ABIMELECH (GEN.26)
And another famine struck the land, similar to the one back in Abraham’s day, so Isaac, (knowing of the royal food supplies), decided to move his family to Egypt. But he’d only travelled as far as Gerar (where ‘the Abimelek’, King of the future Philistines lived), before YAHUAH appeared to him saying, “I want you to stay in the land I have promised you here and do not go down to Egypt as your father did, for I am giving all these lands to you and your family. And I will bless you and lift up My Blood-Covenant of Deliverance with you HERE, as I did with your father Abraham before you. Your descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky and through you every nation of the earth will be abundant. I’m offering this promise to you as I did to your father, because he obeyed My voice and guarded My Instructions”
So Isaac stayed and lived in Gerar (where the dangerous pagan people had no fear or respect for YAHUAH). And after a while the men started asking about his wife Rebekah, so Isaac told them she was his `sister’, thinking to himself “My wife is gorgeous and the townsfolk will definitely kill me just to have her for themselves” (de’ja’vu!).
And one day (after they had lived there a while), ‘the Abimelek’ (King of Gerar) looked through a window and saw Isaac kissing and cuddling Rebekah and said to him, ”HEY IT’S OBVIOUS THIS WOMAN IS YOUR WIFE, SO WHY’D YOU LIE TO US AND SAY SHE’S YOUR SISTER”?
And Isaac said “Because I was afraid someone would kill me just to have her”.
And the Abimelek was angry, “WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO US? Someone could have gone and slept with your wife and brought all that guilt upon us!”
So the Abimelek commanded all his people, saying, “Anyone who lays a hand on this man or his wife will be put to death”.
Later that year Isaac planted a crop and YAHUAH blessed it, producing a huge harvest for him. And over time Isaac’s family and wealth and possessions of herds and flocks and servants grew and grew, greater and larger (as YAHUAH had promised) until even the Philistines surrounding him (the people of Gerar) were jealous and began to envy and despise him. They even began filling in all the wells of water in the land (which had been dug out by Abraham’s servants), until the Abimelek finally told Isaac to get out of the land for he was threatened by how large and powerful Isaac’s family had become.
So Isaac moved further over to the Wadi Gerar and immediately began re-digging all the wells of his father (which had been filled in after his death) and he lived there for some time, calling the wells by the same names his father Abraham had called them. But every well they seemed to dig brought more strife with the local Gerar people, who fought over the ownership of each well. Isaac dug one and they argued again, he dug another and the conflict continued. This happened over and over until Isaac’s servants finally managed to dig a well and no one complained or argued over it. So Isaac rested happily and rejoiced, knowing that YAHUAH had made room for them to live and increase on the land for the time being.
From there Isaac travelled up to Beersheba (where his father had lived) and YAHUAH appeared to him that same night saying, “I Am Yahuah, Alahim of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid for I'm with you always and will bless you and increase your family even more as I promised your father Abraham who behaved obediently and walked with Me”.
And they feasted together and swore an oath to do right by each other, and then they left in peace. On that same day Isaac’s servants told him they‘d found water again, so they called the well ‘Shiba’ (oath) and that place is still called Beersheba (“well of the oath”) to this day.
And Isaac’s son, Esau was living a rebellious lifestyle outside of his father’s Covenant, which upset his parents very much.
And after this phenomenal experience with his Creator, Isaac built a small platform out of stones (altar) to honor YAHUAH and they also dug out another well, settling down in that territory for a long time. Then ‘the Abimelek’ (King of Gerar) travelled to meet Isaac, bringing his chief commander with him, and Isaac was frustrated, “Why on earth are you here? You already kicked us all out of your land and obviously hate us, what have I done now?” And the Abimelek said “We can all see that your Alahim is with you and has blessed you in every way, so please make a Covenant-Agreement with us that you will treat us fairly and be honest with us and not do any evil to our nation and we will do the same for you. We sent you away in peace Isaac, not hatred and look, now you are blessed even more by your Alahim”.
He had no interest in the promises or instructions of YAHUAH and at forty years old, he married two local pagan (Kittite) women, Judith and Basemath, who were not from the clean `hebrew’ bloodline
(SOMETHING ABRAHAM HAD INSISTED ELIEZER NEVER DO WHEN FINDING A WIFE FOR ISAAC, BUT TO STAY WITHIN THE CLEAN BLOODLINE OF HIS RELATIVES SO THAT THE BLOOD-COVENANT COULD PASS FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION).
The translation has altered somewhat since this (1st EDITION) recording, but still easy-to-grasp :-)