Lied Like His Father

11/10/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                 Focus:  Lied like his father, Abraham

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Genesis 26:7-11

            Message of the verse:  “7  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, for she is beautiful."  8  It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.  9  Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’"

10  Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."  11  So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

            It is not so unusual to see children do the same things that their parents do, as I have seen this in my own family in the case where there were children who seemed to act in many ways as their father did, and yet they never even knew their father.  Isaac may or may not known the lie that his father Abraham had told on two occasions, but he did the same thing by trying to protect himself at the expense of his wife, and also at the expense of the covenant that God had given to his father and is passing onto him.

            Isaac lied because it was easy, he did not depend upon the promise of God that was given to him, therefore he did not demonstrate the faith that God wants his children to have, for there are many circumstances that come up in life that make it easy to forget the promises of God and succumb to the easy way out and that can be lying, as it was in Isaac’s case.

            One interesting side note on these verses and that is that the word “caressing” used in verse eight is from the same root word as Isaac’s name, which means laughter, but I don’t think that is what Abimelech saw him doing with his wife.  Some things are better off left behind closed doors.

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  I must confess that there have been times in my Christian life when I too succumbed to telling a lie and not depended upon the promise of the Lord, but hopefully I will have learned from these mistakes and trust the promises of the Lord even thought at times it may be difficult to do so. 

The Word of God was again convicting and challenging to me as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Continue to trust in the Lord and the promises in His Word and not lean on my own understanding, but in all of my ways acknowledge Him and He has then promised to direct my path.  To trust the Lord to continue to teach me contentment.