The Rich Foreigner Gets Expelled
Canaan was hot, dry and arid. Very little rain fell in the best of years and some years there was no rain at all. Consequently when crops did not grow and there was little grass in the pastures to feed the flocks, which was a pretty common occurrence in Canaan, there was widespread famine and both people and animals starved. One such famine occurred during the days of Isaac. Isaac was considering moving his flocks south to greener pastures, but the Lord Yahweh appeared to Isaac suddenly one day and told him not to go to Egypt, as his father Abraham had done, but instead to go to the Philistine city of Gerar and reside there as an undocumented alien. Yahweh told Isaac: “If you remain at Gerar and settle there, I will give you Gerar and all the surrounding land. Even though you are a foreigner and an alien, I will give you and your descendants all the lands as far as the eye can see. I will make your descendants as numerous as the st...