1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;
4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.
13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
24 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?
28 And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
29 That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the Lord.
30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.
33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.
34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
1. God reiterates his covenant promise to Isaac.
2. Isaac seeks to protect his wife in Gerar.
3. Isaac avoids conflicts with the herdsmen of Gerar.
4. Isaac and Abimelech make an agreement to live together in peace.
Verses 1–5. In this chapter, we find that God’s blessing for Abraham was reaching into the generations and touching the lives of Isaac and his family. But it wasn’t all a bed of roses for Isaac. Like all the rest of God’s people who walk this earth, Isaac faced difficulties throughout his lifetime. It started with a famine in the land that forced him to move south into the land of the Philistines. When families must move from place to place because of persecution, famine, or unemployment, they cannot very well establish roots or settle the land. They take on more of the role of a vagabond or a gypsy, who never have the opportunity to improve on their property and develop their communities. We continue to witness this transience in the life of Isaac, which might have eroded any notion of his long term inheritance in the land of Canaan. But God stepped in and reminded Isaac of his inheritance. It would have been tempting for Isaac to have taken his family to Egypt, for it was a large, prosperous empire. Warning him not to take his family into Egypt, Yahweh God reiterated the promises He made to his father, Abraham. God had bigger plans for Isaac and his heirs.
Verse five contains an important characterization of the life of Abraham. While we would not go so far as to claim sinless perfection for him, it is plain that he embraced a life of faithfulness to God. To keep the commandments of God is to keep the faith or guard the post. Abraham was like a careful sentry, looking out for the commandments and statutes which Yahweh had revealed to him. In other words, Abraham was a faithful son. He loved God as his father and God loved him as a son; and a father loves to reward an obedient son who is faithful to him.
God blessed Abraham and Isaac, because Abraham kept God’s commandments by faith. For the same reason that a good father will gladly turn over an inheritance to a faithful son, God provides an inheritance for His son. The fundamental basis for Abraham’s reward was found in their relationship, not in that Abraham kept so many commandments and only broke a few along the way. At the end of the day, every good and perfect gift (including the gift of faith), comes from the Father of lights (Jam. 1:17). Likewise, there was nothing in Abraham’s faith and obedience that would have merited his salvation or the blessings conferred upon him.
Verses 6–11. During his stay in the land of Gerar, Isaac repeated Abraham’s actions. Isaac referred to his wife as his sister in order to protect his own life. In the case of Abraham, the reference to Sarah as his sister was, at the very least, a half-truth. For Isaac it was a clear falsehood, since Rebekah was his cousin. According to the cultural mores of the day, brothers were expected to take responsibility for their sisters in regard to their betrothals. Therefore, we must not think that Isaac failed to provide protection for Rebekah. Here again, the plan backfired when Abimelech saw Isaac interacting with Rebekah in an intimate way, as a husband would with a wife. You would think that Isaac would have learned from the failures of his father in this area. But God was patient as he worked with this family (of whom He had just said were faithful to His commandments)! For the third time, God circumvented the harebrained plans of His men and provided protection for the family. While the heathen king proceeded to chew Isaac out for his duplicity, the Lord God blessed Isaac an hundredfold in subsequent days. Isaac was in a covenant relationship with the sovereign God of heaven and earth.
Verses 12–24. When the Philistines saw Isaac’s great wealth, they envied him because of it. There is no more destructive evil than the sin of envy. For, while the coveter wants to possess that which belongs to others, blind envy hates the prosperity of others and wants to destroy it! So the Philistines didn’t even bother stealing Abraham’s wells. These envious men ruined the wells previously dug by Abraham for his family. What a tremendous waste of productive work that could have yielded good profit for crops and herds. To make matters even worse, they provoked range war against the herdsmen of Isaac. War is just another unproductive and destructive use of resources, but that is what sinful heathen tribes spent most of their time on. Whether it be the megalomaniac nationalists or internationalists or pagan tribes like the Native Americans or South Sea Islanders, men are particularly drawn to fighting other men.
However, Isaac was a true son of God, the prototypical peacemaker in His kingdom (Matt. 5:9). There may not be many like Isaac on the earth, but where there are true Christians, there will be true efforts towards making peace. Isaac wisely refused to waste his resources on fighting a range war when he could simply dig another well in another location. Holding firmly to God’s injunction, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” saith the Lord, this righteous man saw no need to require retribution for every act of evil done to him. He knew that his reward would neither come from the Philistines nor wells of water. His reward would come from the Father of lights. Surely enough, God continued to bless Isaac despite all the inconveniences caused by the Philistines. Being a part of God’s family and a member of the covenant had its benefits. Along with His blessings, God also provided the comforting promise contained in verse 24, “Fear not, for I am with you.” This promise is repeated many times throughout Scripture, and those who embraced it with iron faith became mighty men of God, both in ancient and recent times.
Taking dominion of this world is not easy, and whether one is taking the promised land or taking the entire world for Jesus Christ, that promise resounds again and again throughout Scripture: “Behold I am with you, even until the end of the world!” (Deut. 31:6–8; Matt. 28:20)
Verses 25–33. In the end, Abimelech agreed to make a treaty with Isaac. First, Isaac pointed out the animosity that had developed between the two groups. Abimelech categorically denied this, acting as if his people had been faultless in all the strife. However, they were able to make an agreement similar to the one Abraham made at least eighty years prior. In commemoration of this new agreement, Isaac dug another well and called it Beersheba, which meant “well of the vow.”
Verses 34–35. The last few verses of the chapter mention the rebellion of Isaac’s oldest son, Esau. The state of this young man’s heart was not good, as demonstrated in his selection of a wife. Not only did he practice polygamy (something his father did not do), but he also married Canaanite women. These were a people that God had condemned in the covenant promises. This rebellion saddened both of his parents.
1. Envy is a destructive sin. We should root out the sprouts of envy as soon as it shows up in our lives. We also ought to be careful not to encourage envy in others, by comparing ourselves with others or bragging about our accomplishments.
2. The story of Isaac is the story of respect for fathers. You may have noticed that in verse 18, Isaac kept the same names for the wells that his father had given to them. Indeed, this faithful son patterned his life after his father in many ways. He was careful to get along with his neighbors. He made covenants with them, and worked hard to avoid conflict with them. He even named a new well using the same name his father had used for another location (“Beersheba”).
3. Some young people from Christian homes demonstrate the rebellion of Esau. They do not treasure their Christian heritage and they do not love the God of their parents. Often they find unbelieving spouses to marry, as Esau did. Watch out for the seeds of rebellion. It begins with a carelessness towards the things of the Lord—for example, preferring to eat red stew rather than to sit and listen to God’s Word. It begins with dishonoring thoughts about fathers and mothers. It begins with a love for the world that displaces a love for Christ and His Word. If you see the seeds of rebellion in your life, you must repent of them right away. Ask God’s forgiveness and seek Him with all your heart today.
4. God is with us. If we really believed this, we would not be afraid of people or of dangerous circumstances. God has given us a commission to take His kingdom throughout the world. We should engage in this mission with vigor and faith, realizing that the God who created the universe is at our side. He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.
1. What are the themes of Chapters 1 through 26?
2. When Isaac introduced his wife to Abimelech, how did he mirror what his father Abraham had done?
3. What did Isaac do to the Philistines when they began to fight over his wells?
4. What does “Beersheba” mean?
5. In this chapter, what promise has been a strong comfort to Christians who are alone in a dangerous world?
6. How did Esau manifest his rebellion to God and to his parents?
1. What kind of legacy are you gaining right now from your father and mother? Will you honor your parents and carry on their godly habits and customs?
2. How can you detect envy creeping up in your own heart? How might you be encouraging envy in others?
3. What confidence do we have that Christ is with us, as we seek His kingdom?