All is Well: God Appears to Isaac – Genesis 26:1-35

Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising

Genesis 26:1-35 – October 4, 2026 Sunday PM

All is Well: God Appears to Isaac

We will be looking this evening at Genesis 26. Along with the topic of the wells that dominate the chapter will be the important interaction by God to Isaac. God made a promise to Abraham and emphasized it repeatedly to him. That promise would carry forward through his son, Isaac.

In this chapter, it will be God who reveals Himself directly to Isaac and repeats this same promise.

That appearance will come in the midst of another struggle in Abraham’s family over wells. God works in the everyday, ordinary circumstances that we face. He is always at work.

As we proceed through this chapter, we will see some events that sound all too familiar. Pray.

1. Famine & Help (26:1)

26:1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

In Abraham’s time, the solution was Egypt. Now it is the Philistine king, Abimelech, whom Abraham also had had dealings at least two times.

The theme of hunger continues here, but now it is Isaac and his entire family. And so they go for help next door in Gerar. If they are living in Beer-lahai-roi (בְּאֵ֥ר לַחַ֖י רֹאִֽי), then Gerar is northeast about 40 miles. They go to their neighbors for help, north, not west. Gerar was more familiar, and so Isaac goes.

2. God Restates the Promise (26:2-6)

2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

This is the first recorded statement by God to Isaac repeating essentially the promise that He had made with Abraham. God’s promise to Abraham is that He would also carry forward His promise through Abraham’s children, including Isaac.

How old was Isaac when this happened? It’s hard to be precise. In verse 34, we see the age of Esau when he took wives – at the age of 40. So it may be safe to assume that Isaac is around 100 or less, about 25 years since Abraham has died. Isaac will live to be 180 years (35:28), so there is plenty of life ahead at this point.

It is interesting here that just before God restates the promise, he gives to Isaac a command: don’t go down to Egypt, as Abraham had done when there was a famine. He was to dwell in that particular land, which was Gerar. This was where Abraham had first interacted with Abimelech and was given land.

As we read verse 1, we see that Isaac went to Gerar, not Egypt. Whether that took place after verses 2-5 we don’t know for sure, but it may be that verse 1 summarizes what Isaac did in response to this appearance by the LORD.

It would appear then that Gerar was within the boundary of the land of promise. God repeats to Isaac His promise of blessing, land, and a multiplied family.

God reminds Isaac that his father, Abraham, was obedient to all that He had said, and by implication, that same heart of obedience should rest upon Isaac. He too should obey God’s voice, keep His charge, commandments, statutes, and laws.

Isaac received the message and verse 6 illustrates his response to the command:

6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

They did not go to Egypt for relief. And so that sets the stage.

Now we will see an all-too-familiar story that Isaac’s father experienced.

3. Like Father, Like Son (26:7-11)

7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”

Whether Isaac knew of Abraham’s lies in this same manner, we do not know, but we do know that he did the same thing here. He was afraid for his life, and so he lied about Rebekah saying she was his sister.

The flesh defaults to certain reactions, and we see that here. We see it in our own live as well.

<![if !vml]><![endif]>With Abraham and Sarah, it was a half-truth. This one was not a half-truth. You will recall from chapter 24 that Rebekah was the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Rebekah was Abraham’s grand niece. Isaac and Rebekah’s father, Bethuel, were cousins, so that would make Isaac and Rebekah 1st cousins once removed (one generation removed).

Thus, Isaac’s words to Abimelech were not even partially true. Yes, they were related, but not as a sibling. Perhaps this was his way of saying they were related, but clearly this was not a truthful statement.

Why did Isaac lie? He feared for his life.

Why do any of us lie? Because we want to make an immediate impression about something that we hope will change the circumstances. Lies are usually covering up sin or seeking to change a circumstance because of our fear.

Lies are so foolish because they usually are discovered and our embarrassment is multiplied in time. It is always best to be truthful in the present, change course, and trust the Lord for the outcome.

Isaac was afraid that her looks would attract the attention of others, thus jeopardizing his life.

Notice how this unfolds and how Isaac reveals why he lied:

8 Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”

By the way, this was not the same Abimelech that Isaac’s father, Abraham, had dealings. That was 75 years earlier, and this second generation of leaders and Isaac were encountering the same issues again. Remember the name ‘Abimelech’ is probably a title, like the word Pharaoh. (Looking at the words here, it appears that ‘Abimelech’ means ‘my father is king’)

At some point after lying to Abimelech about Rebekah, after a long while had transpired, the king sees Isaac and Rebekah interacting as a husband and wife would do, and so he questions the brother/sister story line. The language here (מְצַחֵ֔ק, caressing NKJV/NET) implies that their interaction was really the kind of thing that a only married couple would do, and perhaps not evening something they should do in public. Thus the king’s reaction was to be expected.

Isaac was caught, and so he does not try to fix the first lie with a second – something that never works very well. He admits that he too feared for his life on account of her.

10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

There was no abduction, as before, but the king was concerned that someone in Gerar could have been physical with her and thus heap upon them guilt.

I find it interesting the sensitivity of even a pagan nation to these things. In our day, it seems that there is not nearly the same level of awareness or concern about guilt. Perhaps the king was recalling their own history where God had stricken the people of the land with barrenness as a result of taking Sarah.

He continues, verse 11:

11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

Once again we see that in the end the king was not interested in causing a problem for Abraham’s son and his wife, Rebekah. This very severe edict from the king showed that Rebekah had the protection of the king, upon whose land Isaac and Rebekah and their family was living.

The penalty for even touching Isaac or Rebekah was severe: the death penalty.

4. Isaac’s Blessings (26:12-14)

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. 13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; 14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants.

Verses 12-14a describe the blessing of Abraham now upon Isaac. He too, like dad, sowed and reaped a great blessing – a hundredfold. That is amazing.

Notice it was the LORD who blessed him, hearkening back to the promise and ongoing working of God in his life.

His animals were having more animals, and his workload increased such that his staff was likely very large to handle all of his animals and crops. In our day, we would say this was a huge farm and very impressive.

Such was God’s blessing upon him that it did not go without notice. Notice the last phrase of verse 14:

So the Philistines envied him.

Remember, this territory was in Philistine territory, and so it would be his neighbors seeing this. Verse 1 says that Abimelech was king of the Philistines in Gerar.

And also notice that this blessing is set within the context of this chapter that began with a famine. Isaac is miles away from that situation now.

Envy is a horrible thing as it creates thoughts that lead to actions that are unnecessary. Without the Lord in our life helping us avoid envy, we see in this account what can happen:

5. Well Issues (26:15-22)

15 Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

Now even Abimelech gets in on the act. This response by Abimelech helps also illustrate this was not the same Abimelech that had covenanted with Abraham.

In a move that surely would be noticed, the people of the land plugged the wells that had been used since the days of Abraham. You can’t farm or live without water.

What is interesting here is that they did not seize them, as before, but they filled them with dirt rendering the well useless to anyone, including themselves. This was just dumb.

Remember, that area was named Beersheba in remembrance of those seven ewe lambs accepted by the king of Gerar as a way of recalling for the future that the well was Abraham’s. They apparently don’t dispute that; they are simply spiteful and do harm to the well.

Now the king wants Isaac to get lost because he had grown in size greater than them. He was worried about what could now happen if Isaac turned against them.

And so Isaac responds:

17 Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

And so he moves from Gerar to the Valley of Gerar. He does not go back to the family territory up north, but moves to what is known as Wadi Gerar, which is

a water course running between hills, and whose water amounts may vary from a swift-flowing and deep stream to a completely dry bed of river mud, depending on the amount of rainfall.[1]

Isaac does not protest, but simply moves. He is living there by invitation also, and so this makes sense. He moves to an area that has above ground water, but he still needs a well. And so verse 18:

18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

And wouldn’t you know, that Isaac revives the wells of Abraham that they had plugged up and revives their name according to their original names.

And so the water is back flowing, well are identified as in the days of Abraham.

19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there.

They add a new well, but …

20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.

With success also comes more trouble. Just like Abraham and Lot’s staff were quarreling, so now the herdsman of Gerar and of Isaac were not getting along. The people of Gerar were claiming that the water was theirs. And so Isaac named that well Esek, “challenge” in light of the situation.

He digs another one to avoid the problem, but they also fight about this one. And so he names it Sitnah, “opposition”.

And so on to the third one:

22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it.

Finally.

So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

Finally, a well that Isaac could use without the Philistines giving him grief. This one has a positive name, Rehoboth, meaning “open spaces” or “spaciousness” (רְחֹב֔וֹת) signaling the fact that Isaac could exist there without a problem.

Everywhere you turn in these stories is a name that tells a story, and these wells are no exception. Beer Lahai Roi, Beersheba, Rehoboth, Isaac, Abraham, Sarah, etc – all names that recall an event.

Now we hear again from the LORD:

6. The Lord Appears Again to Isaac (26:23-25)

23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

Isaac goes to Beersheba, the place where Abimelech and Abraham agreed that the well there was Abraham’s. This was a little bit south of Rehoboth. Going up is not up north, but up the terrain which was uphill.

All of these wells are so named and represent different locations where they lived. Now they move south to Beersheba, which is between Rehoboth and Beer Lahai Roi.

While there at Beersheba, we see the LORD give to Isaac another encouraging reminder that He would continue to bless him on account of His promise to Abraham. It was given to Isaac, but notice that it reached back and was for the sake of Abraham.

The shift from one generation has taken place, and now Isaac is the focus of God’s work in the world. Of all the people of the earth, God chose Abraham and his seed, which is now Isaac.

What does Isaac do in response?

25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

This wasn’t just a nice decoration to put on the front lawn. This was a symbol of worship. The altar represented the place of sacrifice which was part of worship; it was how one approached God. There Isaac called on the name of the LORD.

Isaac did here just what Abraham had done (Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 22:9). It is interesting that the last time in Genesis we have a record of an altar being built it was in Genesis 22 where that altar was for Isaac. I wonder if Isaac recalls that as he builds this altar? It was there that God had provided a lamb for the sacrifice so that they could worship before the LORD.

Here in verse 24 God’s promise to Isaac was His presence, His blessing, and a multiplied seed. In verse 3 it included these, but also mentioned the land.

All of the places that Isaac has dwelt in this chapter are in the land that God was promising to Him. And so he pitches his tent there and has another well dug. A well represents a sense of permanence, of belonging in that place for that time.

And so all is well, things are settled, and there are no problems ever again. Notice what happens, that also resembles what we heard in the narratives of Abraham:

7. Treaty with Abimelech (26:26-33)

26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

If the modern day Gerar and Beersheba are located in the same place as in biblical times, then the online maps tell me that this is a 19.1 mile trip from Gerar southeast to Beersheba. Remember, Isaac had traveled to Gerar in 26:1 because of the famine in Beer Lahai Roi, much farther south, toward Egypt. It is easy to get all these places mixed up.

Isaac had left because he was pushed out, but now Abimelech comes to Isaac and Isaac asks why? Isaac was truly unwanted because God had blessed Isaac and Abimelech felt threatened by him because Isaac’s family had become ‘much mightier than’ them (vs. 16).

And so the king approaches Isaac, but Isaac is noted here to have the first word. It is as if Isaac is somewhat hostile in his response here. Isaac questions his arrival because of the previous engagement which was not exactly pleasant.

On the one hand, we could say that Abimelech had justifiable grounds for expelling Isaac because of the way he lied to him about Rebekah.

But on the other, we could say then what we see now, that Isaac’s strength as a family and resources was by the hand of God. In fact, this is what the king seems to recognize now:

28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”

Before, they felt threatened and Abimelech’s servant plugged the wells. They sent Isaac away and continued to sabotage them with well issues. Now they see that Isaac’s blessing is from the LORD and not a threat to them, at least that is how we could see this. Or, they do see it as a continuing threat, and thus want to make this non-aggression agreement ahead of any more trouble that they could experience.

It is interesting that they seem to overstate the reality of the past. They want Isaac to agree to do them no harm, but they whitewash their own history by claiming they did no harm to Isaac and only sent them away in peace. Isaac could argue that point given the situation with the wells.

Now it is their testimony to Isaac that he is blessed of the LORD.

How ironic, as I see it. What once looked like a threat, is now something characterized as the blessing of the LORD.

They do not want any further problems, and so they wish to have this agreement with Isaac.

And so Isaac agrees:

30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

And so, as with in the days of Abraham, so now with Isaac we see an agreement made with the Philistine king with regard to Gerar. All is well. The peace process has been successful.

32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

The story line continues to center on wells. Now we see they have indeed found water in a well they dug, and so they named it Shebah. The timing here also indicates the blessing of the LORD as the water was found on that same day.

It was named Shebah for the cardinal number “seven” but also sounds like the word for “swear” which also then references the agreement made here. This is also the same name as Abraham gave, as is then noted in verse 33 in terms of not just the well but the city.

And so, in many ways, we have the repeat in Isaac’s history of the same things that Father Abraham had also faced. God was working now through the second generation, bringing him through very similar experiences and having very similar outcomes.

And so, now the text shifts for a few verses to give us an update on Esau:

8. Esau’s Wives and Conflict (26:34-35)

34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

There is not much here to tell other than a few details. Just like Isaac was married at 40, so now we see that his son, Esau, was also married at the age of 40. Isaac was now 100 years old, and we can guess that Rebekah might have been in her 80s by now.

We don’t know a whole lot more here other than the fact that Esau marries these two Hittite women and they were nothing but trouble for dad and mom. Marrying two women at the same time is trouble enough – as Abraham had experienced in some ways – but we also see that they were Hittites.

Remember, we had an entire chapter devoted to Isaac finding a wife from among family, and now we have son #1 finding a wife among the Canaanites, what Abraham strongly prohibited for Isaac.

We will say more about these last two verses as they introduce what we will examine next week in the most interesting account of Jacob’s blessing.

God’s promise continues, and what we have seen today illustrates that. Isaac is moving around quite a bit as he learns what it means for God to extend to him the promise of Abraham his father. Nothing is easy, but God works through the struggles of life and circumstances of life to bring about His purposes.

What stands out to us in chapter 26 is the revelation twice by God to Isaac. Just as God was with Abraham and would make and keep His promise, so it is with Isaac. God did not just stay silent but revealed Himself to Isaac as well, making it clear that He would continue to bless Him.