Favorable - Genesis 26:1-14

26:1-10 - Chapter 26 is an interesting one because it’s long, 35 verses, and the IM doesn’t have anything to say about it. Living in the land of ancient Canaan, there is another famine. I always assumed that famine was just basically a constant state of being in the ancient world, especially considering that this area is considered the birth place of civilization, Mesopotamia. I guess there is a 400-600 mile difference but I assume that this is a close enough distance that the weather patterns of one area would affect the crop yield of the other. So there’s another famine and Isaac “went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.” This is a different Abimelech from before, I think the name Abimelech is more used to signify the current monarch, like is the custom in so many cultures. The land of ancient Canaan today encompasses, “the territory of the southern Levant… Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, and the southern portions of Syria and Lebanon.” Concerning this place, Hugh Nibley explains in his “Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites,” that this area “is among the most uninviting deserts on earth, though same observers think the area enjoyed a little more rainfall in antiquity than it does today, all are agreed that the change of climate has not been considerable since prehistoric times- it was at best almost as bad then as it is now.” It seems that Isaacs plan was to go down to Egypt just like his father had, but the Lord comes to him and tells him not to go to Egypt but to instead “dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee.” That must have taken so much faith for Isaac to obey God in this instance, especially considering that he had a household to care for, and risking their starvation to “obey God,” instead of going to the place where he knew food would be, that takes a lot of faith. God had made covenants with Abraham, and I can’t recall if he had made those covenants with Isaac at this point or not, but either way, God now promises to “perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father… because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Isaac stayed around the city of Gerar, and men of course started coming around asking about the beautiful woman that he had in camp with him, to which he answered, “she is my sister.” We’ve seen this before with Abraham who did it twice. The first time when God commanded Abraham to say that Sarah was his sister, I understand that because God knows what would have happened if Abraham had claimed Sarah as his wife to the Egyptians, and because God commanded Abraham to do that, God was assuming the responsibility for Sarah’s safety. That’s not to say that God wasn’t protective of Sarah the second time Abraham did it, but I don’t know, I think I’ve already talked about this, but how looking out for their own safety and instead trading the safety of their wives bothers me. If Sarah or Rebekah weren’t claimed by husbands, then they would have been fair game, and if I recall correctly, Sarah was taken into Pharaoh’s harem, so she wasn’t protected at all. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com says, “the deceitfulness is hard to explain but it does underscore the problem that both Abraham and Isaac had- that to travel amidst a famine placed the women at risk.” He goes on to say that “they obviously felt that preserving the honor of their wives was of greatest import.” I’m going to have to disagree with that, simply by the fact that this exposed the women to the men of the city who wanted to “marry” them. He does explain correctly though, “The most important thing is that God was on their side- so that their lives and their wives were preserved.” Just like before in Egypt, Abimelech realized that his people were suffering because of Isaac’s lie about his wife being his sister, and “one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brough guiltiness upon us.” This statement doesn’t make it sound like the women would have any choice in the matter if a man wants to “lien” with the women. This is suggests, again, that the lie didn’t protect the women, only the men because if consent was involved, regardless of whether or not she was a sister or spouse, if propositioned for sex, all the woman would have to do is decline, and the matter would be resolved. But this is saying, “what if a man had sex with her,” there’s no assumption of consent here, it is implied that the woman would have complied if a man demanded sex, which is rape. So maybe a more accurate statement from Abimelech would have been, “what if a man had raped her? We would have been guilty of adultery.” Note here that the sin wouldn’t have been the rape, but the raping of a married woman. 26:11-14 - Abimelech had figured out that Isaac was blessed by God, and that’s why he feared to offend him and “charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” There had to be a reason why this statement was made, otherwise, there would have been no reason to proclaim it. If there had been no threat of harm or violence toward Isaac or Rebekah then there would have been no need for the statement, but because Abimelech DID guarantee their safety by royal decree, this indicates that Isaac had been demonstrably favored by God, and therefore violence against Isaac or Rebekah was forbidden as to not offend the God who was blessing them and incur His wrath upon themselves. Indeed, God continued to bless Isaac and his household when he “sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.” I think it’s interesting that they are supposed to still be in a famine. I tried to look up what the average crop yield is in percentage so that I would know just how impressive a “hundredfold” yield would be but I can’t figure it out in the few minutes I spent looking into it. Suffice it to say that if there is a famine in the whole area and then some random dude in the desert grows an obscenely excessive amount of food, it is clear that that man is favored by God. And crop yield is an interesting indicator because there is absolutely nothing a person can do to ensure that their harvest is successful. There are so many factors that go into crop success or failure, and sure there are good farmers and techniques and bad ones, but if the various factors combine against you, there is no amount of skill or technique that will save a crop. It wasn’t just crops that Isaac was successful in, “the max waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants.” All of these aspects are coming together favorably for Isaac, and these aspects are such that they can’t be fabricated by an enterprising person, they are only favorable long term if influenced by God.