Sermon Notes + Quotes:
Transcript:
Well, good morning, everyone. We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel and today is no different. We are going to study through Genesis 26, and if you’d like a copy to follow along with, raise your hand, because we have plenty to pass out.
And a little word of information, I’m hobbling just a little bit this morning. Not too bad. I had a little run in with our rooster this week and he won that round. It was a nicely sprained ankle, and I’m just saying that ever since then, I’m sending him pictures of us eating like Chick-fil-A and Hattie B’s. Dude, just so you know. Anyway, all is well.
So, chapter 26, it serves as a bridge between the story of Abraham and the story of Jacob. And Isaac doesn’t get a lot of face time here in the Bible, but this is his moment. This chapter is all about Isaac and it shows God faithfully honoring His covenant to Abraham through the generations. But He is also restating this covenant and oath for Isaac’s benefit. Then, it also reveals Isaac quietly and faithfully following God through some hard times, the in-between times, the middle times that we’re calling it, in-between God’s promise, and His provision.
John Sailhammer, (who… that’s a name, isn’t it?) John Sailhammer, who wrote a commentary on Genesis, says this,
“These narratives point to the stark reality that even the fathers did not enjoy the full blessing. They too had to face adversity, but they trusted God and He blessed them amid the conflict.”
–John H. Sailhammer, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Isaac had plenty of these middle times in his life. He was 40 years old when he met and married Rebecca. And then as we read in last week’s chapter 25, she was barren for 20 years. So, he faithfully prayed for 20 long years, waiting for her to have kids, and we know that she had the twins.
And so, we’ll see kind of the same thing in this chapter, that as Isaac has to survive a famine, God does provide for him, but he still has conflict with the Pharisees. He is on the move looking for water for his animals. He just displays this quiet faithfulness and trusting in God through these middle times.
Any Olympic fans here? Anybody started watching it? Yes. So, we’re kind of big sports fans at our house and we watched the Olympics. We watched the opening ceremony the other night, and we got to talking about how this idea of the in-between the middle times might apply to Olympic athletes because they start at a very early age, faithfully training for years looking ahead to this competition. And they get here to the Olympics and the truth is, almost all these athletes go home without a medal. Very few athletes actually medal in the competition. And so, they’ve trained their whole life and kind of what has been important is how they’ve handled that in-between time.
Now, some of the athletes are going to say that winning a medal, that is the only thing that counts. But we’ve heard some interviews with some of these athletes that say actually, it is the journey that has counted for them, who they’ve become as they’ve faithfully worked out and trained day by day, week by week for all these years. And while the Olympic journey, it might have some bearing on our lives if we want to compare it to our journey of faith, I want to be really clear and say that our faith, it is not dependent on our performance or the outcome. It is not dependent on our faithfulness. It is all dependent on the faithfulness of Jesus.
So, let’s pray and then let’s read our passage.
*Father God, we are grateful for your splendid creation. Lord Jesus, we are grateful for your selfless incarnation. And Holy Spirit, we are grateful for your sanctifying inspiration. And we pray like David did, show us your ways, oh Lord. Teach us your paths, guide us in your truth and teach us, for you our God, our Savior, and our hope is in you all day long. Jesus’ name, amen. *
So, in this passage, right off the bat, you’re going to notice some similarities between this passage and chapter 20, which coincidentally I taught through, which I love. That is part of the joy, and the challenge, and the beauty of teaching through books of the Bible is we allow the text to speak for itself, as it presents itself. And so, I’m excited to get to teach on this chapter because it has some similarities, but some real differences, as we’re going to find out.
Verse 1, “Now there was a famine in the land beside the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines.”
And man, right off the bat, I love the detail the Bible gives us because the author is making sure we know that there is a distinction in these stories. It is not just a rehash of the same story; it is a different famine. Kind of like if someone is talking about a flood in Nashville and they specify and they say, “Oh no, I’m talking about that flood in March of 2021, not the flood of 2010.” There is some detail here that is letting us know what is going on. And in our context here, Isaac, being a nomad, a pilgrim living in an arid land, a famine would mean that he would have to move to find food and water or face starvation and death.
So, Isaac’s on the move, “And the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.’” And God is saying, I know there appears to be an immediate fix to this famine down in Egypt, but I’m actually calling you to stay here in this hard time, this area of difficulty. That is what I’m calling you to, and I will bless you.
Verse 3, God says, “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you, and to your offspring. I will give all these lands. And I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Man, there is so much here. God is restating the oath and covenant that he made with Abraham, and yet He is now inserting Isaac into this covenant language. “I will multiply your offspring. I will give your offspring all these lands. Through your offspring, all the nations will be blessed”. Isaac has heard this oath before, but in a very different circumstance. He was just a boy. He went on a trip with his dad up the mountaintop, they had a bundle of wood, and they get up to the top to make a sacrifice and his dad ties him to the wood and he is about to sacrifice his son when God provides the ram in the thicket. And because of Abraham’s obedience, God stated this oath that we’re hearing right here. And this is speculation, but I’ve got to think that man, that was just burned into Isaac’s psyche and in his memory.
One last cool thing about verse 5, the way God is talking about Abraham’s faith and his obedience, it is almost verbatim the way Moses speaks to Israel about serving God in Deuteronomy chapter 11. He says, “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His rules, and His commandments always.” So, we know that Abraham, he was not perfectly faithful. He was not perfectly obedient, but yet as one Bible commentator put it, and I love this, he says, “The way that verse is stated, it underlines that Abraham’s obedience to God was unreserved.” You guys, I want to love God like that. I cannot live a perfect life, but man, I want to love God without reservation. I want to love my wife and kids; I want to love you guys without reservation. And when Jesus asks us to open our hearts to Him, to open every room of the house to Him, He is not demanding that we give it to Him so He can take from us. He is inviting us to open our lives to Him without reservation so He can come into every room and every corner of our house and love us completely.
So back to verse 6, so, Isaac, short verse, “Isaac settled in Gerar, (And don’t miss this, it’s this small, small little description of Isaac being obedient to God. God had said sojourn in this land, so he did.) and when the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, [heard this before], she is my sister. For he feared to say my wife, thinking lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebecca, because she was attractive in appearance.”
Oh yeah, apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, does it? Somehow Isaac is following in Abraham’s footsteps. And guys, just in case, yet again we haven’t gotten the memo yet, don’t throw your wife under the bus. “So, when Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebecca, his wife.” There’s a cool little play on words here by the author of Genesis. Remember Isaac’s name means ‘he laughs’. And so whatever kind of affection was going on between Isaac and Rebecca, he described it by saying he was laughing with Rebecca. “So, Abimelech called Isaac and said, ‘behold she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘she is my sister?’’ And Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought lest I die because of her.’” So obviously whatever affection was going on, he knew, Abimelech knew that Rebecca was Isaac’s wife and not his sister.
And adultery, which we talked about before, adultery was a very grievous sin in the ancient near east. A man would not commit adultery with another man’s wife because it was punishable by death. However, if a man was married to a beautiful woman, who is to say he might not have some unfortunate accident and end up passing away, and there is his grieving widow who needs to be consoled. And so that is why Isaac was afraid. And lest you say, well, that never happened, three words, Uriah the Hittite. Husband of Bathsheba, whom King David committed adultery with while she was married, had a baby, and then had her husband killed in battle so he could marry the grieving widow. So, it had happened.
Verse 10, “Abimelech said, ‘What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us.’” So, Abimelech warned all the people saying, ‘Whoever touches this man, or his wife shall surely be put to death.’” And yet again, we see an unbeliever acting with integrity and honor. But I’d like to remind us that God doesn’t choose us because we’re perfect. He chooses us because He loves us.
So, verse 12, “Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year 100-fold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants so that the Philistines envied him.” So, in spite of Isaac’s consistencies and self-centeredness, he was still faithful. He stayed put and God blessed him profusely, so much so that it caused problems and conflicts with the Philistines, just like it had with his father Abraham.
And I want to make sure that I’m not equating obedience with material blessing, even though God did bless Isaac in that way. But like Tim Keller says,
“We’re not loved because we obey. We obey because we’re loved first by God.”
“Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father. And Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.’ So, Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.” And this is the first instance of Isaac making a very wise and faithful choice in how he responds to the Philistines. He could have stayed and fought. He could have argued loudly that he was no threat, but he just simply and quietly chose to leave. And he settles out in the countryside in the Valley of Gerar. And verse 18 says, “Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham, his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.”
I love that. Such a great response to this conflict with the Philistines. Isaac went out, he found the wells that his father had dug that had been filled in. He dug them up again, renamed them what his father had named them. 19, “But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsman of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsman, saying, ‘The water is ours.’ So, he called the name of the well Esek. Which means contention because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, [faithfully digging wells], and they quarreled over that also and so he called that name of that well Sitnah, which means opposition.” And it’s closely related to the Hebrew word for Satan, the opponent of our souls. Not Jesus, the lover of our souls.
Verse 22, “And Isaac, he moved from there and he dug another well and they did not quarrel over it, so he called its name Rehoboth, which means wide open spaces, saying ‘for now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.’” And I love this pattern of faithfulness that Isaac has established here in this middle time of his life. He is avoiding pointless disputes. He is going about his work, and he is persevering while this conflict has been created for him. “So, from there, he went up to Beersheba and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, your father. Fear not, for I’m with you.’” And don’t you love that this is the most often repeated negative command in the Bible? God says, “Don’t be afraid, I’m with you no matter what. No matter what comes, I’m with you.”
And he says, “I am with you, and I will bless you. I will multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” And those reassurances, those covenant reassurances, you guys, God never grows weary of reminding us how much we are loved. You cannot wear Him out asking Him that. “So, Isaac built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.” How does Isaac respond to God telling him this? He worships God. He builds an altar. His servants dig a well. He walks with God; he pitches his tent. He is putting in with God here. And you know what? The apple still doesn’t fall too far from the tree, does it? Because that’s what his dad did. That is what Abraham did. He worshiped God, he built altars. He was a pilgrim, just like Isaac is doing here.
Verse 26, “When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, (50/50 shot there on that one), his advisor, and Phicol, the commander of his army. (And remember, these are most likely titles like Mr. President, Secretary of Defense, not personal names). But Isaac said to him, ‘Why have you come to me saying that you hate me and have sent me away from you?’ And they said, this is so good, ‘We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. (And loved ones, I don’t know about you, but may God grant me the mercy to live my life so that others can say we can see plainly that the Lord has been with you.) So, Abimelech says, ‘We said let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace.’” (Okay, that is a bit of a stretch because they kind of ran him out of town, didn’t they?) But they say you are now the blessed of the Lord. “So, he made them a feast and they ate and drank. (And this was not just burgers and brats, this was a big deal. This was a celebration feast of the covenant that they had just sworn to each other.) So, in the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths, and Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.” And don’t miss this, they didn’t depart from Isaac in trepidation or anger or apprehension or fear. They departed in peace. And what patience and forbearance on Isaac’s part in all of this conflict that he could create this situation where they walked away in peace.
“So that same day, Isaac servants came, told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, ‘We have found water.’ He called it Shibah and therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.” And so, the last two verses in my opinion kind of tend to go a little better with the next chapter, but it is such a contrast to Abraham and Isaac’s faithfulness, to the way Esau just disdainfully disregards his birthright and his family and this covenant. Surely Jacob and Esau have heard of God’s promises to Abraham and to Isaac. He knows all this stuff and yet he just disregards it. “When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hitite. And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca.”
What a chapter, right? What a great brief little story into Isaac’s life and his long suffering and his obedience and his faithfulness. What can we take away from it? I think the first thing that we can take away from this is that Genesis 26 reminds us that we are created to reflect God’s image. We all have a tendency right, to imitate and to emulate others. And we have plenty of descriptors in our vocabulary that I’ve already used:
- The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
- Like father like, (son) yes.
- And like mother like, (daughter) right.
- He is a chip off the old block.
And even Jesus is referred to in this way in Hebrews. He is referred to the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Jesus is a chip off the old block too.
And Isaac displayed this tendency of following in his father’s footsteps and emulating his behavior, both out of fear when he passed off Rebecca as his sister and deceived Abimelech, but also out of faith, when during all that middle time he was faithfully worshiping God, building altars, pitching his tent, walking with God.
We emulate others. We just can’t help it. It is our human tendency. I’ve got a lot of buddies who live out in the country and if I hang out with them, I’m going to start talking like ‘y’all got to have faith’, right? But so glad to have the Getty’s back with us from Northern Ireland, but if I hang out with Keith and Kristen, I’m going to start rolling my R’s. And instead of saying, ‘Y’all got to have faith,’ I’m going to say, ‘You have to have faith,’ right?
So, this is just what we do. And some of us, we have been fortunate enough to have seen good behavior growing up in our families. And others, not so much. And yet this is what God says, this is our true identity. God says from the very beginning, “Let us make man in our own image”. That’s who we are.
Theologian Anthony Hoekema says it this way,
“The most distinctive feature of the Biblical understanding of man is the teaching that man has been created in the image of God.”
Anthony Hoekema
Boy, I love that. The most basic understanding of who we are is that we’re created in the image of God. Culture is going to tell us we’re created in our own image, whatever we choose that to be, right? And modern-day skeptics are going to tell us we’re not created in anyone’s image. We’re just a bag of bones and meat and molecules.
And yet the Bible tells us that we are fearfully, and wonderfully, and purposely made in the image of the creator of the universe. And you know, if you think about it, whether it is photography, art, music, preaching, whenever a person is honing their craft, they are always encouraged to imitate the masters. And so, the Apostle John says this in 3 John 11,
“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.”
3 John 11
The Bible is really plain here. “The one who does good is of God, the one who does evil has not seen God.” Which brings us to our second point, okay? If Genesis 26 reminds us that we’re created to reflect God’s image, it also asks us the question. It’s asking you, it’s asking me, whose reflection, whose image are we reflecting?
The first and easiest analogy is that of the moon. It has no light of its own, it reflects the sun, but it does it in such glory and splendor that countless works of art have been made in honor of the moon. But think about this. If the moon decided to usurp the sun, well, the results would be futile and laughable. There would be no result.
Author Annie Lamott puts it just like this,
“The difference between you and God is that God doesn’t think He is you.”
–Anne Lamott
No matter what we think. So, think of it like this, okay? I’m asked, this is a rhetorical question because I know the answer is yes. Anybody here besides me old enough to remember a big old disco ball? Yes. You don’t have to raise your hand, but I know some of you out are out there.
So, think about this big, mirrored ball hung over the dance floor. And at some point, during the night, DJ flips the switch, the ball starts spinning, and then a spotlight hits that mirrored disco ball and it is just glorious. These million bits of light are reflected all over the place. And think of us as the little bits of glass and Jesus is the spotlight. And when we’re reflecting his image, man, it is just resplendent. But without the spotlight, the ball is nothing. And speaking of a mirror image, here is another thought. If we’re each like a mirror and we are reflecting something, if we’re turned back in and reflecting our own broken and sinful behavior, then that mirror is going to appear kind of like a funhouse mirror that is all distorted and reflecting portions of ourselves that are just way out of proportion. But when we’re rightly oriented, reflecting Christ, the image displayed in that mirror will be good and beautiful and true. And man, it is going to shine the light of Christ to the world.
This next quote is about my favorite in the whole world. I only get to use it about once a year, but I think it’s really fitting for here. Children’s author Madeleine L’Engle, who wrote the children’s book A Wrinkle in Time, says this about our lives,
“We draw people to Christ, not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
–Madeleine L’Engle
Amen to that.
And I would say that we faithfully reflect God’s image when we’re faithfully following Him, especially in the middle times of our lives, and that is our last point. Genesis 26 reminds us that we’re created to reflect God’s image. It asks us the question, whose image are we reflecting in that mirror back to the watching world around us? And thirdly, it is encouraging us to be faithful followers.
What does it mean to be a faithful follower? Well, one definition might be ‘a faithful follower clings to a persistent belief in God, in His character and promises, despite the passage of time and circumstance’. I’m going to read that again. ‘A faithful follower clings to a persistent belief in God, in His character and His promises, despite the passage of time and circumstance’.
In all of our middle times guys, we’re encouraged to keep digging wells, to keep building altars, to keep pitching our tents. Keep digging after the living water of Jesus. Keep hungering and thirsting after God.
John Stott says it this way, it is a little bit of a lengthy quote, but it is really good.
“There’s perhaps no greater secret of progress in Christian living than in healthy, hearty spiritual appetite. Again and again, scripture addresses its promises to the hungry. ‘God satisfied him who is thirsty and the hungry He will fills with good things.’ (From Psalm 107). If we’re conscious of slow growth, is the reason that we have a jaded appetite? It is not enough to mourn over past sin. We must also hunger for future righteousness.”
–John Stott
And Paul Tripp says in Dangerous Calling,
“If you are not feeding your soul on the presence, promises, and provisions of Christ, you will ask the people, situations, and things around you to be the Messiah they can never be.”
–Paul Tripp, Dangerous Calling
And man, I’m going to say amen to that. There is only one Messiah, and we must continue to pursue Him, so we don’t try and make the things around us our Messiah.
So, my question is loved ones, are you guys, do you find yourself facing the middle time right now? Are you in the middle of praying for something that you’ve been praying for a long time and you’re waiting for an answer? It might be praying for a spouse, for a baby, for healing, for salvation, for our loved ones. I just want to encourage you that God is faithful and let’s continue to faithfully follow Him, persistently clinging to that belief that His character, His promises are true, despite the passage of time and circumstance.
I’m going to close with another Olympic story that Jim told me about yesterday. There is a great YouTube video that I would suggest watching. It is so inspiring. So, in 1992 at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, there was a British runner named, sprinter named Derek Redmond. And I believe he held the British record for the 400-meter sprint. And during the prelims, he was in first place, but then when it got to the actual finals, the actual race, you can see him in the race, he pulls his hamstring, and he just collapses on the track. And he gets up and you can just read it on his face that he is in so much pain. Well, he gets up and he’s trying to hobble around the track to finish the race, and the other guys have long since finished.
His dad, Jim, sees him up in the stands and he fights through security and comes down and comes up and gets Derek around his shoulder and props him up and starts carrying him to the finish line. And man, Derek is just collapsing with joy and sorrow and grief. And as I’m watching this video yesterday, I’m just seeing us as Derek. Faithful, yet broken and injured believers limping towards the finish line and the enemy of our souls is all along the way badgering us to get out of the race. You don’t belong here. You’re too broken, you’re too injured. You shouldn’t be here anyway. Lying to us the whole way. But then there’s the Holy Spirit, who is holding us up in fellowship and is helping get us across the finish line.
And I just want to encourage you, a faithful follower is one who we follow Jesus. We fall down, but we trust that the Holy Spirit’s going to pick us back up. And being a faithful follower means knowing that it is not our strength that is going to get us across the finish line. It is the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that is carrying us and is going to carry us from promise through the middle times to provision and across the finish line.
Amen. Let’s pray.
*Lord, we’re grateful for your word, grateful for our brother Isaac, who is so quietly faithful over such long periods of time. We trust you, Lord. We are clinging to that belief that you are good, and faithful, and true, that your promises are true, and that you are carrying us across that finish line, and that one day you are going to make all things right. We love you Lord Jesus and thank you for that. Jesus’ name, amen. *
(Edited for Reading)
