26:6,7
Isaac settled in Gerar. So in this respect he obeyed God, but this did stop him from sinning. We are all a mixture of obedience and disobedience, belief and unbelief. We should be aware of this, and we should learn from our many failures and seek to become better than we are, but we need to face up to the reality of what we are. And an act of obedience does not make us immune to sin. Like his father, Isaac told the “men of the place” that Rebekah was his sister.
26:8-11
After a long time Abimelech saw Isaac “laughing” with Rebekah (ESV). NIV has “caressing”, and RSV “fondling”. The term “laughing” does indicate some sort of intimate behaviour, and v9 makes it clear that whatever Isaac was doing , Rebekah was actually his wife. Abimelech must have thought “deja vu”. Abimelech feared that one of his men may have slept with Rebekah, and so brought the judgement of God upon them. Abimelech obviously had some fear of God, for he ordered all his men to make sure they were not to harm Isaac or Rebekah, with death being the penalty for failing to follow this order.
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