Last 5 Days
Isaac and Abimelech
1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. 8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. 9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” 10 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
17 So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” 25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.
26 When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” 30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34 When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
A famine forced Isaac to Gerar where Abimelech was the king of the Philistines at that time. God told Isaac not to go to Egypt but to stay there. He will bless him and his descendants just as he had promised his father, Abraham. He will give him the land and multiply his offspring like the stars in the sky, and the nations will be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience to His commands and laws. It was the same covenant promises God made to Abraham.
Isaac obeyed God and stayed in Gerar. However, when the people asked him about his wife, like Abraham, he was afraid because Rebekah was a beautiful woman. So, he lied to them like his father that she was his sister. One day Abimelech saw Isaac with Rebekah from his window and realized they were husband and wife. He confronted Isaac and said he could have died if he had violated Rebekah. So, he warned the people not to touch Isaac’s wife.
Isaac lied in fear, yet God protected him. Fear causes people to lie. Isaac, like Abraham, lied out of fear instead of trust that God could protect him, and his family, as promised through the covenant with Abraham. The story shows us that lies cannot save us, but they can harm others as well. If it was not for God, Isaac or his wife would have died if Abimelech ordered them killed for lying and trying to harm them.
In that same year, God blessed Isaac a hundredfold according to the covenant promise. He became wealthy with great number of flocks, herds, and servants. This made him the envy of the Philistines. So, Abimelech told him to leave. Isaac moved to the Valley of Gerar and dug the wells his father dug before as the Philistines had them covered up. Isaac named the wells with the names his father named them.
The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen over the water they found. So, they dug another well and they quarrel with them as well. So he called it “Sitnah” and moved to dig another well elsewhere. This time the people did not quarrel with them over the well. So, Isaac called it “Rehoboth” meaning “For now the Lord has made room for us.”
He then went up to Beersheba and God appeared to him there that night. He told him not to fear and reiterated the same covenantal promises to Isaac. God instructed him to make an altar to worship Him. Here Isaac’s servants dug another well.
Abimelech came to visit Isaac with his advisor, Ahuzzoh and Phicol his army commander. Isaac asked them why they came when they asked him to leave. They said they were here to make a treaty with them because they had seen that God was with them. So, Isaac held a feast for the peace they established.
The next day, he sent them back to their home. The servants of Isaac came to inform him that they had found water in the well they have dug. So, he named it “Shibah” and the city remained to be called Beersheba.
When God promises us anything, He will fulfill it, and even our “enemies” will notice God’s hand at work in our lives to bless us with success. They will desire to be our friends instead of our enemies when they realized that cannot go against God if He is on our side. Therefore, let us have faith in God instead of being afraid of the things we perceive that might happen if we do not anything to protect ourselves. Oftentimes, fear drives us to act irrationally while God wants us to trust Him for what He promised us. God had called us, His people, not to be afraid but to trust in Him. Yet, we default back to fear instead of faith every time we face with anything in our lives. Let us trust God instead of having unnecessary fear!
