Deja’ Vu (Genesis Part 44)
Text: Genesis 26:1-17
By: Ken McKinley
Well believe it or not, with this sermon, we have crossed the half-way point in our series on Genesis. We’ve done 25 chapters in 44 sermons… not too bad if do say so myself. And we’ve covered a lot of ground and a lot of information. And I don’t know about ya’ll but I’ve been blessed in preaching these sermons for you, and I hope you’ve been blessed in hearing them.
Now if you remember last time; we got sort of sneak peek into the future as Moses gave us a glimpse into the lives of Jacob and Esau, but today we’re back looking at Isaac. And as we read through our text this morning, you might be thinking to yourself, “Man, I’ve heard this somewhere before. It’s like Deja’ Vu.” And if you’re thinking that, then you’re right. We are seeing an almost exact parallel between the life if Isaac and Abraham.
First it starts off with God. In verses 1 – 6 we see Isaac migrate up to Gerar and God confirms the covenant with him. It starts out by saying there was a famine, which is Moses’ way of telling us why Isaac moved. And Moses makes the distinction that this was a different famine rather than the one that brought Abraham to Egypt. But it’s interesting here that God stops Isaac from traveling to Egypt. Now if you remember when Abraham had gone to Egypt, he got into a mess because of his lying, and he also brought home with him a woman named Hagar. So to avoid that mess again, God speaks to Isaac and tells him, “Don’t go to Egypt!” Now this is the first time the Bible records God speaking to Isaac, and God says to him, “Don’t go to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you to live in.” And its interesting, because all three of the patriarchs faced this problem… they were all faced with the problem of famine in the Promised Land. When Abraham was faced with that problem, God didn’t tell him what to do, and he went to Egypt and God blessed him and brought him out, and back to the Promised Land. When Isaac is faced with famine, God tells him not to go to Egypt, and Isaac obeys, and God blesses him. Then when Jacob is faced with famine, God tells him to go to Egypt and God blesses him and brings him out. So God dealt with them differently. We aren’t told why that is exactly, but I imagine that it had something to do with their personalities and the way each of them were as individuals.
I’ll give you an example using my kids. Leslie has an astute, theological mind, and strong convictions, but she’s not very personable. Gabriel is kind, compassionate and loving, but she has a strong desire to please people. Together… when you have Leslie’s theological mind and Gabriel’s compassion you have an amazing evangelistic mission team. But apart, Leslie is often an outcast because of her unwillingness to bend on her convictions, and Gabriel is often led into situations where sin is knocking at the door because of her desire to please people. And so when situations arise, you have to deal with individuals differently. There isn’t a blanket way to deal with people, and even God deals with us as individuals differently in certain situations.
And I think that maybe… just maybe; Isaac was like Gabriel. We saw that Abraham sent his loyal and faithful servant to get Isaac a wife, rather than sending Isaac himself. And now we see God telling him, “Don’t go to Egypt.” Luckily; Isaac obeys!
Instead; God tells him to stay in the land, and that He will bless Isaac. You know what? Famines can’t hinder the Lord. God can bless you in the famine. God is our source.
How many of you have been watching the stock market? Last Monday it dropped 634 points, then on Tuesday it rose 400 and something points, then on Wednesday it fell 520 points. I got emails and questions asking about it. A lot of people were concerned, but as I was thinking about it and praying about how the Lord would have me prepare myself, and my family, and my church for what might be coming a song came to mind.
It goes like this:
“My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus Name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand!”
And that’s what we see here in our text. Abraham is gone, but that has no bearing on God’s promise. God is eternal and so His promises are eternal. And so God is reiterating or confirming His covenant with Isaac. And it’s the same covenant. Not a new covenant, but the same one He made with Abraham.
God tells Isaac, “I’m going to bless you. I’m going to give you the land. You’ll have lots of descendants and in your ‘Seed’ all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Again; God is referring specifically to Jesus here. It’s through Jesus that all the nations of the earth are blessed. Revelation tells us that in heaven there will be people from every tribe and tongue.
So we see that God does the same thing in that He is faithful.
When we get to verses 7 – 11 we get that deja’ vu feeling all over again. Remember how we saw Abraham have great victories of faith and then shortly thereafter he would stumble and fall? Well guess what? The apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to Isaac. God has told him to say in the land and not go to Egypt, and Isaac obeys, but then look at what he does. Verse seven says, “And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, ‘She is my sister;’ for he was AFRAID to say, ‘She is my wife,’ because he thought, ‘lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.’” Isaac exhibits the same cowardice that his father Abraham did. And this is crazy if you think about it. Isaac trusts that God is going to take care of him, so he stays in the land, even though there’s a famine, but then he fails to trust that God can keep him safe from the Philistines.
In-other-words, Isaac falls into the Apostle Peter syndrome. Remember when Peter walked on water? But then he took his eyes off the Lord and began to sink? Well that’s what Isaac has done here. He gets around the Philistines and loses focus. Again; I think this shows us why Isaac wasn’t permitted to go to Egypt. If he can’t stay strong in the Promised Land, then he most likely wouldn’t stay strong in Egypt. And of course there’s some application here for us. Namely this; if you can’t stay strong right here in the Bible-Belt, you have no business going on a foreign mission trip. You know, our youth and I have been talking about mission trips for a while now, but until they exhibit a level of spiritual maturity, then it’s not going to happen. The second bit of application here for us, is to always be watchful. Isaac just had a victory. He’s heard the voice of God tell him to stay in the land, and he obeys, and so he’s having a mountain top experience, but the very next thing we see is him falling from that mountain top.
And the third thing we can learn here is that we as parents and grandparents is that our examples teach our children and grandchildren.
You know; this is something I think about a lot. Especially as my girls are growing older. Am I the kind of parent I want my kids to grow up to be? Because if I’m not, then I need to change, because the fact and the reality is, a lot of what they are going to do and become is what they are seeing in me. Fourthly; our sins will find us out. Abimelech sees Isaac and Rebekah acting in a way that brothers and sisters don’t act, and all of a sudden the jig is up! And it’s Deja’ Vu again. We have a pagan king rebuking the man who is in covenant with God. Church… our status as Christians doesn’t exempt us from good, moral, or right behavior. The world is watching, and they are taking note. They hear us say that Jesus has changed our lives, but so often they hear it, but don’t see it.
And so here we have Abimelech, a Philistine king, rebuking Isaac. And if you look back at Genesis chapter 20, when Abraham did this… do you remember who the king was? Abimelech! Now actually this is probably the son of the king who dealt with Abraham… he just took the name of his father. So you have Abraham’s son doing what Abraham did, and you have Abimelech’s son, doing what Abimelech did. He basically says, “Isaac, man you lied to us, and because of your lie, it almost caused us to sin ourselves. And you know what Isaac? My dad told me about when your dad tried to do this same thing, and he told me that God Himself spoke to him and said that if he touched Abraham’s wife… your mom, Sarah, that God was going to wipe him out. What are you people trying to do to us? I mean; what’s wrong with you people?”
The really amazing thing here is that in-spite of Isaac’s sin, God still causes this to work together for good. You see what He does? He uses this pagan king, and Isaac’s sin, to alleviate Isaac’s fears so that he might live uprightly. Look at it! Abimelech says, “If anyone touches Isaac or Rebekah, they will be put to death!” So God; in His sovereignty, gives protection to Isaac by using a pagan king, and by turning all things together for good.
Ok; let’s look at the last part here really quickly, verses 12 – 17. Here we see God bless Isaac in-spite of the famine. I mean; there’s a famine going on, and Isaac reaps a hundred fold return on his crops. That’s not normal. God was involved in this. He blesses Isaac so much that the Philistines start to get jealous of him and tell him to move away. Now maybe… just maybe that was God’s plan all along. He blessed Isaac to get him to move away from the pagan influence. But there’s something else I want you to notice here. God blesses Isaac with wealth and prosperity. But that doesn’t mean he has no problems. The Philistines become jealous. They stop up all the old wells that Abraham had dug. They really don’t like Isaac too much. And so Isaac’s got all of this livestock, but no water for them. That’s a real problem isn’t it? I mean we’ve seen what that kind of situation can do to a person.
And so God can bless us, but at the same time, we live in a fallen world. And so often times the blessings we receive are mixed blessings. Sometimes we’re being blessed by God while simultaneously the world is attack us with all it’s got. God will bless us, but that doesn’t mean life will not be filled with trials and tribulation. Every believer in the Bible goes through tribulation and trials. Being a follower of Christ, doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble. In-fact Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…” A day is coming, when we won’t have those trials and tribulations anymore, but we haven’t gotten there yet. So we’re going to have troubles… but let’s not forget the last part of that verse. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” LET’S PRAY
