Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 26-28.

I am not sure what to make of something that caught my attention in today’s passage.  First, I noticed that Isaac was caught out for lying by saying that Rebekah was his sister because Abimelek saw him caressing her through a window.  That suggests that Isaac was living in town (after all, if he was telling people Rebekah was his sister, he wouldn’t caress her unless he was at home, or, at least close to home).  Second, Rebekah had some of Esau’s clothes to give Jacob because the clothes were “in the house”.  Yet, in between, after Isaac left Gerar, the passage tells us that he pitched his tent near Beersheba.  I want to note that God appeared to Isaac there before he pitched his tent.  The way this reads the phrase “pitched his tent” seems to have a more long term implication than just setting up a tent to stay for a night or two.

I mentioned God appearing to Isaac in the last paragraph because I want to connect it to God appearing to Jacob at Bethel, where He had previously appeared to Abraham.  It is when God appears to Jacob at Bethel that Isaac is put on the list of those who belong to God.  When God begins speaking to Jacob He introduces Himself as the Lord, the God of Abraham  and the God of Isaac.  Here God promised Jacob that He would be with him wherever he went and would bring him back to this land.  Jacob then affirmed that if God did that, God would be his God.  One thing is interesting, and is easy to miss, when Jacob says this he modifies the “deal” God was offering him.  God promised that He would bring Jacob safely back to this land.  Jacob promised to make God his God, if God brought him safely back to his father’s household.  And yet ,even though Jacob put a condition on taking God as his God, he acknowledged that it would be God who gave him everything he would gain.  Jacob promised that if God brought him safely home, he would give back to God a tenth of everything which God gave him.  Jacob acknowledges here that everything he would gain would be given to him by God

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.