# 240 Two Men and A Famine (How God Moves His People)

The Book of Genesis

Day 240

Ge 26:1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

The story moves from the troublesome twins (Esau and Jacob) to Isaac’s encounter with Abimelech of the Philistines.  First off, this is not the same “Abimelech” as the one that Abraham had dealt with falsely  97 years earlier, when he tried to pawn off Sarah as his sister. “Abimelech “is more likely a title or an office, like the term “Pharaoh.”

Most of this chapter mirrors the Abraham experience with Abimelech and helps explain how Isaac spent so much time in Philistine territory, and perhaps how Esau found himself a bride among the Hittites, when he was 40 years old! (v34)  You see the Hittites and Philistines rubbed elbows with each other, and this would explain the mention of Esau finding his bride in verse 34.

I think it’s always instructive to pause and consider famines when they show up in Scripture.  Who’s in charge of famines? God is! He determines when and where rain and snow will fall! Job 37:6 For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth'; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.

Famines are one of the ways that God moves people. Here he moves Isaac to Philistine country for some faith lessons, as he did Isaac’s father Abraham.Later He would use famine to bring Jacob and his sons to Egypt to be reunited with Joseph. He used famine to move Naomi to Moab and we were given the story of Ruth,. In the New Testament the account of the Prodigal son, involved a famine that was designed to move the prodigal back home, and around the years 40 to 50 A.D. a famine moved the New Testament churches to open their wallets in support of the saints in Jerusalem!. God uses famines, (physical or spiritual) to move His people!

Famines are a tool that God uses to get our attention or to set His plans in motion, or to get His people moving!

Famines don’t have to be restricted to a bad weather pattern. God can use financial famines, Hag 1:6 "You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."

Or famines of good health (epidemics and diseases) Hab 3:5 Before Him went pestilence, And fever followed at His feet.

Or spiritual famines, Am 8:11 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find it.

So what are we to do when famine strikes in our own lives? We are to move! Not geographically, but spiritually….seek to move closer to God! Solomon gave us the cure in 1Ki 8:35 – 40, "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,  36 "then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.  37 "When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;  38 "whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple:  39 "then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men),  40 "that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

Spread out your hands toward the temple of Solomon, which was meant to be a picture of Jesus! Confess His name! Confess your sins and turn from them and God’s rain (the Holy Spirit) will come and deal with the famine and plague in your heart! He will hear, forgive, and act, that we may once again, rightly fear (revere) the Lord!