Saturday, January 24, 2009

Genesis Chapter 26 v.1-35

I just have to quote this first line, it made me laugh:

'Now there was a famine in the land--besides the earlier famine of Abraham's time'.

Oh of course. A famine. Big surprise there.

God told him preemptively not to go to Egypt, even though he was hungry, because god had promised Abraham this land and so Isaac must stay there too.

'"Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you."' As soon as this famine is over. I promise.

So he stayed. In Gerar.

Of course, while there, people asked him about the beautiful woman living with him. And he said, oh she's my sister. (I'm starting to see a general theme going with the men in this family. . . )

But one day the king Abimelech (who had the same name as the one that struck a deal with Abraham, but the translators want us to know that it's probably his grandson) looked out a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making out. He was probably disgusted at first, until he realized he'd had the wool pulled over his eyes.

So he summoned Isaac to tell him off. What if one of the guys slept with her? What were you gonna do then? Then Abimelech made it known that no one better mess with these people because they are weird with a capital W!

After this Isaac planted some crops and they did well. He planted some more and they did even better. Isaac became very wealthy, and the Philistines around him got a bit miffed. They filled in all his wells. That's not messing with him, right? Abimelech saw the tension and told Isaac he's better move away. So Isaac moved. . . next door? He was in Gerar and he moved to the Valley of Gerar.

He began digging wells. The first two he dug the Philistines had a problem with. They wanted the water. The third well they didn't seem to care about, and Isaac was pretty happy. Wow, a well digging story. Exciting stuff.

Then when Isaac went to Beersheba the lord appeared to him saying the usual thing, I'm god, friend of your dad's blah blah blah. So Isaac built an altar there, and guess what? They dug a well.

Then Abimelech showed up, asking for a treaty. He wanted to hedge his bets, you see, because Isaac seemed to have the backing of some deity. So they ate a feast and swore an oath and everything was cool.

As an afterthought, we are told that Esau (the hairy red dude) was forty when he married Judith and Basemath, both daughters of Hittites. And that these daughters-in-law were a pain in Isaac and Rebekah's neck. How charming.

1 comment:

Ishie said...

Ow, my sides hurt. LOL.

There's a reason most Bible stories don't get made into movies.