The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 26:1-7,
“Now there was a famine in the land—besides the earlier famine of Abraham's time—and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.’ So Isaac stayed in Gerar. When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ because he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.’”
The writer of Hebrews lists Isaac as a man of faith, Hebrews 11:20. The Lord tells Isaac to stay in Canaan during a severe famine and Isaac does so. As the Lord tells him he also reiterates the promises he had made to his father Abraham that have now been passed down to him.
So, what does this man of faith look like? Just like his father! Although he has the promises of God and although he is faithful to the Lord in many ways, just like his father, he resorts to his own deceitfulness in lying about his beautiful wife! How fascinating! This man of faith who chooses to follow God in the face of severe famine (and who knows what all in his life) still demonstrates shortcoming by lying about his wife!
Here we see what the Lord holds up as examples of men of faith for us. Men of faith they were, certainly, but men with shortcomings. How relieving it is to know that the Lord does not hold up men of perfection as a demonstration of what a man of faith looks like. If perfection is what demonstrates faith then our salvation by faith would necessarily be salvation by works. There is a world of difference between faith being evidenced by what we do and choices we make versus faith resulting in a life of perfection.
Perfection waits for us on the other side of the resurrection. Until then, like Abraham and Isaac, we who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith have our shortcomings. As Paul told the churches of Galatia, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Galatians 4:28. Children of promise are not perfect and how glad I am this is demonstrated by the lives of the patriarchs. Otherwise, what hope would I have?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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