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The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry.
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ because he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.’
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, ‘She is really your wife! Why did you say, “She is my sister”?’
Isaac answered him, ‘Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.’
10 Then Abimelek said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’
11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: ‘Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.’
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Last week’s post looked at Abraham’s second marriage after Sarah died. His second wife, Keturah, bore him several sons and from them, more descendants, further fulfilling God’s promise that his family line would be plentiful. While he was still alive, Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac, his son by Sarah, but also gave gifts to Keturah’s sons. He sent them away to the land of the east, away from Isaac.
During another famine, a different one to the one Abraham lived through, Isaac stayed in Gerar (verse 6).
Abraham had moved to Egypt to escape the famine he lived through, but the Lord told Isaac to stay where he was (Genesis 26:1-5). Note that God also made promises to Isaac of many descendants. Emphases mine below:
Isaac and Abimelek
26 Now there was a famine in the land – besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time – and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.’
Matthew Henry explains the difference between father and son:
This variety in the divine procedure (considering that Egypt was always a place of trial and exercise to God’s people) some ground upon the different characters of these three patriarchs. Abraham was a man of very high attainments, and intimate communion with God; and to him all places and conditions were alike. Isaac was a very good man, but not cut out for hardship; therefore he is forbidden to go to Egypt …
Isaac had now laid aside all thoughts of going to Egypt, and, in obedience to the heavenly vision, sets up his staff in Gerar, the country in which he was born (v. 6) …
In Gerar, Isaac committed the same sin — lying — as that of Abram in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20):
Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.’
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. ‘What have you done to me?’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, “She is my sister,” so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!’ 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
In Isaac’s case, things did not get that far, although they could have done.
The men of that place — the Philistines of Gerar — asked Isaac about his wife Rebekah; he said that she was his sister because he was afraid to tell the truth on account of her beauty, fearing that the men would kill him (verse 7) and take her for their own.
Henry says:
… he enters into temptation, the same temptation that his good father had been once and again surprised and overcome by, namely, to deny his wife, and to give out that she was his sister. Observe,
I. How he sinned, v. 7. Because his wife was handsome, he fancied the Philistines would find some way or other to take him off, that some of them might marry her; and therefore she must pass for his sister. It is an unaccountable thing that both these great and good men should be guilty of so strange a piece of dissimulation, by which they so much exposed both their own and their wives’ reputation. But we see, 1. That very good men have sometimes been guilty of very great faults and follies. Let those therefore that stand take heed lest they fall, and those that have fallen not despair of being helped up again. 2. That there is an aptness in us to imitate even the weaknesses and infirmities of those we have a value for. We have need therefore to keep our foot, lest, while we aim to tread in the steps of good men, we sometimes tread in their by-steps.
When Isaac had been in Gerar for a long time, Abimelek, the king of the Philistines, looked down from a window and saw him caressing Rebekah (verse 8).
It should be noted that Abimelek was not a person’s name but rather a title, such as Pharaoh or Emperor.
Henry explains:
Abimelech (not the same that was in Abraham’s days, ch. 20, for this was nearly 100 years after that, but this was the common name of the Philistine kings, as Cæsar of the Roman emperors) saw Isaac more familiar and pleasant with Rebekah than he knew he would be with his sister (v. 8): he saw him sporting with her, or laughing; it is the same word with that from which Isaac had his name. He was rejoicing with the wife of his youth, Prov 5 18. It becomes those in that relation to be pleasant with one another, as those that are pleased with one another. Nowhere may a man more allow himself to be innocently merry than with his own wife and children.
Abimelek summoned Isaac, asking why he said that Rebekah was his sister when she was, in reality, his wife; Isaac replied that he was afraid he would otherwise lose his life because of her beauty (verse 9).
Henry says:
Abimelech charged him with the fraud (v. 9), showed him how frivolous his excuse was …
Abimelek must have had some sense of morality, because he asked what Isaac was trying to do to him and his men; they might have slept with Rebekah, thereby bringing guilt upon them (verse 10).
Unlike Pharaoh, who threw Abram and Sarai out of his territory, Abimelek issued a decree that anyone who harmed Isaac or Rebekah would be surely put to death (verse 11). As such, he let them stay in Gerar.
Henry posits that Abimelek must have been insulted by Isaac’s lie then showed the utmost generosity to the couple:
… to convince him how groundless and unjust his jealousy of them was, took him and his family under his particular protection, forbidding any injury to be done to him or his wife upon pain of death, v. 11.
Henry concludes with warnings about lying and sins that might appear trivial. He also mentions God’s mercy directed through unbelievers to protect His own people:
Note, 1. A lying tongue is but for a moment. Truth is the daughter of time; and, in time, it will out. 2. One sin is often the inlet to many, and therefore the beginnings of sin ought to be avoided. 3. The sins of professors shame them before those that are without. 4. God can make those that are incensed against his people, though there may be some colour of cause for it, to know that it is at their peril if they do them any hurt. See Ps 105 14, 15.
Once uncovered, a lie often produces anger in those who have been deceived. In Abraham’s case, the result was expulsion from Egypt. For Isaac, perhaps because he was not as resilient as his father, it resulted in a merciful resolution.
No one likes dishonesty.
Next week, we find out more about Isaac’s life among the Philistines.
Next time — Genesis 26:12-22
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