Gen. 26:1-16
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Have faith for better or for worse
Have faith for better or for worse
Intro
Intro
Before we get started I want to wish all of you a happy 4th of July and acknowledge what a privilege it is to freely worship God in the USA
A little about me
Student Pastor of the Hutto Campus
Son: Titus
Wife: Corinne
Lived in Hawaii before moving to Texas
Many major moments in my life happened in Hawaii but the most memorable one was when I got married
When my wife and I got married we did what most couples do with their handwritten vows.
She prepared hers three years before we were engaged.
and I prepared mine 3 days before the wedding
Hers was beautiful and poetic and mine were the ramblings of a chimp
As much as our vows were different there was one important point that we both made sure to agree on
For better or worse, for rich or for poor I will be with you.
We have entered into a marriage covenant with the understanding that in the good times and in the tough times we will continue to honor the covenant that we have made with each other.
As believers we have also entered into a marriage covenant with Christ
It is why we are called the bride of Christ.
Throughout history we see God’s people fail in their faithfulness to Him but God never fails to uphold His promises to them.
He is faithful to His bride in the good times and the bad.
PRAY
PRAY
1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
Now if you have been with us for the last year you might remember the famine that happened in Genesis 12 that caused Abraham to go down to Egypt
In fact this story in Genesis 26 will almost mirror the story in Genesis 12 with a few exceptions.
Just like with Abraham there was another famine
Abraham travelled to Egypt
Isaac travelled to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines
So right in the first verse we see that Isaac is having a tough time
There is a famine in the land
Famine is not a good times kind of experience.
And in this time of struggle God speaks with Isaac
2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
Interesting enough, this is the first recorded time we see God speaking with Isaac directly
We see Isaac praying to God for Rebekah’s barrenness in the previous chapter but this is the first recorded words we have from God to Isaac.
And God reaffirms His covenant that He made with Abraham.
In Isaac’s struggle, during the famine God reminds Isaac that he is faithful in the good times and in the bad
God tells Isaac in verse 2 not to go down to Egypt but rather to stay in the land the God tells Him.
It’s evident that God is asking Isaac to place his faith in God Himself
In Verses 3-4 we see God reaffirming Isaac that just as He promised Abraham that He would have a Land, a people, and God’s presence Isaac would experience this same promise.
I will be with you: Presence
I will give you all these lands: Land
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of Heaven: People
And finally just as He promised Abraham He reaffirms that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through Isaac.
We understand this blessing to be Jesus Christ
and ALL of this promise and blessing is possible BECAUSE
5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Without Abraham there is no Isaac.
Verse 5 tells us that because Abraham was faithful and obeyed the Lord, all these blessings are passed onto Isaac.
Now if your a Bible scholar in the room you might be wondering how is it possible for Abraham to obey God’s law or His commandments when Abraham was never given any laws or commandments?
- In fact the Law would not be given to Moses for another 1000+ years so how could Abraham have obeyed God’s law?
The root of verse 5 is that Abraham’s faithfulness to God was unreserved.
Were there times when He failed, yes
Were there times that were hard, yes
Were there good times, yes
Abraham sought to obey the Lord and he placed his faith in God to uphold the covenant that was made with him.
So after God says all this to Isaac.
He lays out all the reasons why Isaac should have faith in Him
He will have land
He will have a people
The Lord will be with him
6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.
Have you ever had a moment in either and argument where someone makes such a good point that you can’t help but just agree with them.
I know that Isaac isn’t arguing with God here but I like to just imagine how this played out
After God lays all of this out for Isaac he says, yep good enough for me!
More importantly verse 6 shows us that Isaac chooses to place His faith in the Lord.
He settles in Gerar because it is what God desired.
Just like Abraham had faith in the Lord to follow and obey Him so Isaac is showing that same faithfulness.
Now I told you at the beginning of this sermon that Gen. 26 and Gen. 12 are very similar stories and we have already seen parallels in the famines that Abraham and Isaac experienced, in the covenants they receive from the Lord, and in their faithfulness they exhibit in obeying what God is asking them to do.
Verse 7 will continue to add to the parallel.
7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.
Just like his father told the men in Egypt in Gen. 12 that Sarah was his sister Isaac, fearing for HIS life, tells the men in Gerar that Rebekah is his sister.
Both Abraham and Isaac in these moments were allowing their situations to dictate their faith.
They were looking at the challenges, they were looking at the risks and they chose fear over faith.
Some of us in this room are going through an extremely difficult and painful season of life.
At one point in time we will all go through a very difficult season of life and it is so easy to respond to pain with fear.
Whether that is responding by eating junk food all day (guilty)
Whether that is responding by drinking our problems away
Or maybe it’s just simply being compliant with whatever the culture and the world wants you to do
We all respond to difficulties in our own way but if we are trying to respond out of our own power or our own will then we are responding in fear.
Responding in fear has consequences that sometimes far extend beyond ourselves.
8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. 9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’ ” 10 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 let’s first point out the elephant in the room.
When it says in verse 8 Isaac was laughing with Rebekah it’s purely my opinion they were doing a little more than laughing.
Abimelech sees them and knows they are married immediately.
I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was married by how they laughed together.
Some translations have the word caressing some have sporting (playing with), here in the ESV we see laughing
Regardless of which word is used it is clear that Isaac and Rebekah are sharing a moment as husband and wife enjoying on another’s company.
So after Abimelech sees this he questions Isaac and the truth comes out.
Notice this one more time though, Isaac said “Because I thought Lest I die because of her.”
Our jobs as husbands are to steward and protect our families and should it come to death then so be it.
But here in a state of fear Isaac is more concerned with himself then with others.
10 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.” 11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
Isaac’s fear put not only Rebekah at risk but also the Philistines
I really want you to see notice the phrase you would have brought guilt upon us.
If I could just go down a little application rabbit hole for a minute
I know that it is not on us to save others, and at the end of days people will be saved if they personally have confessed Jesus as their savior.
Jesus has charged us to go out into all the world and proclaim the gospel.
We’re to tell people the truth so that they know what the truth is.
It’s one of the biggest fears of mine that a friend of mine would die without knowing the truth of the gospel.
Once again I know that we each are accountable for our own faith but I would hate to think that I had an opportunity to share the gospel with them but I didn’t because I was afraid.
God is faithful to us in the good times and the bad and we should be faithful to Him and what He is calling us to do which is primarily go into all the world and proclaim the gospel and baptize people.
Thank you for letting me go on that rabbit hole.
So once Abimelech knows the truth he warns all the people to stay away from Isaac and Rebekah.
God provides protection for Isaac even in the midst of his failure.
God is still faithful to Isaac
12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.
Here we see Isaac is being blessed by the Lord, he’s planting and he’s harvesting vast amounts of grain.
He became rich
Now I know from last week that Abraham gave all his wealth and possessions to Isaac which was quite substantial so I asked the question “wouldn’t Isaac be very wealthy already?”
But I think the reason this is in here is because Genesis is highlighting the fact that it wasn’t Abraham who would bless Isaac but it was the Lord.
Verse 12-13 says The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and became very wealthy.
The Lord has been faithful to Isaac in the bad times and He is faithful to Isaac in the good times
But even in the midst of God’s faithfulness to Isaac in the good times we see in verse 14 that the Philistines envied him
So even in the midst of this blessing there is still struggle and hardship.
But the good news is that God is still faithful in the good times and the bad
In our lives we will always have a little bit of both in our lives. In the good times there is still some struggle and in the bad times there is still something to be thankful for.
One thing remains the same, God is a faithful God and that is who we place our faith in.
Not the circumstances but the one who created us.
Hebrews 11 is often titled the Hall of Faith and it chronicles the many people who had tremendous faith in God.
When talking about Abraham and his family it says this
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
What I think is amazing is that they all died in faith.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never got to see the nation of Israel
They never got to see the city of Jerusalem or the temple where God’s presence dwelled with His people
But they died knowing that God would be faithful to His promises.
Because they recognized that this earth was not their home, the God who was making these promises was not promising temporary Earthly blessing but an eternal heavenly one.
God is faithful in the good times and the bad because at the end of the day we are not promised health, wealth, and happiness here on this earth we are promised salvation in Christ Jesus and His return.
Pray