7When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.” 8It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.'” 10Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
So far, Isaac has done pretty well in learning from the mistakes of his father. But here he goes for the classic Abraham move. The problem is that Isaac couldn’t even claim that she was his half-sister like Abraham could. He just plain lied to Abimelech and everyone else to try and save his own skin. We all know already, though, that Abimelech was an honorable man. When he finds out the situation, he makes sure Isaac knows it too, and makes sure to keep all his own people safe by not letting them even think about harming God’s chosen family. Same lesson, different story. God will take care of you, and there’s still no good reason to lie, about anything.