Genesis 26:24
Concerning Isaac, the son of Abraham, the Bible
says in Genesis 26:24-35, “And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I
am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless
thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the
LORD and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged
a well. Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol
the chief captain of his army. And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore
come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? And they
said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be
now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant
with thee; That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we
have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou
art now the blessed of the LORD. And he made them a feast, and they did eat and
drink. And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware
one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him
concerning the well which they had digged, and said
unto him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. And Esau was forty years old when he
took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the
Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.”
Isaac probably needed some
encouragement at this point in his life because of the opposition that he was
facing from the people who lived in the
God told Isaac, “fear not, for I am with thee.” Having a
victory over fear is associated with being comforted by the knowledge that the
Lord is with us. After the resurrection Jesus said to the apostles in Matthew
28:20, “I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world.” A believer has absolutely nothing to fear because the Almighty
God is standing next to us in the person of Jesus to do whatever it takes to
have His will done. He will protect us. He will preserve us. He will only allow
things to happen to us to fulfill His will and to glorify His name. For those who believe,
there is absolutely nothing to fear.
The Lord also said to Isaac, “I will bless
thee.” We need help. Every human being needs help. There is no way
that we can face all of the challenges and difficulties of life without help.
When God says, “I will bless thee,” it means that He will do what we
cannot do to make our endeavors successful. Just think about a human being’s
behavior and productivity. When someone makes their best effort, they can get
to a certain level of performance from a human standpoint. But there is
something much better than that. The highest level of human performance comes
when someone makes their best effort and has God’s blessing along with that
effort. That is one reason that no one will be fulfilled as a human being on
this earth unless that person walks with the Lord and has the promise of God’s
blessing. It says in Psalms 127:1, ”Except the LORD
build the house, they labour in vain that build
it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh
but in vain.”
The last thing that God told Isaac in
Genesis 26:24 was that God would “multiply thy seed for my servant
Abraham's sake.” There was nothing that Isaac did to earn or to deserve the
blessings that God bestowed upon him. The blessings came for “Abraham’s
sake.” This is symbolic of the blessings that are bestowed upon
Christians. We are blessed for Jesus’ sake. No Christian deserves or earns the
blessings of forgiveness and eternal life. The blessings are given freely
because of Christ. This truth should cause Christians to have great faith in
the Lord since we know He will always bless us and will always take care of us
just as He did for Isaac.
God called Abraham “my servant.” Are you one
of God’s servants? Every human being serves someone or some thing, but not many
serve Jesus. How pleased God must be when He searches the hearts of men and
women and He finds someone who wants to serve Him. Jesus said in Matthew
God made promises to Isaac, and Isaac
needed the Lord to fulfill those promises. Isaac looked at the people who were
living around him and Isaac saw people who he thought wanted to do him wrong.
When Phicol, the chief captain of Abimelech’s army,
came to visit Isaac, Isaac said to him in Genesis 26:27, “Wherefore
come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?” We see in
this passage that God touched the heart of these people who lived near Isaac.
They said to Isaac in Genesis 26:28-29, “We saw certainly that the LORD was
with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us
and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; That thou wilt do us no hurt,
as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good,
and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.” God blessed
Isaac in the midst of people who otherwise could have been his enemies. And God
also blessed Isaac in regards to Isaac’s endeavors as a herdsman. To be
successful in the
In Genesis we were told how Esau made
the worse decision that could be made in life. He chose the
material over the spiritual. Now we see that Esau also made the wrong decision
in the second most important decision in life: the decision of choosing a wife.
Instead of obtaining a wife from among the people of faith, Esau married women
of the world: women who were from the Hittites. Because Esau brought such women
into his life, it caused sorrow for his parents. It says in Genesis 26:35, “Which were a
grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” Just because you serve the Lord,
there is no guarantee that your children will also. Everyone makes their own
decisions.
The Bible says in Genesis 27:1-29, “And it came
to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not
see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto
him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day
of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy
bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I
may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac
spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to
hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spake
unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy
brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury
meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death. Now
therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now
to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will
make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he
loveth: And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may
bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau
my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: My father peradventure will
feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon
me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon
me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went,
and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took
goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and
put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the
goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into
the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And
Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as
thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my
venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he
said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob,
Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very
son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him,
and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands
are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy,
as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. And he
said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near
to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he
brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank.
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and
kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of
his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the
smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let
people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth
thee.”
This incident about Jacob deceiving
his father reminds us of the character of Jacob. He was not a good person.
There is nothing much worse than a schemer and a deceiver. Of course, his
brother, Esau, was not a good person either as we have seen. This should not
surprise us because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The fact of
how sinful Jacob was is also a demonstration of the grace of God. Later in the
life of Jacob, he did seek God. And God blessed Jacob. The twelve tribes of
The Bible says in Romans
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Copyright; 2007 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved