…and Isaac went to Abimelech…
Hey look, Abimelech again. Now, it’s probably a different Abimelech than the one Abraham dealt with, but it could possibly be the same guy, just some hundred odd years older or so.
When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister…”
Really? Not exactly the most creative thing I’ve heard, if I do say so myself. Well, at least he was sort of paying attention to Abraham’s bedtime stories, right? That, or it’s a genetic issue the family suffers with. Whatever. So, how will things turn out this time?
“Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
“Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
Oh, right. Exactly the same. Why would you do this? I thought you were going to kill me.
This is Isaac, who Abraham almost sacrificed, but then was stopped by God. Isaac saw God save his life, he knows the promise that rests on him, and God has just finished directly speaking to him. And yet, he still doesn’t trust God to protect him, and thinks he needs to come up with some deception to keep himself safe.
Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
And he’s still getting blessed, despite his best efforts to screw things up.
“Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
Because of his lies, he isn’t trusted anymore, and thus his wealth isn’t that of a friend, but a possible enemy. You don’t want rich neighbors that you can’t trust.
Isaac reopened the wells…
Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well…
Then they dug another well…
He moved on from there and dug another well…
People try to pick a fight? Leave. What if you put in a lot of work/energy/time into digging a well? Leave anyways. Dig another one. More fighting? Leave.
Isaac built an altar there…and there his servants dug a well.
Need to find God’s people? Follow the altars. These guys specifically set aside the time to search and listen for God. They work hard at it. They build things. When was the last time you physically exhausted yourself in your search to know God better? Or put effort into it at all? If you really wanted to hear from God, how far would you go?
Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar…
I know we chased you off and everything, but I was just thinking maybe we should nail down a treaty so that God of yours doesn’t kill us. Because, it’s pretty obvious that he’s actually affecting your life and doing stuff for you.
When Esau was forty years old, he married…They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Esau intermarries with the Hittites, outsiders, and contaminates his family line. Shame shame.
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