FRAMEWORKS:
Genesis
26: Blessings, Disputes & Covenant
v.1-6
Famine & the Lord Promises Isaac His Blessing
v.7-11
Isaac's deceit & Abimelek's rebuke
v.12-14
Isaac Prospers
v.15-19
Isaac Digs Again the wells of his Father
v.20-22
Ongoing disputes over Water
v.23,24
At Beersheba the Lord reassures him and confirms His blessing
v.25-33
A New Covenant between Isaac & Abimelek
v.34,35
Esau Marries two Foreigners
v.1-6
Famine & the Lord Promises Isaac His Blessing
v.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.
v.2
The
Lord
appeared
to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land
where I tell you to live.
v.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.
v.4,5
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, because
Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping
my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
v.6
So
Isaac stayed in Gerar.
[Notes:
There
is a serious case of deja-vu about to occur. A famine occurs in
the land and, as he already lives in the south, Isaac goes to
king Abimelek [who had previously had dealings with Abraham] in
the land of the Philistines. The Lord intervenes and tells Isaac
not to go to Egypt but to remain where he was in Canaan, the Land
He had promised to Abraham and which would be his as well. The
Lord would bless his descendants who would be many, for the sake
of his father. So Isaac remained in the Philistine town of Gerar.]
v.7-11
Isaac's deceit & Abimelek's rebuke
v.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.”
v.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.
v.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.”
v.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.”
v.11
So
Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this
man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
[Notes:
It
is now that Isaac repeats the behaviour of his father (in both
Gen 12 & 20) pretending Rebekah was his sister until Abimelek
finds out and rebukes him.]
v.12-14
Isaac Prospers
v.12
Isaac
planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold,
because the Lord
blessed
him.
v.13
The
man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became
very wealthy.
v.14
He
had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines
envied him.
[Notes:
Isaac
appears to have continued arable farming in that area of the south
and greatly prospered which made the Philistines jealous.]
v.15-19
Isaac Digs Again the wells of his Father
v.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.
v.16
Then
Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too
powerful for us.”
v.17
So
Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar,
where he settled.
v.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.
v.19
Isaac's
servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water
there.
[Notes:
Out
of spite and jealousy the Philistines filled in the wells Abraham
had dug and Abimelek told him to move away from them. Isaac opened
up the wells of his father as well as digging a new one.]
v.20-22
Ongoing disputes over Water
v.20
But
the herders of Gerar quarrelled with those of Isaac and said,
“The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, [Esek
means dispute]
because they disputed with him.
v.21
Then
they dug another well, but they quarrelled over that one also;
so he named it Sitnah. [Sitnah
means opposition]
v.22
He
moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarrelled
over it. He named it Rehoboth, [Rehoboth
means room.]
saying, “Now the Lord
has
given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
[Notes:
The
Philistine herders argued over this well, even when he dug another
one and it was only when he dug a third new one that the arguing
stopped.]
v.23,24
At Beersheba the Lord reassures him and confirms His blessing
v.23
From
there he went up to Beersheba.
v.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.”
[Notes:
Eventually
Isaac moved north to Beersheba where the Lord came to him and
reiterated His promise to increase his numbers.]
v.25-33
A New Covenant between Isaac & Abimelek
v.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.
v.26
Meanwhile,
Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal
adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.
v.27
Isaac
asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to
me and sent me away?”
v.28,29
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 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 .”
v.30
Isaac
then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
v.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.
v.32
That
day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had
dug. They said, “We've found water!”
v.33
He
called it Shibah, [Shibah
can mean oath or seven] and
to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba. [Beersheba
can mean well of the oath and well of seven]
[Notes:
Shortly
after digging another new well, Abimelech came to him demanding
a peace treaty to ensure security between them, recognising that
the Lord was clearly blessing him and making him strong. They
thus enter into a new covenant – history repeating itself again
[see Gen 21 with Abraham]
v.34,35
Esau Marries Two Foreigners
v.34
When
Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri
the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
v.35
They
were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
[Notes:
A
second sign of the sort of man Esau was, is seen as he marries
two foreigners. [contrast this with the way Abraham had viewed
being God's chosen people – Gen 24:7]. Isaac and Rebekah still
have something of that sense and grieve over his behaviour.]
Lessons
or Challenges to Ponder from Genesis Chapter 26
1.
In this chapter we see the opening up of the relationship of the
Lord with Isaac. If we haven't seen it before, we should now realise
that God is always the initiator, the One who reaches out to us.
2.
Isaac, as he keeps on opening up the wells his father had dug,
is an example of perseverance in the face of enemy hindrances.
Continue to Chapter 27