We continue the story of Isaac in the Philistine town of Gerar:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen SheadIsaac, like his father Abraham, spent most of his time roaming as a nomad in the land of Canaan that God had promised his descendants. But at the start of chapter 26, he had to head down to the Philistine town of Gerar on the coast because of a famine.That’s where we see this ugly episode unfold. The thing that most struck me today was how much Isaac’s fear blinded him. He was scared that he might be killed because his wife Rebekah was so beautiful – OK, I can relate to that :-) But instead of coming to God with his fear, Isaac let his fear lead to ungodliness and plain stupidity. He lied to protect himself – even though that put Rebekah in grave danger of being taken by another man as his wife. That meant he put Abimelek’s men in danger of unwittingly committing adultery. We might not like the marriage customs of the time, but even these Philistines respected marriage as sacred.Even his initial fear of being killed was based on ungenerous and wrong assumptions. When Abimelek finds out the truth – which Isaac should have told him from the start – he actually protects both Isaac and Rebekah.I can relate to Isaac’s weakness: being tempted to become selfish, lie and even put others in danger when I’m scared for myself, as well as jumping to conclusions about those who aren’t part of my “tribe”.But the most foolish thing in today’s passage is that God had literally just promised to be with Isaac and bless him in the land of the Philistines (v. 3)! The worst thing we can do is allow our fear to make us forget God’s promises. And as we saw yesterday, because of Jesus we know that God is with us, has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and will one day take away everything that we might fear, so that the only thing left is blessing.Can you think of times when your fear has made you forget God’s promises and turn to selfishness, lying and so on? Are you in that place right now? Bring your fears to God now, and remember Paul’s words: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our senior minister.