Genesis — Chapter 26

AND THE LORD APPEARED TO HIM AND SAID: GO NOT DOWN INTO EGYPT, BUT STAY IN THE LAND THAT I SHALL TELL THEE. — God repeats to Isaac the promises made to Abraham (vv. 3-5), confirming that the covenant and election continue through Isaac alone, not through Ishmael or the sons of Keturah. The land is promised to the seed of Isaac. Note the explicit reason (v. 5): \"because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts and commandments, and ceremonies, and laws\" — the covenant of grace also involves obedience and fidelity to the moral law.

AND ISAAC SOWED IN THAT LAND, AND HE FOUND THE SAME YEAR A HUNDREDFOLD. — \"A hundredfold\" — not by natural fertility but miraculously, as Lapide shows: for it was a year of famine, yet Isaac reaped a hundredfold from his sowing. This prefigures the evangelical promise: \"Everyone who has left house or lands for My name's sake shall receive a hundredfold\" (Matt. 19:29). The just man who trusts God and labors honestly is blessed even when circumstances are adverse.

AND THE LORD APPEARED TO HIM THAT SAME NIGHT, SAYING: I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM THY FATHER, FEAR NOT, FOR I AM WITH THEE. — God's nocturnal appearance to Isaac at Beersheba after his trials with the wells: \"Fear not, for I am with thee.\" This is the perennial consolation of God to those who suffer injustice and persecution: His presence more than compensates for all losses. Isaac immediately builds an altar and \"called upon the name of the Lord\" — worship is the first response to divine consolation.