Like father, like son — Scripture Reflection #074

Genesis 26:7 (New Living Translation)

7 When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.”

Here, we see Isaac make the same mistakes as his father, Abraham, when confronted with a scary situation. In what appears to be a perfect reflection of his daddy’s circumstances, Isaac misses the lesson and follows exactly in his father’s footsteps; like father, like son. When a famine hits the land at separate times, each patriarch has to move elsewhere to find food to sustain their large houses and great flocks. When Abraham (then Abram) arrives in Egypt, he lies to the Pharaoh that his wife, Sarai, is his sister so that Pharaoh will not kill him to take his wife (Genesis 12:10–20). Pharaoh eventually finds out, only when God sends terrible plagues upon him and his household. Pharaoh proceeds to kick Abram out, where he then repeats this deception with King Abimelech years later (Genesis 20). Decades (and no lessons learned) later, we see Abraham’s son, Isaac, try the same trick as his father to protect himself. And here’s the kicker: he tried doing it to one of the same people his daddy did it to, King Abimelech. 

While the lies and deception were obviously wrong, the root of the issue was their lack of trust in God when a potentially scary situation arose. Now, these men were known for their great faith in God and His awesome promises, but they were found lacking in smaller matters, like their everyday protection. Our trust in God cannot only be for the big, groundbreaking promises or for just the smaller things of life. Our trust in Him must be all-encompassing. It has to fill our lives completely, so that no matter the circumstance, we choose His way over our own.