God showed me something new today.

Have you heard about a story in the Bible where someone pretended that his wife was his sister in order to protect his own life as she was too beautiful? Many of you may say yes. So, who is that person?

Was it Abraham? But did I hear some say Isaac?

Actually both answers are right. Yes, it actually happened twice in the Old Testament! Fine, if you already knew that, but it was something new to me! Don’t believe me? Let’s look into the Bible:

“And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.”
- Gen 20:1-2

See it? Now remember the name of Abimelech, who was the king in Gerar and he took Sarah, probably as a concubine as she was pretty (Gen 20:11). Now lets look at another passage in the same book.

“So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 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.” ”
- Gen 26:7-8

Same story, two different people, yet so alike. There are lots of interesting things to note with these two stories.

• Isaac was Abraham’s son. Were the two men completely unrelated? On the contrary they were father and son! And many years of his father, Abraham, died, Isaac committed the exact same mistake as his father! Coincidence? Perhaps, but it could also indicate that the sins of the father were more likely to be replicated in the sons if we are not careful. God blessed them both abundantly and was real in their lives. They had beautiful wives with riches and abundance, yet they both fell into the same sin of forgetting about God and allowing their lack of faith and fears tempt them into sin.




• Abimelech was involved in both stories. I really am not sure if there is any significance to this, but it is interesting to see how Abimelech responded in both these situations. In the first case with Abraham, God revealed Himself to Abimelech in a dream warning him not to sin against Sarah. He acknowledged the presence of God with Abraham and returned Sarah to Abraham along with lots of compensation. In the second, Abimelech did not need an obvious warning from God. He was on the lookout for himself! He noticed that Isaac was intimate with Rebekah and he immediately sprang into action to clarify Isaac’s relationship with Rebekah. Subsequently, he even issued a decree that no one was to touch Rebekah. One thing for sure, Abimelech was a fast learner and he was not about to fall into the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, from the way the Bible describes Abimelech words to Isaac (Gen 26:16, 28), it seems like he never put his faith in God despite the reality of God in his life. This of course, is my guess, and if anyone knows of something more, I will be glad to learn.




• God continued to bless both Abraham and Isaac. For me, this is what’s most amazing about these two stories. Not only did God not seem to rebuke both these men for their lack of faith and fears, He continues to bless them and bless them abundantly! See Gen 20:17-18, 26:12-14 on how God continued to act on their behalf despite them being the ones sinning and not Abimelech. Isn’t that amazing? We really have a God who is overflowing with grace, that despite our failings and weaknesses, He still loves us and wants to bless us. More than that, He intervenes when we did not ask him to. This is the God that we serve.

So, what seemed to be a normal Genesis scripture reading for me revealed new truths and lessons for me. Hopefully they have also shown you new things with these two similar stories. Let’s keep reading and discovering!