The submissive son

Genesis 21:1-8, 22:1-14 (click the link to read the passages)

Isaac, as we have seen, was the product of a miracle, born when his father Abraham was 100 years old and his mother Sarah 91 years old. Isaac is one of the few men in the Bible whose name was selected and announced by God prior to his birth. Commentators believe that Isaac was between 25 and 30 years of age when his father prepared to offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. If Abraham’s attitude was outstanding in this situation, so also was Isaac’s. He meekly allowed himself to be placed upon the altar, and lay there unresisting until the sacrificial knife was about to be plunged into him. It was an ordeal for the father, but no less for the son.

For thought and contemplation:

Question: Where do you find another instance of a Son voluntarily surrendering His life and laying Himself on an altar at His Father’s bidding? Answer: It was less than a mile from Mount Moriah—at the place called Calvary. Eternal praise be to His wonderful Name!

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter…” (Isa. 53:6-7, NIV)

The selected spouse

Genesis 24:1-51

Now that Isaac is about forty years of age, Abraham concludes that it is time that a bride is found for his beloved son. Realising that marriage to an idolater might interfere with God’s future purposes, he commissions his servant Eliezer to travel to Mesopotamia in the hope of bringing back a fitting bride from among his own people. Worldly ambitions might have suggested that marriage to a Canaanite girl would be likely to result in the possession of territory by his grandchildren, but the spiritual considerations outweighed this.

Abraham is not stated to have even consulted Isaac when he dispatched his servant to visit his homeland, and here again is evidence of Isaac’s complete confidence in his father’s faith and wisdom.

For thought and contemplation:

The principle of not being “yoked together with unbelievers” is, in these modern days, often sacrificed on the altar of expediency. How do you feel about this issue? Is it a principle that guides you in all your relationships?

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14, NIV)

The gentle groom

Genesis 24:52-67

Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, performed his task of finding a bride for Isaac to perfection. Having prayed for divine guidance, he was led to a beautiful young girl by the name of Rebekah who instantly struck him as being a suitable choice for his master’s son.

After making all the necessary arrangements, he returns to Abraham’s household with the bride-to-be under his charge.

It seems, by this time, that Abraham has informed Isaac concerning Eliezer’s mission, and as the servant is spotted returning to the homestead, Isaac goes out to meet him. He accepts Rebekah as a gift from God, takes her into his mother’s tent and gives her his mother’s place in his heart.

For thought and contemplation:

What better thought to hold in mind than that expressed by Richard Wilton:

“Thus while to Heaven thought after thought was rising,
The fair Rebekah step by step drew nigh,
With life’s chief joy the prayerful saint surprising:
For those who think of Him, God still is thinking.”

“…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Eph. 5:25-27, NIV)

The praying husband

Genesis 25:1-23

Isaac’s marriage, though happy and promising at the start, brought new trials and difficulties into his life. Rebekah went through the same experience as her mother-in-law, Sarah—childlessness. This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed was of great concern to Isaac, and caused him to intercede with God on Rebekah’s behalf. The prayer which he uttered was filled with deep intensity and concern:

“Isaac pleaded (Hebrew: agonised) with the Lord for his wife because she was barren.”

God heard Isaac’s prayer, and in due course the barren Rebekah became the mother of twin sons who, even in the womb, foreshadowed the long fierce struggle of the races that would spring from them.

For thought and contemplation:

How intriguing are the ways of the Lord, who arranges events and situations so that His people are constantly dependent upon Him. Have you lost your dependence on God? Then don’t be surprised if He holds up the fulfillment of His promises until that truth fastens itself upon your heart.

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child…because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband…Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back…For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations…” (Isa. 54:1-3, NIV)

Like father, like son

Genesis 26:1-11

The land in which Isaac lived became stricken with famine and, seeking food for his cattle, he makes his way to Gerar but is warned by God not to go down into Egypt. It is in Gerar that Isaac imitated the ruse which his father practised on two previous occasions (see Gen. 12:10-20 and Gen. 20), and evasively declared Rebekah to be his ‘sister’. His lie, however, was discovered by Abimelech, the king of Gerar, who rebuked him for his deceitfulness, and then instructed his people not to molest him. Isaac, a circumcised member of a chosen race, stood rebuked by an uncircumcised Philistine, and gave the enemies of Jehovah an occasion to blaspheme.

For thought and contemplation:

Can a lie ever be justified? Some moralists say that a falsehood that is motivated by love is not a falsehood. But what does God say? “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices” (Col. 3:9, RSV).

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32, NIV)

The willing worker

Genesis 26:12-33

Isaac eventually settles in the valley of Gerar, where he found a number of wells which had been dug in the days of Abraham, but which had been filled up by the Philistines with rubbish and earth. Isaac sets himself the task of re-opening the wells, calling them by the very names that his father had called them. He thus not only honoured his father’s memory, but also claimed his rights as his father’s heir. The ill-feeling of the Philistines prompted Abimelech to ask Isaac to depart from their land, but God continues to bless him, which in turn leads the Philistines to recognise that despite his failures, God is with the man whose heart is disposed toward Him.

For thought and contemplation:

Feeling spiritually jaded at the moment? Does some memory of a past failure or sin continue to lacerate your soul? Confess it to God and put it behind you. Then go out as Isaac did, and do a great new work for God.

“…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14, NIV)

A deceived father

Genesis 27:18-40

Isaac feels he is approaching the end of his days and, according to custom, desires to bestow his blessing upon his firstborn son—Esau. He is aware that God had said that the older would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), but he decides to go ahead nevertheless. Rebekah, hearing Isaac’s instructions to Esau that he should bring him some fresh venison, decided to trick the old man into believing that her favourite son, Jacob, was the firstborn. The deception resulted in Jacob being given the blessing of the firstborn, and Esau receiving the blessing of the secondborn. Actually Isaac lived many years after this incident, and died at the age of 180 (Gen. 35:27-29).

For thought and contemplation:

What a train of evils follows in the wake of deceit. The poet was right when he wrote:

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we venture to deceive.”

Trickery and worldly schemes bring only heartache to any family.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9, NIV)