Read Genesis 26 at Bible Gateway.
“Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Gen 26:3-5
Genesis 26:3-5 puzzled me at first. God tells Isaac He’ll bless him and his descendants with land and multiplication like stars, fulfilling His oath to Abraham, because Abraham ‘obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.’ Wait—laws? That sounded like the Law of God given to Moses at Sinai, still centuries away!
Digging into the Hebrew Root Words floored me: “Laws” here is torah, Strong’s H8451, its very first appearance in the Bible. Torah comes from the root yarah, an agricultural term meaning “to cast forth rain.” When you see the result of rain on trees and plants—fruit and flowers, greenery and growth—you see the result of His torah for us. The torah cast forth like rain, produces fruit and blessing in and through our lives, and the ultimate blessing to all the families of the earth through the Promised Seed, Messiah Yeshua.
God’s way, His torah instruction in righteousness, was known at least in part before Moses encoded it all in legal form on Mt. Sinai. Cain and Abel knew the torah, or way, of bringing sacrifices (Gen 4:3-4). Noah knew which animals were clean and unclean (Gen 7:2-5).
Why This Matters: In a world that hears ‘Law’ and assumes negative rules or restrictions, God’s torah is revealed as life-giving like rain—His loving instructions that prosper us with growth and blessing. It points to the Living Torah, the Word made flesh full of grace and truth! (Joh 1:14).
The Hebrew paragraphs in this chapter:
26:1-33 {s} Contention over Isaac’s wife, and wells of water
26:34-35 {s} Esau’s wives
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Torah, “Teaching,” Strong’s H8451 – Christine Miller
Law or Torah? – Christine Miller
Seven Principles from Genesis for Marriage and Family – Answers in Genesis
The Genesis Philistines – Associates for Biblical Research
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