Today's readings: Gen 26; Mt 25; Est 2; Act 25
Gen 26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”
Note: Rebekah, unlike Sarah, was not actually her husband's sister....Isaac's deception made a mockery of God's covenantal promise. Ignoring God's promise to protect and bless him, Isaac lied to protect himself and acted in bad faith to the men of Gerar.
Previously seen:
Gen 12:13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.”
Gen 20:2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.
Gen 26:32-33 That day Isaacʼs servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “Weʼve found water,” they reported. So he named it Shibah; that is why the name of the city has been Beer Sheba to this day.
Note: The name Beer Sheba (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע, bé'er shava') means "well of an oath" or "well of seven." According to Gen 21:31 Abraham gave Beer Sheba its name when he made a treaty with the Philistines. Because of the parallels between this earlier story and the account in 26:26-33, some scholars see chaps. 21 and 26 as two versions (or doublets) of one original story. However, if one takes the text as it stands, it appears that Isaac made a later treaty agreement with the people of the land that was similar to his father's. Abraham dug a well at the site and named the place Beer Sheba; Isaac dug another well there and named the well Shibah. Later generations then associated the name Beer Sheba with Isaac, even though Abraham gave the place its name at an earlier time.
Matt 25:25, 30 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.... And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.ʼ
Note: The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either.
Esther 2:10 Now Esther had not disclosed her people or her lineage, for Mordecai had instructed her not to do so.
