Sunday Sermonette: Bad history

Genesis 26 tells a series of largely pointless stories. This probably won't be our most entertaining Bible study lesson.

Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. ² The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. ³ Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring^[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,^{[b] 5} because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

Okay, here's some real history. As best we know the Philistines were actually seafarers from the Aegean, who fought a losing battle with Pharaoh Ramses III in around 1175 BC and ended up settling in Canaan, either on their own volition or because he sent them there. Whatever. This was about 800 years after the events described here.

Once again, God promises to make the Jews as numerous as the stars in the sky. But as we know, like most of God's prophecies, this one is still false. The Jews never became particularly numerous.

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.”

 It's like deja vu all over again!  Abraham did this twice, once to Pharaoh and once to who else but this self-same Abimelek. Each time, the result is the same. The king finds out that the purported sister is actually the wife after all, and his response is to reward the guy. Makes perfect sense. (BTW, KJV has Isaac "sporting with" Rebekah rather than caressing her. Hmm.)

¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. ¹³ The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
¹⁶ Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
¹⁷ So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. ¹⁸ Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. ²⁰ But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek,^[c] because they disputed with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.^{[d] 22} He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth,^[e] saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
²³ From there he went up to Beersheba. ²⁴ That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
²⁵ Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

The translators have reverted to calling the slaves servants, for some reason. In any event none of this could have happened because the Philistines were not there until hundreds of years later. My guess about the reason this story exists and has been compiled with the rest of Genesis is that it is intended to support a claim to the land at that later time. As we shall see, in later stories the Hebrews and the Philistines are mortal enemies. These tales of friendliness, and some bickering that gets resolved are intended to cast later, perhaps real events, in a light favorable to the writers.

1. Genesis 26:4 Or seed
2. Genesis 26:4 Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)
3. Genesis 26:20 Esek means dispute.
4. Genesis 26:21 Sitnah means opposition.
5. Genesis 26:22 Rehoboth means room.