Genesis 26:1-5

"And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech the king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. And Jehovah appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, will I give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these lands; and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

Help from commentaries is almost non-available for this section of Genesis. What one finds generally, are the contentions of the various schools of Biblical exegetes disputing over whether these three verses or that half a verse belong to "P" or to "J" or if possibly some editor or redactor did not combine them, or if maybe some "unknown source" might account for them! Since the period of medieval history during which the wisest (?), greatest (?), and most respected religious scholars (?) on earth were disputing the profound question of how many angels can stand on the point of a needle, nothing has ever appeared in that same category of human arrogance, conceit and ignorance until the present era, hopefully now coming to an end, when men with the most impressive academic credentials are squandering their talents in useless and preposterous discussions of the "sources" of Genesis. This not only matches but exceeds the silly nonsense of that medieval fad, and we might add that the mighty scholars of that earlier period never did determine how many angels could stand on the point of a needle, nor will the present generation of their moral disciples ever succeed in isolating and identifying their library of "alleged sources." The reason for the impossibility lies in the truth that one cannot harmonize and classify the imaginations of men, either in the medieval period, or currently. Such intellectual "doodling" with the Holy Bible deserves no attention whatever, and we shall give it as little as possible.

"There was a famine in the land ..." Note that this famine, coming nearly a hundred years after the one in Abraham's day, was in the same weather pattern that meteorologists have frequently mentioned, and which even insurance companies take into consideration, "The hundred year flood plain" of a river system is definable. The same is true of drought patterns, a drought apparently having been the cause of the famine mentioned here.

"Isaac went unto Abimelech ..." Since some eighty or more years had passed since Abraham had solved a similar problem by going into Egypt, it appears that Isaac decided to do the same thing, but God intervened in a special appearance to Isaac, in which the Abrahamic covenant was repeated and reaffirmed to Isaac. Genesis 26:1, here, announced that Isaac went unto Abimelech, but that was not "on the way" to Egypt from Beersheba, and so we must understand Genesis 26:2-5 as a parenthesis explaining why Isaac went to Abimelech (Genesis 26:1) and dwelt in Gerar (Genesis 26:5). God forbade him to go to Egypt and also promised to be with him and protect him in Canaan.

"I will establish the oath ..." This is an exceedingly important passage. Here the great Abrahamic promise of the "seed" who should bless all nations of the earth was repeated, and Isaac was identified as the person through whom God's eternal purposes would continue to be unfolded.

"As the stars of heaven ..." We noted earlier that "dust of the earth," "sands of the seashore," and "stars of heaven" are all metaphors of the "seed of Abraham."

"Will I give all these lands ..." The physical Israel would indeed drive the pagan Canaanites out of Canaan and "inherit" or receive the land as a gift from God, such a thing actually happening in the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. This is the land promise.

"In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed ..." This is the promise of the Messiah and cannot be referred to anything else. It is fanciful to suppose that racial Jews, more than any other race, have "blessed all nations of the earth." See discussion of The Seed Singular and the five definite Scriptural applications of the word, as used in the Bible, under Gen.15:5; 21:14, above. In this passage also, the actual meaning that "all nations shall be blessed," rather than "bless themselves," as falsely alleged, is undeniable.

"So far as the record goes, this (in these 5 verses) is the first appearance of God to Isaac since he was on Mount Moriah."[1]

Leupold's comment with reference to the promise of Messiah here is as follows:

"That One Great Descendant is here primarily under consideration, "the Seed," the Christ. We also hold that in the light of Genesis 3:15, men like Isaac would have interpreted this word as a specific reference to One, a fact almost universally denied in our day, but yet true."[2]

"Because Abraham obeyed ..." Those who fancy that Abraham was saved by "faith only" should read this verse. God's fulfillment of his promise to Abraham was here said to have been "because," that is, as a result of, Abraham's OBEDIENCE. The sequence here is not that God saved Abraham, and then Abraham obeyed because God saved him, but that Abraham obeyed, and because he did so, God saved him and fulfilled his promise.