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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Genesis 26:1-11
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.
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.
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.
And now we see perhaps the saddest thing at all. If this is a different Abimelech. Talk about like father like son. We have kings who are wise and just and upright like father like son. Unlike Isaac.
This.
Wife.
You know departing marriage jeopardizing God distrusting fool. Like father like son. What's the constant refrain when you read through? Chronicles or first and second Kings and he walked in the ways of his father and did evil in the sight of the Lord and Worshipped at the high places and bowed down to the false God and the constant refrain is he walked in the ways of his father.
He walked in the ways of his father. He walked in the ways of his father. When that's a good thing. It's something to rejoice over. Oh that Solomon would have walked in the ways of David when that's a good thing.
It's glorious. When that's a bad thing would it be a good thing speaking to fathers for you this day. If you were taken from God this day in life of your in light of your life up to now. Would it be a good or a bad thing for your children to walk in your way?
That's the question. Am I living in a way that it would be a good thing for my children to walk in my ways. Or that be something that God would have to save them from rescue them out of. What kind of habits.
What kind of routines? What kind of attitude am I presenting before them as a way to walk in? Not just the testimony of my mouth or the things that I aspire to but the lived reality which is almost always what is imitated isn't it because we all know it's.
It's not easy to imitate your father's spiritual strengths. That's hard even for a Christian. But it's all too easy. It's natural to imitate all of your father's spiritual weaknesses because fallen flesh Attracts the fallen flesh and fallen ways follow fallen ways.
And so we look at our lives and we say As I'm called to train up a child in the way they should go and I by God's grace. Trained in the way that they're going am I am I living the way that they ought to go so that I can train them In the way they ought to go or is it only a bare word, but not a lived reality that they're observing.
It's like a father that is constantly blowing steam from his ears. But he wants his children's to be patient and gentle and so he's always telling them about patience and gentleness. But he's saying why can't you be quiet?
Why can't you be gentle? You know as he's tearing up things around the house. What's gonna catch the word the instruction or the reality? Times that for any of our spiritual weaknesses and struggles. Are we living a life that's in a way our children should go so that it's a good thing.
It's a good thing if by God's grace they walk after the ways of their fathers. Abraham just like Isaac had Adam's nature just like you and I struggle with what remains of the flesh and We yield to temptations and we have to overcome.
However, we were grown up all the baggage that we carry out of our childhood out of the things that influenced and shaped us if not by Nature than by nurture if not that which is common to all by sin than that which is environmental and certainly.
We can see this fear of man that patterned Isaac's life. And we can't think that it only ever happened once in chapter 12 and once in chapter 20. We know in moments like that. It comes out in all sorts of ways in smaller ways, but nonetheless patterns that shaped Isaac's life and Here God is exposing it so that he can go to work on it.
And so perhaps Perhaps we by the Spirit of God must expose these things so that by God's grace we can go to work on them. Paul said I know that in me that is in my flesh. No good thing dwells. And so what are the ways that we're walking in.
So that we can train up our children in the way they should go and that when they get old they won't they won't depart.
From it.
It won't be some temporary adventure. In their early 20s a little like you go to BJ's, you know wholesale club a little taste. No, no. Thank you. It would actually be deep ruts and There would be conviction and consistency and an example that gives them hope.
That even when it's hard and difficult it's worth it. Did Isaac have that from his father? Well, we talked about the good and we talked about the bad and I don't want to end on a down. Speaking as a father we all need encouragement only.
Because if you're like me, it's a mix, isn't it? When I when I when I state the question Are you living in a way that your children should go that it would be a good thing if from today forward they were walking in your ways.
If you're like me you're saying it's a mix. Yes, and no. Yeah, I think I've got some fundamental things that I hope that they retain and they'll be blessed if they know these things and they. They live in the reality of them.
But man, there's so much in my life. I don't want them to walk in. I Don't want them to have my passivity. I don't want them to have my ability to be like a light switch. All right, we have to think in these ways, so what is that mixture what are the things that so easily entangle us.
And of course we. We don't have the emphasis so much here. But I mean certainly the same goes for mothers as well, doesn't it?
Rebecca shaped Jacob.
Jacob was a chip off her block. She's the deceiver in chapter 26, she's a little more crafty than he is. She kind of guides him in that way. Mother's also Raising up their children the way they should go.
They may leave your home, but they take so much of your home with them as they go. So like father like son the good God Reaffirms his promise to Isaac charges him to obey as Abraham did basically says my grace will be sufficient for you.
That's like father like son the good like father like son the bad. He has this fear of man. He completely misconstrues sin God self wife neighbor. He ruins all of it and that's like father like son the bad, but let's close with this thought.
That ultimately our hope as Christians is Like father like son in a glorious way and it comes down to this. The son speaking here of the Lord Jesus the son is like the father.
Perfectly.
We consider that back in chapter 24 didn't we. And If I had more time here this morning would be looking at John 5 John 8 John 10 John 14. The whole Gospel of John is designed to reinforce the reality that it's not the father Irrespective of the son, but rather the father revealed in the son by the son.
Jesus can even say it's not I who works But the father who is working through me. There's such a radical unity between the father and the son that when the son works. It's the father working when the father works.
It's the son working and John is meant to show that to us. We could carry that through Romans Colossians 1 through 3. All over the scriptures. We have this truth reinforced the mystery of the father and of Christ as Paul says in Colossians 2.
So the son is like the father perfectly perfectly. Like father like son could never be truer in the sense of God the father and God the son. To behold the son is to behold the father. So like are they in all of their ways and all of their being.
The son is like the father perfectly. But then we have this glorious truth as Christians. We will be like the son. Perfectly which means our great hope is That as we are like the son and the son is like the father, so we shall be like the father.
We shall have the moral perfections and holiness of God himself. So that as the son's bride we are fit to fellowship with him for eternity like the son.
Like the father like us.
That's the Christian hope that's the Christian truth remember we. We mentioned this verse last week first John 3 to beloved. We are children of God now and yet it has not been revealed what we shall be.
But we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we'll see him as he is. So when we behold the son were made like the son in the same way that the son beholding the father is like unto the father and.
Then we also were reminded in light of Esau's example of Hebrews 12 14 that we're to pursue holiness. Because without that no one will see the Lord. So first John 3 is holding out. When you see him, you're gonna be holy like he is and then Hebrews 12 is saying pursue holiness and how?
Because if you don't pursue holiness now, you're not gonna see him. You won't be made like him perfectly. Now all of this gives the the as it were the basement floor of Constant instruction about the Christian life and We we don't often get to the basement for the foundation.
We often just kind of begin with sanctification we talk about the difficulties and struggles the blessings and the trials that are all part of the Christian life and Living by faith and not by sight and that's all glorious and good, but we we've truncated what sanctification ultimately is.
We're not looking at actually the whole purpose. Which is that we would be made like the son who is like the father. Sinclair Ferguson puts us so well God's ultimate purpose. It's not that we would Walk by faith and not by sight that's not the ultimate purpose.
That's not the end. That's a means to the end. It's not that we would trust him in the midst of trial and adversity. That's that's not the end. Trusting him is not the end. That's a means to the end. Any of these things that we often use as exhortations are not the end.
Their means to the end a way to the end. What's the end? For us to be conformed to the image of the Sun. That's the end of every aspect of the Christian life. That we would be made like the Sun. Everything that God is doing in you through you for you.
Has the ultimate end that you would be like the Sun. So great work is this as Ferguson says? It demands every resource which God has throughout the universe. God ransacks the possibility of every joy and every sorrow in order to reproduce in you the character of Jesus.
I.
Love that.
Ransacks the possibility of every joy and every sorrow to make you like the Sun. So how are we gonna be made like the Sun? This is what JC Ryle says and there's really no nothing better than this. He that would be conformed to Christ image and become a Christ like man Must be constantly studying Christ himself Looking unto Jesus the author the Perfecter if we would to be conformed to Christ image if we would be Christ like.
We must make Christ the object of our constant study and that does not mean opening up the book at the desk study but also Meditating as I drive around Hiding promises and scripture in my heart reflecting and Thinking deeply upon who he is and what he's done and what he's like reading about him.
You know, there was a debate maybe a decade ago now a debate in the blogosphere as if there is such a thing and It was over the controversy about the red letters of Christ and you had what were called red letter Christians.
Which was meant to be a loophole? To get you out of having to follow the other parts of scripture that were less agreeable to the culture. So sorry I'm a red letter Christian which seemed to have this armor about it.
Like I'm only following Jesus words and That's why I don't go with Paul or all that I'm a red letter Christian now rightly as Paul might say in Romans 6 those who think such things are justly damned. Right.
All the scripture is inspired by God. All the scripture is God breathed. However, I thought the pendulum at the time swung a little too far. Because there was a way of saying we ought to only ever print our Bibles in black.
There ought to be no distinction between what the Spirit has inspired whether it's coming from Jesus within the narrative The mouth of Jesus or from anything else. It's all inspired and I applaud that.
I think that's wise. That's good. That's good. Yes. Don't allow people to make a distinction between what's inspired and what's what's called for the Christian to follow and whatnot, but The practice of the red letters has its roots in the ancient church when You you couldn't write the word cross without making a symbol with Greek letters of a cross.
You had to mark out the words of Jesus. Why?
Not.
Because they had some dual view of the inspired word. Or they had some higher level of authority to what Jesus spoke versus what the Apostle spoke. No, not at all. It was because they were making Christ the constant object of their study.
And if the creator of the universe spoke these words That was like put this in the glass case slow down. Don't just read past this this came from the lips of Jesus and So it was. It was something that they took to heart in a devotional way.
Now there's all sorts of dangers and going down that road. But when we're talking about conforming to Christ, I think there's something positive to take away from that. We use all of Scripture all of God's Word in order to understand and study Christ.
But when you make.
All of Scripture your focus so often you can get caught up in what am I supposed to be doing? What are the instructions for me? How am I gonna live out and that can become very Christ less and so I think the ancient church understood.
There's parts of Scripture that you're just meant to worship. It's meant to lead you into worship and. And those commands and instructions and exhortations and our bukes they all flow from that. But it's almost saying make sure you're studying the right thing.
If those exhortations if those commands and rebukes aren't ultimately about you conforming to Christ, you're probably misreading them. Everything is ultimately designed for our conforming to Christ and so JC Ryle can say Christ will never be found the Savior of those who know nothing of following his example.
Saving faith in real grace will always produce some conformity to the image of Jesus. There's so much Christianity around us that could not fit that description. Because it's not ultimately about conforming to Christ.
It's just about blending in at the bare minimum. It's about reaching a threshold of respectability. While while sort of splitting your legs between the comforts and pleasures of this life. What's enough to get me through at the bare minimum and JC Ryle saying real grace real faith.
It's always pressing forward with nothing less than the example of Jesus and if that's not my constant study. Then I'm I'm Misunderstanding everything that God has spoken to me one other point. This is where sanctification fits in 2nd Corinthians 3 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.
Please notice that. That's that's a modifier of what he's about to say take that out. Just take that out for a second and you read this but we all are being transformed. Into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory.
Okay, so that's the main sentence. We all are being transformed into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory. But how does this take place according to Paul? We all with unveiled face while beholding the glory of the Lord.
While beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, that's how we're being transformed. So, how does transformation begin. It begins with beholding? It begins with a study of who the Lord is in his glory in his beauty in his mercy in his righteousness in his patience and his mildness and his humility every Fruit and virtue and glory of Christ.
You behold that and that is how you are transformed. And Paul says elsewhere in Romans 8 those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son. So what's the relationship between?
Transforming and conforming both have this central idea of a mold right a form a pattern and.
And.
Conform is the idea of fitting into the mold of slowly, but surely being con formed. The con meaning with formed with. Transformed is the idea of change. You go from one substance to another. Right. Think of transubstantiation changing of the substance.
So the Christian life when we speak of sanctification, we're speaking of Transformation. We're going from a state of sin by way of repentance and faith to a state of victory over that sin and on. And on and on.
And this describes the life of sanctification trial and blessing. You know seasons of God's promises and assurances seasons of famine. This is part of the transformation of the believer. But sanctification Transformation is ultimately about confirmation.
Conformity to the image of the Sun. So sanctification has its end in conformity. And then we read in Philippians 3 21 They are wed together. This is beautiful. He will transform Our lowly body so that it may be conformed To his glorious body according to the working by which he's able to subdue all things to himself.
Brothers and sisters.
He is Transforming you so that you will be.
Conformed.
To the image of your Savior that you would be like him like the Son.
Who is like the Father?
We become like that which we behold. While we behold him. We become like him while we study him. While we study him we repent of the ways. We're not like him.
As.
Fathers we examine the ways we're not laying down a way for our children to walk in him. How do we do that? Not negatively.
We look to him.
Where is that conviction of sin going to come from? If it's not by seeing the contrast of the Savior who loved us and gave himself for us. Christ is the source of conviction in the Christian life. Part of our conformity to him is what is said of him in Hebrews.
Hebrews 1 9 he loved righteousness. He hated wickedness. Are you at a point in your Christian life where it could be said of you that you love righteousness? Not that you grit your teeth and do it not that you know that you should love it.
But that you actually love what is right? You love what is right? And the parallel to that is you hate what is wrong. You hate what's wicked you hate it. That's what Transformation is ultimately leading you to.
To conform to the image of the Savior even in this way. That you love what is righteous and you hate what is wicked. Jesus hated sin because it was sin. He didn't hate sin because of sins consequences.
He didn't hate sin because of how it exposes us or makes us stand out. He hated sin just because it was sin. He didn't love righteousness because it made us seem good because it puffed us up because it Elevated us in other people's eyes.
He loved Righteousness because it was righteous and because God was righteous. Does our mind conform to the mind of Christ? Are we aiming by the way of God's? Transformation to be like unto him to be nothing less than the image of Christ like the Father like the Son like us.
Well, let me just close with this one one exhortation one last thing because I know there's heavy exhortation here for us all and Some time ago. I read a really I think helpful book. Perhaps the best book you could ever read on holiness is JC Ryle's holiness.
It's it's roots fruits. Hindrances nature or something like that. That's a great book, but it's it's exhaustive. I didn't say exhausting. I meant exhaustive. It's it's Gives you the whole shebang. I Think a really helpful popular level book recently.
That's good reading with that is by Kevin de Young called the hole in our holiness. And I was very encouraged by something. He said he said we see Christ likeness. All right conformity to Christ. Christ likeness the calling the the end of the Christian life.
Christ likeness. We see Christ likeness as something. We're always royally screwing up All right, amen when we should see it as something we already possess but we need to grow into. That insight makes a world of difference brothers and sisters.
Christ likeness is not something that you are constantly royally screwing up and You're hanging by a thread on the edge of belonging to God's promise. Christ likeness is something that has already Begun in your life.
Because Christ by the Spirit Has laid claim to your life and he's bled and died for your life. And so you don't have a choice. You are being transformed whether you like it or not if you belong to him.
You will be conformed whether you like it or not because you belong to him.
He is faithful. He will do it.
He who has begun a good work in you will carry it through. Until the day of Jesus Christ and when that day comes and we see him will be like him like the Son.
Like his father. Let's pray. Oh father.
May we maybe Run Lord to these paths that you've laid before us these paths Lord as difficult as they may be that Transform us from one degree of glory to the next that we could be made like our Savior.
Help us to make a deep study of him Lord. Bring Conviction to our own lives when we see all the ways that we're not like him and yet never to self despair or never to a Turning away, but but rather may we always reflect on this truth that you've begun this work in our lives.
And may we use our conviction to lead us unto repentance. That we might find that strength. It might find that growth in your grace. That In being made like Jesus we would draw closer to Jesus and ever closer to him.
That our union and Communion with him would be so much sweeter than it is this morning. I Pray for those who are on the outside of this war that know nothing of these things. Might you bring them to repentance to conviction Lord.
Show them the glories of the Savior. May they cry out to him and repentance and faith unto salvation these things we ask in your son's name.
Amen.