I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving; enjoying good times with family and friends. I find it beneficial to begin each day with an attitude of gratitude.
One of the things I’m most grateful for is how God reveals himself to us through the stories and teachings in the Bible. God doesn’t just want us to know “about” Him but to know Him personally. We can do this as we study the Bible and reflect on how He deals with people like Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and us.
Something I have learned to appreciate even more deeply about my Heavenly Father is that He wants to save me and you. And, He has made a promise about that plan and will faithfully keep it. I’m also encouraged by what we’ve looked at so far in Genesis, He chooses to work through imperfect people to accomplish the plan. I’m amazed at the patience of God. He is not thwarted by the messes created by Abraham, Sarah, and others He has chosen to carry out the plan. God’s love is so unconditional that nothing will stop Him from trying to save us from ourselves.
Today we look at another messy, complicated story about God’s redemptive promise. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, is the next “link” in the plan and promise God made to Abraham. Remember what God has promised to Abraham? Here is the promise that will pass from Abraham to Isaac.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3
Isaac will be the next “link” in the unbroken chain God is putting together in His redemptive plan. Isaac is the promised son, born when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. We pick up the story of Isaac in Genesis, chapters 23-26, looking at some of the more obvious pieces of the puzzle God is putting together. ( As with all the blogs, I encourage you to read the entire scriptural account about how God fulfills the promise concerning His plan).
What do we know about Isaac? What life experiences will influence and prepare him to carry out the plan God will entrust to Him? Let’s begin with his name. Isaac, which means “laughter,” will remind him that what seems impossible and laughable to man is possible with God. His elderly mother laughed at God’s promise that she would have a child in her old age. The name he will carry throughout his life will remind him that God delights in doing things that we consider impossible.
And think about this. When he was just a lad, his father took him on a journey to a mountain to sacrifice to God. His father tied him up and laid him on the altar and he was ready to kill him when God intervened! Can you imagine the conversations with his father and the dreams and memories that experience evoked? What did they talk about on the way home from the mountain? What did this tell him about God’s promise to Abraham and his father’s confidence that God will provide all we need when we obey Him?
Isaac is about thirty-seven and unmarried when his mother dies at age 127. (Genesis 23:1). Abraham purchases a field and cave at Machpelah where he buries his wife and since he is old himself (137), decides it is time to ensure that his bloodline and God’s promise will be carried on. What happens next seems very strange in our culture but a common way of arranging marriages in Abraham’s day, parents arranged for their children’s marriage. This beautiful story is covered in detail in Genesis 24.
Abraham is determined to keep the bloodline pure, Isaac will not marry a local Canaanite beauty. Sarah was of the same bloodline as Abraham and so it will be with Isaac. It’s interesting to note that God rejected Abraham’s proposal to let Ishmael be the heir. No, the heir was to be the son of Abraham and Sarah, not that of Abraham and Hagar. So, Abraham sends his senior servant, along with many others, and all kinds of expensive gifts back to his home country to find a wife from among his kinfolks. Read this story in Genesis 24!
The servant asks for God’s guidance, obeys Abraham’s instructions, and brings Rebekah back to marry Isaac. No doubt Abraham has informed Isaac of what he has done. Isaac, now 40, is returning home in anticipation of meeting his wife-to-be. What a thrilling encounter this must have been. Here is what is recorded in Genesis 24: 62-66.
“Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out one evening to meditate, and as he looked up he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from the camel and asked the servant, ‘ Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?’ ‘ He is my master,’ the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
Now, it’s time to stop and do some math concerning Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born. According to Genesis 25:7-8, Abraham was 175 when he died, “Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man full of years; and he was gathered to his people.”
What’s the point here? Isaac is now seventy-five, he and Rebekah have been married thirty-five years and have no children! Abraham dies without seeing how God will carry on his plan through Isaac. Isaac knows God’s plan and promise are to be carried through him. There’s just one problem, he has no son to continue the plan and promise God has revealed to his deceased father. What does Isaac do? The man whose God does the impossible prays for a child. God’s plan and promise will continue,
“Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” Genesis 25:21
What are you learning about God and His plan through the stories of Abraham and Isaac?
How does any of what you are learning apply to how God deals with you?