Genesis 26

Verses 1-5, "There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the Lord appeared to him and said: 'Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.' ”  Isaac would walk through the some of the same trials that his father did, heading to Egypt during a famine, following the same road.  He even encountered another Abimelech.  Genesis 20:1-2, "And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 'She is my sister.' And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah."  The Lord interrupted his trip and told him not to go to Egypt, reconfirming the covenant that He had made with Isaac's father.

Verses 6-11, "So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, 'She is my sister'; for he was afraid to say, 'She  is my wife,' because  he  thought, 'lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is  beautiful to behold.' Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, 'Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, "She is my sister"?' Isaac said to him, 'Because I said, "Lest I die on account of her." ' And Abimelech said, 'What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.' So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, 'He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.' ”  Although Isaac obeyed God by nor going to egypt, he was now dwelling in Gerar, closer to people than he'd ever lived before, which brought it's own issues.  When given the opportunity, Isaac repeats the sins of his father by lying about his wife being his sister, out of fear of man.  He also ends up getting rebuked by a pagan king.

Repeating the sins of our parents is not inevitable, meaning God can help us overcome our weaknesses of the flesh.  However, when your children witness your behavior and speech, it is very common to repeat them.  Proverbs 22:6 says to "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."  This training is not just empty words, but requires you to model righteousness, and be an example for them. Timothy, as a young preacher, was told to "be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity."  This a good advise for anyone with authority and responsibility over another's spiritual well being.  My question is what are you doing that you wouldn't want your children to repeat?  Bad habits, failure to study God's word daily, ineffective parenting, worldly speech and appetites, these can easily be passed down to the next generation.  We are accountable for our stewardship.

Verses 12-16, "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, 'Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.' ”  Those dwelling so close to Isaac began to envy him and tried to hinder his prosperity by stopping up his wells.  When he tried to dig another well, they would claim they had rights to it, so he would move on and try again.  It wasn't until the third location that a well was dug that the strife ceased.  God would even use this to move Isaac in the direction He wanted.

Through all the trials, enemies around him, hard work and failures, Isaac most likely was needing to be encouraged and strengthened by the Lord when He appeared to him.  Verses 23-25, "Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord  appeared to him the same night and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.' So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord , and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well."  Isaac had every reason to fear future battles due to the local people's hatred toward him.  But because the Lord was with him, their king came instead seeking peace with him through a covenant.  Verses 26-29, "Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, 'Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?' But they said, 'We have certainly seen that the Lord  is with you. So we said, "Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord." ’ ”

This is what it looks like to trust in the Lord and not lean on your own understanding.  You can see God preparing Isaac's path before him that he should walk in.