There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed 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 dwelt in Gerar. 7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”
8 Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”
10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” 11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
In February 2017, I blogged about Abraham and Sarah’s Bonnie-and-Clyde days. Long story shorter, when there was a famine
(recession) Abraham and Sarah would move somewhere like Egypt or Gerar of the
Philistines, pretend they were only brother and sister, and defraud the local
king (Genesis 12; 20).
Isaac was 75 when his father, Abraham, died
(Genesis 21:5; 25:8). The twins, Esau and
Jacob, were 15 (Genesis 25:26). That’s
15-75 years of advice and stories and family history, meaning Isaac had heard about his parents’ criminal
past. He told his sons, too; and they
passed the stories down until they were written into the book of Genesis.
When famine struck in Isaac’s time, he
thought about what his dad had done and moved his family to Gerar of the
Philistines --- just like Abraham. He
considered sliding down to Egypt as well, but the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt”(Genesis
26:2).
Isaac repeated his father’s journey. God repeated the promises to Isaac that He’d
made to Abraham (Genesis 26:3-4). And,
when Philistine men started checking out Rebekah, big papa Isaac got scared the
local guys would kill him and take his wife so he and his wife repeated the family
lie.
(Can we just take a moment and reflect on
what a crazy world they lived in? Polygamy
was totally acceptable. So, apparently,
was murdering immigrant men with pretty wives.
You could buy or kidnap a man’s sister and force her to be your wife,
but you couldn’t touch a guy’s wife while he wasstill alive ---- cause that would be wrong. Of course if you made her a widow by murder, then you were totally clear for the kidnapping and marriage-rape. Cultural frickin’ norms.)
Isaac and Rebekah weren’t as slick as the
previous generation so they got caught.
Abimelech (named for the ancestor who’d dealt with Abraham), king of the
Philistines saw Isaac and Rebekah making out.
He called Isaac and said, “Quite
obviously she is your wife” (Genesis 26:8,9).
Isaac and Rebekah were WRONG.
They broke covenant. Not THE covenant, another one.
Abimelech said to Abraham, “Now therefore, swear to me by God that you
will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but
that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and
to the land in which you have dwelt”
And
Abraham said, “I will swear.”
(Genesis 21:23, 24).
If Isaac knew the story of Abraham deceiving
the older Abimelech, he also knew that Abraham and Abimelech had a solemn,
multi-generational covenant under which he should have gone to Abimelech and
told him the truth. Abimelech honored
their fathers’ treaty. In fact, the King of the Philistines was angry that
Isaac had put him in danger of accidentally breaking his family’s word.
Abimelech
said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain
with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” So Abimelech charged
all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be
put to death.” (Genesis
26:10-11).
This Abimelech wanted no part in the part of
the story where the king is rendered infertile and God threatens to kill
him.
In this case, the pre-Israelite Philistine
acted honestly and honorably. The
ancestor of Jesus was a liar and a cheater and at least a little bit of a
coward.
It was all daddies’ fault. (spelling intentional)
When Abimelech #1 told the story to his son
and grandson from the Philistine perspective, the message was: don’t mess with a man’s wife even
accidentally because the man’s god will get you. Even if you ALMOST commit adultery,
apologize, give the husband gifts, and make it right with his god.
When Abraham told the story the message
was: this is how I got rich getting over
on people.
But when dad tells the story like his sin was
a good thing, there’s a strong chance (not a certainty) that his son will make
the same poor choices that daddy made like Isaac did when he lied about Rebekah
being his wife and when he and Rebekah played their children against each other
the way Sarah and Abraham made Ishmael and Isaac into opponents.
Abimelech despite being a religious pagan,
learned repentance from his forefather. Isaac,
despite being a pre-Mosaic Jew, learned how to lie just like his daddy.
Our children will either learn to repent of
our sins or they will learn to repeat our sins.
When we pass to our children a spirit of
repetition instead of repentance, we are assigning an inheritance of sin, and God
complies by visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the
fourth generation of those who hate Me (Deuteronomy 5:9).
Abraham lied.
Isaac lied. Jacob lied. Abraham’s sons were rivals. Isaac’s sons were rivals. Jacob’s sons sold their brother Joseph into slavery
and faked his death. To the third and
fourth generation of those who act hatefully toward God by refusing to repent.
If,
however, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done, and
considers but does not do likewise; . . . who has withdrawn his hand from the poor and
not received usury or increase, but has executed My judgments and walked in My
statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live (Ezekiel 18:14, 17)!
It’s a hard thing to confess your imperfections
to the only people who think you’re perfect. Find the strength. Deliver them from the sins that so easily
beset you. Break the cycle before they
repeat the cycle.
---Anderson T.
Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles
Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO);
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for
Human Development (NIHD).
Subscribe to my personal blog www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .
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