Genesis 25-26

Hey, if you're reading though the Bible with us, congrats! You are already halfway through Genesis!

There have been countless times that my wife has caught me doing it. I go to say something... and either the way I say it, or the words that I use, or the body language with which I deliver it looks or sounds just like my dad or my mom. I have noticed her do it also. But it's not just their words and actions that we have mimiced, but sometimes it's been their thoughts also. Like father like son so goes the saying.

In today's reading we read as Isaac deceived Abimelech... in the exact same manner that his father had already twice done before (once in Egypt with Pharoah, the other with presumably the same king, Abimelech). Isaac lies about his relationship with his wife Rebekah. He asks her to speak of herself as his sister. This time Abimelech doesn't take the sister as a wife or concubine, but instead notices the two of them being quite friendly with one another. He confronts Isaac, just as he had confronted Abraham. Both times the men have essentially the same response... we thought you would kill us, so we lied (or at least stretched the truth).

I wonder if Isaac had heard the story of how his dad had tried to trick Pharoah or Abimelech and then had tried to do the same. It just reminds me of how much influence our parents really can have on us, and, for those of us who are parents, how much we influence our kids. World views are passed from one generation to another.

Think about some of the perceptions that you have taken from your parents... concerning politics, morals, fairness, religion. We cannot help but be influenced and influential in others' lives. This is what it means to be in community and a part of a family. It can certainly work for the good. I came to belief in Christ through the opportunity created by my parents' commitment to a local church. Praise God for that.

But there are also other things that I picked up that weren't necessarily so godly. Isaac demonstrates that he had picked up some deception from his dad... later his son Jacob reveals the depth of his own deception (even with the aid of his own mother).

We must continuly review and sift every thought and view we have through the Scriptures. Spending time in the Word allows it to influence us. Without that time, we are subject only to the environment in which we place ourselves... and it's hard, if not almost impossible, to really perceive accurately a Christ-centered worldview without the imput of Christ!

A loose qutotation: "The aroma of Christ can only linger upon those who linger in His presence." Praise God that you have chosen each day to linger in His Word. May it continue to shape each of us through and through as we meet with Him this year.