Isaac's Famine and Blessings in Gerar
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There is room for all because God has provided for every nation. We do not live by the belief in scarcity that drives the competition in this world.
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Isaac's Famine and Blessings in Gerar
- 2. Gen 26:1-6 NIV Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.
- 3. Gen 26:1-6 NIV For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because Abraham obeyed me
- 4. Gen 26:1-6 NIV and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
- 5. Gen 26:7-11 NIV When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
- 6. Gen 26:7-11 NIV Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
- 7. Gen 26:12-15 NIV Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
- 8. Gen 26:12-15 NIV So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
- 9. Gen 26:16-18 NIV Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died,
- 10. Gen 26:16-18 NIV and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
- 11. Gen 26:19-22 NIV Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, Esek means dispute. because they disputed with him. Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
- 12. Gen 26:19-22 NIV Sitnah means opposition. He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, Rehoboth means room. saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
- 13. Gen 26:23-25 NIV From there he went up to Beersheba. 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 will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.” Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord.
- 14. Gen 26:23-25 NIV There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
- 15. Isaiah 56:7 ...these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Editor's Notes
- Isaac the son of Abraham was living in a time of scarcity without a place, a piece of land to call his own. His Father knew famine and now he is liiving in famine. But remember wasn’t his dad the one to whom God said Gen 12:1 “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you…” One generation later not much has changed, Isaac is still without a place and he is struggling. He has to go to live in a city of the Philistines a place, how’s this for irony, that’s name Gerar means Dwelling place. Many people were going to Egypt looking for refuge but God says stay here in the land that is so hostile. Because here I will bless you.
- The reason he had to stay there was because this land was to be his to possess. God needed him to stay on site so that by faith he could inherit the promise. Abraham was God’s man because of faith, he believed God, against all odds. Hebr 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 2 Cor 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Hebr 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Abraham and Isaac needed to stand in faith, they needed to see the unseen so they could inherit God’s promise. If they didn’t obey God they would not inherit the land. Obedience comes down acting based on seeing the unseen. Acting in accordance with what is not yet.
- Abraham and Isaac needed to stand in faith, they needed to see the unseen so they could inherit God’s promise. If they didn’t obey God they would not inherit the land. Obedience comes down acting based on seeing the unseen. Acting in accordance with what is not yet. So Isaac stayed in a land that was not his own in a place that was hostile.
- Even his wife, some of the blessing of God on his life, brought them into threat. Again just like Abraham, same story nothing has changed. Like father like son, they still haven’t learnt how to deal with the situation, but nothing is secure.
- But God protects them through Abimelek.
- Not only does he protect them God blesses Isaac and Rebekah. In this hostile land of famine God blesses them. In the far less then ideal circumstances God blesses them. This put them in conflict with the spirit of this world. Since the fall of sin and the curse it brought on us Gen 3:17-20 “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” There has been scarcity which leads to competition. Adam and Eve’s sons Cain and Abel struggled in competition and because Abel was blessed Cain became envious and eventually killed his brother believing that as long as Abel has, he can’t have. The view of scarcity rules mankind. But God called Abraham to believe in blessing for all people and Isaac was to live by faith in that truth. Gen 22: 8Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. Gen 22: 13- 14 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram behind him caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
- God provides before we are born. He provided for Abraham at the creation of the earth. God put the water Abraham would need in the place he would need it long before Abraham obeyed God. Abraham through faith stepped into God’s blessing. But the spirit of this world in it’s belief that there is not enough will act with such envy and rather than share in blessing will block the blessing.
- So Isaac had to move out of the city into the valley below the city but God continued to bless him through the ancient wells. He continued to tap into God’s provision.
- He stayed in the blessing that came before.
- God’s provision kept on getting him in trouble with the people of this world. Remember the issue here is not material blessing the focus is on God’s generosity, His heart for all people.
- He just kept going, God’s provision didn’t run out the spirit of this world couldn’t best God’s foreknowledge. Isaac was in no position to fight, he just kept believing until they found room, a place that they could flourish in.
- God has prepared for you. God has prepared for all of us. People of faith are people that see the city of the Lord, the eternal city (Hebr 11:10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.) We know that despite the belief in scarcity and the competition for space and resources of this world, that we have a Father that provides and that there is room for all.
- We know that God’s heart is for all nations and that He has established His kingdom for all people. His purpose is too bless all nations. Eph 2:14-21 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Hatfield is called to be a representation of this promise, to see the city of God. To be a place of the spirit where all nations can find a seat at the table. This place is not for some but not others. Here we stand in faith and believe in God’s provision for all we stand against the competitive spirit of this world. We keep on inviting the other to the table.