Isaac was the son of Abraham, see the first part of his life in The Life of Abraham. He was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the sister of Laban the Aramean,
as wife. Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. The Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah his wife conceived. (Gen 25:19–21).
Isaac understood that although he was limited to solve this problem, God wasn't.
Isaac brought this problem to the Lord. When we are out of options we can pray about it. It's the right thing to do, and that was what Isaac did. Isaac was a godly man who took things to the Lord in prayer, instead of staying frustrated.
Rebekah became pregnant with twins, two sons. Esau was the first born of the twins and after him Jacob was born. They were born when Isaac was 60 years old, which means Isaac and Rebekah had to wait 20 years for them. It took a long time before Isaac saw that his prayer would be fulfilled. (Gen 25:24–26).
The children struggled together inside Rebekah when she was pregnant.
Similarly, there is a struggle within a born again Christian, see the last part of
The Book of Galatians, and between Christians and those who reject Christ.
The Lord told Rebekah that two nations were in her womb, two peoples that would be divided, one would be stronger than the other and that the
older should serve the younger (Gen 25:22–24), see The Predestination Theory.
In that culture, it was the firstborn son who rightfully received the the father's blessing and and a double portion of the inheritance. But in this case, it was
Jacob who was chosen by God even before he was born, not Esau
(Rom 9:10–12). ". . . in order that God’s purpose of election might continue,
not because of works but because of him who calls . . ." (Rom 9:11b). This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people,
but not according to their good or bad works. God doesn't always follow cultural traditions. Jacob would be the father of the Jews, from where Jesus would come.
Esau would be the father of the Edomites. There would be ongoing conflicts between the Jews and the Edomites (Mal 1:2–5, Rom 9:13), see
The Book of Malachi and The book of Obadiah.
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved
Jacob. (Gen 25:27–28).
It's not recommended to have favorites among children, it creates conflicts among them. The conflicts between Esau and Jacob continued as they grew up.
Once when Esau came in from the field he was exhausted and asked Jacob for food.
Jacob replied that he would give him food if he received Esau's birthright as payment, and Esau swore on it. Esau agreed and sold his birthright to Jacob for the food. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. Esau ate and drank and then got up and went his way. This shows how Esau despised his birthright. (Gen 25:29–34).
Jacob didn't have to do this, because the birthright already belonged to him by
God's divine choice, and Rebekah knew this. The Lord had told her that the
older should serve the younger. Jacob can be compared to a "self-sufficient" Christian. It means that he was a person who understood the importance of spiritual things. But he saw no need to look to God because he was always so busy taking care of himself. He avoided getting into situations where he was dependent on the Lord. He always tried to solve things on his own terms, even if it involved manipulations on his part, and not by trusting God. Esau on the other hand, didn't care at all about spiritual things (Heb 12:16b, 1 Cor 2:14).
There was a famine in the land, and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the Lord appeared to Isaac and said that he wouldn't go down to Egypt but live in the land that God would tell him. Isaac would dwell in this land, and the Lord would be with him and bless him. God would give all these lands to Isaac and his descendants, and God would fulfill the oath he swore to
Abraham (see Gen 12:1-3, 22:16-18). God would multiply his descendants like the stars of heaven and give to his descendants all these lands. In his seed all the nations of the Earth would be blessed, because Abraham obeyed God and kept his charge, commandments, statutes, and laws. Isaac then dwelt in Gerar.
(Gen 26:1–5). These promises are a repetition of the promises that God gave to Abraham several times, see the Abrahamic covenant.
Isaac was probably on his way to Egypt because of the famine, when the Lord
appeared to Isaac and stopped him from going there. Isaac then probably compromised and stayed in Gerar, even though he should have gone back to the place where God had called him to be and trusted God to take care of them.
In Gerar he made the same mistake that his father Abraham had made and lied,
although this Abimelech was a different person than Abraham had lied to.
Abimelech is a title and not a name. Isaac was afraid of being killed because
Rebekah's beauty and therefore lied and said that she was his sister.
Abimelech eventually realized that he had lied and confronted Isaac about it.
He then forbade his people to touch Isaac or his wife. (Gen 26:6–11).
Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped the same year a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. Isaac became very prosperous. He had possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Abimelech told Isaac that he would leave them, because he was much mightier than they. Then Isaac went away and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. He dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. Water was necessary for survival. Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well with running water. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying that the water was theirs. Then they dug another well, and they also quarreled over that one. Isaac then moved from there and dug another well, and they didn't quarrel over that one. Then he went up from there to Beersheba. (Gen 26:12–23).
In the midst of Isaac's lack of faith, God blessed him. God protected Isaac and
Rebekah and made them wealthy. It's an example of God's grace, because Isaac didn't deserve this favor. God showed Isaac that he could protect him and his wife and take care of them. They could trust God.
God probably allowed all those conflicts to take place to move Isaac back to the place where he should be, and to train him in hardship. Hardship can affect our lives to train us to persevere in faith, to trust God. We should endure hardship as discipline, see the first part of The Book of James. Abraham wasn't perfect and made mistakes, but he was a man of faith and trusted God. The same can be said of Isaac. Similarly, it is our faith in Jesus that is credited as righteousness in God's eyes
(Eph 2:8–9), see Sanctification.
Then the Lord appeared to Isaac and said that he is the God of his father Abraham, and that he shouldn't fear, for God was with him. God would bless him and multiply his descendants for the sake of his servant Abraham. Isaac then built an altar there, called upon the name of the Lord, pitched his tent there, and Isaac’s servants dug a well there. (Gen 26:24–25).
Abimelech then came to Isaac and said that he had seen that the Lord was with him. He therefore wanted to make a peace covenant with him. They swore an oath to each other. (Gen 26:26–33).
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he couldn't see, he called for
Esau. He told him to go out into the field and hunt game for him and make food that he loved and bring it to him to eat, and he would give Esau his blessing as the firstborn child. Rebekah heard what Isaac spoke to Esau. She told Jacob to go to the flock and bring her two choice kids of the goats, and she would make food from them for Isaac such as he loved. Jacob should then take it to Isaac, so he can eat it, so he can bless Jacob instead of Esau. Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she made food that Isaac loved. Then Rebekah took Esau's best
garments and put them on Jacob. Since Esau was a hairy man, she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
Jacob then brought the food to Isaac and said he was Esau, his firstborn child.
Isaac believed him and gave Jacob his blessing. Isaac said that God may give him plenty of grain and wine. People would serve him, and nations would bow to him. He would be master over his brethren, and his mother’s sons would bow down to him. All who cursed him would be cursed, and those who blessed him would be blessed. (Gen 27:1–29).
As soon as Isaac had blessed Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out of Isaac's presence, Esau came in from his hunting. He had made savory food that he brought to his father. Isaac then told Esau that he already had blessed Jacob, and that
Jacob would indeed be blessed (Heb 12:17). He told Esau that Jacob came with deceit and had taken away his blessing. Esau then asked for a blessing for him too and wept loudly. Isaac replied that he had made Jacob his master. Isaac told Esau
that he would live by his sword and that he would serve his brother.
Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing he received from Isaac and said in his heart that he would kill Jacob (Heb 12:15–17). This was told to Rebekah, who told Jacob about it. She told Jacob to flee to her brother Laban, until Esau’s fury turned from him, and he forgot what Jacob had done to him. She would then send for him and bring him back from there. (Gen 27:30–45).
See this and Heb 11:20 explained at time 13:37–20:24 in
DAVID GUZIK SERMON ON Hebrews 11:17-22 – Jesus’ People of Faith 2.
Rebekah then told Isaac that she wanted Jacob to take a wife from there. Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and told him not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. He would go to his mother's father and take a wife from Laban's daughters. Isaac gave Jacob a second blessing that God would make him fruitful and multiply him, that God would give him the blessing of Abraham, to him and his descendants, and that he may inherit the land where he was a stranger that God gave to Abraham. Isaac then sent Jacob away, and he went to Laban,
Rebekah's brother. (Gen 27:46–28:5).
There was a deception by Jacob and Rebekah that was fundamentally wrong. But in the midst of it, God still had his way. God's will to choose Jacob was already established and couldn't be changed. Isaac wanted to give his blessing to
Esau because he loved him more than Jacob, even though he must have known that the Lord had told Rebekah that Jacob was the one chosen by God. You can't go against God's ultimate purpose, and Isaac realized that when Esau came for the blessing. Although Isaac gave the blessing, it came from the Lord, and it wasn't up to Isaac to decide to who to give it to. It was God's will Jacob should get it, and no one could change that. God used these events for his purpose, but that doesn't mean that deception is OK, even though God can use it to accomplish his will. Deception isn't required or needed to accomplish God's will. The correct way would have been for Isaac to give Jacob the blessing of his own free will, knowing what God's will was, and obeying and acting according to it.
But in all this Esau became a very blessed man of God (Gen 33:9).
Esau would eventually receive the blessing of contentedness (Heb 13:5, Phil 4:11).
Isaac lived to be 180 years old before he died. He lived long enough to meet Jacob
coming back to him. He was buried by his sons Esau and Jacob. (Gen 35:27–29).
See also The Old Testament of the Bible.
