Godly fathers-ungodly sons-15
Even godly fathers often show ungodly actions to their sons. So their sons who may be godly, often make the same mistakes. So before we go onto our next godly father, we will conclude our study of Abraham with an unfortunate event in the life of Isaac. This sad story has many common points with Abraham’s life.
Genesis 26:1 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. 26:2 The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. 26:3 "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. 26:4 "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; 26:5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws."
So here begins the similarities with the life of Abraham. As you remember, in Genesis 12 we read of the famine and Abraham traveling to Egypt. It seems that Egypt is the place to go if there is a famine. In this instance, God warns Isaac not to go to Egypt.
26:6 So Isaac lived in Gerar. 26:7 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 might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful."
Same story, same lie. Again, did Isaac not truly trust in God? God repeated His promise to make a great nation out of Isaac. Abraham was to be the father of a nation that would come with forth blessings to all the world.
26:8 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. 26:9 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.'" 26:10 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."
Abimelech is more of a title than a name. It is not the same Abimelech that dealt with Abraham some 40+ years earlier. However, Isaac used the same false reasoning to duplicate the same lie as his father. The fear of self-preservation often trumps doctrine and the very words of God.
26:11 So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."
Like father like son is an often used worldly proverb, with some biblical truth intermixed. Fathers are to train their sons. Why did Isaac follow this example?
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
We don’t have the whole story, but it has so many parallels that we can assume Abraham or Sarah told Isaac the whole story. What can we take away?
Our example as fathers is often more powerful than our words.
We cannot move on in life without prayer and wisdom from God.
Even if we have to wait 25-40 years, God is still faithful.
We need to take God more seriously than most do.
More next Saturday.