Like Father, Like Son

Although Abraham was a great individual of faith, on two occasions the Bible records that he was deceptive about his relationship with his wife, Sarah. Abraham would do this to avoid a foreign king killing him to take Sarah, who was a beautiful woman into their harem.

With this as a historical backdrop, it is interesting to see how Isaac, Abraham’s son, would react when faced with a similar situation. Isaac and his beautiful wife, Rebekah, were later directed by God to not go to Egypt, but to live in the land of the Philistine King, Abimelech, to survive a famine. Even though the LORD had promised Isaac that he would be safe, Isaac still caved into fear while in a foreign land.

The Bible records the following: “When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.” But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.
Immediately, Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
“Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied.” (Genesis 26:7-9; NLT).

Isaac followed in Abraham’s footsteps, even when they were missteps. This is a good reminder to me as a Dad, to make sure that I am living a good example in front of my children, because they will pick up hopefully some good qualities from me, but they will also be tempted to take on my bad habits and qualities as well.