The area around Gaza was fertile farming country: a plain, but with rolling hills sometimes reaching to 500 ft. Further east was the ‘Hill Country’ where Isaac had come from, rain falling there would eventually find its way down to the plain, either as seasonal wadis or in streams or simply in the water table where wells could be dug.
Although Abimelek’s attitude had been welcoming, Isaac now posed a threat to his welfare, and his own shepherds probably had to look further and further afield for grazing. But If they could stop Isaac’s access to water he also would be forced to go elsewhere.
15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, ‘Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.’
17 So Isaac moved away from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
It seems that some of the wells to the East of Gerar, as far as Beersheba, had already been filled in. Now Abimelek’s men filled in the rest.
Why would the Philistines go to all the trouble of filling in the wells after Abraham died?
Maybe to discourage settlers from moving closer to their territory? They had an amicable agreement with Abraham, but they needed to re-negotiate with those who had taken over his empire. The fact that the wells remained filled in suggests that until the drought, Isaac had not needed Philistine land for grazing.
Isaac moved a short distance up the Gerar valley, back towards the ‘Hill Country’. But for nomadic herdsmen, that was not nearly far enough! Isaac and his herds must go back where they came from – not only for practical pastoral reasons but Abimelek was getting worried that Isaac could be in a position to actually take his land from him: ‘you have become too powerful for us’ (v16).
19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with those of Isaac and said, ‘The water is ours!’ So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarrelled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarrelled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.’
23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.’
25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
He was driven further and further East, up from the fertile plains and back into the hills. Not until he had returned to Beersheba did he feel settled ‘There he pitched his tent’ (v25).
Notice that as soon as he had returned, the Lord appeared to him again and repeated the promise he had made to Abraham. ‘That night’ (v24).
Abimelek was still concerned that Isaac might gather an army and attack – knowing in detail his strengths and weaknesses. So a peace mission was quickly assembled and a non-aggression pact proposed.
26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal advisor and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac asked them, ‘Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?’
28 They answered, ‘We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, “There ought to be a sworn agreement between us” – between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.’
30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.
32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, ‘We’ve found water!’ 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.
It was a good day for Isaac. A peace agreement had been signed, and now his men came telling him they had found a fresh water supply. Presumably this was the same well that Abraham had dug, and which had subsequently been filled by the Philistines (although there are several ancient wells in and around Beersheba)
So life can now return to normal and it will be up to Isaac’s two boys to carry on Abraham’s line. To maintain the purity of the family line, this would probably mean that they would have to return to their homeland for wives.
Really? Well not for the rebel Esau:
34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Why did Esau do that?
The Hittites were a Canaanite clan (Genesis 10:15) and it is possible that the marriage of these two wives followed a political or economic partnership agreement to strengthen Esau’s position in the area where he was then living.
Having sold his birthright it seems that he throws off any constraint and now deliberately goes against his parents’ wishes. He would have been well aware of Noah’s curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:18-29) and also Abraham’s instruction to his servant when seeking a wife for Isaac:
Genesis 24:3-4 I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.’
Not only was this a slap in the face to Esau's parents, but as they couldn’t accept his wives:
35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Did God favour one son over the other (Like Isaac did)?
Or did he know their characters before they were born?
We say we have complete free will. But would we be happy if God were to override our free will and cause us to choose what then turns out to be the best route for our lives?
