Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #10 of Genesis, chapter 26, and we are continuing to read Genesis 26:12-16:
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and JEHOVAH blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
I will stop reading there. We have moved on from the previous passage in verses 7 through 11, where the focus was on Isaac saying that his wife was his sister. We covered that pretty extensively, and now we are moving into another difficult passage that is hard to understand. Historically, we can read and understand these verses, but spiritually, they are difficult, and we are going to try to do the best we can to understand the spiritual meaning, and to continue to ask for God’s grace. But keep in mind that adage that Mr. Camping used to use concerning Bible studies where there are verses and passages in the Bible – sometimes even within the same chapter – that he likened to a “portrait gallery.” There can be one verse, one section or one passage of Scripture that is like a “single portrait” within an overall gallery, so you admire it and glean from it, and then you move on. Of course, we have to move on when we are going verse by verse through the Bible. We want to see what God has to say in the next verse.
Now we are moving on, and at this point I am not saying it is a continuance from the previous verses. It does not appear to be, as far as the deeper spiritual meaning. I remember saying some things about the famine that was mentioned in verse 1, but then I went back later when I understood a little bit better what God had in view with the famine. So maybe that will happen here, but it appears we are moving to another “portrait” within the overall gallery, which is the Bible, and to another type and another figure.
It says in Genesis 26:12:
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and JEHOVAH blessed him.
We know the land was in the land of the Philistines in Gerar and, yet, there are some problems that we are already encountering, and that is why I thought it was a difficult passage here (and even further on) because we have to look at this verse in the historical context. Remember we found that there was a famine, back in Genesis 26:1:
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
I guess it is possible that there was a famine where Isaac was, and he traveled to the land of the Philistines and, perhaps, there was no famine there. But I do not think that was the case. It just tells us that he traveled, but it does not say that he escaped the famine – it just says the famine caused him to move. So that would be the first question regarding Isaac sowing in that land. If there was an ongoing famine, it would not seem that it would have been a good time to sow. The second problem is that Isaac is said to be the one that sowed in that land, and that is a problem because Isaac was a shepherd, and he had sheep and cattle. He was not a farmer. He did not settle down in any previous land and farm the land and sow seed. That is a long process. It is an involved process. You have to till the ground, sow the seed, receive the proper rain in season, and there would have been difficulty in a famine. Then you would have to wait until the fruit came forth and wait until it was ready for harvest, and that would seem pretty out of character for Isaac and his family. They were sojourners. They were tent dwellers. They set up temporary homesteads, and their cattle and sheep grazed the land, and after a while, they would move on. But we are told that Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold. Literally, the phrase “same year” would be “that year.” Isaac sowed in that land, and received in that year a hundredfold. And that would be an additional problem if his sowing had to do with sowing literal seed and reaping literal fruit.
But there are more difficulties when we look at these words. For example, the Hebrew word translated as “received” is Strong’s #4672. (And, please, look it up and check it out.) It is a Hebrew word that is used 456 times in the Old Testament, and 359 of the 456 times, it is translated as “find” or “found” or a related word. I think it is even more than that if you look at other synonyms for that same thing. It is translated as “received” only one time, and that is right here in our verse: “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and JEHOVAH blessed him.” So there is no doubt that this word should be translated as “found.” Overwhelmingly, that is how it is used. This is past tense, so it should read: Isaac sowed in that land, and found in that year an hundredfold. He “found” it. We can look at some places where it is translated that way, even right here in Genesis 26:19:
And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
The word “found” is the same word.
Then it says in Genesis 26:32:
And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.
It is the same word translated as “received.” We are going to look at a few other verses because this word is often used in relationship to the Gospel and in relationship to God’s grace. For example, it says in Genesis 6:8:
But Noah found grace in the eyes of JEHOVAH.
If we go to Exodus 33, it is used here a few times. It says in Exodus 33:12-13:
And Moses said unto JEHOVAH, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
Also, it is found in Exodus 33:16-17:
For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
We could go to many other verses where similar statements are made concerning having found grace. For example, it says in Ruth 2:10:
Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
It is also used concerning the finding of the book of the Law, in 2Chronicles 34:14-15:
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of JEHOVAH, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of JEHOVAH given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of JEHOVAH. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
I think the timing of the finding of this book was in the eighteenth year of good King Uzziah. He began to reign when he was eight, and they found it when he was 26, and that is “2 x 13,” and that ties into the opening of Scriptures after 13,000 years of earth’s history at the time of the end of the world. And now the Bible is like a “new book.” It is as if we have just found the book of God. And there are numerous other references using this word “found,” like Isaiah 55:6:
Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found…
Or, we find this word in Proverbs 8, the chapter on wisdom, where wisdom is personified. It says in Proverbs 8:35:
For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of JEHOVAH.
Again, salvation is in view.
Or, we see it used in a negative way in Genesis 19:11:
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
In other words, they could not find the door. We know that Christ said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved…” If they could not find the door, they could not experience salvation due to the judgment of God upon them.
So we know Isaac is a type of Christ. We know that the word “sowed” appears to be a word that is used in relationship to sowing seed in the Old Testament and getting fruit and, therefore, it would identify with the parables we find in the New Testament. Remember that in the Gospel of Mark, it is explaining the parable of the sower, and we read in Mark 4:13-14:
And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? The sower soweth the word.
So the sower would be Christ who sows the Word. The seed sown is related to the Word of God. Isaac, a type of Christ, sowed in that land. That is not surprising at all, as we know that Christ sent the Gospel into the world and He sent forth His people to carry that Gospel message into the world. And, yet, even though He was not personally there (as He was when He entered into the world, born of the Virgin, for a short period), He was there within His people; He was the Spirit within His people, prompting them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Therefore, we read in one place, “How beautiful…are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,” and we read in another place, “How beautiful are the feet of them,” because the elect carried the Word of God and ministered the Word, which was sowing seed. And, yet, it was all through Christ, so He sowed the seed. So we understand that spiritually.
So, again, it said that Isaac sowed in that land and received (found) in the same year a hundredfold, and JEHOVAH blessed him. Now remember that if we have gone on in our “portrait gallery” to look at another picture, then this is not a problem because it relates to salvation when the previous verses did not. It is just not possible, and there is no way to chronologically go through the Word of God in the Old Testament, where God refers in some places to Judgment Day, and then we go a few more chapters and we see the life of Joseph that relates to the Great Tribulation period, and then it progresses on (to other things) after that. We just cannot continue from a picture that God is establishing of Judgment Day or the Great Tribulation when we are in Genesis 26 and carry them on endlessly. One portrait will conclude, and another portrait opens up. So, again, there is little problem understanding that.
But this verse is still difficult, because there is more to it than meets the eye. For example, when we come to the word “hundredfold,” I have read commentaries on this and the idea is that Isaac sowed, and they go into detail about how he temporarily settled down and planted and gathered his crops, reaping them and receiving a hundredfold. But notice that we do not read of any fruit. We are told that he sowed, but we are not told what he sowed, nor is there any reference to produce of any kind. It is just that he brought in or “found” a hundredfold. That is strange, is it not? It is not the word “reap,” as some commentaries and theologians say. It is a completely different word. There is a Hebrew word that God could have used that is translated as “reap.” He is God, and if He intended to convey that idea, He could have done so. But He used this word “found” in conjunction with the word “hundredfold.”
The word “hundredfold” is a compound word in the English, but it is really a translation of two Hebrew words. The first word “hundred” is translated accurately. It is #3967 in Strong’s Hebrew Concordance. And the English word “hundredfold” is used two times in the Old Testament. It is used here, and it is used only once more, in 2Samuel 24:2:
For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said unto the king, Now JEHOVAH thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
Joab said, “May God add an hundredfold,” and he was speaking of the people of Israel. And, again, the word “hundred” is a compound word in the English that is based on two Hebrew words. One of the words is different than in our verse in Genesis, but one is the same, and that is the word “hundred,” which is used in both places. It is Strong’s #3967, and it is correct, and the typical word for “hundred.” But the word translated here as “fold” is Strong’s #6471, and this word is translated as “times” in several places, like 2Kings 13:18-19:
And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.
The word “thrice” should be translated “three times.” The numbers are different (three, five or six), but it is the number used with this word translated as “times.” Literally, it is “three times,” “five times,” or “six times,” that are found in these two verses. So we just add the number to the word, and it gives us the number of “times.” For example, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times…” That is this word. So when it is used in connection with a “hundred,” it literally means “a hundred times.” Let JEHOVAH increase Israel a hundred times.
That is the way we read this word “hundredfold,” but that is not the word used in Genesis 26:12. The word “hundred” is there, but the second word that is part of the word that became this English compound word does not mean “times,” so it is not saying that Isaiah sowed in that land and found in that year “a hundred times.” No – it does not mean that. The word translated as “fold” is #8180 in Genesis 26:12, which is only found here, but it is identical in every way (consonants, vowel points) to #8179, and you cannot tell these words apart when you look in the concordance. (And, please, do check it out.) Strong’s #8179 is the identical word to #8180, and that word is translated as “door,” “porter,” and once or twice as “city.” But, overwhelmingly, it is translated as “gate” or “gates.” And the word in our verse is a plural word, so it would be “gates.” That would be the actual meaning, which really makes it difficult to understand. Isaac sowed in that land and found in that year a hundred gates, and JEHOVAH blessed Him. That would be the more literal translation of what was being said in this verse.
What does it mean? Well, I am just glad that this Bible study has come to a close, because it gives me more time to study and more time to pray for wisdom, because this is certainly not something easy to understand. And we do need the Lord’s guidance. So, Lord willing, we will look more at this when we get together in our next Bible study.