Part 2B Isaac
We will continue on with the life of Abraham's son Isaac to see how God reaffirms the promise of the land of Canaan to be Isaac's inheritance. That God is continuing the land covenant with Abraham's son with his wife Sarah.
1. Isaac
- God reaffirms the covenant and the promise of the land of Canaan given as an inheritance to Abraham’s son Isaac and later on he will reaffirm this covenant promise with his grandson Jacob and Jacob’s descendants after him. So there is no doubt that the Jewish people are to possess the land.
- Centuries later God will send His Son Jesus to be born into the tribe of Judah as a descendant of King David. He was to be born among the tribes of Israel as one of them in the body of flesh that was prepared for Him, Hebrews 10:5-11.
- By being born among the Israeli people they literally are the flesh and blood kinsmen of God through His Son and when they become born again they become truly His children through the Holy Spirit.
- Likewise as the descendants of the Patriarchs are to inherit/possess the land of Canaan later renamed Israel. So too Jesus is the inheritor of the land the chief inheritor of the land as God's Son and the land belongs to God Leviticus 25:23.
- When He returns Jesus will take up His role as inheritor of the land and possessor /owner of it firstly as God the Son, then as High Priest and King.
2. Genesis 24 Isaac’s marriage
Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac from his relatives
- Abraham made his servant take an oath that he was not to take a wife for Isaac from the women of Canaan he was to go to Abraham’s homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac.
- Earlier in Genesis 22:23 it is mentioned that Nahor had children and one of these children had a daughter called Rebekah which became Isaac’s wife.
- Isaac was not to intermarry with the daughters of the land of Canaan.
- Abraham sent his servant, to go and find a suitable wife from his kinsmen back in what would be today modern Iran/Iraq.
- This was to keep the bloodline pure, not mixed if Isaac intermarried with the Canaanites this would affect the pure knowledge of the Lord and cause idolatry to enter into the bloodline before it even got started.
- Abraham’s relatives were gentiles they were Hebrews the nation of Israel was not yet formed. God wanted to raise up a strong family line. He has the servant go to the family of Abraham and bring his great niece back to be married to Isaac.
- This is a longest chapter out of Genesis but as it is dealing with Abraham finding a wife for his son Isaac and this chapter shows how God was very involved in choosing the right wife for Isaac from Abraham's family. For God sends His angel before Abraham's servant to lead him to the right young woman who was to be Isaac's bride.
⦁ Abraham makes his servant take an oath not to take a wife from the women of Canaan. – Genesis 24:1-3, 9.
⦁ The servant was not to take Abraham’s son Isaac back to his family in Mesopotamia.- Genesis 24:4-7
⦁ If the woman is not willing to go back with the servant he was freed from the oath. Genesis 24:8
⦁ The servant relied upon the Lord to help him find the right wife for Isaac who was the great niece of Abraham his brother’s granddaughter, Isaac’s second cousin.
Genesis 24:10–32.
⦁ The servant put the needs of his master first before he ate his meal he relayed the reason why he came on the journey and told of how God had greatly blessed his master Abraham. Genesis 24:33-49.
⦁ The finding of a wife for Isaac was successful due to the Lord taking care of every step of the way that the servant went by sending His Angel before the servant he was led directly to the daughter of Abraham’s nephew who is the son of Nahor Abraham’s brother. Genesis 24:49-53.
⦁ The brother of Rebekah wanted to delay the servant but the servant didn’t want to delay but be on his journey, so they asked Rebekkah if she was willing to go with the servant and she was. Genesis 24:54-61.
⦁ Rebekah came to Isaac and he took her to his mother’s tent in marriage and was comforted by her. Genesis 24:62-67.
⦁ Isaac was sixty years of age when his two sons Esau and Jacob were born, he was forty years of age when he married Rebekah and he had prayed for twenty years before his sons were born.
3. The Death of Abraham
Taken from the New International version of the Bible
Genesis 25:1-11
1 Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah.2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. 3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Ashurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanok, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.
5 Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. 6 But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
7 Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, 10 the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. 11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.
⦁ After Sarah’s death, Abraham married another wife called Keturah and she had six children to Abraham, these are his other descendants.
⦁ Before his death Abraham gave all his possessions to Isaac and sent his other sons away eastward away from Isaac.
Genesis 25:5
5 Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. 6 But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
After Abraham had died both Isaac and Ishmael buried their father in the cave where Isaac’s mother was buried.
4. The birth of Jacob and Esau the next generation
⦁ After twenty years Rebekkah was finally able to have children, Isaac had prayed for his wife to conceive and she did, she was pregnant with twins which struggled together in her womb so much so she wanted to know why it was so.
⦁ Here is God’s answer to her prayer as to why there was so much struggling going on in her womb.
Genesis 25:19 – 27
19 And this is the history of the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac.
20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Padan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 And Isaac prayed much to the Lord for his wife because she was unable to bear children; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant.
22 [Two] children struggled together within her; and she said, If it is so [that the Lord has heard our prayer], why am I like this? And she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 The Lord said to her, [The founders of] two nations are in your womb, and the separation of two peoples has begun in your body; the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.
24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 The first came out red all over like a hairy garment, and they named him Esau [hairy].
26 Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand grasped Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob [supplanter]. Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a cunning and skilled hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a plain and quiet man, dwelling in tents.
⦁ Isaac loved Esau as he was an outdoors person and Rebekah loved Jacob as he was a dweller in tents.
This partiality of the parents were to cause trouble later on between Esau and Jacob,
it was passed down through the generations because Jacob loved Joseph over his other sons and this caused jealousy and strife amongst the sons of Jacob. As parents we are to be careful not to show partiality to our children but to love and treat them equally.
⦁ Later on there was a famine in the land and God warned Isaac not to go down to Egypt so Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
It was not yet time for Isaac and his descendants to go down to Egypt that was to come later.
The Lord did not want Isaac and his children to get settled in Egypt and therefore be corrupted by the ways of the Egyptians.
When the time was right for the family line of Abraham to go to Egypt God sent them to Egypt to escape another famine and He raised up Joseph the son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac, great grandson of Abraham to
be a ruler under Pharoah over Egypt to preserve the family line of Jacob (Israel).
5. Lord reaffirms the covenant with Isaac In
Genesis 26:2-5
⦁ The Lord appeared to Isaac and reaffirms His oath that He’d made with Abraham, which was the promise of the land of Canaan to be given to his descendants and that he will have many offspring.
⦁ God told Isaac not to go down to Egypt but to stay in the land of which He will tell him, that if he obeyed God like his father Abraham did God will bless him.
Genesis 26:2-5, 24
1 AND THERE was a famine in the land, other than the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you.
3 Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4 And I will make your descendants to multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your posterity all these lands (kingdoms); and by your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, or by Him bless themselves,
5 For Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws.
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
6. God affirms the covenant with Isaac again in Genesis 26:23-25 key verse is verse 24
Genesis 26:23-25
Now he went up from there to Beersheba.
24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will favor you with blessings and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.
25 And [Isaac] built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants were digging a well.
The rest of the history of Isaac and his sons Jacob and Esau will continue in the next few posts.
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