In this chapter we read about God’s promises to Abraham are the same blessing God gives to Isaac. The events in this chapter took place sometime between 1856-1716 BC.
Verses 1-5
A famine took place in the land of Canaan and God told Isaac not to go down to Egypt.
He wanted Isaac to stay in a land of famine and hostile people.
This is the first time God appears to Isaac.
God promised him the same as his father Abraham that his offspring would be multiplied like the stars of heaven.
Verses 6-11
Isaac did what his father Abraham did twice before because he was afraid he would be killed and lied about Rebekah being his sister.
Vs 8 Abimelech looks out the window and can see Isaac and Rebekah together and realizes they are married.
Abimelech threatened anyone who bothered Isaac and Rebekah with death to keep them both safe.
Verses 12-25
During the famine in the land Isaac became very wealthy and powerful because he was able to plant a harvest unlike the people around him.
The people around him resented him because he was being blessed.
Abimelech asked him to leave Gerar and they settled in the Valley of Gerar.
His servants dug a well and the herdsmen argued because they wanted the well.
They dug a second well and the same thing happened.
They dug a third well and the herdsmen left them alone.
Isaac moved to Beersheba and made an altar to the Lord.
Verses 26-33
Abimelech saw that Isaac was being blessed and made a treaty of peace with him.
Verses 34-35
When Esau was 40 years old, he married two Hittite women which made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
God made a covenant with Abraham and Isaac in spite of their sin.
Everyone of us will be in a place where there are troubles just like Isaac during this famine and hostility surrounding them. Will we trust the circumstances or will we trust the promises and protection of God? In verse 12 it says “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.” Isaac sewed seed in a land of famine and got a supernatural response from God and reaped abundantly. God’s promises and supernatural responses are the same today as in the days of Isaac. We can count on God to give us the strength to persevere through whatever he calls us to. Let’s trust Him in every circumstance and see what God does with any situation we find ourselves in and let God do what God does best because He is the God of the impossible!
