The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree

January 13, 2009

Today's Reading: Genesis 25-26 and Matthew 10

I find it amazing that the Bible often tells stories that it just really should leave out. I spoke yesterday about how the Word seems full of repetition, and today’s reading also had some repetition.

However, this wasn’t about the retelling of the same story. This is about a character in the Bible doing something that another person has already done. In fact, it is about when a character has done something he really shouldn’t have done, and proven a huge failure!

Case in point, Isaac. He is about to enter the land of the Philistines, which is ruled over by king Abimelech. I can only assume that the “lech” in his last name must have meant he was a real lech, because Isaac feared that his wife Rebekah would be taken away from him.

So what does he do? He tells a lie, saying that his wife is his sister. You can imagine how Rebekah probably felt about that one. So then Abimelech takes Issac’s wife, and then the Lord curses him, and then he has to go back to Isaac, and blah, blah, blah.

You’ve heard this one before. In fact, Abraham did the same thing, with the same person involved…Abimelech!

You would think that Isaac would have known better. Sadly, that just doesn’t seem to be happening. Isn’t it funny how characters who should know better still do stupid things. I guess we can’t relate, because we always do smart things, right?

Perhaps we’ve got a little Lord Jim syndrome going on. Some of you might not know what I am referring to, and to tell you the truth, I don’t really either. I tried to read Lord Jim, but couldn’t make it past the first chapter.

My Lord Jim experience come from a ninth grade class when I saw a film about this guy. I think it was David Soul (Hutch from TV’s Starsky and Hutch) who played Jim. Anyway, Jim is this guy who dreams of adventure, and he receives the mantle of captain on a ship.

One day, the ship goes through bad waters, and the crew has to abandon ship. Not all can make it to the lifeboats, and Jim is given a choice of being left behind and going down with the ship, or escape with his own life. Sadly, he chooses to save his own skin.

Lord Jim shows us that we all think that we would make the right choice when it comes to us in a nice package, but the opportunity seldom comes that nicely. Instead, it involves biting the bullet, and like Isaac, we might take the coward’s way out, even though we know better.