The Bible does not tell us a great deal about Isaac, the son of Abraham. Most of what we are told is in chapter 26 of Genesis, yet most Christians know one item from when he was a young man and one item from when he was an old man - neither from chapter 26.
The chapter begins by telling us that because of a famine Isaac had travelled to the more fertile area close to what we now know as Gaza. Here he settled for a while among the Philistines who were ruled by King Abimelech. This could be the grandson of the king of the same name that Abraham had met years before. It is while Isaac is here in the city of Gerar that we have the first record of God speaking to him. There is no evidence at this point in time that there is any faith in his life. God tells Isaac three things:
(a) Firstly, he is not to carry on his intended journey. He had proposed to go to Egypt but that is not the right way.
(b) Then God tells Isaac that he is going to bless him and fulfil through him the promises he gave to his father, Abraham.
(c) Finally God tells him that he will do this because of the faith of Abraham and its resultant obedience.
Isaac was the son of a believer. Sometimes that's not an easy place to be in. One grows up with a life style that is often restricted. It makes us different from some of our friends. They do not have to do some of the things we have to do. Some of the things they do we are not allowed to do. Take, for example, Sundays. Our friends might be out playing while we have to go to church, and if we do not have the same faith as our parents that might be uncomfortable. If you stop to think about it I guess Isaac found the consequences of his father's faith less than welcome from his point of view on an altar!
We do not know how old Isaac is by now other than he is older than forty, the age at which he married. But Isaac is to be a beneficiary because of his father's faith. Often it is as we get older that we suddenly realise the value of trust in God. Also this often starts with God warning us not to continue life's journey on the road we have been travelling. At least this was so in my life. I was living an ungodly life running drunken parties for my friends at the age of sixteen. Then one day I had taken a friend to the casualty department when a drunken man was brought in severely bleeding. He was so drunk he didn't realise how bad his injury was and started to assault the nurses trying to care for him. His friends told the nursing sister (nurse in charge) that they had been having a good time at a pub when this man's wife objected to the way in which her husband was fondling a young woman. She had smashed a half pint glass in his face. As I looked and listened to this scene I heard God speak for the first time in my life: "That is how you will end up if you do not change your ways."
Isaac wisely follows God's advice and starts to reap the benefits. Like Isaac I too followed God's advice and my life was turned around. But this was not the result of any self reformation. I tried that and failed. It came about for me by handing my life over to God, recognising that the death of Jesus on the cross was sufficient to cancel the debt of my sin, and inviting Christ into my life.
The next episode in Isaac's life relates to a lie he told. Fearing that the local Philistines might kill him and take Rebekah if they realised she was his wife he told everyone she was his sister. How tragic that he was repeating the same mistake that Abraham had made years before. It is easy for us today with our knowledge of the Bible and years of Christian history to see that Isaac could and should have trusted God in this situation rather than using his own methods. But Abraham's and Isaac's knowledge of God and his ways was limited. In my early days as a Christian, anxious to keep friends and fearful of how they might judge me I found it easy to avoid coming into the open about my relationship to Jesus.l Sometimes it was easier to admit that I attended church rather than say that Jesus was my saviour and Lord. And i know that I'm not the only one who has done that.
Fortunately King Abimelech sees through Isaac's story and comes to the rescue. But it's not long before God's blessing on Isaac creates jealousy among the Philistines and some opposition. Isaac is told to leave the city and moves out into the valley nearby. But opposition and conflict follow him.
Water is vital for life. By now Isaac is a successful farmer and has flocks and herds to water as well as his own and his servants' needs. But old wells originally dug by Abraham have been filled up by the locals. These wells and the supply of fresh life giving water remind me of the conversation that Jesus had once with a Samaritan woman at a well. "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water", he told her. On another occasion Jesus declared that if anyone was thirsty they should come to him and drink and from their innermost beings would flow rivers of living water.
Isaac now finds that he is no longer welcome in Gerar and is told to leave. Millions of Christians have experienced this. It is not always understandable. It is possible that nothing has been done that deserves hostility but it can come. Sometimes within our families, among our friends, at school or at work. Is it, I wonder, that those who do not acknowledge God find our presence threatening, when we only want to bless them? Isaac does not fight against this but meekly goes. I am reminded that Jesus "came to his own but his own received him not".
His need for life-giving water is frustrated because the wells that Abraham dug have been filled up. This makes me think back to times of great blessing in my life and in the churches. Have the wells that once brought refreshment and revival been filled up. What rubbish is getting in the way of the blessing flowing again? Is there digging out to be done?
Isaac also runs into problems of a different kind. Twice he digs an effective well but the local herdsmen claim the rights to the water. In the UK we enjoy lots of benefits that are the result of Christian mission in the past. This includes employment rights, access to education and medical services, and more. Today there are many atheists and secularists who want the benefits from the well dug but do not want the Christian influence.
The Isaac arrives at a place where he finds water and no opposition. He calls it Rehoboth declaring that here God has made room for him. This is the first recorded time that Isaac acknowledges God's blessing. Driven by the search for water he has found more than that. Are we driven by spiritual thirst? Do we press ever forward looking for that refreshment that only God can supply?
The final scene is the relatively short journey to Beersheba. In this place Abraham had dug a well and made an agreement with an earlier Philistine king. Now this scene seems to be repeated as Abimelech comes to him acknowledging Isaac's God and seeking a treaty with Isaac. As one is made I find myself noting that many generations later a descendent of Isaac will note that when a man's ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7).
God's blessing has come to Isaac because of his obedience and his driven desire to find water. Now he is brought to a place where he can also bless his neighbours. And here yet another source of refreshing water is found.
The chapter begins by telling us that because of a famine Isaac had travelled to the more fertile area close to what we now know as Gaza. Here he settled for a while among the Philistines who were ruled by King Abimelech. This could be the grandson of the king of the same name that Abraham had met years before. It is while Isaac is here in the city of Gerar that we have the first record of God speaking to him. There is no evidence at this point in time that there is any faith in his life. God tells Isaac three things:
(a) Firstly, he is not to carry on his intended journey. He had proposed to go to Egypt but that is not the right way.
(b) Then God tells Isaac that he is going to bless him and fulfil through him the promises he gave to his father, Abraham.
(c) Finally God tells him that he will do this because of the faith of Abraham and its resultant obedience.
Isaac was the son of a believer. Sometimes that's not an easy place to be in. One grows up with a life style that is often restricted. It makes us different from some of our friends. They do not have to do some of the things we have to do. Some of the things they do we are not allowed to do. Take, for example, Sundays. Our friends might be out playing while we have to go to church, and if we do not have the same faith as our parents that might be uncomfortable. If you stop to think about it I guess Isaac found the consequences of his father's faith less than welcome from his point of view on an altar!
We do not know how old Isaac is by now other than he is older than forty, the age at which he married. But Isaac is to be a beneficiary because of his father's faith. Often it is as we get older that we suddenly realise the value of trust in God. Also this often starts with God warning us not to continue life's journey on the road we have been travelling. At least this was so in my life. I was living an ungodly life running drunken parties for my friends at the age of sixteen. Then one day I had taken a friend to the casualty department when a drunken man was brought in severely bleeding. He was so drunk he didn't realise how bad his injury was and started to assault the nurses trying to care for him. His friends told the nursing sister (nurse in charge) that they had been having a good time at a pub when this man's wife objected to the way in which her husband was fondling a young woman. She had smashed a half pint glass in his face. As I looked and listened to this scene I heard God speak for the first time in my life: "That is how you will end up if you do not change your ways."
Isaac wisely follows God's advice and starts to reap the benefits. Like Isaac I too followed God's advice and my life was turned around. But this was not the result of any self reformation. I tried that and failed. It came about for me by handing my life over to God, recognising that the death of Jesus on the cross was sufficient to cancel the debt of my sin, and inviting Christ into my life.
The next episode in Isaac's life relates to a lie he told. Fearing that the local Philistines might kill him and take Rebekah if they realised she was his wife he told everyone she was his sister. How tragic that he was repeating the same mistake that Abraham had made years before. It is easy for us today with our knowledge of the Bible and years of Christian history to see that Isaac could and should have trusted God in this situation rather than using his own methods. But Abraham's and Isaac's knowledge of God and his ways was limited. In my early days as a Christian, anxious to keep friends and fearful of how they might judge me I found it easy to avoid coming into the open about my relationship to Jesus.l Sometimes it was easier to admit that I attended church rather than say that Jesus was my saviour and Lord. And i know that I'm not the only one who has done that.
Fortunately King Abimelech sees through Isaac's story and comes to the rescue. But it's not long before God's blessing on Isaac creates jealousy among the Philistines and some opposition. Isaac is told to leave the city and moves out into the valley nearby. But opposition and conflict follow him.
Water is vital for life. By now Isaac is a successful farmer and has flocks and herds to water as well as his own and his servants' needs. But old wells originally dug by Abraham have been filled up by the locals. These wells and the supply of fresh life giving water remind me of the conversation that Jesus had once with a Samaritan woman at a well. "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water", he told her. On another occasion Jesus declared that if anyone was thirsty they should come to him and drink and from their innermost beings would flow rivers of living water.
Isaac now finds that he is no longer welcome in Gerar and is told to leave. Millions of Christians have experienced this. It is not always understandable. It is possible that nothing has been done that deserves hostility but it can come. Sometimes within our families, among our friends, at school or at work. Is it, I wonder, that those who do not acknowledge God find our presence threatening, when we only want to bless them? Isaac does not fight against this but meekly goes. I am reminded that Jesus "came to his own but his own received him not".
His need for life-giving water is frustrated because the wells that Abraham dug have been filled up. This makes me think back to times of great blessing in my life and in the churches. Have the wells that once brought refreshment and revival been filled up. What rubbish is getting in the way of the blessing flowing again? Is there digging out to be done?
Isaac also runs into problems of a different kind. Twice he digs an effective well but the local herdsmen claim the rights to the water. In the UK we enjoy lots of benefits that are the result of Christian mission in the past. This includes employment rights, access to education and medical services, and more. Today there are many atheists and secularists who want the benefits from the well dug but do not want the Christian influence.
The Isaac arrives at a place where he finds water and no opposition. He calls it Rehoboth declaring that here God has made room for him. This is the first recorded time that Isaac acknowledges God's blessing. Driven by the search for water he has found more than that. Are we driven by spiritual thirst? Do we press ever forward looking for that refreshment that only God can supply?
The final scene is the relatively short journey to Beersheba. In this place Abraham had dug a well and made an agreement with an earlier Philistine king. Now this scene seems to be repeated as Abimelech comes to him acknowledging Isaac's God and seeking a treaty with Isaac. As one is made I find myself noting that many generations later a descendent of Isaac will note that when a man's ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7).
God's blessing has come to Isaac because of his obedience and his driven desire to find water. Now he is brought to a place where he can also bless his neighbours. And here yet another source of refreshing water is found.
