Abraham Made His Mistake...

 And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. (Genesis 26:2)

   Abraham made his mistake, but God did not specifically warn him against it. Isaac is in the process of making it and God is warning him against going down that part of the world. That is an interesting and, I suspect, profound difference. He demonstrates the "like father, like son" tendency that has plagued mankind all throughout mankind's history. Yet, Isaac takes it a step further and does what his father did in a deliberate and knowing fashion.
   As fathers we must be aware, beforehand, that our will do this. They will repeat our sins. They will not only repeat them, they will "improve" on them. The only way that we can, that Abraham could have, prevented this, was with a different home life for Isaac. It was the life in the tent and all that transpired there that prepared him for this moment.
   Now, fortunately, as in all else in life, this does not catch God unprepared, as we see in the following verses in which the covenant wi Abraham is renewed with Isaac despite this deliberate disobedience. What a gracious and merciful God we serve!

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. (Genesis 26:3)

   In spite of deliberate disobedience, a gracious God renews the covenant with Isaac. This is not simply a matter of "if you obey, then I will...". God goes far further and enumerates the details of the tremendous covenant that He had made with Isaacs father. It does not seem as though there can be a great demonstration grace or a more marvelous presage of the coming ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ” (Genesis 26:5)

   In all of this Isaac stands in our stead...he is blessed, not for his son sake, or because of his own goodness or merit, but because of his father's. It was the righteousness and the merit of another that brought Isaac all that he had, else he would have been lost and wandered under judgment.
   Likewise, you and I stand in precisely the same position. It is not our own goodness or merit that wins us our position of blessing and favor before God, but rather it all of grace and mercy. We must consciously and deliberately choose to remember that. If we fail to