Isaac and Rebekah are have returned to Gerar. The men of the place came to him and asked him about his wife. He is immediately struck with fear that they might kill him to take his beautiful wife.
Si he did the first thing that came to his mind – he lied. “She is my sister” he boldly proclaimed. Of course he was found out and Abimelech looked out the window and saw his, As the KJV says, sporting with her. Abimelech immediately called him to account for his deception and he admitted what he had done.
Does the story sound familiar? It ought to, it is almost an exact replay of what Isaac's father had done. Lying, of course, is a sin that God hates. The sin goes deeper though. Abraham had passed on his doubts about God's ability to his own son. This character flaw in the man of God was continued into the next generation. Even after all that he had seen, including his near sacrifice Isaac did not really trust God completely.
They are a couple of things to note. First, we are reminded again of the practical difficulty of trusting God in every situation. It just made sense to Isaac to lie about Rebekah. He was thinking about himself, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own wife to the desires of the men of Gerar. God had to step in and use a lost man to protect Rebekah. How sad it is when the world has more regard for the things of God that God's people do.
There is another lesson here for us. In this one area at least Abraham had failed his son. Abraham's flaws had now been revealed in Isaac. Isn't it hard when we see our flaws and spiritual weaknesses reflected in our children? Teaching and training our children properly is an awesome task. May we realise just how important it is that we set the proper example and teach them, even through our mistakes and flaws. Isaac had not even seen his father's identical sin, but the character flaw was still there. There is more to living our Christian life that just us, we must consider how our walk with the Lord affects our children.
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