^{Genesis 25:19}

And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac: ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. ²¹And Isaac entreated Jehovah for his wife, because she was barren: and Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²²And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, wherefore do I live? And she went to inquire of Jehovah.

²³And Jehovah said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels: And the one people shall be stronger than the other people; And the elder shall serve the younger.

²⁴And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. ²⁶And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. ²⁷And the boys grew: and Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. ²⁸Now Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: and Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹And Jacob boiled pottage: and Esau came in from the field, and he was faint: ³⁰and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. ³¹And Jacob said, Sell me first thy birthright. ³²And Esau said, Behold, I am about to die: and what profit shall the birthright do to me? ³³And Jacob said, Swear to me first; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. ³⁴And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: so Esau despised his birthright.

A problem in the making.

Isaac was the son of a famous father (Abraham), and the father of a famous son (Jacob), and sometimes people “lose” him as they study Genesis. While he lived longer than any of the other patriarchs, his life was less exciting. Unfortunately, he does not seem to be as strong in faith at the end of his life as he was at the beginning.

The ‘generations’ of Isaac, Generations’ doesn’t convey the sense very well. The word refers to what is produced or what develops from a person.  It does not have much to do with Isaac, but primarily refers to what developed from Isaac, namely Jacob and matters relating to him.

Something like ‘developing story’ or ‘ensuing story’ might best capture the idea.

Isaac the Father

Abraham’s marriage after the death of Sarah brought him six more sons and at least seven grandsons and three great-grandsons. But, these additional sons of Abraham do not have the status given to Isaac, for (like Christ) he is the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2).

God Fulfills the Promise

The fulfillment of God’s covenant promise demanded that Isaac and Rebekah have a son, yet for the first twenty years of their married life, she was barren.

The typical difficulties of God’s people.

Here are Isaac and Rebekah, but Rebekah is ‘barren’. It looks like a re-run, Sarah was barren also. Now Rebekah repeats the pattern. And it’s really difficult to become a ‘great nation’ (12:2) without a biological starter kit.

Isaac and Rebekah do not use some form of the ‘Hagar method,  Instead Isaac resorts to prayer.

How great to see how this spiritually-minded husband and wife took their burden to the Lord. Surely they reminded God of His promises, and surely He was pleased with their prayers.

Yahweh granted the request; and when Issac was sixty the twins were born, hence twenty long years of childlessness.

Look at the difference, the generations of Ishmael. Here is the non-chosen line of Ishmael with twelve sons; Ishmael’s line has fertility coming out of its ears. Isaac’s line can’t even become a line until, after twenty years, there is one conception. How often it seems that the prospects for the people of God in this world are pretty hopeless.

The young man sitting in front of you not only stutters but has a lisp. You look at his resume and find he has no college degree, in fact has never attended college. Then you hear from an associate that this fellow had fainted out of fear in one of his first public appearances. He’s referring to Winston Churchill, but at that point things looked pretty bleak.

We see the surprising announcement of God’s decision (vv. 22–23).

It was a nasty pregnancy. The lads ‘kept smashing one another’ in the womb. It causes Rebekah much anguish and distress. Her question was, why this kind of pregnancy? She’s baffled and goes to ‘inquire of Yahweh’. Who knows what that involved? Did she go to some prophet?

Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples coming out of you will be divided; and one people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger v. 23.

The twist comes in the climactic line, a reversal of the expected. Yahweh tends to be unconventional; He does not necessarily follow society’s expectations or follow its standards. ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Paul picks up on this in Romans 9:10–12, underscoring what a sheer sovereign decision it was—declared before their births, before either had done any actual good or bad. God does not have to consult us; His decisions are not subject to our discussion.

this unconventional pattern in God’s ways that we have hope. You remember how Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians? What he calls ‘the foolishness of God’?

So we have hope because of this surprising, sovereign God

the natural folly of God’s servants .Now when the lads had grown up, gobs of time and experiences are omitted.

Favoritism

The twin boys were opposite each other in appearance and temperament. The first boy was hairy and was named “Esau” (hairy); later his connection with the red pottage gave him the nickname “Edom” which means “red”30.

Esau was an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, and that Jacob may’ve been more of a homebody, perhaps focusing on livestock. In any case, we’re told that Isaac loved Esau because he was addicted to the game Esau killed and cooked up, while Rebekah loved Jacob. Apparently, this was obvious. This favoritism will bring on trouble come

This text raising a blinking yellow light about parental favoritism

This should be a  warning to covenant people to avoid such folly in our own households. It can be easy to slip into such a practice, it’s such a natural folly.

We see the casual attitude toward God’s gifts

Jacob is cooking and Esau has been hunting; Esau comes in ‘famished’. Esau begs, ‘Let me gulp down some of the red stuff, this red stuff, for I’m famished’ v. 30. Esau sees stew, Jacob sees opportunity. So Jacob sets a price on the stew: ‘Sell me right now your birthright’ 31. Esau claims he is ‘about to die,’ what possible use would a birthright be to him?. But Jacob won’t budge he wants Esau to make it ‘legal to go on oath about it and he does.  And the stew is served.

This ‘birthright’ normally belonged to the first-born, though it was transferable, and—at least later in Israel Deut. 21:17

It entailed both provision and position. The ‘blessing’ was distinct from the birthright; however, the birthright seems to have been the normal pathway to the blessing.

The problem is, not  just the slyness of Jacob, but the apathy of Esau.

Esau had no spiritual appreciation. He would rather feed his body than enjoy the promises of God. Jacob’s scheme to get the birthright indicated that he doubted that God would fulfill His promise.

Esau was ‘to blame. The writer of Hebrews agrees and when he recalls that Esau ‘sold his birthright for a single meal’, he calls him ‘profane’ Heb. 12:16).  Here we learn a valuable lesson, Faith is living without scheming!

Esau despised his spiritual privileges as the firstborn; he chose the flesh, not the Spirit. We never read of Esau having a tent or an altar, and 26:34–35 indicates that he loved worldly women. Esau was a success in the world and a failure with God.

Isaac the Pilgrim

He faced his father’s temptations (26:1–5).

Isaac started toward Egypt, but God in His grace interrupted the trip and stopped him. Human nature does not improve from generation to generation. Isaac dwelt at Gerar.

He repeated his father’s sin.

All through this passage Isaac walks in the shadow of Abraham, his problems and dilemmas are the same as Abraham faced. But Isaac is no Abraham, nor does he need to be.

Now we jump ahead and backwards. with a forty-year-old Esau contracting dubious marriages (26:34–35). In between sits 26:1–33 where Isaac tries to pass off ravishing Rebekah as his sister. That means the episodes in 26:1–33 occurred sometime during the first twenty years of their marriage before they had any children

He trusted his father’s God

Yahweh tells Isaac to ‘sojourn in this land’ (v. 3a), around Gerar, and then He fleshes out for him all the ‘pieces’ of the covenant promise. It’s as if Yahweh says, ‘Stay here and I will be for you all you need me to be.’

It is telling that the very first aspect of the promise Yahweh mentions is that of ‘presence. ‘And I will be with you and will bless you’. This is the first time that God’s promise to be with someone is recorded in Scripture.

‘So Isaac stayed in Gerar’.

Dr. Johnstone Jeffrey had been invited to address the students. He read them his favorite Psalm, which was 139. His message consisted of ‘three halting sentences’:

‘Young people often have problems with guidance for the future.

Long, long pause. ‘God will always give you enough light to take one more step.’

Another long pause. Then: ‘Take that step.’ With that he sat down.

5 ‘Sojourn in this land.’ No prognosis about the famine, no long-term projections. ‘And Isaac stayed in Gerar.’ He took that step. The problems are the same, the promise is the same—and the obedience is the same.

Like Father Like Son

The peril is the same …and the protection is the same .

Rebekah was a ‘looker’, Men in Gerar had eyes. They asked Isaac about Rebekah, he tells them she’s his sister. This was the same recourse Abraham had used in Egypt (12:11–15) and with, perhaps, a previous Abimelech (20:2).6 It was, overall, a failure to believe the protection-clause (12:3a) or the presence-clause (26:3) of Yahweh’s promise.

God did deliver Isaac and Rebekah in this mess. But He doesn’t follow the same pattern as He did in delivering Abraham.

There is always a fight, this time water rights.

Now Isaac goes to Beersheba, some twenty-five miles southwest of Hebron. This was where Abimelech I and Abraham had met and concluded a covenant (21:22–34).

Yahweh appeared to Isaac with His night-time assurance as soon as Isaac arrived (v. 24). Then verse 25 tells us: ‘So he built there an altar and called on the name of Yahweh, and he pitched tent there, and Isaac’s servants dug a well there.

1. 26–33). Isaac berates Abimelech & Comp. He asks them why they are ‘kissing up’ over a non-aggression pact now when they had kicked him out of Gerar before (v. 27). Their response essentially is that they have no choice since Yahweh has obviously made Isaac’s clan so successful and strong (vv. 28–29). It all brings to mind Proverbs 16:7, ‘When the ways of a man please Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.’ Sometimes the Lord does that for you—He gives you peaceful relations

Isn’t it, in one sense, a sample of ‘all the families of the earth’ being blessed in Abraham’s seed (12:3)—already in the Book of Genesis? Like a mere date on a laundry list, does this point to far more? Something like Psalm 86:9 (‘All nations which you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord, and will glorify your name’; see also Ps. 138:4–5)? I’m not arguing that this is a conversion experience for Abimelech