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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. 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.”

(Genesis 26: 8-9)

So, he had been in Gerar a long time, we don’t know how long, but it’s been a while. Then Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window and saw Isaac “showing endearment” (KJV) on Rebecca his wife. Now we don’t know exactly what these two were doing , but they were in public, and it’s not likely they were maybe doing more than he was hugging her or caressing (NIV) her. I don’t know exactly what they were doing but it wasn’t what you normally do with your sister. 

The big point here, however, is, if you’re living a lie, wouldn’t you be careful, but the truth is you get used to the lie after a while and let your guard. That’s the problem with lying, it's hard to maintain the façade, so I think the key in this verse is understanding they had been living this way for a long time. They’ve been playing this game for so long they had got complacent and finally one day he acted like she was his wife in public and Abimelech saw it and said she’s quite obviously not his sister, she’s your wife. So why did you say she’s, my sister, he asked? He confessed and said, I’m going to tell you the truth, because I was afraid, you’d kill me on account of her that’s why I did it.  Abimelech is rightly irritated.

 “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.” So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

(Genesis 26: 10-11)

This is very interesting because again the unbeliever is rebuking the man of faith. This Pagan king knew that what he had done wasn’t right, but how did he know that it wasn’t right? Who is to say when something is not right? He thought it was wrong to lie, but how did Abimelech know that for the 10 Commandments have not even been given yet?  In the Book of Romans, Paul tells us that everyone has the law of God, written in their heart. To use the phrase of modern philosophy, there is a moral imperative. In the heart and minds of people, that there’s a moral consciousness. It is universally known it is wrong to lie, it’s wrong to steal, it is wrong to murder and according to Paul in Romans Chapter 2 these things are written in the heart of every human being.  This unbeliever rebukes Isaac and says, this is wrong.  Abimelech then issues orders that anyone who touches Isaac, or his wife shall be put to death. 

One more observation, there are some non-Christians that are more moral than Christians.  Sometimes as Christians we get the accused of being hypocrites when we slip into sinful ways, but we not necessarily being hypocrite’s we’re just human beings that are forgiven, it is still in our nature to sin. Some non-Christians, some atheists, are very moral people, the Bible recognizes that and Paul writes about it in length in 1st Timothy.

The story so far is really rather simple. There’s a famine, God appears and tells him not to go to Egypt, but he goes to a Philistine city, then lies and gets caught in his deceit. So, what would you say is the point of this story, and why is this in here? To ask that question another way. What have you gotten out of this so far? What is the Lord trying to tell us by including this story in the Bible? Well, I’ll try and unpack it for us tomorrow.