Two Lessons to Learn from Isaac – Genesis 26:1-25; 27:1-4
26 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech the king of the Philistines. (2) Jehovah appeared to him and said, Do not go down into Egypt. Stay in the land where I tell you to live. (3) Stay in this land and I will be with you and bless you; because I will give all of this land to you and your descendants—I will confirm the oath I swore to Abraham your father. (4) I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these lands. And by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; (5) because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (6) So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
(7) Now when the men of Gerar asked him about his wife, he told them, She is my sister. He was afraid to say, She is my wife; because he thought, The men of this place may kill me so they can have Rebekah. Such was Isaac’s fear because Rebekah was beautiful in appearance. (8) After he had been there for a long time, it happened one day that Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife. (9) Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, She surely is your wife. Why did you say, She is my sister? Isaac replied, Because I thought, I might lose my life on account of her. (10) Then Abimelech said, What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife and you would then have caused us to become guilty of a sin. (11) So Abimelech charged all the people, Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
(12) Isaac planted crops in that land and that very year he reaped a hundredfold, because Jehovah blessed him (13) The man became rich; and his possessions increased until he had become very wealthy. (14) He had great flocks and herds, and a great many servants. And the Philistines envied him. (15) So all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines plugged up, filling them with dirt. (16) And Abimelech said to Isaac, Depart from us; for you have become much stronger than us. (17) So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there. (18) Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, because the Philistines had plugged them up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had given them. (19) When Isaac’s servants were digging in the valley they discovered there a source of spring water. (20) But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, The water belongs to us. So Isaac named the well, Esek,* because they contended with him. (21) Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he named it Sitnah.** (22) He moved on from there and dug yet another well. And they did not contend for it. So he named it Rehoboth,*** declaring, Now Jehovah has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.
(23) From there he went up to Beer-sheba. (24) Jehovah appeared to him that same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you, and I will multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. (25) Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of Jehovah. There he pitched his tent and there his servants dug a well…
27 Now when Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son. And he replied, Here I am. (2) And he said, Look, I am old, and I do not know when the day of my death may come. (3) Now, therefore, I ask you, take your weapons—your quiver and your bow—go out into the field, and bring me back some wild game. (4) Prepare for me some of the tasty food that I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat. Do this so that I may give you my blessing before I die.
*Esek means “Contention,” **Sitnah means “Enmity,” ***Rehoboth means “Room for us”
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
