Genesis Chapter 26

 ¹ And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

² And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

⁴ And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

⁵ Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

God affirmed with Isaac the covenant he made with Abraham. In verse 2 the Lord appeared to Isaac and told him not to go down into Egypt, but instead he was to dwell in the land that God is telling him about. In 3 God tell him he is going to give him and his seed this land and will uphold the oath he made with Abraham his father. In verse 4 God tells Isaac that he is going to multiply his see as the stars of heaven and give them all these countries….and through his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. In verse 5 God tells Isaac that this blessing is his because his father obeyed his voice, did what God told him to do, kept his commandments, statutes and Laws. It seems to me that God was assuring Isaac that he was still going to give him all those things that he promised his father during a time when Isaac was concerned about famine. God told him what he needed to do, reaffirmed the oaths he made with Abraham and the blessings that were promised, and he gave him the reason that Abraham received this oath and blessing, which I would understand to be instructions on how to stay in this oath with God.

⁶ And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

⁷ And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

⁸ And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

⁹ And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

¹¹ And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

3 times this has occurred. 2 times with Abraham and Sarah… once in Egypt and 1 in Gerar with the Abimelech reining at that time and this time with Isaac and Rebekah and the current Abimelech in Gerar. I briefly looked into this, but wasn’t satisfied with what I found on it. My questions about this are:
1. Was this a common thing done at that time?
2. What is the lesson?

¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

¹³ And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:

The Lord promised Abraham and Isaac that he would bless them, and they would be great. When a person is blessed of the Lord, everything they do prospers.

¹⁴ For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.

Psalms 23- ¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

¹⁵ For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

WHY would they do that? I found this site https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/33619/in-genesis-2618-historical-reasons-why-philistines-might-have-filled-abrahams that ask the same question…however, there was no answer as to why the wells were filled in instead of being used by the Philistines after Abraham died, and they would no longer be challenged for them. The best answers were all speculative.

¹⁶ And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

Isn’t that the way it always seems to go…. you’re there living alongside of people in peace, but when the blessings of the Lord become evident, they suddenly want you gone.

¹⁷ And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

¹⁸ And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹ And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

²⁰ And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

²¹ And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.

²² And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

²³ And he went up from thence to Beersheba.

²⁴ And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.

I’m going to try to remember the times when God visited Abraham and Isaac to remind them that he was going to keep the oaths he made with them…. because sometimes in a battle I need reassurance and I need to remember that it’s not a lack of faith to ask God for it…. God must understand because he kept reassuring Abraham and Isaac.

²⁵ And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.

First thing he did when he reached his new dwelling place was to build and altar and called upon the name of the Lord….. then his tent and then the well. God first, self second. Matthew 6:33 ³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.

²⁷ And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?

Psalms 23:5 ⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over

²⁸ And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

Proverbs 16:7 ⁷ When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

²⁹ That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the Lord.

³⁰ And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.

³¹ And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

³³ And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.

³⁴ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

³⁵ Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

Esau married idolaters from the Canaanites, the very same people that Abraham had rejected to be the people his son Isaacs wife was to come from because these people were cursed. Esau also took 2 wives at the same time, so did Jacob kind of…. he was tricked into Leah, and he wanted Rachel. More on the topic here https://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/26-34.htm