Tag: Isaac

Wells of Living Water

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Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with dirt.
Genesis 26:15 (NASB)

One rabbinical teaching: a well is a metaphor for the heart. Abraham digging wells is an allegory of God’s living water flowing within us when one is converted by God into belief.

The Philistines filled the wells with worldliness; dirt is cursed ground.

Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.
Genesis 26:18 (NASB)

When Isaac digs the wells, he digs up the same ones that his father had already dug, and gives them the same names that his father did so the same living water could flow.

Isaac resembles Abraham, doing the work of his father so his father’s work is remembered.

Blessing in Famine

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Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And the Lord blessed him.
Genesis 26:12 (NASB)

The importance of Genesis 26:12 is only understood in the context of Genesis 26:1.

The text starts off telling us that there is a famine. But also, this blessing doesn’t happen until Isaac tells Abimelech the truth about his wife.

Through Closed Shutters

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Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:8 (NASB)

This part of Genesis is written so vaguely that it’s raises a ton of questions. Is it Abimelech’s window or Isaac’s? But also, there’s no glass windows at this time. It’s a shutter, so the act can only be visible if the shutter is open.

For this reason, some suspect that the shutter was actually CLOSED during the day, which is something you might do if you didn’t want to be seen. But a CLOSED window could have raised suspicion, and that’s actually what allowed Abimelech to learn what was going on.

Interestingly, “caressing his wife” here is the word “playing” or “mocking,” which is the same word used to describe what Ishmael was doing to Isaac when Isaac was weened. It’s also the word used to describe what Potipher’s wife accused Joseph of doing later in the text.

Better than Beautiful

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When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.”
<citeGenesis 26:7 (NASB)

One reason the rabbis suggest the men of Gerar never kidnapped Rebekah is because she wasn’t, in fact, “beautiful.”

The Hebrew word here is טוֹב (tov). It means GOOD, but is sometimes translated as beautiful.

Sarah, in Genesis 12, is יָפֶה (yafeh), which is always BEAUTIFUL.

Like Father, Like Son

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When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.”
Genesis 26:7 (NASB)

In Genesis 26, we all notice that Isaac is doing what his father did: lying about his relationship with his wife due to fear.

Abraham does it twice; both times, Sarah is taken.

Here, Isaac does it, but nobody comes and kidnaps Rebekah.

There are two proposals given for why:

1. Rebekah was not beautiful. Jacob thought so, but nobody else did; nobody wanted to kidnap her.
2. The people of Gerar remember the story of Abraham, and how God punished Abimelech for taking Sarah, so they no longer kindnap women.

Deeds of the Fathers

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There’s a rabbinical teaching that says “Ma’aseh Avot Siman LaBanim.” This translates to “The deeds of the father are a sign for the children.”

This is rooted in Abraham in Egypt, Isaac in Gerar, and (later) Jacob in Aram.

When Abraham goes to Egypt in Genesis 12, the rabbis teach that everything that happens gives us a pattern of the Exodus: it is seen as a prophetic journey, such that whatever Abraham does, so too will the children of Israel later on.

Here, Isaac goes to Gerar.

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.
Genesis 26:1-2 (NASB)

You might think that Gerar, being the land of the Philistines, points to the time of the Judges and the Kings, when Israel struggles against the Philistine kingdoms.

But the rabbis say that Isaac’s journey here is actually about the Babylonian exile.

We already saw Babylon being obscured with names like Shinar and Chaldea. It’s quite possible that Babylon is again being obscured with the name Gerar.

Tricking Isaac

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Now Isaac loved Esau because [a]he had a taste for game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 25:28 (NASB)

[a] Lit game was in his mouth.

Genesis 25:28 convinces me that Esau is a parallel to Cain, but it’s almost impossible to see this in the English.

First, the previous verse states that Esau was a “cunning hunter.” He’s crafty. Tricky. How tricky is he?

The text literally says that Isaac had “game in his mouth.” Perhaps we’re meant to see that Esau figured out that his dad loved venison, so he was constantly giving it to him to win his favor.

For Jacob, no such condition is given. He isn’t doing anything.

But furthermore, in the Hebrew, two different forms of “love” are given to us. It’s not like the Greek where we’re talking about different forms of love; instead, we have different tenses.

Isaac וַיֶּאֱהַב (vaye’ehav), or “loved” Esau. This is a past-tense word.

Rebekah אֹהֶבֶת (ovehet) Jacob. Part of the difference is the feminine pronoun (she), but the other, more critical, difference is that this is not a past-tense word. This is a present-tense word!

The text isn’t saying that Isaac loved Esau and then stopped loving him. It’s showing us that the love we’re talking about was linked to the way that Esau was winning favor.

God doesn’t look at this offering, just like with Cain. But Isaac is just a man, and can be tricked.

Isaac favored Esau because Esau knew exactly how to appease him. Esau was tricking him.

We tend to call Jacob the trickster (birthright, blessing, sheep), but I don’t know that the text supports that position.

A Spitting Image

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This is the line of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave, bore to Abraham.
Genesis 25:12 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

This is the story of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac.
Genesis 25:19 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Genesis 25:12 reinforced Ishmael’s mother’s identity. It is Hagar.

But Genesis 25:19 repeats Abraham’s role, rather than identity Sarah.

Why?

According to a teaching in the Midrash, it’s because nobody disputed Ishmael’s parents: it was Abraham and Hagar. But there were questions about whether or not Isaac was really the son of… Abimelech.

We, the readers, know the answer, but the people in the story needed to be convinced.

The sages say that a clue is in the word הוֹלִיד (holid) which we translate “sired” or “begot.” The numerical value is identical to דּוֹמֶה (domeh), which means “look alike.”

So the teaching is that when people saw Isaac, they all noted that he looked exactly like Abraham. There was no question: Abraham begot Isaac.

Always Pray

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Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and the Lord answered him, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Genesis 25:21 (NASB)

The rabbis note that the first part of Genesis 25:21 is written backwards. Normally, it would note the ailment (the barrenness), and then follow it with prayer.

But here, Isaac prays for Rebekah, and then the text lists the ailment. The teaching: prayer is primary. Always pray.

Praying with Rebekah

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Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and the Lord answered him, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Genesis 25:21 (NASB)

A notable contrast between Isaac and Abraham, as it relates to their barren wives, is that Isaac prays for Rebekah. We never saw Abraham pray for Sarah.

But even more, “on behalf of his wife” is literally “in front of his wife.”

Isaac prayed for Rebekah. Who knows? The text may be telling us that he prayed with her.