The Doctor Is In

in the beginning Genesis chapter twenty-six III

So Abraham and Isaac both had similar experiences where they chose to misrepresent their wives to others. For example...

Abraham and Isaac both had beautiful wives and they both feared for their own safety because of it.
Each misrepresented the truth about their relationship by saying that his wife was his sister.
They both made this same choice during a severe food shortage.

Now it may seem strange to make a big deal out of these similarities, but there is something important to learn from both of these examples. That "something" has to do with the effect that our choices and actions have on others.

For instance, let's think about this idea in terms of a parent/child relationship. One saying that has been used to describe the effect that a parent has on a child is, "Like father, like son." This saying came into existence because children often grow up to imitate their parents in many ways.

A small child will often try to imitate the things that he or she sees his or her parents do. Later on when that child is older, he or she will probably tend to reproduce the same attitudes and character traits that were picked up from his or her parents while growing up. That's because our parents often have a large influence on the way that we develop as children and young adults for better or worse.

We can see an example of this in Isaac's life as he went on to imitate the same mistake that his father made by misrepresenting his wife as his sister. The problem for us is that every parent makes mistakes, just as we see here with Abraham and Isaac. When this happens, it may be tempting for someone to say, "My parents messed up so that's why I'm messed up" to justify their own mistakes and shortcomings.

But the truth is that we are not automatically locked into making the same mistakes that our parents may have made. You see, it's possible to look at the mistakes that our parents have made and not reproduce them in our own lives by asking God to help us in those areas where we may be falling short. We know this because the New Testament book of Philippians tells us, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). Remember, Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him (see John 15:1-8) but through Him, we can do everything.

So Isaac decided to try and pass off his wife as his sister, but we'll see that it won't be long before this "brother" and "sister" get caught.

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The Doctor is not a real doctor but he plays one on the Internet. E-Mail prescriptions are also available on an individual basis.

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