Isaac Did Nothing Wrong Deceiving Abimelech (Genesis 26:1-33)
If You Want To Understand The Bible, You Need To Know The Book of Genesis
This is the twenty-sixth part in a multipart series on the Book of Genesis. You can find the others here:
Introduction
Sandwiched between chapters 25 and 27, the stories of Jacob and Esau, is Isaac and Rebekah in Philistia. Isaac, taking the mantle of the Seed from Abraham, creates a new world, a new Eden. The entire narrative parallels Genesis 1-3. Isaac is in the Land, the new Eden, in the sanctuary. He is a new Adam. Rebekah is a new Eve. Isaac experiences the blessing from God that His father has passed on to him. Two trees that you can eat from appear in Jacob and Esau, and now there is conflict between the Serpent and the Bride. This is the way we should look at this passage: that this is a new version of the Serpent and the Bride in the Garden. Genesis 3 tells us there is enmity between the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the woman, but BEFORE God tells us this, the enmity is between the Serpent and the Woman. That is what is in view in this chapter.
Isaac and Rebekah in Gerar
A new famine in the land, a new Abimelech. Abimelech is a throne name. Maybe his given name was Bill or Steve, but his kingly throne name is the same as his father’s or grandfather’s we saw with Abraham. Abimelech, meaning “My father is the king.” God tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt, but to live in the land. Philistia is the borderland between the Land and Egypt. The Philistines are an Egyptian tribe according to the table of nations earlier in Genesis. But it is between Egypt and the Land. God repeats His blessings to Isaac that the land will be his descendants. Why these blessings? Because Abraham obeyed the law of God, which existed but was not written down until Moses.
Isaac goes to Gerar and knows what these people are like and what they attempted to do to his mother. So he does what his father does and tells her not to tell them she is his wife. She is to return an eye for an eye to Satan the deceiver by deceiving him. Well, Abimelech looks down, possibly spying on them, and realizes that they are not brother and sister but husband and wife. The word translated as showing endearment is literally the verb form of Isaac. He was “Isaacing” Rebekah, his wife—Laughing or playing. Whatever it was they were doing, it was obvious to Abimelech that this was something only a husband and wife do.
Abimelech accuses Isaac of bringing sin upon them. It is crazy, but most commentators take the side of the wicked Philistines here and not Isaac. “Yeah, one of my guys might have stolen your sister and violated her, but you are the one to blame here.” He is Satan attacking Eve. Aside from errant human judgment, what is the divine judgment of Isaac’s actions? First, Abimelech offers his protection (revealed preference), saying that anyone who touches Isaac’s wife will be put to death. Second, he sows in the land and is blessed immensely, a one-hundredfold return. His possessions became great.
Conflict with the Gentiles
But because of the blessing, the Philistines envied him. They begin to attack him by stopping up all the wells. This is a parallel between Abraham in Philistia and Isaac in Philistia. They actually drove him out of the land because of this. This is exile in Egypt, and God brings him out of Egypt with blessings and riches. From Gerar proper, he went to the Valley of Gerar to dig up the wells Abraham had dug. You’ll remember the treaty that Abraham had made with the first Abimelech. It was supposed to be maintained by their descendants, but what was going on here? The new Abimelech does not know God like his father did, just as the new Pharaoh would not know Joseph or his God later in Exodus. The Philistine herdsmen quarrel with Isaac’s men over this, and the wells were actually named after these conflicts—Quarrel and Enmity. That word enmity is theologically VERY important. This is the enmity between the Serpent and the Woman. The third well, however, there were no quarrels, and it was called Spaciousness.
After this, he returns to the Land, to the southern border at Beersheba. And again, as at the beginning of the passage, God appears to him and speaks to him, reiterating the blessings once more.
Then, the new Abimelech and the new Phicol come to Isaac, and Isaac asks, “Why? You obviously hate me, given the treatment you have allowed your people to give to me, and that you have sent me out of your land.” But Abimelech notices that Isaac’s great wealth is a blessing from the hand of God. Abimelech, again like his father, is confessing his faith! This is why he, too, wishes to make a covenant with him. And after this, another well was discovered, and it was named after the original well that Abraham had dug and the original covenant Abraham and Abimelech made—Shebah, and the name of the place “Beersheba” was confirmed.
Conclusion
This passage is about the conflict between the Woman and the Serpent. It should be very clear now that this is what this is about. But how does it end? It ends with the conversion of the wicked. Isaac and Rebekah were faithful. They served the Lord faithfully. This is confirmed by what God did in response to their faithfulness. Isaac is blessed tremendously. And while the blessing initially causes even more envy and strife, eventually Abimelech repents and converts. Contrast this Gentile with the blessing Jacob receives and Laban’s refusal to repent. The Gentiles are more apt to convert than those of Shem. Another theme that repeatedly happens in scripture. But what do these things mean for us? When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. God places thorns and thistles around us; there are wicked men in conflict with us often, but we are given a picture here of what sometimes or even often happens when we are faithful. This is a picture of hope. So trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and wait upon Him, blessing all that you do, and even your enemies will be at peace with you and submit to Him. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.