The Faith of Isaac
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The faith of Isaac DIG: Name the three basic features of the Abrahamic Covenant. Why do you think that although Isaac lived longer than either Abraham, Jacob, or Joseph, the book of Genesis devotes less space to his life than to theirs? What were Isaac’s failures? Why did God bless him anyway? Why did Isaac want to bless Esau even though he knew God told Rebekah that the older will serve the younger? As a result, how did Isaac put Jacob and Rebekah in a horrible position? How can we understand the situation that Isaac put them in? Describe how God brought about His plan despite the scheming of Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob? How did God finally get Isaac into the Promised Land?
REFLECT: God’s sovereignty was shown in His choice of Jacob over Esau. God is no less sovereign over the circumstances of your life. Spend some time this week thinking back over the events of your life. Praise God for the times He helped you through a difficult experience or blessed you. Than thank Him for all the difficult things He allowed you to go through, remembering that all trails in the life of a believer are for a purpose (James 1:2-4). Events that seem good to us (and those we don’t like), both fall under God’s sovereignty. Finally, thank God for His sovereignly choosing you to be saved, before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).319
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. And those who are righteous will live their lives by faith (Hebrews 10:38 CJB quoting Habakkuk 2:4 CJB). Just as his father had done to him, Isaac passed on the blessings of ADONAI’s promise to his sons by faith. He was absolutely certain that those blessings would be realized. For the time being, the promises of God were the inheritance, which the patriarchs cherished as much as most people cherish material possessions, fame and power.
Isaac showed great faith by allowing Abraham to tie him up and place him on the wood as a burnt offering. He knew exactly what was going on, and could have easily resisted his father who was much older than he. But, by faith, he did not, as as a result, became a type of Messiah (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Fm – Take Your Only Son Isaac and Sacrifice Him as a Burnt Offering).
However, it is interesting that Isaac lived longer than any of the other patriarchs, less space in Genesis and Hebrews is devoted to him than to the others. Whereas Abraham, Jacob and Joseph each have about twelve chapters in Genesis that center on them, Isaac has just over two and-a-half – Chapters 26 and 27 and about half of Chapter 25. Isaac was easily the least spectacular and the most ordinary of the four. He was less dynamic and colorful, being generally quiet and passive. And, overall, he seems to have had the weakest faith. But just like his father, Abraham, when Isaac blessed his sons in regard to their future in faith, it was credited to him as righteousness.
Nevertheless, we know more about his failures than we do about his successes. Because of a famine, God spoke to him in a remarkable and encouraging vision. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (Genesis 26:3-4). In other words, the covenant promises to Abraham were passed on to Isaac directly by God. Those promises along should have kept Isaac from worry and fear, for ADONAI could not have fulfilled them if Isaac were not protected. Not only that, but YHVH specifically told him, “I will be with you and will bless you.”
Yet at the first sign of possible danger, Isaac proved faithless. When the men of Gerar became interested in Rebekah because of her beauty, Isaac said she was his sister instead of his wife, for fear that one of those Philistines might kill him in order to have her. In that, of course, he was merely following in his father’s footsteps, because Abraham had twice lied in the say way about Sarah (Genesis 12:13 and 20:2). Rebekah was beautiful and the Philistines were not above doing what Isaac feared. But rather than trusting ADONAI for protection, he lied. Not only that, but he seems to have been more concerned for himself than for Rebekah.
YHVH disclosed to Abimelech (a term like king or pharaoh) Rebekah’s true relationship to Isaac, and then he put them both under a protective order. Abimelech, a pagan Philistine, was more concerned about the ethics of the matter than was Isaac, a chosen man of God. He rebuked Isaac sharply, saying: What is this you have done to us? One of men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us. ADONAI’s grace prevailed, though it was through an unbeliever, with no help from Isaac (see the commentary on Genesis Gp – Abimelech, King of the Philistines, Saw Isaac Caressing His Wife Rebekah).
But the LORD continued to bless Isaac, who became wealthy. The envy of the Philistines caused them to keep filling up his wells until he finally moved out of their land, which seems to have been what God wanted all along. At that point Isaac acknowledged Ha’Shem’s hand in the matter: Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the Land (See the commentary on Genesis Gq – Isaac Reopened the Wells of His Father Abraham). YHVH was gently, but firmly, leading Isaac back to Beersheba (see the commentary on Genesis Gr – Isaac Went Up to Beersheba. That Night the LORD Appeared to Him) and God repeated the covenant promises. By His sovereign will, God brought the prodigal home.320
Isaac was basically materialistic. He lived mostly by sight and taste. He was partial to Esau, who had always been his favorite son, while Jacob had been the favorite of Rebekah. Esau was a mighty hunter who would go out and bring home venison and cook it just the way Isaac liked it. Even when Isaac was old and about to die, he asked Esau to go out and kill some game and prepare a savory dish for him before pronouncing the patriarchal blessing on him. But Isaac was disobedient to wishes of the LORD, for ADONAI had told Rebekah that Jacob was to receive the blessing rather than Esau, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be strong than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). Isaac had to know about this, and he put both Rebekah and Jacob in a terrible position because of his disobedience.
It seems that the only way to understand their situation is to conclude that even though the way in which Jacob and Rebekah went about obtaining the blessing from Isaac was wrong, the sin of Isaac and Esau was greater. The LORD does not approve of lying; Jacob and Rebekah knew this. They were sensitive and spiritual people, but they had decided that, as bad as deception might be in the sight of ADONAI, it had become necessary in this case in order to prevent a greater sin, that of conveying the most holy of God’s promises to a man who neither wanted it nor would honor it. This was as much of a lapse of faith as when Abraham went to Egypt in Chapter 12, and when Sarah suggested that they have a child through her handmaiden Hagar in Chapter 16. Rebekah had already received the revelation from the LORD that the older would serve the younger. Here, then, Rebekah needed to trust that in ADONAI’s timing Jacob would receive the patriarchal blessing. But because of a lack of faith she felt that she needed to take matters into her own hands because it seemed that nothing could stop Isaac. Esau could have come back at any moment! We can only imagine how hopeless they felt. This was a desperate situation, but it wasn’t the first time that someone had lied to preserve God’s people.
The Hebrew midwives deliberately disobeyed Pharaoh and lied to him. Why? Because they feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do (Exodus 1:15-16 and 22). To do otherwise would have resulted in the deaths of countless Hebrew boys. Did the LORD punish these midwives for lying? No, Elohim was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own (Exodus 1:20-21).
Another example of ADONAI’s blessing on a lie was in the life of Rahab. She and her family and all that belonged to her were saved because she hid two Israelite spies and lied about it to the king of Jericho (Joshua 2:4-7 and 6:25). There are a number of other instances in the Bible in which godly men, in order to accomplish the will of God and to glorify Him, had to break another of His commandments. These are rare exceptions and can only be justified in very special and unusual circumstances as we have here with Isaac and the patriarchal blessing. Furthermore, the people in these examples never gain any financial advantage for themselves. In fact, Rahab and the Hebrew midwives risked their lives because of the lies they told.
Similarly, Jacob and Rebekah, in order to do what they thought was necessary to accomplish God’s will, were willing to risk the wrath and hatred of their own loved ones, and Jacob even to risk his life at the hands of his angry brother. Their action hardly had any financial advantage. Because Jacob was righteous (see Cr – The Faith of Jacob), he only cared about the spiritual ramifications of the blessing.321
It wasn’t until Isaac had already blessed Jacob and knew the blessing couldn’t be reversed, did he began to show faith. If Jonah was the reluctant prophet, then Isaac was the reluctant patriarch. Only when he realized that the blessing was going to be on ADONAI’s man regardless, did he give in. Isaac finally, begrudgingly, said yes to God. The LORD had to box him into a corner before he believed; but believe he did, and when facing death, he blessed Jacob in faith knowing that the promises would be fulfilled.322
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