FBT Daily Devotional: Genesis 26

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So be it. Amen. So today we're going out of Genesis 26, right? And so just want to have this question. How many of us said we would never be like our parents? Or maybe the opposite? We might will be like the parents, right? And we see some of the qualities, whether they're good and not so good, right? We see those qualities in ourselves as we um uh matured and growed up, right? And so here we are in Genesis 26. We are talking about Isaac and King Abimelech and of the Philistines. And I'm coming at a new living translation. So I'm gonna go ahead and start and read a couple of verses, and then we're gonna dive in. And so verse one, it says, a severe famine now struck the land as had happened before in Abraham's time. So Isaac moved to Gera where Abimelech, king of Philistines, lived. And so Robin has said this on Tuesday, just a reference of Abimelech, meaning that it's just a royal title, like Pharaoh's was a royal title. It's not just individual, but it's a title of a king. And so, and then it goes on to verse 2. It said, The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. And I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants, just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father. So Isaac wanted to write, want to leave out of the sight of the famine. I understand that, right? As anyone would, but God did not want him to go to Egypt. He wanted Isaac to stay in the land of the promise, the land that he promised Abraham, where he would establish his descendant. Giera was in Canaan, one of the cities. And what I find very interesting is, right, Abraham went to Egypt when Great Famine. Joseph went to Egypt when it was great famine, but you know, God wanted Isaac to stay in Giera. And that was just because, you know, he wanted him to trust him to continue the covenant where he began with Abraham. And so the moment in good standing guy was just not about just, hey, I want you, it's not about a land or a particular thing, but it's about him trusting, staying where he wanted him to stay, and growing in that place of promise, right? The place of his assignment. So let's pause and take a silent moment, right? Where in our lives do we feel a famine, meaning a place of lack of pressure where you're tempted to run? But God may be asking you to stay in there just a little while longer and trust him. And what do you think God sometimes, why do you think God sometimes tells you to stay in those hard places instead of escaping? So um continuing on to verse 4. It said, I will cause your descendant to become as numerous as the stars of skies, and I will give them all the lands, and through your descendants and all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I will do this because Abraham will listen to me and obey all my requirements, commands, and decrees and instructions. Now we know Abraham was not perfect by far, but Abraham did obey God and the things, you know, hey, take your son up there. Things God asked Abraham to do by faith. Abraham obeyed, and God even knew that Abraham would teach his kids to obey, right? Not saying about their character and what they might do, the opposite of that. But it's a difference when you're obeying God's instructions, you're just being led by faith. And even in Genesis 18, 19, he said that, right? He said, right, when he was about to destroy uh uh Sodom and Ganor, he said, uh, I don't want to have this thing for my servant, right? But but you know, I chose him because but I know he would command and direct or train or however translations you read, his children and his household after me. So he would train them in the way of the Lord. So Abraham was not perfect at that far, but he would trust um God and instruct and obey him. And that's what God is saying to Abraham. I mean, Isaac, I wanted Isaac to trust him, right? Even when situations are uncertain, you know, you want to run, it's lack, but he wants you us to trust him as well, right? So let's continue on to verse 6. It said, Isaac stayed in Gier, right? And said, and when the man, well, it was part of that. So when the man um lived there, when the man who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebecca, he said, She is my sister. He was afraid to say that she is my wife. He thought that they would kill me to get her because she is so beautiful. But sometime later, Abimelech, king of Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebecca. Uh immediately uh Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, She is obvious your wife. Why did you say she's my sister? Because and he said, Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get to her from for me from me, Isaac replied, and how could you do this to us? Abimelech um explained. So let's just stop here for a moment. Now, I was just put his wife in a uh situation that was really like not cool, and he was because he was afraid, and it was that safety net, right? Uh uh, you know, to lie and not to trust God, and this is the thing that God was trying to train him, right? He got uh to keep him safe, and and I wonder where he learned this type of behavior from, right? We see this in Abraham, and this is uh uh another question. How many of us said we would never be like our parents, right? Or maybe the opposite, we might be like our parents, but we did the opposite, and that's not almost about being about your parents. You could have been growing up whoever individual you kind of like looked up to or any adult, and you end up taking on those traits that you've seen them, right? So that was looking like how uh uh uh Isaac was doing those learned behaviors, right? Um, which refer to the actions, emotional response, coping styles, relationship patterns that children absorb from parents around them. These behaviors are not taught directly, right? They are modeled, they are observed, and they're internalized, right? Sometimes we say trauma response, sometimes, you know, but those learned behaviors. So children often observe unhealthy behaviors because they're developing their brains, right? They're still wiring to cope, to copy whatever they seem to keep them safe, right? So in that situation, Isaac wanted to be safe, and his safety net was like, let me lie and say that this is why my my sister, right? And some he probably, you know, because obviously he's not a young, you know, child right here. So he's probably seen his father do this, or even heard some stories about his father. We tend to think these people in the Bible are so far different than us, but they're humans just like us, right? They're going through the same thing just like us. We're just reading about them today. But they're no different, their response is no different than us today. And so think about this, right? Um, Isaac, he did this, like I said, he was afraid, right? And Abraham did the same thing. And so often we we we do these things in response of staying quiet, right? Avoids conflict. Yelling gets attention, or even shutting down feels protected. The child learns these responses as survival strategies rather than mistakes, right? So to them, they are survival strategies, these are not mistakes. And their mindset and they continue to grow up and thinking these ways are right. And so some strong emotion moments like anger or fear also leaves a deeper impression than calm ones, right? Sometimes people like, I'm so nice, but they don't see that, but they see all the ratchetness, right? So making negative uh um behaviors, and let me just say this: this is no condemnation because we all experiencing things that we have learned. And pastor constantly tells us, like, some of the things we learn, we have to unlearn them, and it's okay, don't get mad, don't get offended, but let's unlearn these behaviors. And that's what we're hearing Beyond Faith Beyond Trauma. And so making negative behaviors easily to is easier to internalize. When adults cope through hypervigilance, withdrawal, anger, children naturally treat their these patterns as normal. You know, in homes shaped by stress or trauma, these behaviors happen more often than we think. So they become the children's model, right? Over the time, the child isn't choosing these negative behaviors, they're adapted to their environment. Um, they grow up, right? You think about this, like I said, those ACE studies. Uh Pastor Uh Reggie often talked about ACE studies, and and you know, we think about epigenetics, right? These things are real. Our environment shape our world, our environment shape our internal being. And it and so it's so um, and let me be honest, I'm running out of time, but that's why a lot of times kids, you know, especially when they're past their fathers, their pastors, and and even just growing up in the church, you know, a lot of times they've turned off by the church because they see them, you know, praising the Lord in one sense, and then they come home and they do the opposite of what, you know, the pastor is saying. Don't get it twisted because these kids probably know the word more um better or even internalize it more than us because their mind is still growing, they still have the capacity, they don't have life, there's life in them, that that brain is steady strength because of stress, but their mind is still open to so much more than we can even think of. So they're probably um absorbing the word right more than we can, right? And so um, right, so when they see doors slamming, and even when they see the spouse who you they think they should be affectionate to one another, and they see them not unaffected, they don't kiss or hug or anything like that, and you see they're married, they're married, that could be shaping their response or shaping you know their behavior patterns, right? So I remember growing up, we used to have house phones, right? My mama used to be like at um whispering to me over there, telling me, hey, tell the bill collectors I'm not home, right? And he's like, Mama, look, but you are home, you're telling me, right? But think that but we at least shape our response because how you know that bills is household talking about money is Lord, it get real serious and get real unsafe in the household because you're stressed and everything else. So that was her safety net, and we he copied those behaviors. So you see Isaac, right, doing those same things, he's copying the behaviors of his father Abraham because guess what? He didn't really see the back end of him really trusting God, he just seen what he's seen from the surface level because really God would he was just trusting God, but God had blessed him in them situations, so he was like, Oh, you know what? They were safe when when my father laughed about how that was his wife, Sarah was his sister, and and he ended up getting blessed and doing all these things, right? But that wasn't that the case, and that's not what God was trying to do for uh uh uh of Abraham in that situation, and definitely not Isaac, because Isaac still was growing, right? And so we're not running out of time, but let me just settle this question then at the end, so we close it here. What is one behavior you learned growing up, maybe to stay quiet, avoid conflict, or protect yourself that you now realize wasn't about who you are, but about the environment you were in. And so I'll close with that question.