A Chip Off The Old Block - Genesis 26:1-11
A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
INTRODUCTION:
Do you ever remember as a child vowing that you would never do something like your parents, when I grow up I’m not going to treat my children the way my parents did me, I’m going to be way more understanding and not so strict. But as we grow older and have kids of our own we find ourselves adopting the behavior of our parents in our own parenting style. Before we know it we become “a chip off the old block.” We don’t like to hear that or be told that we act just like our mother or our dad. The sadness in this is often the most damaging patterns in our lives are shaped by the homes we grew up in. This most often shows up in times of stress or threat and we find ourselves repeating the patterns of our parents during those times in their lives. Often, we can see that the patterns of the past are damaging our children, straining our marriage, wreaking havoc on the relationships in our lives because the patterns we are following are family flaws, family sins that have been passed down through generations.
The good news is that God is willing and able to help us break those behaviors from the past that we revert to in order to protect ourselves, or to escape some threat, or to solve some problem. We do not need to repeat those generational sins to have some good come to our life. God’s love for us is so great and his goodness so certain, that we can trust Him without fear. We can forsake the family flaw, the generational sin, because God’s goodness will come to us without our behaving that way.
As we continue our study of the life of Jacob, because really we do not have much on the life of Isaac. The history of Jacob begins in chapter 25 and continues through chapter 36. Because of this when we come to chapter 26 where we have two incidents recorded about Isaac they must be viewed and understood in terms of their impact on Jacob, or what did Jacob learn from these incidents and how did they affect his life. As we will see this morning God was trying to show and teach Jacob that he does not have to repeat his family’s destructive patterns. He can forsake the family flaw because God’s goodness will come to him without it.
--LET’S PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 26:1-11 our Scripture passage for this morning. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Genesis 26:1-11,
“Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.’ So Isaac lived in Gerar. When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ for he was afraid to say, ‘my wife,’ thinking, ‘the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.’ It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, ‘Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ And Isaac said to him, ‘Because I said, “I might die on account of her.”’ Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’ So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, ‘He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.’” (Genesis 26:1–11, NASB95)[1]
THE FAMINE (Genesis 26:1)
There was a very damaging sin that had come down through Jacob’s family. He saw and heard about this flaw in his grandfather Abraham. Now he sees this same sin repeated in his father Isaac. And he is beginning to see the same tendency in himself. This incident was God’s gentle urging to Jacob that he did not need to repeat and follow after his father in this generational sin. God was saying, you have my promise—my goodness comes to you without repeating the sin of your family, this is my promise you do not have to do anything to get it.
The history of Jacob continues this morning as he watches his father repeat the same wrong behavior of his grandfather Abraham with the same damaging consequences. He sees Isaac, under stress, reacting to a threatening situation exactly like his grandfather did.
The initial threat is a famine in the land, no water, no food, the possible collapse of the family’s ranching business, and ultimately the starvation of the family. Because of this Isaac makes the decision to relocate the family closer to the Mediterranean coast where it would be more likely to rain. This move southwest brings them into the area of the Philistines, an area ruled by a pagan Philistine king whose behavior is unpredictable. This means that the threat or danger faced from the famine would be replaced by possible hostility and harassment of the family. But Isaac has little choice, it is relocate or die, so he comes to the city of Gerar and receives permission from the ruler to pasture his herds and flocks on the outskirts while he and his family move temporarily into the city.
As Jacob watches this threat of a famine develop, and watches his father react to it, he is aware that Abraham had faced a similar situation in his day. Their family had been through this before during an earlier famine in Abraham’s day.
It seems that the day to day living in Gerar and the risks that came with living in a pagan city began to worry Isaac and he must have begun to consider the possibility of moving his family further south into Egypt. There was always food in Egypt, with the Nile flooding yearly creating rich pastureland and farm land. Isaac begins to think that this might be a safer place for his family.
THE PROMISE (Genesis 26:2-5)
As Isaac pondered this possibility of moving to Egypt we are told in verse 2 that the Lord appeared to him. How He appeared we are not told, did He come in the form of a man as He had when He told Abraham about his son and about the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or did He appear as the Angel of the Lord as He had to Hagar in the desert. The Scripture does not tell us, it just says that the Lord appeared to Isaac. The Lord told Isaac that he was not to go to Egypt, but was to stay in the land where I tell you to live. The Lord goes on to tell Isaac to remain where he is for the time being. The word “sojourn” in Hebrew means to remain or dwell as an alien or stranger. God told him to remain there in Gerar as a stranger for the time being and God promised to be with him and to bless him. Isaac could live in Gerar without fear because the Lord would be with him and bless him with His goodness. God is asking Isaac to trust Him in the present situation with all of its uncertainties, tensions, unknowns, and fears. Trust me I will be with you and will not abandon you; I will take care of you and protect you. God will speak this same promise to Jacob repeatedly, “Jacob, trust me, I’ll be with you, My love for you is so great, my goodness so certain, you can trust me without fear.”
As the Lord is there with Isaac speaking to him He tells Isaac that the promise He made to Abraham He will keep through Isaac and his descendants, the promise of land, of descendants, the promise of a spiritual destiny which will bless all the nations. The oath of the covenant that God had sworn to Abraham is now passed on to Isaac, the covenant promises are now yours the Lord says. First, He says I’ll keep the promises regarding the land, verse 3, ““Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.” (Genesis 26:3, NASB95)[2] Second, He says, I’ll keep the promises regarding your family, verse 4, ““I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands;
And third He promises to keep the promises regarding the Messiah, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;” (Genesis 26:4, NASB95)[3]
The blessing has been passed to the next generation and it will become God’s sworn commitment to Jacob and through this God is saying to Jacob, as I was with Abraham, as I have been with and will be with Isaac, so I will be with you in all situations. I’ll keep the promises, trust me and don’t fear, forsake the generational sin and trust me instead of repeating the sin of the past in an attempt to protect yourself, solve a problem, or to escape a threat. You do not need to repeat the destructive behavior of your grandfather and father to gain the good you want. I’ll give it to you out of my love.
THE SIN (Genesis 26:6-11)
What was this family flaw, this generational sin that kept getting repeated? What was it that God wanted Jacob to forsake? What is it that Isaac does that his father Abraham had done?
It is the sin of deception—a pattern of lying and deceiving. Isaac reacts to the threat of the famine the same way his father did, with the same lie, the same deception, and the same damage to the family, the same loss of character and testimony.
We have already seen this happen twice in Abraham’s life. During the first famine Abraham took his family to Egypt and upon reaching the border he begins to fear for his own life with no regard for what might happen to his wife, he tells her to tell the Egyptians that he is her brother, then they won’t kill him so that they can have her. Abraham lies and Sarah is taken by Pharaoh, but God steps in and inflicts Pharaoh and his household with serious diseases. Instead of trusting God to be with him and to bless him in a threatening situation, Abraham tries to bring the good into his life that he wants by lying and deception. This is not an isolated incident, it happened again, it became a behavioral pattern that was passed down to the next generation. The next time Abraham finds himself in a threatening situation it is in the very place where Isaac is, in the city of Gerar, and again he fears for his life because of the beauty of his wife. Living in this pagan city with an unpredictable pagan ruler, Abraham not trusting the Lord to be good to him, in fear compromises his wife again by lying and saying she is my sister. Again God must step in to clean up the mess. In the process Abraham’s integrity is lost and his testimony ruined in both cases. The pattern is set, a sin of lying and deception.
Now Jacob watches as Isaac, his father, repeats the same behavior in the same city for the same reason. A generation later Isaac also fails to trust God’s promises to be with the family and to protect them and he seeks good for himself by resorting to the same lie, the same deception because of the same fear, and the family sin shows itself again.
Genesis 26:6-8,
“So Isaac lived in Gerar. When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ for he was afraid to say, ‘my wife,’ thinking, ‘the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.’ It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.” (Genesis 26:6–8, NASB95)[4]
Let me say something about Abimelech, this is the same name given to the king when Abraham was in Gerar, but it is certainly not the same person since this took place about 90 years after the incident with Abraham. This word Abimelech is probably the Philistine word for king, much like the word for king in Egypt is Pharaoh. Abimelech’s palace was undoubtedly the highest building in Gerar where from his windows he could look down into the streets of his city, and into the windows of houses below him when the curtains were not closed. One day he looked down into the window of the foreigner’s house and sees Isaac caressing or fondling Rebekah. Immediately the king knows that this is no sister, and it is his turn to be afraid, he knew the history of his father who came into contact with this family and he fears that some of his men might have acted inappropriately toward Rebekah, assuming that she was single. He remembered what his father when king had said would happen if any of them mistreated or dishonored the women of this family in any way. Abimelech cannot believe that the son of Abraham would do the same thing that Abraham had done before, lies and deceptions again.
Genesis 26:9-11,
“Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, ‘Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ And Isaac said to him, ‘Because I said, “I might die on account of her.”’ Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’ So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, ‘He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.’” (Genesis 26:9–11, NASB95)[5] Jacob loses his standing as a man of integrity and loses his chance to speak of his God to the Philistines. A pattern of lying and deceiving, a family sin that repeats itself from one generation to the next, from Abraham to Isaac. If Isaac would have trusted God, His goodness would have come to Isaac and his integrity and testimony would have been preserved. Jacob watched this, and all his life he struggled with this tendency to lie and to deceive, God’s point to having Jacob watch his father repeat the same fear and distrust of God was so that God could say to him, “Jacob, you don’t need to act this way. I’ll be with you. I will keep my promises to you. You can break the pattern, you can forsake the family sin. My love for you is so great, my goodness to you is so certain, you can trust me without fear.”
CONCLUSION:
God has not changed, He still offers to us His grace, mercy and goodness because of His great love for us. He desires to bless you with His goodness if you will trust Him. He made a way for you to enter into His great love and to experience the certainness of His goodness, and it all began when He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who went to the cross and paid the death penalty for our sin. When you agree with God that you are a sinner and believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth as God in the flesh and that He died for you, paying the penalty for your sin, and that He rose from the dead you are forgiven and enter into a relationship with God in which you experience His great love for you and His goodness is made certain, and His Holy Spirit who indwells you can help you break those generational sins and forsake them, and help you to trust God without fear when you feel threatened, when you need to solve a problem, when you feel you need to escape so that some good can come to you; in that moment you can trust God and experience His goodness to you.
Like Jacob, God says to you also: “My love for you is so great that I sent my Son to die for you, my goodness to you is so certain I raised Him from the dead and He is preparing a place for you that where He is you may be also. You can trust me without fear, my goodness will come to you.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995