Isaac
Man of Peace
GENESIS 25:19 – 26:35
25:19-29
"This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, 'If all is well, why am I like this?' So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her: 'Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.' So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
We come here to the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau. It's a story of a dysfunctional family where both the mother and the father made the grave error of practicing partiality by loving one child above another. In this case, Isaac took to Esau and Rebekah took to Jacob. Esau was a man's man. He was an outdoorsman, a hunter and a man of the field. His father adored him. Jacob, on the other hand, was a homebody and a bit of a mother's boy. He liked to hang out in the tent with his mother and cook.
The first thing to notice here is that the birth of these twins came about through prayer. Rebekah was barren and couldn’t have children. Isaac earnestly took the problem before the Lord. The text says that he pleaded with the Lord for his wife. Can you picture that? Have you ever pled with the Lord about something? The Lord heard Isaac's cry and granted his plea. James 5:16b says...
"The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much."
I John 5:14 says...
"Now this is the
confidence that we have in him, that
if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him."
When we pray to God, we really need to get down to business, like Isaac did. Do you really lay hold of your God? It's a wonderful thing when a child of God comes before the Lord with real confidence and discerning his will in the matters that they bring. Far too often, our requests are half hearted ... ho hum ... maybe he will, maybe he won't ... requests. Am I right? Effective prayer is the mark of faith, love for the Savior and a sound mind. It wells up from the hearts of those that believe their God and know he can and will do anything they ask according to his will. Such was Isaac's prayer for his wife, Rebekah. The result was that he got two bouncing baby boys from his wife’s barren womb!
Esau was the first of the twins to be born. When he came
out, his little body was covered with red hair. So, when they saw him, they called
him “Red”. The name, Esau, means
"Red". I have run into quite a few "Reds" down
When the second boy came out, his little hand grabbed on to his brother Esau's heal. It must have been quite an amusing moment. Because of it, they named him, Jacob, which means "Supplanter". They said he was trying to take Esau's rightful place as the firstborn son. As it turned out, Jacob would, in fact, live out a good deal of his life with that negative trait. He was always conniving and trying to cut a deal for himself by supplanting someone else's position.
The text goes on to say Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Frankly, that is very sad. Partiality in a home is always a recipe for disaster. It sets everyone up for conflict. This grave error would eventually splinter the Isaac and Rebekah's home beyond repair. We believing parents should take every precaution not to show partiality in our relationship with our children. To do so, can cause a lifetime of problems and sorrows for all concerned especially for any child who receives less attention and love than another.
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25:29-34
Now Jacob cooked a stew;
and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob,
'Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.' Therefore his name was
called
In Isaac’s day, the right of the firstborn meant that he would receive a double portion of his father's things when it came time to divide up the inheritance. Right off, Mr. Supplanter (Jacob) set about to get that right away from Esau. Esau made it easy because he was a fleshy man, a man who lived for the moment. Immediate gratification was more important to Esau than any other consideration. Jacob, knowing this, offered to purchase Esau’s birthright one day and Esau sold it to him for a bowl of stew! Thus we read, Esau despised his birthright. Hebrews 12:14-17 also speaks of this. There, we read...
"Pursue peace with all people, and
holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone
fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause
trouble, and by this many become defiled;lest there be
any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of
food sold his birthright. For you know
that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he
found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."
You know, you and I also have a great and wonderful birthright in regards to our inheritance that awaits us at our Lord's appearing. Much of it will come in the form of rewards at the reward seat of Christ. We are cautioned in the Word to be careful not to lose our reward. I fear that, too often, we too trade away our birthright for a pot of porridge, so to speak. We need to take precautions not to allow the gratification of the moment to steal our birthright. Don't be like Esau. This is what the Hebrews passage above exhort us. Stand firm. Keep the flesh down there under the foot of the Spirit. Don’t sell out one of your greatest and most precious possessions for empty and momentary gratification.
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26:1-5
"There was a famine in the land,
besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac
went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the LORD appeared to him and said: 'Do
not go down to
In a time of crisis, God appeared to Isaac and confirmed to him the
Covenant of his father, Abraham.
At the same time, the Lord cautioned Isaac to stay out of
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26:6-11
"So Isaac dwelt
in Gerar.
And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, 'She is my sister';
for he was afraid to say, 'She is my wife,' because he thought, 'lest the men of
the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is
beautiful to behold.' Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the
Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah
his wife.
Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, 'Quite obviously
she is your wife; so how could you say, "She is my sister"? And Isaac said to
him, 'Because I said, "Lest I die on account of her." And
Abimelech said, 'What is this you have done to us? One of the people
might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.' So
Abimelech charged all his people, saying, 'He who touches this man or his
wife shall surely be put to death.'"
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Like father like son. Isaac was simply walking in the footsteps of his father, Abraham. Ever notice how your kids copy you? That is no doubt where Isaac's scheme came from. Wouldn’t it be nice if our kids only picked up the godly stuff from us and not the ungodly stuff? However, Abimelech had also been down this road before and he feared the God of Abraham and Isaac. History repeated itself and, like his father before him, Isaac was called on the carpet and embarrassed.
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26:12-23
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and
reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed
him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very
prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a
great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Now the
Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father's servants had dug in
the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with
earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, 'Go away from us, for you are much
mightier than we.' Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the
When God's people walk in obedience, God blesses them in spite of themselves. Back in verse 3, God had promised Isaac...
"Sojourn in this land, and I will
be with thee, and will bless thee..."
True to his word, God did bless Isaac. He blessed him
an
hundred-fold. This reminds me of Jesus words concerning what happens to people
who truly receive the Word of God.
"But he who received seed on the
good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who
indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
Matt. 13:23
Isaac was a man of
peace. When his Philistine neighbors stole from
him and abused him, he simply moved on, leaving it up to God to deal with them.
My own dad was a lot like that. He wasn’t a fighter or a revenge taker. When
someone did him or us dirty, he would just say, “Well that’s a monkey on their
back!” Boy, how we need more believers today who have that mind and act
accordingly. We’re talking here about the Biblical principle of non-resistance
to evil. Jesus outlined the look of it for us in Matt. 5:40-45...
"If anyone wants to sue you and
take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn
away. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do
good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and
persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust."
In the book of Romans we read...
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have
regard for good things in the sight of all men.
If it is possible, as much as depends on you,
live peaceably with all men.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but
rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,
says the Lord’. Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will
heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil
with good.”
It is summed up by our Lord in Matt. 5:9... "Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called sons of God."
Now, out there in the desert, water is a man's greatest possession. It can determine life or death. When they took Isaac's wells, they were taking his livelihood and threatening his life. The first well that they stole, Isaac called "Esek" meaning "accuse" because they said it was theirs and accused Isaac of stealing it from them! The second one they took, he named "Sitnah" which means “strife”. It is an interesting Hebrew word whose root is the word for “Satan”. Isaac aptly named those wells. Abimelech’s men stole them from him and then accused him of being the wrong doer! Satan has a long history of accusing the people of God and stealing their precious things, doesn’t he? Walk away, dear saint. The Lord himself will set the record straight one day and meantime, he may even compensate you for the loss. Such was the disposition of Isaac.
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26:24-25
"And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, 'I am
the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My
servant Abraham's sake.' So he built an altar there and called on the name of
the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."
Often times, when God's people lose or are forced to give up their
necessary possessions, it's frightening for them. At those times they need to be
reminded that the Lord is their supply and he is the one who has promised to
meet their every need. The Lord reminded Isaac of that very fact here. He came to
Isaac and said, do not fear, for I am with you. My goodness, that just says it all,
doesn’t it!? By the way, our great Lord has said the same thing to you and
I
beloved. As you have it in Romans 8: 31-32...
“What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things?”
And, again in Hebrews 13:5-6...
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you
have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will
never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my
helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’”
No wonder Isaac built and altar and worshipped. When God is on your side, nothing else matters.
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26:26-33
"Then Abimelech
came to him from Gerar with
Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the
commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, 'Why have you come to me, since
you hate me and have sent me away from you?'
But they said, 'We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said,
"Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a
covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you,
and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace."
You are now the blessed of the LORD. So he made them a feast, and they ate and
drank. Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another;
and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. It came to pass
the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they
had dug, and said to him, 'We have found water.' So
he called it Shebah.
Therefore the name of the city is
After stealing Isaac’s two wells, Abimelech became more and more nervous! He got to thinking, “Hey, I drove a strong and potentially dangerous man out of my land. We stopped up and stole his wells from him. We wrongfully accused him. What if he gets to brooding about these things and comes back here looking for us?” Where do you suppose those thoughts came from? I believe they were from the Lord and were designed to protect Jacob from Abimelech in the future. Abimelech finally became so disturbed he hastened to go to Isaac to make a non-aggression treaty with him. In Proverbs we read...
"When a man's ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." Prov.
16:7
We can certainly see that here. Abimelech sued for peace although he, himself, was the aggressor. He told Isaac, “I would dearly love for you to make a covenant with us never to harm us since we’ve never done anything to you and have sent you away in peace.” Can you believe it! That rascal was lying through his teeth. He certainly had done damage to Isaac. Damage that was legitimate grounds for war, I might add. But, did Isaac call him on it? No. He made the agreement with this hypocritical antagonist and then fed him a feast! Who will ever understand the mind of those peacemakers, aye?
When Abimelech left, the same day, Isaac's servants came in with good news. "We have found water". What they should have said was, "Our faithful God has given us more water!" Amen? Our God does take care of his own, doesn’t he?
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26:34-35
"When Esau was forty years old, he
took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the
Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah."
Finally here, Esau set out to
intermarry with the heathen around him. Thus, we come to this issue of intermarrying with
non-believers again. Esau’s way of acquiring a bride was certainly not the way
his father had gotten his bride, Rebekah (Gen. 24).
You will remember that Abraham had told his servant to be careful not to take
any bride for his son, Isaac, from the heathen women around where they lived.
However, Esau didn't live by grandfather Abraham’s
morals nor by those of his parents either. I wonder if he even told them when he
decided to marry. How sad it is when a child dishonors their parents by not
involving them in one of the greatest choices they will ever make. Esau chose to
ignore his own parents and their story of how God had led them to find each other. His
marriages to two heathen women speak loud and clear of his true underlying
character. No wonder God’s Word says, “Jacob I loved. Esau I hated” (Mal
1:2b-3a). Dear reader, if you are unmarried, may I ask you a question? Do you
“give a rip” if your future mate loves God or not? Are you praying for them? Or,
do you just daydream a lot about him or her hoping that they will be real "good looking"? If they pass
that test, will just anybody do? Are you going to one day just go ... “
"Do not be unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with
darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer
with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the
Easu brought a great deal of grief into the Isaac and Rebekah home when he married those two godless Caananite women without so much as a “how do you do” to his parents. He that has an ear, let him hear.