Favour in a Famine, God blessed Isaac because he obeyed.
26 Now there was a famine in the land – besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time – and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘DO NOT GO DOWN TO EGYPT; LIVE IN THE LAND WHERE I TELL YOU TO LIVE. 3 STAY IN THIS LAND FOR A WHILE, AND I WILL BE WITH YOU AND WILL BLESS YOU. Genesis 26
For Isaac, everything depended on hearing and obeying God and living where God had said. God wanted Isaac in the land or territory He’d promised under oath to Abraham.
Did Isaac have struggles there? Most definitely. He feared for his life and told his wife Rebekah to pretend to be his sister, but Abimelek, king of Gerar, discovered the truth and was angry with Isaac. He gave an order forbidding anyone to harm Isaac or his wife.
12 Then Isaac sowed IN THAT LAND, and reaped in the same year a HUNDREDFOLD; AND THE LORD BLESSED HIM. 13 The man BEGAN TO PROSPER, AND CONTINUED PROSPERING UNTIL HE BECAME VERY PROSPEROUS; 14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied (became jealous of) him. Genesis 26 NKJV
Isaac prospered X3 (in the NKJV), God really blessed him.
The other herdsmen became jealous and claimed the Wells dug to water his flocks, more hassles and he had to move away from that immediate area – ISAAC WAS FLEXIBLE! (At times so must we be) But he obeyed God and stayed in Canaan, the land of his blessing.
God eventually gave Isaac peace in the land when Abimelek and his commanders came to make a formal treaty with him.
28 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, 29 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.’ ”
They ate together and the next morning took the oaths not to harm one another.
When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even the man’s enemies live at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7
May the Lord, give us peace on every side.
Genesis 26, ends on a sad note because of the elder son Esau and is a warning for us as well;
34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were A GRIEF of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
God has placed us in this world and can bless us even in famine, but God never intended that we should Covenant with this world. God blessed Isaac because he was faithful to Him.
God bless and keep you today.