Jacob Part 4: Isaac Deceives Abimelech

Isaac Deceives Abimelech

The literary design of this unit has been carefully crafted to invite the reader into a meditation on how the children repeat the story of their parents, and how God’s choice of this family means that God’s justice and mercy will also repeat through the generations.

Genesis 26:1–14 CSB

1 There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; 3 stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, 5 because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 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 will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.” 8 When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.” 10 Then Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” 11 So Abimelech warned all the people, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.” 12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy. 14 He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him.

"And there was a famine in the land." ominous.

"Now, dear reader, you might remember that back in what we call Genesis chapter 12, verse 10, there was also a famine in the land. Yet that famine never stopped, it kept on going. And so this was a famine besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham."

So if this were on an ancient webpage, this would be a glowing blue hyperlink here. This is a reference back to Genesis 12

Now whenever a biblical author makes an explicit hyperlink like that, it's always worth putting your thumb down and flipping back, where was that again? 

Genesis 12:10–13 CSB

10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. 13 Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.”

When I go back to the first famine in Genesis chapter 12, verse 10, "Now there was a famine in the land." So ... in the land of Canaan. "So what did Avram do?

Well, he went down to Egypt to get food, because, well, the famine was really bad. And it came about when he became near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, 'Oh, man, you are really good to see.'" You're good to look at.

CSB says, "beautiful woman." "You are good to see. 

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is that guy's wife, and they'll kill me, but let you live. So I've got an idea. Let's say you're my sister, and things will go really good for me because of you, and I will have life on account, at your expense."

"So there was a famine in the land besides that first famine in the days of Avraham, and Yitskhaq went to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines at Gerar." If you're in Canaan, you go south and to the coast to get to where the Philistines are, but it's essentially like a quarter of the way to Egypt. It's like the first stage of a trip down to Egypt.

"Yahweh appeared to him, and he said, 'Yeah, don't go down to Egypt. Didn't go well for your dad, it won't go well for you. Just stay right here. Dwell in this land that I say to you, migrate in this land, and I will be with you.

I will bless you, because to you and to your seed I will give all these lands.

I'll establish my oath that I swore to Avraham, your father. I'll multiply your seed like the stars of the skies. I will give to your seed all these lands. And all the nations of the land will find blessing for themselves through your seed on the heel of the fact that Avraham listened to my voice and kept my keeping, my command, my statute, and my instruction.' So Yitskhaq stayed in Gerar."

"So the men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, 'She's my sister.' Now he did this because he was afraid to say, 'She's my wife.'" And then here we get a little window into Yitskhaq's mind, into his heart, as if we hear the dialogue in his mind. "'So that the men of this place don't murder me on account of Rivqah, 'cause she is really good to see.' So it came about when the days for him there were long, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked down through a window, and he saw, and look, Yitskhaq was metsakheqing with his wife, Rivqah." It's his name as a verb, playing, making laugh.

"And Abimelech called Yitskhaq and said, 'Dude, that's your wife,'" my paraphrase.

"'How is it that you say, she's my sister?' And Yitskhaq said to him, 'Because I said to myself, so that I won't die on account of her.' And Abimelech said, 'What is this that you have done to us? You know one of my people could have easily slept with your wife, laid down with your wife, and you would've brought guilt upon all of us.' And Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, 'The one who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.'"

Like Father Like Son

So famine, I'm gonna go to Gerar, don't go to Egypt, so he stayed in Gerar.

So the narrative, you know, it's not a thrilling narrative right now. It's just like the guy was gonna go this place. God said don't go there, so he didn't go there. He stayed where he was.

This is YHWH’s first speech to Isaac and sounds a lot like the first speech to to this guy's dad, Abraham all the way back. Remember, this is before the Egypt and the famine and the sister thing. The famous words, "Go forth from your land, Abram. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you; you'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you. In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed." And then God says, "To your seed, I will give this land." So this is a very clear narrative signal that the promise to the father is now being inherited and developed and passed on by the son.

You can actually, every one of these little phrases you can find in something God said to Abraham from the Abraham story, but they've been put in a blender, and they're reproduced right here.

God’s words to Yitskhaq are a careful blend of nearly all of God’s promise speeches to Abraham. Clearly, the divine blessing for Abraham is now being passed onto Yitskhaq, and Yitskhaq, in turn, will pass it on to his sons.

This is in Genesis 22, "I have sworn by myself, because you've done this thing, you have not withheld your son, your only son, I'm going to greatly bless you and bless all the nations through you because you," and in Hebrew it's the same phrase. It's the word "shema." You shemaed my voice. So Adam shemaed the voice of Eve, who shemaed the voice of the deceiver, led to death and curse. Here, Avraham shemas the voice of God, even though it looks like it leads to death. And somehow on that mountain by the tree, what seems like death turns into life.

And that's what's being recalled here.

It’s important to remember that this divine blessing takes us all the way back to the creation narrative of Genesis, where humanity was given the initial creation blessing and invitation to co-rule the world as God’s image. This role was forfeited and then passed on to Noah, and now to the family of Abraham.

Like Father, Like Son; Unlike Father, Unlike Son

Yitskhaq is replaying Genesis 12, and he is both unlike (he doesn’t go to Egypt) and like his father (he gives away Rivqah).

See Slide

so on the surface, you're like, I've been here before, and that's true. You've been here twice before. Yeah, so actually that's important. So we read the beginning of the first time that happened, and then Avraham did this again with Sarah in a different city with a different set of people and a different king. It's good Bible trivia, anybody?

It was in this city with this same king. This is in Genesis chapter 20.

The Garden All Over Again

All three of these narratives follow a promise of great blessing for God’s chosen one, and all three are filled with hyperlinks to the Eden failure story in Genesis 2-3.

God provides trees in Eden that are “good of sight and desirable for eating.”

God warns about one forbidden tree that will kill them: “You will surely die.”

The snake deceives the woman and the man about the tree: “You will not die.”

The woman says the forbidden tree “is not to be touched.”

God asks the humans, “What is this you have done?”

The point: Yitskhaq replays the failure of his father and the failure of Adam and Eve in the garden. The son is a deceiver, just like his father.

But notice, Yitskhaq’s deception and failure story has been placed after Yaaqov's deception story. This links together all three generations of God’s chosen ones in a pattern of deception and failure: like father, like son, like grandson!

VV 12-14

After God's blessed chosen one receives the blessing of his father, right, that was the first speech that God gave, the chosen, blessed one waltzes into a situation where he decides to give up his own wife, right, for his own well-being, deceiver, lying, all of that, and puts an innocent king, or semi-innocent king, and city in danger. 

So instead of bringing, what did God say, "All the nations will find blessing through you and your seed." And what's the next story is he almost brings death and curse on the nations. This whole chapter is going to be about, man, how is the blessing of Eden going to find its way to all of the nations when, like, this is the character and kind of people that God is working with. 

That's a lot of the tension in here

Genesis 26:12–14 NASB95

12 Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; 14 for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

So we just read the story about Yitskhaq and his wife. Let's finish with the little concluder to this first opening unit in verses 12 through 14.

"So Yitskhaq sowed seed in that land.

And he found, in that same year, 100 measures." The word for seed is zera', the plural is zera'im, and then the word "measures" is she'arim. So it sounds like the same letters. It's a bit of wordplay there. So he sows lots of seed and he gets 100 seedy measures.

"And Yahweh blessed him," just like he said he was going to do.

"And the man became great, and he went on growing great, until he became very great.

And he had herds of flocks and herds of cattle and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him." Hmm.

So look at the arc of verses 1 through 14 as a whole. What does God say he's going to do in the beginning?

Bless you. In this land with lots of seed. How does the story conclude? He sows seed in this land and God blesses him. So it's the blessing frame surrounding a story in the middle of the deceptive, treacherous nature of the blessed one. 

What is God's response to Yitskhaq's behavior?

What God does after Yitskhaq's behavior is to do what he said he was going to do.

He blesses him, and gives him much seed ... here, in the case of, so you just got to sit with that.

That feels uncomfortable, because you're like, "That guy doesn't deserve this," and I think that's how we're supposed to feel. In other words, I don't think that's a wrong response to the story.

And remember, this is the father's story that's embedded as a part of the intro to the son's story that is a bigger exposition of that same what feels like a contradiction, that God's chosen ones don't deserve to be God's chosen ones, but maybe that was never the point.

So they are God's chosen vehicle to spread blessing. And so if they're going to spread blessing, then they need to experience blessing, even if it seems wrong to us.

It feels like that's what this narrative is trying to highlight, that tension. 

Eden Springs in a Dry Land

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob

Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.

Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Cotter, David W. Genesis. Edited by Jerome T. Walsh, Chris Franke, and David W. Cotter. Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003.