20 – She’s My Sister 2
Genesis 26:1-11
A great famine hit the place where Isaac lived, so he realized he needed to move to another area. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Don’t go to Egypt. Stay in this land, even though you’re a foreigner here. I’ll bless you, and give you all the promises I gave to your father Abraham. Your descendants will be as hard to count as the stars. I’ll give them all of this land, and through them all the nations on earth will be blessed.”
So Isaac didn’t go to Egypt, but instead settled in the land of Abimelech, king of the Philistines. When the men there saw that Rebekah was a beautiful woman, they asked Isaac about her. He immediately became concerned for his life, thinking they would kill him because of her. So he said, “She’s my sister.”
When Isaac had been there for a while, the king looked out of his window and saw Isaac hugging and kissing Rebekah. The king sent for him and said, “This woman is your wife! Why did you tell everyone she was your sister?”
Isaac explained how he was afraid he might be killed because of her. The king said, “You’ve put all of us at risk. One of our men could have easily had sex with her. Then we all would’ve suffered because of it.”
So Abimelech sent out a warning to all his people. “If anyone harms Isaac or his wife, that person will die.”
