Genesis 26:26

Isaac's prosperity made the Philistine king Abimelech and his officers wonder whether Isaac might threaten their freedom or their independence. When they come to him, Isaac is puzzled. They had earlier asked him to leave, and he thought they hated him. In fact they were more afraid than they were hateful.

But notice the cool assurance of the Philistine — "We have done you nothing but good!" And this after they had driven him away! To do all the evil they can, and then say they have done good, is the Philistine character. The race is not extinct. In fact Abimelech was afraid of Isaac. The world, in any form, is secretly conscious of the saints' superiority.

The true way to reach the hearts and consciences of worldly men is this: stand in clear separation from them, while treating them with perfect grace. As long as Isaac continued in Gerar, there was nothing but strife and contention. He was reaping sorrow for himself, and producing no effect at all on those around him. On the contrary, the moment he went away from them, their hearts were touched, and they followed him, and wanted a covenant.

Nothing convinces another person of power like seeing that power at work in the one who has it. Only when Isaac fully withdrew from the land of the Philistines did the king admit that Isaac was greater. It is always so. If I see that you can give up the world and its finer things, my conscience must tell me that something mighty is there.

Little does Abimelech know the value and meaning of these pledges and blessings between the Lord and His typical heir... but the outward eye can see who the man is on whom the favour of God rests... This part of the history has great prophetic interest. The Gentiles are to be blessed through Israel, and will be so in the coming millennial times. "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." Or, as Zechariah says, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"

Patience had a perfect work with Isaac. The old wells were stopped up out of spite. The new ones he found stirred up envy and ill-will. Still he did not fight back. There was no hostility on his side. He left when the ruler told him to. At last a well was found further off, and the opposing herdsmen did not fight over it.

We ought to forgive, even seventy times seven in a day. But there must also be faithfulness in its season — faithfulness as well as forgiveness. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." But Isaac was not quite up to this sturdier virtue. He complains to Abimelech, but in such soft and easy terms that it seems to carry no authority to the conscience... he was not convicted by Isaac, but went home with his friends at peace with himself as well as with Isaac.