Starting on New Year’s Day (well, technically, on New Year’s Ever), I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”.

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

    The passage tells us that Isaac moved into the land controlled by the Philistines during a drought after being told by God not to go to Egypt. While among the Philistines, Isaac followed a strategy which his father, Abraham, had used. He, initially told everyone that Rebekah was his sister. However, Isaac could not help himself and treated Rebekah like a wife in public and Abimelech, the king of the area, saw this. It is interesting that Isaac told the same lie about his wife which Abraham had used twice. Both Abraham and Isaac are held up as men of great faith, yet both of them felt the need to lie about their relationship with their wives out of fear of what men would do to them. Perhaps, my faith is not as weak as I fear.

    When Isaac was getting old, losing his sight, and beginning to be in poor health, he decided to bestow his blessing upon Esau. However, Rebekah conspired with Jacob to steal that blessing for Jacob. Despite his deceitful behavior, God appeared to Jacob at Bethel as he fled from his brother’s justified anger. The key message in these stories is that even with our flaws God can use us to accomplish His great things.