GOD’S WORD OF DIRECTION

“DO NOT GO DOWN to EGYPT; live in the land of which I shall tell you. DWELL in THIS LAND, and I will be with you and bless you” – Genesis 26:2

GOD prospered Isaac in the midst of famine, by His WORD of DIRECTION: “DO NOT GO DOWN to EGYPT; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 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. 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; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Gen.26:2-6). This text narrates Isaac's move to Gerar, occasioned by the famine, the Lord's appearance to him directing him to sojourn there, and renewing the covenant He had made with Abraham.

Certain conditional blessings of God, such as these, result from obedience to His instruction and direction. God reaffirms His covenant promises to encourage perseverance in times of trials, in order to bless and protect His people. But for God’s intervention, trials can easily erode our faith in His promises and cause us to lose sight of the hope of His high calling. It’s interesting that although Isaac lived the longest of all the patriarchs (180 years – 5 years more than Abraham), less is recorded of him than of the others. This is the only chapter exclusively devoted to his life. His was a quiet, peaceful, normal life, but faithful nonetheless. The Abimelech episode shows that though he obeyed the Lord by dwelling in Gerar, Isaac initially responded to God’s promise with fear instead of faith, until even the heathen king corrected him!

Worthy of note is that Isaac’s actions strikingly parallel those of his father Abraham. Both received God’s promise of blessing, ironically immediately in the text before their deceit! Both were impacted by a famine. Both had “beautiful” wives. Both moved down into the land of the Philistines. Both lied to the king of the Philistines (who was named “Abimelech” in both accounts) claiming that their wives were their sisters (Gen. 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Both risked their wife’s danger for their own safety, but God protected them. However, three differences stand out: Sarah actually was Abraham’s sister, but Rebekah was not Isaac’s sister; Sarah was taken to the king house, but Rebekah was not; and the king financially blessed Abraham after the event, but there is no record that Isaac received any financial reward from the king.

Thankfully, both Abraham and Isaac also prospered in the land! Apart from this odd interlude of lying to the king of the Philistines (vv.7-11), Isaac appropriated the reality of God’s Presence by following divine direction: “The Lord appeared to him and said…Dwell in this land, and I WILL BE WITH YOU” (vv.2-3). Verses 6, 12-14 confirm this: “So Isaac dwelt in Gerar…Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.”

The significance of this chapter is that God promised Isaac that the Covenant flows from Him and that His Presence will be with Isaac (Gen. 26:3; 24). This divine promise of the “WITH-NESS” of God is the one distinguishing component of God’s promise to Isaac that was not a part of His promise to Abraham! When God first called Abraham, He called him to go; when God first called Isaac, he called him to stay. The Lord did not instruct Abraham to go down to Egypt. He seems to have gone there out of fear (Gen.12:10). Isaac was however clearly directed to avoid the error of his father in going down to Egypt! He obeyed, trusted God to provide and protect him, and was immensely blessed!