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“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”.

(Genesis 26: 4)

Now notice what he says to Isaac, he said the same thing he said earlier to Abraham. In other words, he's going to have a lot of descendants, then he says I’m going to give those descendants the land, which is what I talked about just in the last episode. However, he adds something else in this verse, and this is what I want you to see that is through his descendants all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. Many Bible teachers, including the rabbis, have concluded that this is a reference to the Messiah. The Messiah is going to come through Abraham, Isaac, and later through Isaac’s son, Jacob. This is simply reiterating, as he promised Abraham, the Messiah is going to come through this “Jewish” family line. Then the Lord says this.

“Because Abraham obeyed me and did everything, I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” So, Isaac stayed in Gerar”.

(Genesis 26: 5-6)

Notice how he just piles one phrase upon another emphasising his obedience. The language that’s used in verse five is the kind of language that Moses will uses later to describe the Mosaic law.  Your father obeyed me, “hint, hint”, get the message,  you should do the same. God has appeared to him and said don’t go to Egypt. The truth is he didn’t do what the Lord told him to do. He didn’t go to Egypt, but he didn’t stay in the land either. As a matter of fact, his father Abraham did that exact same thing. Neither one of them totally obeyed the Lord. 

The first part of this passage is simply telling us there was a famine and showing us Isaac’s reaction to it, before I go to the second part of the passage, let’s just say this was a difficult time for them. There was famine in the land. He literally didn’t know what to do. What should we do when we are facing a difficult time in our lives? Well, one of the answers given here is that we should listen to the Lord and do what he says. Abraham did not do that completely, and neither did Isaac, instead he stayed in Gerar. Look what happens next.

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.” 

(Genesis 26: 7)

We were told early in the book of Genesis how beautiful she was. This is a beautiful woman, and he thought, I’m outnumbered, I’m in this foreign place and the Lord told you not to do that and now they might kill me to get her. Sound familiar? Who did that before? Abraham did, like father, like son. They both did the exact same thing. He said she’s my sister, for he was afraid to say she’s my wife because he thought they would kill him. She was so beautiful, and by the way, Abraham’s wife Sarah was said to be beautiful. Both of these young ladies were described as beautiful. Apparently, they were gorgeous women and both of their husbands. Father and son were afraid of what was going to happen to them. Isaac is lying here, she’s not his sister at all. Do you think Isaac knew about what had previously happened to Abraham, when he did this same thing? I think it’s entirely possible he knew. Assuming that’s the case, then why in the world would you do that?  If you knew that your father, potentially put his wife in bed with another man by doing the same thing. Why would you do that?  Well, as someone once said, sin is never logical. As someone also has said, a harbour of lies is no port in a storm. He tried to lie his way out of this, and he appeared to get away with it. Well, at least for a little while. We will find out how it works out in the long run in the next episode.