7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” Genesis 26:7-11
It seems to me as if I’ve already read this passage before! I did, back when Abraham was alive and well. He did the exact same thing with Sarah, and it was before Isaac and Rebekah were even born.
The human capacity for rationalization in the service of power, status, and greed is functionally infinite.
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In Isaac’s case, he tried to rationalize his actions for self-preservation.-He obviously didn’t set a good example for his children or his wife. As we saw yesterday, the cycle of sin continued.
On the flip side, King Abimelek now gave him protection to keep the line going.
Just when you think you have God figured out, that is, why and how he does things, he changes things up a bit. He of course doesn’t change but He has the ability to take control of situations for His ultimate glory, leaving a trail of “why did he do that?” questions in its wake. It’s all headed towards something, and He will get the glory. The journey getting there is downright confounding, yet interesting.