Isaac the Heir

Land, seed, wealth, blessing Gentiles

Genesis 26 appears to be flyover territory, filler between the death of Abraham and the high drama of Jacob, stuffed into the book by an editor on the premise that “We’ve got to give Isaac some airtime!”

What happens? Quite a bit, actually,. A famine. Isaac migrates to Gerar,. Yahweh appears to him. He tells everyone Rebekah is his sister. Under Abimelech’s protection, he grows rich. Philistines keep stopping up his wells.

Finally, he settles in Beersheba, where Yahweh again appears to him and Isaac builds an altar while his servants dig one final well. Abimelech comes down from Gerar with his entourage to cut covenant, sealed with a feast.

Lots of incident, but repetitive. As Jonathan Grossman points out (Jacob, 42-3), all of this already happened to Abraham: He leaves the land during a famine (Gen 12), tells rulers Sarah is his sister (Gen 12; 20), quarrels with Gerar over wells (Gen 21), and makes a treaty with Abimelech at Beersheba (Gen 21). Like a Greatest Hits of Abram chapter.

Yet Grossman suggests that “Isaac is far from a minor character,” and goes so far as to say “Abraham’s entire story is . . . but an introduction to this chapter” (43). How so?

For starters, Genesis 26 seems misplaced, intrusive. Esau and Jacob were born in the previous chapter, and their rivalry continues in chapter 27. Why not go from chapter 25 to 27? Isaac must be established as heir of the Abrahamic blessing before we read of his sons’ struggle to inherit that blessing.

Besides: It’s an exile story, multiply so. Isaac goes to Gerar (vv. 1-6), settles in Gerar (vv. 6-11), moves away into the valley of Gerar (vv. 12-22), finally goes down to Beersheba (vv. 23-33).

In the midst of Isaac’s wandering, Yahweh promises to fulfill the Abrahamic promise through Isaac (26:2-3). This isn’t a by-and-by promise, but an “announcement of its immanent fulfillment” (45). From the opening verses, we expect Isaac to take control of the land.

It happens immediately. Abraham acquires wealth as gifts from Pharaoh (12:16) and Abimelech (20:14). Isaac, though, sows and harvests (26:12), a first in the biblical record. The famine ends, and 26:13 can hardly pile up enough superlatives to describe Isaac’s wealth: He becomes great, walking and walking in greatness, until he becomes very great.

Isaac’s wealth upsets the balance of power in Gerar. Isaac says Rebekah is his sister, but Abimelech gazes through a window to see Isaac Isaacking (metzacheq) his wife (26:8).

When others gaze through windows, they see a world in transition – Sisera’s mother (Judg 5:28), Michal (2 Sam 6:16-23), Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30). All “gaze out at the imminent fall of their own royal line.”

So too Abimelech, who “looks out the window to see a different power on the rise, an alternative to his own dynasty” (52). No wonder Philistines envy Isaac and want to quash his properity.

Isaac’s sojourns, like Abraham’s, preview the exodus. Gerar is Isaac’s Goshen. Like Pharaoh, Abimelech grows alarmed at Isaac’s multiplying household, and expels him (26:16-17; Grossman, 60). Like Israel, Isaac “experiences exile and expulsion – as a result of God’s blessing!” (61).

Abimelech follows him, as Laban will later follow Jacob, as Pharaoh follows Israel. Throughout, “Isaac’s journey is parallel to Jacob’s” – theophanies at the beginning and end, Gerar like Haran, return to Beersheba like Jacob’s return and altar-building at Shechem (68, 75-77).

Isaac’s troubles seem to be over when he gets to Rehoboth (26:22). His servants again find water, and the Lord provide room.

Yet the chapter continues for another dozen verses. Three similar stories of conflict and migration, followed by a decisive fourth episode. Instead of a further quarrel, Isaac forms a covenant with Abimelech.

Isaac thus achieves precisely what Yahweh promised to Abraham: Land, seed, wealth, and blessing to the Gentiles with whom he covenants. Genesis 26 isn’t flyover territory but a summary preview of all Israel’s history and of the gospel.