Genesis 26 tells us of an important test that Isaac experienced: "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" (v. 1).

Isaac forsook the place where he was living--the place of his fellowship with God. He went to Gerar and left behind the place of the altar.

Isaac was headed toward Egypt--and possibly that is where he would have gone--but he stopped enroute at a place called Gerar. This city was in the land of Canaan, although it was well on the way toward Egypt.

Because those who went to Egypt usually did so as a reliance on the flesh, Egypt became a symbol of the world. Those who live independently of God and rely on natural resources are spiritually in Egypt.

God was not going to allow Isaac to go into Egypt. His position on the outer fringes of the land certainly evidenced an advanced position of backsliding within the range of very dangerous influences.

This was a test for Isaac, and he failed it utterly. However, God remained true to His time-honored principle of not testing a believer beyond what he is able to bear but making a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).

God knew how much Isaac could stand, and He knows how much we can stand.

"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John 2:17).