While teaching my first 7th grade Bible class, the curriculum spent a chapter investigating integrity. The definition provided in the textbook referred to integrity as doing what’s right when no one is looking. Although this mindset provides the foundation for a good work ethic, there is always someone noticing and watching how you live your life. This could be children, students or curious neighbors who have nothing better to do.
And the men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, She is my sister; for he was afraid to say, She is my wife—[thinking], Lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she is attractive and is beautiful to look upon. 8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife, Genesis 26:7-8.
If you work in a modern building and company, there’s always somebody watching the surveillance camera of what’s going on daily. Whenever there is an incident, security goes back to watch the context of what led up to this situation. Just like the plots in the film Enemy of the State and Live Free or Die Hard, Big Brother is now watching you as you drive through intersections and on tollways.
And Abimelech called Isaac and said, See here, she is certainly your wife! How did you [dare] say to me, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I thought, Lest I die on account of her. 10 And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the men might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt and sin upon us. 11 Then Abimelech charged all his people, He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death, Genesis 26:9-11.
As for today’s featured passage, Isaac wasn’t truthful about his relationship with Rebekah. Whenever an attractive individual moves into your neighborhood, eyes are watching from inside their cars and homes. Isaac should have known better but had to learn the hard way when confronted by King Abimelech in the passage above. If Bette Midler came to the conclusion God is Watching Us, Christians should also know that God is all knowing and seeing.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 