Genesis 26:1

Isaac and Abimelech (Genesis 26:1).

As we have been informed earlier, after the death of Abraham Isaac moved to Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 25:11). When therefore famine arose in the land of Canaan he must have experienced great temptation to slip, with his tribe and cattle, across the nearby border into Egypt. But Yahweh appears to him and tells him that he must not leave the promised land.

So instead he moves to Gerar, where Abraham had prospered, knowing that there were sources of water to be found there to which he had some entitlement (Genesis 21:27). But above all the passage reveals Isaac as a man of peace. He knows that Yahweh is with him, and he is prepared to rely on Him rather than use force to obtain what he wants.

‘And there was famine in the land beside the first famine that was on the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.'

The writer knows of the extreme famine in the time of Abraham that drove him into Egypt (Genesis 12:10). Now the rains fail once more and another extreme famine arrives and this drives Isaac from where he is to Gerar. As a young man he had been acquainted with Gerar, although the Abimelech he knew then may have been an ancestor of the present one. It is probable that Abimelech was a throne name taken by all the kings who ruled over the Philistine conclave at Gerar (compare introduction to Psalms 34) which was probably a large trading post of not too great strength, as shown by the fact that they were continually wary of Abraham and Isaac.

But why did Isaac go to Gerar and not make for nearby Egypt which regularly provided sanctuary at times such as this? Egypt had jurisdiction over Palestine and recognised responsibilities towards it. The answer is now given. Had it not been for the theophany he would have done so.