Like Father, Like Son

The Famine in Isaac’s Day and the Pattern of Abraham

Well this morning we It's nice having a booming voice. I don't know if it'll be booming for too much longer. Hopefully it lasts. I had a I do these Tutoring sessions and I had one of the students Sent me a recipe for beef tea, which is what Spurgeon used when he had a coarse throat.

Unfortunately, I didn't have four pounds of Victorian mutton or I might have tried to make it for this morning. But nevertheless. We continue in our study in the book of Genesis and this morning. We're beginning Chapter 26.

We're gonna be looking at the first 11 verses and Then I think we'll be in this chapter for maybe a few more weeks as well. There are some things to consider about them carving out a place in Gerar in verses 12 really through 33 and then I think there's something to say about the verse 34 and Marriage, and so perhaps that'll be the next few weeks.

But this morning we want to focus on verses 1 through 11. We have before us an episode in the life of Isaac. And really this is sort of the Summative episode of Isaac. We had the generations of Isaac you remember, of course that the whole book of Genesis is structured by the generations the genealogies what we call the Toledot and we've already seen the Toledot of Isaac and then we pretty quickly move on to Jacob.

However here in chapter 26 We have an episode that's really a window into the life of Isaac and it's an episode that mirrors the life of Abraham in two distinct places at the very end of chapter 12 when Abraham due to famine goes into Egypt and then at the very beginning of chapter 20 when Abraham goes to Gerar we remember when Abraham himself had received God's call and had been blessed in the land and he was building altars and Calling on the name of the Lord much in the same way that Isaac was in the land building an altar at beer lahai Roy calling on the name of the Lord and now famine has come and just like Abraham famine caused him to to leave to travel southward and For Abraham that meant going into Egypt itself and then in chapter 20 into Gerar Abraham of course had a loss of faith.

He had a loss of faith in God's ability to provide for him in the land. And so he sought provision outside of the land. He didn't depend on God's hand as it were but he depended upon Pharaoh's end. He didn't depend on the God who made the heavens and the earth who causes the fields to produce.

But rather he trusted in the Nile and the Egyptian storehouses and in the system of a fallen world. The problem was not lack of bread. The problem was not the famine itself. The problem was a lack of trust in God's ability to provide to walk by faith and not by sight not by anxiety.

Not by the pinch of desperation. Because man does not live by bread alone. But as Jesus himself experienced in a desolate place Man lives by the very mouth of God every word that proceeds from it. Abraham of course through these trials had learned how to trust God and When the times were less demanding he showed that trust as he walked in God's blessing.

But in the course of his life when the greatest demand imaginable came upon him Abraham's faith triumphed. And he tied this man as a young lad Isaac.

Upon Mount Moriah and.

Isaac witnessed His father's faith when only the angel could stop him from being sacrificed. And so Isaac has had this testimony in front of him a testimony of a man whose walk was often fickle. Who faltered in many ways and yet was rescued by God's grace and actually rewarded.

He was given blessing even as a result of his failure. And Isaac had this testimony as well of a father who was faithful a father who obeyed God and submitted himself to do the things that.

Are.

Unimaginable to our human mind to be willing to sacrifice a child that was so long-sought and so So aggressively prayed for and so dearly loved. And so Abraham had learned in his own way that God would provide remember that was the great Revelation upon Mount Moriah father.

Where is the sacrifice? Where is the sacrifice the Lord will provide? Now Isaac is in the same place. For the same reasons he's being tested so that the Lord can bring his life To this crowning moment of faith so the Lord can help him to grow in his grace.

So that the Lord can bless him and establish him securely in the land. And so as the saying goes like father like son and that's really our focus in these 11 verses this morning. Like father like son and there's a good and a bad To like father and like son and so we're gonna begin with the good before we look at the bad.

God Reaffirms the Abrahamic Covenant to Isaac

Like father like son the good and this is beginning in verse 1 there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.

Then the Lord appeared to him and said do not go down to Egypt live in the land of which I shall tell you Dwell in this land and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and your descendants I give all these lands and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

We read that there was a famine in the land and then we have this sort of editorial comment. Besides the famine the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Now critical scholars think that the account we have here in Genesis 26 is a doublet if not a triplet.

There was ever only one original episode and most critical scholars think this is the original account. It actually happened to Isaac and then was read back into the narrative of Abraham. Of course We're not critical of Scripture.

We take it as it comes to us inspired by the Spirit of God. And so we don't see this as a literary doublet. We see this as an account that bears out human experience.

The father.

Eats sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. It's interesting that we have this little comment. It's almost anticipating the skeptics that would come, you know over 20 centuries later. There was a famine in the land besides the first famine that happened with Abraham.

It's like yeah, we know this is going to parallel everything. That's part of the whole point of providing this within the narrative of Isaac's life. And so we have this little comment. This famine is not the same famine as in the days of Abraham.

But it's just like the famine as far as Isaac is concerned. We said last week. There's this laser beam of hope. The only place in the entire world where God's redemptive Activity can be found is in this laser beam.

That's running through the great promise of Genesis 3 15. The promise that there will be a seed of promise that will crush the serpents skull. In other words Undo the fall and redeem what has been fallen.

And that that promise like a laser beam is running down through the tent of Shem. Down through Abram down through Isaac unto Jacob and beyond. This is the only place in the entire fallen world where God is at work actively Bringing this promise to fulfillment and so here it begins to sprout.

When we get toward David, perhaps it begins to flower. But of course, we don't come to its fullness until the son of David David's Lord is born. By sheer grace God has called Abraham and Isaac into this great promise into this great work of redemption by his grace.

They are progenitors of the fulfillment that is coming in Christ. And yet Abraham Isaac and Jacob all experienced difficulty in their lives and Sometimes the difficulty runs exactly contrary to the promise that God has established.

What land is he called them to a land of great blessing what becomes as it were the land flowing with milk and honey.

What a picture that is.

I mean when I was growing up as a boy and I'd hear that phrase on a Sunday morning or I'd my parents would tell Me of a verse that had that phrase in it. You're trying to picture that like I don't know if I'd want to.

Wouldn't that milk spoil you like rivers of milk? That would probably stink after like a week and then like honey flowing. It's like sticky everywhere. So, what do you mean a land flowing with milk and honey?

Do you mean a land full of cows and bees nests? What are we talking about? The whole point is it's it's a land of such plenty that even the most precious things things like milk and honey. They flow that the resources are so vast that the most precious items just flow like rivers throughout the land and.

Yet, what do they have? Famine dryness. Dead crops starving cattle.

A.

Plight of hunger and real need. It's not like at the first sign of a brown blade of grass. They're running down to Egypt. They're trying to live by faith, but the famines not turning the rains aren't coming.

He's in the Negev. He's in the dry South. Not only do we see famine in a land that's supposed to be a land of plenty and blessing but the promise that they will be fathers of many nations of of Descendants that will rival the sand on the seashore the stars in the cosmos and yet Every one of the patriarchs wives experiences barrenness for decades.

And so God's promise seems to run counter to lived experience. And so often in the Christian life God's promise seems to run counter to Christian experience and This means we have to walk by faith. We have to depend upon the word and not our ability as the Lord himself showed us.

Does he not have the ability to turn stones to bread? Of course he does. But that's not the father's will and he walks by faith not by sight. This tells us something about the Christian life, doesn't it?

That where God's saving activity is at work. Often does not have the outward appearance of saving activity. This doesn't look like God's blessing to a lot of people. Looks like a lot of suffering and hardship.

Irritation a life that's more difficult. It's not a path of ease. And yet this is where God's saving activity rests. We read Isaac goes to a be Malek king of the Philistines and Gerar the last time we read of Isaac's location he was dwelling in the Negev in the south and he was worshiping the Lord and He was at this well beer lahai Roy this place where God saw helpless Hagar.

AW pink he said so well in his commentary gleanings from Genesis. He says we've just looked at Isaac by the well of lahai Roy. Did he remain there? What do you suppose is the answer? Could you not supply it from your own experience?

Isaac's departure from lahai Roy to Gerar typifies the failure of the believer to maintain his standing in the presence of God and his Enjoyment in the divine fellowship. Do you see what pink is connecting?

When he was at this well, he was calling on the name of the Lord and he was enjoying this fellowship with God. But when he leaves that well, he experiences famine. It's as if he's figuratively leaving the fellowship of God leaving the worship of God and now he's vulnerable to the way of flesh.

But Isaac was not planning just to go to Gerar. It seems that he's planning to go even further south into Egypt. We read therefore in verse 2 and 3 then the Lord appeared to him and said do not go down to Egypt.

Live in the land of which I shall tell you. Gerar is within the promised land. It's at the very border of it, but it's within the promised land dwell in this land. Now notice that God is dealing differently with Isaac here.

Abraham did not get the divine warning not to go into Egypt. What are you doing? Where are you going? Stay right here. We don't read of God appearing to Abraham and warning him not to go into Egypt. This was something that Abraham had to learn the hard way by experience, but God here spares Isaac.

This is theophanic language. God appeared to him. We don't know in what form but this is the language of theophany. God appeared to him and said do not go down into Egypt. That appearance is meant to bolster his faith.

Yes.

There's a famine. Yes, it seems like everything's unraveling. But here I am. I'm still here. My promise is still sure you can depend upon me. And so this presence this appearance of God is not just about the warning.

But it's also about building his faith to stay in Gerar independence upon the Lord. When it came to Abraham God did not appear to warn him and so he marched right down into Egypt. But after his great failure God blessed him and brought him out here.

Isaac faces the same problem, but God appears to him and Then God blesses him as we'll see toward the end of this chapter and he brings him out of Gerar. And we could even contrast this with Jacob when or even Joseph when Joseph faces famine God tells him go down into Egypt and Then God blesses him and brings him out.

God does not make in other words cookie cutter trials. He's a personal God and he deals with us according to his personal reasons his personal purpose. Whatever place we have as unique individuals in the larger purpose of God that is how he deals with us.

For some of us that means do not go into Egypt. For others that means go into Egypt. As We see just across these patriarchs the trials vary. Don't we read that in James 1? Rejoice as you face various trials trials of many kind.

And so we can even see with the patriarchs that God is using hands of blessing and hands of trial. To mold his people. He's bringing blessing and he's taking away. Using his right or his left hand so to speak all toward molding us to grow in grace.

And so when God warns Isaac not to go to Egypt We're reminded that that is a warning for Isaac's own benefit. Now there's still trial coming and there's still grace that God's going to reap into his life but God as as it were sparing Isaac what he chose not to spare Abraham and That's the experience for many Christians.

God may so move in my life that he's sparing me from something that my brother has to endure or vice versa and We all depend upon the same hands that are molding us and shaping us for his own purpose.

It was a sorrowful lesson that Abraham had to learn and Isaac's going to learn it, too. It might not be in Egypt. It's going to be in Gerard. And we can see that God's not going to allow Isaac to go into Egypt perhaps because Isaac would have more readily backslid.

Even with this warning, however, God is testing the faith of Isaac. We can see the principle laid out in 1st Corinthians 10 that God never brings us more than we can bear. With temptation there's this way of escape.

Most Christians I've met can never truly identify the way of escape. It's rare, which means we rarely look for it. Which means we rarely experience the truth of that promise. I could probably count on both hands how many times I could Consciously recognize God was giving me a way of escape and identifying it.

But the truth is if I were aware of the spiritual reality at every moment.

I would see a way of escape that God had provided.

Some promise from his word some ability to reach out to a brother to be strengthened or sharpened or even reviewed. God is faithful and It seems that perhaps this would be too much for Isaac to bear. Perhaps we could say Abraham had a little more faith than his son.

And so God allowed him to go into the lion's den. That's where he was gonna do his heavy lifting his heavy chiseling in Abraham's life. But for Isaac Gerrard was sufficient. He's in the land. God knew what Isaac could stand.

God knows how much we can stand. He's faithful and he's personal. When times of famine come whether physically spiritually both. Often both often the physical is connected to the spiritual right the spiritual has greater weight.

It's of greater effect than what is physical and yet these two are interwoven as much as our bodies and souls are interwoven. We are body and soul trials are physical and spiritual. We can expect that God is doing his pruning work in order to make us more fruitful as is his design.

If his design is for Isaac to walk by faith and not by sight in regard to the promised land. But not only does he bar him from going into Egypt. But he also allows him to dwell in Gerrard in a way that he's going to be tested and throughout the rest of the chapter We see all sorts of testing that is coming Isaac's way with quarrels and a famine and hostility.

But God is cutting away his habits his sinful attitude his self-reliance his fear of man like father like son. The promised land isn't look so promising and that's why Isaac's on the verge of leaving it.

And so look at what God promises beginning in verse 3. When this land and I will be with you and bless you for to you and to your descendants I give all of these lands and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father and I will make your descendants Multiply as the stars of heaven.

I will give to your descendants all these lands and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Now that sounds familiar to us, too, doesn't it? This is the great promise That God first announced in Genesis 12 and then reiterated between chapters 15 and 17.

This is a formal repetition of the Abrahamic Covenant. It's not a new covenant. There's only one Covenant that God makes with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But this is as it were.

The.

Reallotment of what God had promised to Abraham on to Isaac. He's now transferring the terms of his covenant over to the Sun over to Isaac. And so we have a land and we have a nation right the descendants multiplying like the stars of heaven and a blessing a Blessing to the nation's.

The covenant is going from Abraham to Isaac the covenant that God makes like father like son and God just like we saw in Genesis 17 is the primary actor. I will I will I will is Again rehearsed throughout the whole passage.

The blessing is from God through Abraham unto Isaac. Like Abraham had received from God so like Isaac shall receive from God. It's reinforcing his legitimacy of the as the heir of the Covenant like father like son.

But then notice what happens in verse 5 there's there's something new an addendum an appendix a parenthetical note that's added to this reinforcement this repetition of the Abrahamic Covenant. In verse 5 we have a real positive Reminder, and I think it's a reminder that becomes a charge an exhortation to Isaac.

Look at verse 5 because So I will I will I will write land nation a blessing to the nation's because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes my laws. Now why does God include this here?

Well, the first thing to note is that God is Connecting this Abrahamic promise that's being transferred to Isaac to the obedience of Abraham's faith.

He's saying.

Not that it's. Not that it's somehow Synergistic it's somehow co-equal with God's Prerogative God's grace that goes against the whole structure of what God is saying. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this.

But it is as it were this little footnote to say. The reason that I'm continuing is not only because of the grace that causes me to promise these things I'll bring about but my grace that worked obedience into your father's life and that same grace is The reason that I can give this promise to you and that grace will bring about that same obedience in your life.

And so it's a reminder that becomes a charge as Isaac is dwelling in the midst of famine. God is in this way reminding him your father obeyed my voice Isaac. Obey my voice. Your father kept my charge not perfectly not consistently.

But ultimately in the trajectory of his life He kept my charge. We read Genesis and we zoom in on the consistent failures of Abraham. But at the end of Abraham's life as his life is being recounted to Isaac by way of the promise.

How does God summarize his life? Verse 5. Is that how you would summarize the Abraham that we've read about in chapters 12 and chapters 20. But this is how God summarizes Abraham's life. He obeyed my voice.

Kept my charge. He was more than my servant. He was my friend. This is a picture of God's grace of course. God's blessing upon Abraham was a promise of grace and So in a way God is saying to Isaac the same grace that I had toward your father.

I have towards you Isaac. Your father was obedient to me be obedient to me walk in my grace. In Abraham the Lord cultivated a genuine obedience stemming from his faith. And all of this is foreshadowing What God says of Israel what God calls Israel to be in Deuteronomy 11 there to keep his charge his statutes his testimony his law and So God had written on Abraham's heart that which Israel was called to perform and God was here undertaking to write on Isaac's heart that which Israel was called to perform and in this way Abraham becomes the precursor to Us as members of a new covenant of God's grace as Hebrews 8 says the law being written on our hearts.

So that it can be summarized of you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus after a life of inconsistent obedience and failures and Fear of man and distrust of the Lord that the trajectory of our life could be summarized.

Well done good and faithful servant. Well done friend of God. Well done heir co-heir of Jesus. So Isaac here in a very good way is fulfilling What God has promised? Like father like son. However, there's also a negative If that's the positive there's something negative here.

Isaac’s Fear of Man and the Sister Lie

So if that's like father like son in a good way, this is like father like son in a bad way beginning in verse 7. The men of the place asked about his wife and he said she's my sister. For he was afraid to say she's my wife because he thought let's the men of the place kill me for Rebecca.

Because she is beautiful to behold.

The parallel goes from positive to negative. Real quick. He's had this theophanic presence of God. He's had God's promise reaffirmed with him and God's charge for him to obey the voice of the Lord. But after a period of time and there is some period of time.

This is not the next day because we read in verse 6. He dwelt in Gerar and that's different than a temporary stay. The verb there means after a long while. And we get that sense from verse 8 that he'd been there sometime.

He begins to have this fear of man. Gone is the memory of God's Reaffirmation of the promise. God is God's is the memory of God's presence. The present reality is the fear of man. Do you know what they could do to me?

Do you know what they will do to me? He becomes a false prophet just like his father like father like son. Verse 8. It came to pass when he had been there a long time that a beemalek king of the Philistines looked through a window and Saw there was Isaac showing endearment to Rebecca his wife.

Now as.

We're tracking chronologically. We're going. Okay. We've got a beemalek. Is this is this the a beemalek of chapter 20? I Mean what other a beemalek king of Gerar is there, right? The ruler of Gerar is called a beemalek.

Now. There's some you know, this is something that I haven't quite settled yet. There's a lot of scholars both conservative and liberal alike who would argue that a beemalek is not so much a personal name as a title and even if it's not a title it would mean a beemalek father of kings a Father of a king and so it could be a title the way that the Philistines often spoke of their kings.

Or it could actually be a dynastic name like a beemalek the first second third fourth kind of like the English monarchs They love Edward. They love George, etc.

So.

That's one view that this is actually a different a beemalek because the time span is is so far from Genesis chapter 20 to Genesis chapter 26 but then you read later in the chapter and you also have Ficol the commander and That's reminding us of chapter 20.

And so to view it as dynastic names or titles becomes perhaps less convincing. Now what we may have then in chapter 26 is an example of a literary technique that we call anachrony. Or sometimes you'd have it called chronological displacement and the idea is that we're not reading a chronological account when we begin a new section of Toledot that often we begin with a Generation and then we're kind of going back a little bit.

We're starting earlier and that may be the case. It may be that chapter 26 is actually taking place before the events that we read in part in chapter 25 and that's due again to the Toledot structure. One thing that this helps with is understanding how Isaac and Rebecca Could go so long as brother and sister when they have two boys.

Two sons dwelling with them and so Bruce Waltke is an example said had Isaac and Rebecca already had children it would have been very obvious to the Philistines that they were married and Isaac would never have attempted the deception that he did and As we keep reading and again, I don't know I don't know that I'm fully convinced of this but it's plausible as we keep reading the details certainly sound like newlyweds.

Look at verse 9 or verse 8 Isaac is showing endearment to Rebecca his wife. Now what is endearment? There's sort of a euphemism here in the Hebrew. The the King James Version says he was sporting with his wife.

I Don't know what sporting with your wife means what that looks like. I don't know if I've ever sported with Alisha. Perhaps I have the the New American the Nazby says caressing that's getting closer to the euphemism.

It was something that was obvious. This was not brotherly affection. This was this was marital affection if you kind of get the gist of where we're going but then there's wordplay going on here the Hebrew word for sporting caressing endearment is.

Sakhak.

You got a hit when you say it and that's a play on Yitzhak Isaac and It's in the PL which is an intensive stem. And so the whole idea is. This is why the King James says sport. It's like mock. It's an intense form so if Isaac means laughter right.

God has made me laugh. Yitzhak means has made me laugh. Then Sakhak means like mock jest and it's a euphemism. Apparently this can also have a connotation of marital intimacy. But the point is that his deception is this open mockery?

It's a mockery of who he is. It's a mockery of What he is in light of God's promise and so the one who's meant to be laughter as a Testimony of God's grace to his parents is a mockery of God's grace. He's a deceiver and he's he's afraid of man.

And that seems to be part of the point here. But notice that marital intimacy. They've been there for a while and it's not like he gets home. You know, hey Beck, I'm home sitting on the couch put on the TV, you know, we never talk anymore.

I can't eat, you know, I've had a busy day. So you don't get that picture here at all even months and years on perhaps. There's this endearment. There's this kind of romance between them that is gone as we keep reading by the way.

What happens in the very next chapter? Rebecca is so distant from Isaac that she's willing to deceive him. She's more close to her son Jacob and it seems like Isaac's in his own world there's there's not this intimacy that we detect here in chapter 26 and Then we think if this is perhaps something that happened toward the beginning of their marriage.

Could this sin could this betrayal of Rebecca could this experience be one of the things that soured their relationship? It could be a way that a husband and wife ought to be is sporting with each other.

Showing endearment having tokens of affection. This this is actually something positive about Isaac. You know, at least he's got something going on here. That's godly. He's close to his wife and he can't hide it.

Even when he's supposed to. He'd make a lousy spy. So a beam like catches them and notice what he says in verse 9 quite. Obviously, she's your wife like come on bow. Let's play it straight quite obviously that if that helps us with sporting quite obviously, she's your wife.

Isaac thought that this deception could be hidden. He thought this lie could be maintained until they were ready to go back, but it was quite obvious. And that's how sin is isn't it? Sin is always something that we think can be hidden and maintained.

And we don't realize that to those who are walking with the Lord to those who are granted spiritual discernment.

It's quite obvious. I.

Was speaking with one of Alicia's uncles at a at a Christmas Eve get-together and I I know things about this man's life. I Know where he's been and the things that he struggled with and I know that he's not in any real way walking with the Lord.

But he spent the entire night trying to boast and all the things that he does. As if I was somehow deluded like wow, this guy, you know, he's just got it all together. This is like a good guy and the whole time I'm thinking it is quite obvious.

It is quite obvious that you are not walking with the Lord. It's obvious and yet sin is so deceptive the deceiver deceives himself. Like father like son. Isaac has here failed to learn from his father's example.

He tells the locals that Rebecca is his sister. He thinks like Abraham thought surely there's no fear of God in this place. But there is a fear of God in this place and you see another consequence of sin.

Sin is so inherently deceptive that you get the wrong view of Everything when you're living in sin. It's not that he has most things right and he's just off with the Philistines. He's got a right understanding of God a right understanding of himself a right understanding Toward his wife and it's just the Philistines, you know, because he's afraid of them.

When you're living in sin, all of those relationships are wrong. You have a wrong view of sin and for that reason you automatically have a wrong view of God. You're living in sin you're living as if God is not a judge who does right.

You're living as as if God has not shown You mercy unto repentance. When you're living in sin, you have a wrong view of God. And for that reason you have a wrong view of yourself. I'm okay. I'm in control.

This won't go any farther. This is just for a little bit longer and then I can undo all the damage. So wrong view of sin wrong view of God wrong view of self wrong view of your wife. Now you're throwing her to the wolves as it were your main you're bringing her into your sin of deception making her culpable ruining your ability to actually be a husband as God wants you to be a protector and Then you're also having a wrong view of your neighbors.

So this is this is the effect of sin. You don't get a right view in any relationship with sin it skews it all. But notice who's not skewed it's interesting, isn't it? Just like Abraham like father like son a Beamelech actually has a moral compass.

He has a right view here. Look at verse 10. What is this you've done to us? It's like what what in the world are you doing? Why would you do this? One of the people might have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt on us.

And so verse 11 Abimelech charged all of his people. He who touches this man or his wife will be put to death. When you read that you think. If only he had gone from the beginning and said I'm Isaac. This is my wife Rebecca.

There's a famine in our land. May we sojourn here among you? We serve the Living God on high and Abimelech this man who's more just than the child of promise says if any of my subjects touch her. He's a dead man.

And so Abimelech understands guilt and sin better than Isaac in chapter 26. And that's a shame. That's a shame. He has some understanding that to profane a man's wife brings guilt on my kingdom. It brings guilt on my land.

I'm inviting judgment upon myself. If I am in any way enabling this man to be wronged this marriage to be taken advantage of. He's more moral than Isaac. He has a better sense of what's right and what's wrong than Isaac.

And so the whole time like Abraham Isaac's worried. There's no fear of God in this place when he's the one that doesn't have the fear of God. Abimelech has the fear of God. Is there anything more sad in the world when a child of God is more aloof to sin?

More complicit and guilt than some unbeliever. That is one of the most tragic things that ever could be. Abimelech has respect for marriage that Isaac doesn't have. Isaac thought he was protecting his marriage.

He wasn't at all. He was jeopardizing his marriage. Abimelech doesn't have the Bible. He doesn't have the altar. He doesn't have the theophanic presence of God. And yet somehow he's more righteous than Isaac in this episode.

Why he has a conscience from the light of God's Word as it's written on his heart. Not to do it in the Hebrews 8 sense, but to be accountable to it in the Romans 2 sense. In Romans 2 15 Paul describes that God has written on Gentile hearts the law.

It's we didn't have access to it. Outwardly. We're still held to account. Why. Because it's written inwardly and for Abimelech. That inwardly written law is ringing alarm bells in his conscience the Philistines were a godless people a godless culture depraved the enemies of God.

And you know.

Abimelech here. He has more of a conscience and more uprightness than most modern Americans. He has a higher view of marriage than your average American. So if this is a godless Philistine then what are we.