The Life of Isaac (6)

The Lord has used the servant of Abraham to bring Rebekah to her bridegroom. He has been praying in the field that the Lord might prosper the journey of Eliezer and out of His hand he might receive his wife. We read in Genesis 24:67, “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent and took Rebekah, and she became his wife.” What gladness there was in the heart of this couple. We read, “He loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”

In Genesis 25:19 we read the beginning of another portion of the life of Isaac. He was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife. After the death of Abraham, the history of God’s chosen people is continued in his son Isaac. It is true that the life of Isaac was not as eventful as the life of Abraham and Jacob. Isaac is the quiet one. He is not the father of all believers as Abraham was. We do not see in him such severe and manifold wrestlings of faith as those of Jacob. However, we see in Genesis 24 the submission of faith. Isaac was also a true believer, and faith is a grace that is tried. This we also see in the happy marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac’s pleading

What had happened in the life of Abraham and Sarah appears to be repeated here in Isaac and Rebekah’s life. Isaac himself was born in a way of impossibilities. He was the child of a divine miracle. God had promised to Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. From him and his posterity would be born the promised seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is not like a man who would forget what He has promised or change what He has expressed. Did not Balaam say, “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the Son of Man that He should repent? Has he said and shall He not do it or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” However, this does not mean that Isaac’s faith would not be tested, for Rebekah was barren. This brought Isaac in need of a refuge. Often God’s people experience riddles in their life. They believe that God has spoken to them, that a precious promise was given, but nothing happens that indicates that God will fulfill it. Then the mockers inside will not be quiet, and they will say, “Where is now thy God? These were all imaginations or emotions without ground, otherwise what you thought the Lord promised to you would have happened.”

Where else can they go then? They may go to the throne of grace to lay all their fears and concerns before the Lord. This we also read of Isaac in verse 21, “And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife.” The word “entreated” implies urgency. It was an earnest supplication, a pleading with the God of the Covenant, the LORD, for and in the presence of his wife. No, Isaac did not do what Abraham had done. He tried to help the Lord in fulfilling his word and used Hagar as a means for that. It was with him like with Jacob later, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” What a precious harmony in this marriage. There was family worship. Together, they stormed the throne of grace, and Isaac, as the husband and priest in the family, led in prayer and sought the help of God for whom nothing is impossible. He hears the needy when they cry. Thus it was with Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac’s prayer heard by the Lord

We read, “And the LORD was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” What an encouragement this must have been; they did not call upon the Lord in vain. Did the poet not say, “Call upon the Lord in trouble, and He will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me”? However, this encouragement does not mean that it is an end to the strife and warfare in the life of these two pilgrims. Something remarkable happened; the young mother appeared to carry twins in her womb. They were very active because we read that the children struggled together within her. This greatly troubled Rebekah. She said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” It made her cry to the Lord for help. He alone could tell her what it meant. “She went to inquire of the LORD.” She seemed to say,

“Why does this happen to me? What does this mean?” This question, “Why am I thus,” is not strange in the life of God’s children. They experience a struggle within their heart which they cannot explain. They may be a riddle to themselves. On the one hand, they are sorry about their sin and have an earnest desire to be delivered from it. They have a love for the Lord’s Word and for His Law and seek to live according to it. “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes.” They would be glad if they could live a holy life to the honor of God who is so worthy to be served, but there is a riddle in their life that they cannot explain.

They also find another principle within, that is, inward corruption. When the Lord sheds light within, they find with Paul in Romans 7, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” There is a warfare going on within them between the old nature and the renewed nature. “The flesh lusted against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” What strife this can cause inside. The upright ones can be so weary of themselves, so weighed down with the plague of their own heart, with the workings of inward corruptions that they wonder, “Is it possible that such a one as I possesses grace?”

Rebekah turned to the Lord, and because God’s true children do not want to deceive themselves, they do as Rebekah and ask the Lord for His instruction. The Lord gives this to Rebekah. He speaks of two nations in her womb, two manner of people. The one nation would be stronger than the other. There will be strife within those people and the one would overcome the other. The Lord told her before the children were born, “The elder shall serve the younger.” This is a remarkable instruction. Isaac was the child of promise, and now the one who was to become the child of promise in the next generation would not be the older but the younger of Isaac’s two sons. How clearly appears here the sovereignty of God. It would not be because Jacob was better or more worthy than Esau. We read in Romans 9:11, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” But it was written

harmony in this as family worship. med the throne of s the husband and ily, led in prayer p of God for whom ible. He hears the y. Thus it was with Rebekah. the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” What strife this can cause inside. The upright ones can be so weary of themselves, so weighed down with the plague of their own heart, with the workings of inward corruptions that they wonder, “Is it possible that such a one as I possesses grace?” Rebekah turned to the Lord, and because God’s true children do not want to deceive themselves, they do as Rebekah and ask the Lord for His instruction. The Lord gives this to Rebekah. He speaks of two nations in her womb, two manner of people. The one nation would be stronger than the other. There will be strife within those people and the one would overcome the other. The Lord told her before the children were born, “The elder shall serve the younger.” This is a remarkable instruction. Isaac was the child of promise, and now the one who was to become the child of promise in the next generation would not be the older but the younger of Isaac’s two sons. How clearly appears here the sovereignty of God. It would not be because Jacob was better or more worthy than Esau. We read in Romans 9:11, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” But it was written “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

Soon the two children are born. “The first came out red all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.” Then Jacob was born, “And his hand took hold on Esau’s heel.” Isaac was sixty years old, so it was after twenty years of marriage that Isaac and Rebekah became parents. We read of them in verse 28, “And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.” This is a little disappointing about Isaac, and it disturbed the harmony in their marriage. There will be tragic consequences of this favoritism. We see that Isaac’s faith seems to lose its vigor and his flesh seems to have the upper hand, yet the Lord will fulfill His counsel and will not forsake the work of His own hands. His promise will stand, and He will do all His pleasure; there is nothing of man, but it is God’s work alone in which He will be glorified. p

(To be continued)

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