Isaac and Abimelech
Isaac and Abimelech
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Now the land was struck by another famine, in addition to the famine during Abraham’s time. So Isaac went to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines in Gerar.
Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Don’t go to Egypt! Settle where I tell you. Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you because I will give all these lands to you and your offspring. I confirm the oath I swore to your father, Abraham. I will multiply your offspring like the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. Through your offspring, every nation on earth will continue to be blessed because Abraham obeyed me. He dutifully kept my commands, decrees, and teachings.”
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Not long after Abraham arrived in Canaan, a famine forced him to leave and seek refuge in Egypt.1 After Abraham died, another famine forced Isaac to leave his home in Beer Lahai Roi.2 As Isaac headed toward Egypt, he stopped in the Philistine city of Gerar. But Yahweh appeared to him, confirmed his oath to Abraham, and told Isaac to go no further.
Yahweh based his command on the promises of land and offspring.3 Gerar was inside the territory God had promised to Abraham.4 Both Abraham and Jacob spent significant parts of their lives in Egypt and Mesopotamia, but Isaac appears to have lived his whole life in the promised land.
Because of Abraham’s obedience, the blessing of the nations would come through Isaac and his offspring. Genesis 22:18 also links the blessing with Abraham’s obedience. Isaac was the recipient of a free gift that was in no way dependent on his own actions. In the same way Jesus, the embodiment of the blessing, would secure it through his obedience and offer it as a free gift. Like Isaac and his offspring, the nations are the recipients of a blessing secured through someone else’s actions.
Like Father, like Son
So Isaac lived in Gerar. When the men living there asked about his wife, he told them she was his sister. He was afraid that if he told them she was his wife, they would kill him because of how beautiful she was.
After they had lived there for some time, Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked through a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife, Rebekah. So Abimelech summoned Isaac. “Look! She’s clearly your wife! How could you claim she’s your sister?”
Isaac replied, “I was afraid I would die because of her.”
“What have you done to us! It would not have taken much for someone to sleep with your wife. Then you would have made us guilty!”
So Abimelech commanded all of his people, “Anyone who lays a finger on this man or his wife will certainly be put to death!”
Image by Peter Timmerhues from Pixabay
Isaac obeyed God’s command to stay in Gerar. But like his father before him, he tried to protect himself—by endangering his wife! He told the men of Gerar that Rebekah was his sister.5 For a third time, he who was called to be a blessing to the nations became a curse out of fear.
Isaac’s ruse lasted a while and seemed to succeed. Unlike Sarah, Rebekah was never taken from her husband. But eventually Abimelech, the king of Gerar, caught Isaac showing Rebekah affection. This Abimelech was probably not the same king that Abraham lied to over seventy-five years earlier.6 Abimelech (ʾavimelek) means “my father is king” and may have been a title, like pharaoh.
God had to intervene to save Abraham and Sarah, but Abimelech did the right thing without divine intervention.7 He rebuked Isaac for endangering both Rebekah and the people of Gerar. He pointed out that someone could have taken Rebekah, thinking her eligible for marriage. Isaac had wronged the Philistines, and Abimelech had good reason to avenge himself. But instead, he unexpectedly ordered his people to leave Isaac and Rebekah alone. Like his predecessor, this Abimelech comes out looking more righteous than God’s chosen servant.
Driven Out
Isaac planted crops in the land, and that year he reaped one hundred times as much as he sowed. Yahweh blessed him, and he grew richer and richer until he was exceedingly wealthy. Isaac had so many flocks, herds, and servants that the Philistines grew envious of him. They stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug when Abraham was alive. They filled them all with dirt. Abimelech told Isaac, “Move away from us. You have become much too powerful for us.”
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Isaac had inherited Abraham’s great wealth, and while he lived in Gerar, he grew even wealthier. The parable of the sower describes a hundredfold harvest as the highest yield of the fertile soil.8 But Isaac didn’t sowing on fertile soil. He grew crops during a drought-induced famine. His extraordinary harvest clearly evidenced God’s blessing.
Seeing Isaac prosper while they suffered made the Philistines jealous. Instead of trying to share in his blessing, they spitefully filled in all the wells Abraham had dug near Gerar. This heinous act deprived Isaac of water for his household, livestock, and crops. There is no indication that Abimelech was involved, but it seems he was powerless to stop his people. Recognizing the growing tension, he begged Isaac to leave Gerar. Isaac had unwittingly become a threat.
Isaac’s Wells
So Isaac left there and camped in the Wadi Gerar, where he settled for a while. He redug the wells dug when his father, Abraham, was alive and gave them the same names his father had. The Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died.
Isaac’s servants also dug in the wadi and found a well of spring water, but shepherds from Gerar argued with Isaac’s shepherds. “The water belongs to us!” they claimed. Isaac named the well Esek because they quarreled with him. Then they dug another well, but the Philistines also argued about that one. So he named it Sitnah.
Then Isaac moved on and dug another well, which they didn’t argue about. So he named it Rehoboth and said, “Now Yahweh has made ample room for us to flourish in this land.”
Isaac was a peaceful man who wanted to avoid conflict with the Philistines. So he acquiesced to Abimelech’s request and gradually moved back east. He started by following the Wadi Gerar. A wadi is a stream that flows during the heavy rains but is dry the rest of the year. Wadis serve as important sources of water throughout the desert areas of the Middle East, as even a dry wadi can have water underground.9
Desperate for water, Isaac’s servants reopened more of Abraham’s wells and also dug new ones. As they dug, they found a spring. A well of spring water is particularly valuable because the spring keeps the well from drying up.10 But Isaac hadn’t moved far enough away from Gerar, and the Philistines challenged his ownership of the well. So Isaac named the well Esek (“quarrel”) and moved on. Then the same thing happened again, so Isaac named that well Sitnah (“opposition”).
Finally, Isaac’s servants dug a third well, which the Philistines didn’t try to claim. Isaac named it Rehoboth (“wide open space”). Isaac gave Yahweh credit for allowing him to stay in the promised land while avoiding conflict with the Philistines. With Yahweh’s blessing, they would flourish there despite local opposition.
Reassurance
From there, [Isaac] went to Beersheba. That night, Yahweh appeared to him. “I am the God of your father, Abraham. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring for the sake of my servant Abraham.” So Isaac built an altar there and called on Yahweh’s name. He set up his camp there, and his servants started digging another well.
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Isaac continued moving east until he reached Beersheba, the place where his father had made peace with the Philistines of Gerar.11 Yahweh again appeared and spoke to him there. After his repeated conflicts with the Philistines, Isaac had good reason to be afraid. But Yahweh reiterated his promise to bless Isaac and give him an uncountable number of offspring. Because of God’s presence, Isaac had nothing to fear.
Isaac demonstrated that he believed God’s reassurance by building an altar and worshiping. He also set up camp and started digging another well. Isaac would go no farther, and he made Beersheba his home.12
A Treaty Renewed
Then Abimelech, along with Ahuzzath, his adviser, and Phicol, his military commander, traveled from Gerar to see Isaac. Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to see me? You hate me and drove me away!”
“We can clearly see that Yahweh is with you. So, please, we think there should be an oath sworn between us. We want to make a covenant with you so you will do us no harm, just as we have not laid a finger on you but have done you only good. We sent you away in peace, and now you are blessed by Yahweh.”
So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. The next morning, they rose early and swore an oath to each other. Isaac saw them off, and they left in peace.
On that same day, Isaac’s servants returned and told him they had found water in the well they were digging. Isaac named it Shibah, which is why the city is called Beersheba even today.
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Isaac’s encounter with the Philistines, like Abraham’s, ended with the creation of a peace treaty at Beersheba. When Abimelech went to see Isaac, Isaac was initially wary. The Philistines had driven him away from Gerar. Had they come to force him to move again?
Abimelech assured Isaac that his reason for coming was peaceful. He had seen the evidence of Yahweh’s blessing on Isaac and wanted to make a covenant so they could all live without fear of a potential conflict. Surprisingly, Abimelech even used the divine name, Yahweh, instead of the generic “God.”13
Given the opposition Isaac faced as he left Gerar, Abimelech’s claim that “we sent you away in peace” seems disingenuous. But like his predecessor, he was probably denying his own involvement in his people’s actions.14 He may not have even known about the two stolen wells. Regardless, Isaac accepted the offer of peace and prepared a feast to celebrate. As an affirmation of Yahweh’s blessing, Isaac’s enemies had become his friends.
On the same day the oath was sworn, Isaac’s servants returned to the camp with the news that they had again found water. Isaac named the new well Shibah (shivʿah), which means “seven.” In this way, Isaac reaffirmed the name Abraham had given the area.15 Beersheba means “well of seven.” With a water source and a peace treaty with his neighbors secured, Isaac settled in the land he was promised.
- Genesis 12:10; see Refuge from Famine.
- See Genesis 25:11.
- See The Promise of Offspring; The Promise of Land.
- Genesis 15:18.
- Genesis 12:11–13; 20:1–2; see Abram’s Lie.
- Verse 18 affirms that Abraham had died, so Isaac lived in Gerar at least seventy-five years after his father lived there.
- See Yahweh’s Intervention; Abimelech’s Dream.
- WorldAtlas, “Fluvial Landforms: What Is Wadi?,” by Amber Pariona, April 25, 2017, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/fluvial-landforms-what-is-wadi.html.
- Hamilton, Book of Genesis: Chapters 18–50, 202.
- See Abimelech’s Request.
- The family was still living at Beersheba when Jacob left for Harran. See Genesis 28:10.
- See Yahweh God.
- See Abraham’s Well.
- Genesis 21:31.