Story 44 Isaac and Abraham, Cut from the Same Cloth
In the early days of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage, long before they had their twin boys, they went through many trials and struggles. At one point, a great famine came upon the land. It grew more and more difficult to find enough to eat. Isaac was responsible for the lives of hundreds of servants and their families. He had thousands of animals to keep alive. Things were getting dangerous. The lives of God’s chosen family were at risk. What was Isaac going to do?
Well, he packed up his family and his servants, his tents and his livestock and all of their valuable treasures. They began a journey to Egypt, where the Nile River poured out an unending water supply. It brought plentiful harvests to feed their people and their animals. Does any of this sound familiar? It should! Abraham did the same thing.
Along the way, they passed through the land of the Philistines. They were ruled by King Abimelech. That is a name we have heard before. Abraham and Sarah him in their travels. He was a king, and Abraham was afraid of him. Sarah was so beautiful that Abraham feared the king would kill him if he learned that Abraham was her husband. So he told the first Abimelech that Sarah was his sister, and Abimelech took her into his house to become his wife. Wow! Can you imagine what that was like for Sarah? But God saved the day. He came in a dream and told Abimelech that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, and Abimelech sent her back to her husband.
Now Isaac was moving through the land of the man who was probably the grandson of the first Abimelech. This king called himself the king of the Philistines in the land of Gerar. He ruled and reigned in the Land of Promise. God told Isaac not to journey any further, but to rest in Abimelech’s land with his family.
As he spoke to Isaac, God appeared to Isaac in a grand theophany. “Theophany” is a fancy word to describe when God appears to a human. God showed himself to Abraham in a theophany three times, and each time it was a powerful marker in the life of his chosen servant. Now the LORD had come to Isaac to pass the covenant of Abraham on to him. The Lord said to Isaac:
“‘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. 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 kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.’ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.”
Genesis 26:2b-6
Wow, what an amazing moment. For all those years, Isaac had learned about the promises of God from Abraham and Sarah. Now God had appeared to him, and Isaac heard the words that he had grown up with in person. His descendants would be as many as the stars, and every nation would be blessed through him. The fate of all humanity was tied up in the fate of Isaac and Rebekah!
It is interesting that God said these promises were given to Isaac through Abraham. There was a wealth of blessing stored up from Abraham’s obedience that was pouring out onto Isaac. Abraham kept the whole of all that God desired from him. His relationship with God was a righteous partnership so abundant that it flowed to the next generation!
God gave Isaac great and precious promises of abundance, but Isaac had to believe in them without seeing them. That would take tremendous courage and faith. The land was in the middle of a great famine! It might mean hunger for his clan. It would probably mean the death of many of their animals.
There were other ways that Isaac’s faith would be put to the test. God would make Isaac and Rebekah wait for twenty years to have their twins! Isaac was being called to live by the same faith that Abraham had. He was called to live by the same righteous standard and the same immediate obedience, too! He showed his immediate obedience by settling his vast clan down in Gerar! He chose the hard road of famine and faithfulness to God over the abundance of bread and ease in a place that was outside of God’s will.
The men of Gerar were very quick to notice Rebekah. She was a woman of remarkable beauty. Isaac was afraid to admit she was his wife. What if they wanted to kill him so they could have her? So he lied. He told them that she was his sister. Hm. Who else does that sound like? Isaac was acting just like his father!
Now, these lies might seem a bit strange to us, but we need to remember that they lived in very different times. There were no police officers to come and protect a family when enemies came to attack. There was no court system to try a man if he murdered someone. It was a dangerous and almost lawless land, and men were vicious and corrupt. There were good reasons for Isaac to be afraid. But he should have known better. He should have turned to the Lord in faith. What would happen if one of the local men wanted to take Rebekah and marry her? Would Isaac let her go? What would happen to the promises of God?