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Isaac |
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A name carries great authority. It sets you apart. It triggers
memories. The sound of it calls you to attention anywhere.
Many Bible names accomplished even more. They were often descriptions of important facts about one’s past and hopes for the future. The choice of the name Isaac, "he laughs," for Abraham and Sarah’s son must have created a variety of feelings in them each time it was spoken. At times it must have recalled their shocked laughter at God’s announcement that they would be parents in their old age. At other times, it must have brought back the joyful feelings of receiving their long-awaited answer to prayer for a child. Most important, it was a testimony to God’s power in making his promise a reality. In a family of forceful initiators, Isaac was the quiet, mind-my-own-business type unless he was specifically called on to take action. He was the protected only child from the time Sarah got rid of Ishmael until Abraham arranged his marriage to Rebekah. In his own family, Isaac had the patriarchal position, but Rebekah had the power. Rather than stand his ground, Isaac found it easier to compromise or lie to avoid confrontations. In spite of these shortcomings, Isaac was part of God’s plan. The model his father gave him included a great gift of faith in the one true God. God’s promise to create a great nation through which he would bless the world was passed on by Isaac to his twin sons. It is usually not hard to identify with Isaac in his weaknesses. But consider for a moment that God works through people in spite of their shortcomings and often through them. As you pray, put into words your desire to be available to God. You will discover that his willingness to use you is even greater than your desire to be used. 1- Strengths and accomplishments
2- Weaknesses and mistakes
3- Lessons from his life
4- Vital statistics
5- Key verse "But God replied, ‘Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my everlasting covenant with him and his descendants’" (Genesis 17:19). Isaac’s story is told in Genesis 17:15—35:29. He is also mentioned in Romans 9:7–10; Hebrews 11:17–20; James 2:21.
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(1) Isaac As Isaac was the patriarch that stood between Abraham and Jacob, it may seem remarkable that so little is recorded of him, especially as the promise given to Abraham, of all nations being blessed through his seed, was confirmed to Isaac. He was ‘the son of promise,’ born when Abraham was a hundred years old, and ‘the son of the freewoman,’ in contrast to ‘the son of the bondwoman.’He became the heir, the son of the bondwoman being cast out. #Ga 4:22-30. Abraham’s faith was tried when told to offer up this son of promise, called his ‘only son,’ as being a type of Christ. Abraham obeyed, and Isaac heard that beautiful utterance of faith, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb." He was raised as from the dead and restored to his father, and the covenant was confirmed as to the seed. As Isaac thus became in principle a risen or heavenly man, he must not return for a wife to the country from whence he had been separated by death and resurrection, as also by the call of Abraham; a bride must be fetched for him from thence, and she must be one of the same ‘kindred:’ a remarkable type of the heavenly Christ, and of those given to Him of the Father: they are heavenly as He is heavenly. God in a remarkable way blessed the mission of the servant (type of the Holy Spirit gathering a bride for Christ), and Rebekah, Isaac’s cousin, became his wife. He loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death. Abraham had several sons; but he gave all that he had to Isaac, in which Isaac is a type of Christ, who will possess all things. Rebekah was barren, but on Isaac beseeching the Lord, she and was told that she should be the mother of two nations, and the twin brothers Esau and Jacob were born, Esau being the firstborn. A famine being in the land, Isaac removed to Gerar, and there faithlessly said that Rebekah was his sister, and was rebuked by the king of the Philistines. God confirmed the blessing promised to Abraham, both as to Isaac’s seed possessing all those countries, and also as to all the nations of the earth being blessed in his seed. After the Philistines had had much contention with Isaac respecting some wells of water which they claimed, they bade him depart from them, for he had become too great to dwell so near. He submitted and removed to Beer-sheba. He was thus again in the truth of his calling within the limits of the land of promise: there the Lord again appeared to him, and told him not to fear, He would bless him for his father Abraham’s sake. Now the Philistines come to him, admitting that they saw that Jehovah was blessing him, and they desired a covenant with him that he would do them no hurt. Thus was he now in the true place of moral superiority, in the place of his calling, and as such having no disputes with the nations, but acknowledged as the blessed of the Lord—a word surely for world-borderers of to-day. God does not hide the failings and weaknesses of His people, hence it is related how that Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his venison; and that when he was old he directed him to make savoury meat such as he loved, that he might eat and bless him, his eldest son, before he died. God had said that the elder should serve the younger, but Rebekah, instead of leaving the matter in God’s hands, contrived by a deceitful stratagem to get the blessing for Jacob instead of Esau the firstborn. The deception was soon found out; but how was it that Isaac intended to bless the elder, thus disregarding the word of the Lord? It is to be feared that his love of the venison and savoury meat led him astray. Notwithstanding this failure we read in #Heb 11:20 "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come." This doubtless refers to Isaac’s words when the deception was discovered. He said of Jacob "Yea, and he shall be blessed." #Ge 27:33. The days of Isaac were 180 years: when he died his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. God is constantly referred to as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob: it was through them the blessings to Israel flowed, and through them came the Seed—Christ—in whom all nations of the earth are being blessed. Gen xxi.-xxxv. (2) Isaac The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs #Ge 21:1-3 He was circumcised when eight days old #Ge 21:4-7; and when he was probably two years old a great feast was held in connection with his being weaned. The next memorable event in his life is that connected with the command of God given to Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah #Ge 22:1ff. 54 When he was forty years of age Rebekah was chosen for his wife #Ge 24:1ff. After the death and burial of his father he took up his residence at Beer-lahai-roi #Ge 25:7-11 where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were born #Ge 25:21-26 the former of whom seems to have been his favourite son #Ge 25:27,28. In consequence of a famine #Ge 26:1 Isaac went to Gerar, where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah, imitating the conduct of his father in Egypt #Ge 12:12-20 and in Gerar #Ge 20:2 The Philistine king rebuked him for his prevarication. After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines, he returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of covenant blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant of peace with him. The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons #Ge 27:1 He died at Mamre, "being old and full of days" #Ge 35:27-29 one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah. In the New Testament reference is made to his having been "offered up" by his father #Heb 11:17 Jas 2:21 and to his blessing his sons #Heb 11:20 As the child of promise, he is contrasted with Ishmael #Ro 9:7,10 Ga 4:28 Heb 11:18 Isaac is "at once a counterpart of his father in simple devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung from his relations to his mother and wife. After the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in the shade of Sarah’s tent, moulded into feminine softness by habitual submission to her strong, loving will." His life was so quiet and uneventful that it was spent "within the circle of a few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother’s death was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so grandly obedient that he put his life at his father’s disposal; so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.," Geikie’s Hours, etc. |