Isaac

The Two Sons

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In Genesis chapter 25, we find Abraham had remarried and had six more sons. He died when he was 175 years old and left all that he had to Isaac after ensuring that all his other children had been given gifts. Ishmael and Isaac buried their father in the cave with Sarah. Ishmael had 12 sons, two of which became nations that are mentioned later on in the Bible. He lived to be 137 years old.

Isaac prayed and pleaded with God to have a child as Rebekah was barren, similar to his own mother. After 20 years of marriage, Rebekah became pregnant. It was a rough pregnancy though, so she went to pray to God to see what was going on. The Lord told her that she had two nations in her womb that were struggling for power and that the older child would serve the younger one.

She soon gave birth to twin boys. The older one was a hairy child named Esau (based off of his red skin color), and the younger was named Jacob (or usurper because he was holding his brother’s heel when he came out). As they grew up, Isaac preferred his son Esau the hunter and Rebekah preferred her quieter son Jacob. Meaning that the parents had favorites.

One day, Jacob was making stew and Esau came in really tired and hungry. Esau asked for some stew and Jacob said he would sell it to Esau for his birthright – that is the blessings and honor that come from their father due to being the first born son. Esau said that he was so hungry that he was going to die, so he did not care about his birthright and sold it to Jacob. Jacob fed Esau, who ate and went on his way despising his birthright. He did not care if he sold it or not.

This passage reveals the nature of the two sons. One completely focused on the physical, how he felt and what he ate. The other focused on his position and blessings, things that would come from having the birthright. Sometimes we too can get caught up in the physical wants of our bodies that we forget about the position and blessings we have been given.

Be encouraged though that God cares about both. Do not forsake one for the other, but seek God when and where you find places of need and He will provide for you. He will give you all that you need and will not require you to sell Him anything in return because He is a God who loves people and gives freely.

A Quick Answer

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In Genesis 24, we find Abraham getting much older in age and being blessed by the Lord in all that he did. So he calls for a servant to come over and makes the servant promise to God that he will find a wife for his son Isaac from their home country and not from the land that they were staying in. In addition to that, the servant needed to bring the wife back to Isaac, because he could not go into the land of the old country.

The servant made the promise, then took ten camels and went on a journey to the place where Abraham had come from. When the servant arrived in that land in the evening, he had the camels kneel by a well and he prayed that the Lord would reveal Isaac’s wife to the servant. He prayed that the young woman who was to marry him would offer the servant some water from the well and offer to water his camels as well.

Before the servant even finished his prayer, Rebekah came by and did just that. The servant saw that she was beautiful and that she was unwed, but he remained quiet as he sought confirmation from God to make sure that this was indeed Isaac’s wife.

Once he knew for sure, the servant gave Rebekah some gold bracelets and a nose ring and asked Rebekah who her family was and if he could stay with them. Rebekah took the servant to meet her family and let him know that they had lodging for his camels too. Her family invited the servant into the house to eat and tell of his journey. After he finished telling them his story, Rebekah’s father and brother told the servant that she could go with him to be Isaac’s wife. The servant worshipped God for his prayers had been answered.

The servant stayed with them that night, then got up early in the morning ready to go. Rebekah’s brother tried to delay the servant saying that Rebekah would go with him in 10 days, not immediately. The servant was not having it with the foolishness, so they called Rebekah out to ask her what she thought. She said that she would go with the servant that day, so she left that day with her maids.

Isaac was out meditating in a field near his home when he saw the camels coming towards him. He got up and went to meet them. The servant told Isaac of all that had happened, then Isaac took Rebekah as his wife and he loved her. He found comfort in his wife after his mother’s death.

What I find encouraging here is God’s faithfulness to answer prayers. The servant had a task to do and instead of just doing it on his own with his own way of thinking, he turned to the Lord in prayer. He knew that God’s ways were better than his. And you know what? God brought an answer to him before his prayer was even done.

God loves to hear from His children in prayer and loves to answer those prayers. Sometimes it is a quick answer like for the servant, and sometimes it takes years and years for the answer to appear like with God’s promise to give Sarah and Abraham a son. Be encouraged in prayer knowing that God will answer you. Weather quickly or slowly, just trust that God loves you and the answer is on the way.

Obedience is Key

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In Chapter 22 of Genesis, God wanted to see where Abraham’s heart was, so He asked Abraham to take the thing that he loved most, his promised son, and offer him as a burnt offering. Now this had to have seemed crazy because the Lord did not call for human sacrifice as some other foreign nations had practiced. That was not part of His plan, it was not how he operated or asked for sacrifices to be, so it must have seemed odd that God would all of a sudden ask for this. And to ask for it for the son that He had promised Abraham. To ask Abraham to sacrifice the very thing he had been waiting YEARS, if not a lifetime to get, must have been a hard thing to grasp. Even though it did not make sense, Abraham knew the Lord’s voice, he had seen God come through and keep His promises, and Abraham had seen what happens to nations that were disobedient and pursued evil acts (we’re looking at you Sodom and Gomorrah!), so Abraham packed up what was needed and took his son Isaac up towards the mountain to make a burnt offering to the Lord.

After three days of traveling, Isaac spoke up and basically said “Hey dad… are we missing something? I see the things to make a fire and an alter, but where is the offering? How is this thing going to work?” Isaac must have been used to burnt offerings and alters as they were probably a normal part of his family’s life, so he knew there should have been a lamb with them for this sacrifice, but a lamb he did not see and that must have been peculiar. Abraham told his son not to worry because God would provide an offering. I cannot begin to imagine what was going through either of their minds as they traveled together on this journey.

Once they had gotten to the spot that the Lord had told them to go, Abraham built an alter and laid his son down on it, ready to make the sacrifice. Before anything happened, an Angel of the Lord spoke from heaven to say “STOP!”. The angel told Abraham that he had been faithful, that he feared the Lord and was obedient. Then Abraham saw that there was a ram in the bush right by them to use as an offering and Abraham knew that the Lord had provided.

Then the Angel called to Abraham again and said that he was blessed and that God would multiply his descendants like the stars in the sky and that his lineage would possess the cities of his enemies. All of this was because Abrahma was obedient even when it did not make sense.

God gives us many things in life: gifts, blessings, skills, talents, jobs, friend, family, resources, etc. How would we respond if He told us to sacrifice those things? To give them up freely, with no promise of a return? God is the one who gave them to us in the first place, and as Abraham tells us, He is a God of provision. He is also the God of all creation, He literally made everything that exists – including you and me. Would He not call us to do something if it was not good for us?

Be encouraged, God loves you! And if He asked you to do something that seems impossible, that does not make sense, that might even be a little scary (or A LOT scary), remember that He will meet you in that place and will provide all that you need every step of the way. Listen for His voice and trust when you hear it.

The Promise

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In Genesis 21, we see that Sarah gave birth to a son (at 100 years old!!!) and she named him Isaac, which means he laughs. How fitting is his name, as Sarah laughed when the Lord told her she would conceive a child in her old age. Sarah and Abraham were very old and naturally should not have been able to have children any longer, but through divine intervention, God fulfilled his promise and allowed them to have children. Isaac was literally the promised child.

Anytime blessings happen, we know that haters are quick to show up on the scene. In this story there are two haters. The first is Isaac’s older half-brother Ishmael, who laughs (mockingly) at Isaac. The second is actually Sarah, who is a big hater of Hagar (Ishmael’s mom). Sarah was mad that Ishmeal was laughing at Isaac, and there was probably a little bit of jealousy and awkwardness because Hagar slept with her husband Abraham, but who’s keeping score? So here is this rich woman Sarah (Abraham had a lot of sheep and stuff) who is mad at a slave woman (Hagar) because of sibling rivalry between Ishmael and Isaac. Sarah goes and complains to her husband and tells him to get rid of Hagar.

And what does Abraham do? After talking to God and calming down a bit, he packs Hagar a picnic basket and tells her and his firstborn son to get lost. Just messy!

So Hagar was tough and headed out to the desert with her son. When she ran out of food and water, she cried out to God because she couldn’t bear to watch her son die. And you know what happened? God heard her cry and led her to a well in the middle of the desert so she could get water for her and her son. God allowed them to survive, and not only that, but he promised that Ishmael would become a great nation one day.

God talks about laughter a lot, He is the inventor of laughter, but let us make sure that we are laughing for the right reasons and not secretly becoming the villains of our own stories. Also, remember when humans fail us, or when we fail ourselves, God is still there and He never fails. In fact, God works all things together for GOOD.

Be encouraged, God keeps His promises even when we become impatient or doubt. God is consistent and loves us enough to pick us back up when we fall, every time we fall. All we have to do is cry out to Him and trust that He will be there.

Still Waiting on a Promise

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In Genesis chapter 17, we find a 99 year old Abram still waiting on a promise from God. The Lord has appeared to him 4 times before telling Abram that he will have a son with Sarah and yet he hasn’t seen it. In this chapter, we see God come to Abram and say “I am the God Almighty [most powerful/sufficient]”… God reminds Abram of who He is and then goes on to say that He’s going to keep His word to Abram by making covenant with him. We’ll remember from Genesis chapter 15 that a covenant is a legal agreement, but in this chapter, God is requiring for Abram to give something in the covenant – to be a participant.

God promises to Abram that he will have a son with Sarai, even in their late age. Sarai’s womb that was a tomb will now bring life, the place that was dead will awaken and the promise that God had with Abram all along will be fulfilled. As a sign of this change on God’s end, He renames Abram calling him Abraham [father of many] and He renames Sarai calling her Sarah [princess]. In giving them a new name, God gives them a new identity.

On the flip side, God asks Abraham to walk blamelessly and as a sign that he is one of God’s people, he and any male in his family needs to be circumcised [cut off their foreskin]. That is a permanent, everlasting sign that shows their promise to follow God. Is it painful? Yes, but all great promises come at a cost. This is serious dedication and at 99 years old, Abraham is all in. There’s no going back form this.

After this, God goes on to tell Abraham about his and Sarah’s son and Abraham starts laughing. He laughs at what God says in a yeah right kind of way. Because of this, God tells Abraham to name his son Isaac [he laughs]. God finishes up talking to Abraham by reassuring him again that he will be a father to many nations.

At the end of the chapter, Abraham and all his male servants and his son Ishmael are all circumcised.

There are 2 things that speak to me when I read this chapter. The first is that God can give you a new name and a new identity. The people down the street might have known you as Joe the Joke or Gloria the Gossip, but God can call you Father of Many, or Mighty Warrior, or Sweet One, or Beautiful, or Honored, Honest, Rich, Loyal or Loved and as long as you walk in that new name, that new promise, it doesn’t matter what the people down the street say. They just haven’t seen God’s promise on you life yet, they don’t know your new identity and they haven’t gotten their new identity yet. It’s like watching a superhero movie. Peter Parker knows that something happened after the radio active spider bit him, but everyone else around him still sees plain old Peter. Just because that’s what they see doesn’t change the fact that he’s a superhero. Remind yourself that the world might see who you used to be, but God turned you into a superhero.

The second thing that sticks with me is that God is willing to turn a dead place into a place that brings forth life. A womb has one job, and yet Sarah’s womb couldn’t get it together to produce children. It didn’t work right. It didn’t do what it was supposed to do. It was as dead as her hope. She honestly thought she would never birth a kid and at 90 years old, it’s hard to not think that that ship had sailed. But the most amazing thing is that God can take the things that are dead, buried, mourned for and forgotten about and He can bring them to life. If He promised it, He will make it happen, you just have to hold on to the promise. It might take 90 years to happen, but the dead things can come alive again. The dead place can produce life. The forgotten hope can be revived.

Be encouraged! God keeps His promises and He’s willing to remind you as many times as you need to that He will keep His promise. Sometime we need to do something to show our dedication in the process, we need to walk with God in this, but His promise is His promise. Just keep holding on, it will happen. God is faithful!