Genesis 26 – Covenant with Abraham Reaffirmed with Isaac, Living as a Foreigner, Covenant with Philistines, Esau’s wives make life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah

Genesis 26 – Covenant with Abraham Reaffirmed with Isaac, Living as a Foreigner, Covenant with Philistines, Esau’s wives make life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah

There was a famine, and Isaac went to Abimelech (of the Philistines in Gerar). The LORD appeared and said not to go to Egypt, but stay in this land as a foreigner, He will be with him and bless him, confirming the oath he swore to Abrahm to make Isaac’s offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky. Further, that God will give Isaac’s offspring those lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by his offspring, because Abraham, “listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.” Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men there asked about Rebekah he said she was his sister because he was afraid of being killed because of her beauty. Abimelech (king of the Philistines) saw Isaac caressing her, and asked why he lied. Abimelech said anyone who harms this man or his wife will certainly die. Isaac reaped 100 times what he sowed in farming. The LORD blessed him. He became rich, had livestock and slaves. The Philistines grew envious. They stopped the wells that his father’s slaves dug, and Abimelech told him to leave because he was too powerful. Isaac left and reopened the water wells. The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac over the wells. He moved and dug a new well and named it “open spaces” (Rehoboth), because the LORD made room for them to be fruitful in the land. Isaac then went to Beer-sheba and the LORD appeared to him and reminded him of His covenant. Isaac built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, his slave dug a well there. Abimelech came with Ahuzzath (his advisor) and Phicol (his army commander). They made a covenant with Isaac not to harm each other. Isaac’s slaves dug a well the day Abimelech, Ahuzzath, and Phicol left saying, “We have found water!” He called it Sheba, therefore the city is Beer-sheba. Esau was 40 and took Judith (a Hittite) and Basemath (a Hittite) as wives, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

God’s covenant with Abraham passes on to Isaac, and Esau falls into sin in intermarrying with other nations. God has reaffirmed His covenant to make Isaac’s offspring more numerous than the stars. God preserves His people to fulfill His promises, He will never fail.