Fear: The Running Man

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."  Gen 26:6.7

It is a part of the fathering nature of God that He not allow us to go forward without growing in His grace to overcome that which threatens our enjoyment of His blessing or our usefulness to His purposes.  And so -  by a strange, yet loving providence of God, conflict will follow Isaac no matter where he may run to.

You may say that Isaac was a running man.  We see at the beginning of Chapter 26 that he ran from the drought rather than turning to and trusting God for provision and protection. He was intending to run to Egypt, but God confronted him and instructed him to go to Gerar.  At Gerar Isaac will have gone to a place familiar to his family - it was here that Isaac's father Abraham fled.  And all for the same reason - Like his son, Abraham too feared for his life because of the beauty of his wife; and here too, Abraham contrived the same - most ridiculous deception, claiming that his wife was not his wife, but his sister.

Fear is a sinful pattern of thought - it is a mistrust of God and His character and capacity to protect and preserve His people.  Because of fear, important things are avoided, foolish decisions are made, and much misery and brokenness and relational messes occur.

What do we do when we are confronted with fear.  Over the next few posts, we will give thought to this question as we work through the Genesis narrative concerning Gods gracious dealings with fearful Isaac.