The Book of
Genesis 26
35 verses≈ 6 min4 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–11BeginningsCreation, fall, flood, Babel
- 12–24AbrahamThe call and the promise
- 25–36Isaac and JacobThe promise passed onChapter 26
- 37–50JosephGod meant it for good
God’s Promise to Isaac
Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
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The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land where I tell you. Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you.
For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
Genesis 26:3–4
because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Isaac Deceives Abimelech
So Isaac settled in Gerar. But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”
When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
Abimelech
Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac
Isaac replied, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”
Abimelech
“What is this you have done to us?” asked Abimelech. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
Reflect
Like father, like son
Isaac had been there when God provided the ram on the mountain. He had just heard God say, “I will be with you and bless you.” And still, in Gerar, he said, “She is my sister,” because “he was afraid.” It was his father’s lie, word for word. Which old fear or habit have you picked up from the people who raised you? Write it down, and bring it to the God who stays with you anyway.
Isaac’s Prosperity
Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy. He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.
Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”
So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.
From there Isaac went up to Beersheba, and that night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”
0:14
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
Genesis 26:24
Pray
Room to breathe
Isaac didn’t fight for Esek or for Sitnah. He moved on, dug again, and at last said, “At last the LORD has made room for us.” Then, at night in Beersheba, God told him, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” Bring God the place where you feel crowded or opposed. Ask Him for the patience to let go of what isn’t worth the fight, and to trust Him to make room for you.
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
Isaac in the Negev
Isaac settles at Gerar, a town on the western edge of the Negev, probably Tel Haror. Pushed out, he camps “in the Valley of Gerar,” digs well after well, and finds room at Rehoboth (its site is uncertain, often placed near Ruheibeh), then goes “up to Beersheba.”
Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech
Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.
Isaac
“Why have you come to me?” Isaac asked them. “You hated me and sent me away.”
Abimelech and his men
“We can plainly see that the LORD has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”
So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.
On that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We have found water!” they told him. So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.
Names that tell the story
Whiteboard
Isaac named his wells for what happened at them. Two quarrels, then space: “At last the LORD has made room for us.” And at Beersheba, on the day of the oath with Abimelech, the servants came: “We have found water!”
Esau’s Wives
When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Question
Quick question
Isaac dug three wells in the valley before the quarreling stopped.
What did Isaac name the well nobody quarreled over?
You’ve experienced
Genesis 26
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A verse to carry with you
Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
Genesis 26:24
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