Famine

                                                                                                                                

     What is famine?  Famine is when a land or country goes through an extreme time with a shortage of food.  It can be due to drought, flooding, bugs, disease, war, or God's command.  God knows how our stomachs will at times lead us.  He will use hunger and devastation to get our attention, but He never does it the same way twice.  That would make life redundant and predictable. 

     Isaac went through a time of famine.  He considered taking his family to Egypt because they appeared to prospering.  However, God did not like that idea.  He told Isaac not to go there, but to stay in the land that He had promised as an alien.  God was trying to use Isaac to lead the people, like He had done with Abraham.  God promised to bless him if he stayed.  

     Isaac knew how beautiful Rebekah was, so he told people that she was his sister.  After all it always worked for his parents.  Times were desperate and people were afraid.  Fear drives people to do strange and horrible things.  When King Abimelech realized what Isaac was doing, he called Isaac out.  Then he gave them protection, so Isaac would not continue to lie and put his people at God's mercy.  Things were hard enough, they did not want God's wrath on top of that.  

     Isaac failed to be the leader that I think God was trying to bring out.  However, since he did stay God blessed him with riches.  This made the Philistines jealous and angry, so they stopped up all his wells.  King Abimelech asked him to move because he did not want war or unrest in his country.  Isaac did not cause a ruckus.  He took his family to the valley and reopened Abraham's wells.  Every well he reopened became a quarrell with the locals.  It must have been exhausting and frustrating.  When he made it to Beersheba, Isaac made an altar to God.  Then, Abimelech came to make a treaty.  He did not want to be at war with God's chosen people, even if it was only one small family at the time.  When they departed it was in peace.

    God used famine to place key people together and get things in motion. These events may have small or appear to be insignificant, but vital for God's grand design.  Every person has a role in the story God is laying out.  Like some directors say, there are no small roles, only small actors.  You may feel insignificant at times, but turn the negative feelings over to God and find a way to see things differently.

Genesis 26