Family traits.

Genesis Chapter 26

Like father like son – There is almost a repeat of Chapter 20 here.

There is a famine and God tells Isaac not to head down to Egypt, instead he heads off to stay with Abimalek of the philistines. 

Again the hero of our story, Isaac this time, says that his wife is his sister so that if anybody fancies her then he would be safe. Charming!

This time Isaac gives himself away when he is observed “fondling” his wife.

Eventually Abimalek begins to get worried that Isaac is getting very rich indeed and requests that he depart the area.

God seems to have been a bit quiet the last few chapters, but he now promises to Isaac what he promised to Abraham, and Isaac finally seems to get a faith of his own and builds an alter and worships God alone.

One final thing in this chapter – Abimalek and Isaac meet again and agree a non aggression pact at a place that translates as “the well of the oath” or Beersheba which is still a large town today.

I don't know about you, but I find that Abraham and Jacob are real characters in the bible - you may not want to do into business with them, Abraham, as we have seen was quite capable of looking after himself if he needed to, and we will see in coming chapters that Jacob strikes me as the kind of guy who follows you into a revolving door but comes out first!

Isaac seems to be very passive by comparison, he just gets on with living it seems. 

Perhaps there is a moral here - God's plan uses even relatively quiet people.

Later on God tells Moses "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" so here's to the quiet people God can use to do extraordinary things.