The Fear Of The Lord Series

The Fear of Issac

Scripture Text: Genesis 31:42 “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.”

INTRODUCTION:

The book of Genesis is one of my favorite books because it gives insight into the mind of God. The mind of God is his thoughts and his intentions. This book is unique however in that the first few chapters no one was there to witness the events. Even more shocking is that the writer of the book was not present for any of the events in the book of Genesis. Moses was attributed to writing the first 5 books of the bible or what is referred to as the Pentateuch. Many scholars debate whether or not Moses received divine revelation from God to write these volumes.

I understand, it would be hard for someone who does not have a relationship with God to understand how a man that was not present at the start of creation could pen the words of Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” And to give such intricate details about the earth in Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Where did Moses get this revelation from?

Exodus 33:19-23 “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

What moses experienced here is called a theophany. A theophany is simply a visible manifestation of God. This incident is referred to as the theophany of Sinai. Tho scripture is not clear as to when Moses received this revelation to write these accounts, most of which he was not present for, I believe it was at this moment God gave him the revelation of past events starting with Genesis. God is a spirit. He has no hands, no feet, and no backside. What the scripture is implying is that God gave Moses a glimpse into the past without showing him the future.

God’s goodness is revealed in the things he has already done.

So now with this revelation, Moses begins to pen the book of Genesis and the many accounts of this book but for us here today we will focus on what the Bible calls ‘The Fear of Issac”.

Body:

The Fear of Issac actually begins with a promise made to an idol worshipper named Abram a descendant of Noah through Shem and his barren wife Sarai. Abram had journeyed out of his homeland the Ur of the Chaldeans with his father Terah and his siblings. This is when God calls Abram to come out from among his family and go to the place that he would show him.

It’s interesting to note that Abram was an idol worshipper, his father was an idol worshipper yet The Lord speaks to Abram the idol worshipper and even declares his unconditional covenant with him in Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

In this covenenant that God makes with Abram, it is completely unconditional. This is a perfect example of God’s grace in the Old Testament.

You don’t have to be the perfect person for God to bless you.

You don’t need to be saved for 30 years for the Lord to extend grace to you.

God can extend grace to you right where you are. Now make no mistake, this grace that God gives is not a license to stay where you are and keep sinning but his grace causes you to lay aside sin and follow him.

We see this in Genesis 12:4 “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.” Immediately after God speaks Abram does exactly what God says.

God has already began working on the heart of this idol worshipper named Abram. Abram just from this text exhibits a quality that is not really talked about in churches as often as it should which is the Fear of The Lord.

What is the Fear of the Lord?

To start, The Fear of the Lord is not to be scared of him which pushes you away from him. The Fear of the Lord actually draws you closer to him. To Fear the Lord is to reverence & to be in complete Awe of him. It is to hallow him (respect greatly), To esteem honor and venerate him above anybody or anything else. We take on his heart, what he loves and what he hates. What is important to him is important to us.

So Abram did as God commanded and as you follow the scriptures you see Abram is greatly blessed and his blessings multiply. There was still one problem however, while God was blessing him in his finances and with favor with many people, Abram still did not have a child. In Genesis chapter 15 God speaks to Abram in Genesis 15:1 “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”

This is when Abram begins to question what his reward would be in Genesis 15:2 “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”

In biblical times, another form of wealth was in the amount of children you had, particularly sons. The eldest son would inherit the fathers wealth through the blessing of the first born. Abrams problem was that he did not have any children and his wealth and possessions would go to Eliezer of Damascus a servant in his house.

Then God responded by saying, this servant will not be your heir but his heir would come from his body. Then God brings him outside of his tent and tells him to look up and try to count the stars. That would represent all of his descendants.

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Abraham believed God. At this time he is between 75 and 85 years old.

Genesis 15:13 “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;” God even gave Abram knowledge of the affliction of his descendants the children of Israel would experience and for how long. The bondage in Egypt was not a surprise but the fulfillment of prophesy. God told him how long they would be there but he also told him in verse 14 that after that time period God will bring them out with great possessions.

While your trouble may be assured so is your deliverance and so is your blessing.

So now after God revealed his mind towards Abram which is his thoughts and intentions, we come to Chapter 16 and now Sarai Abrams wife has a conversation with Abram, saying the Lord prevented her from bearing children. She then proceeds to offer her hand maid Hagar to Abram as a surrogate and the Bible says in Genesis 16:2 “And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.”

Now we just left chapter 15 where Abram had a conversation with God and God affirms his will for Abram telling him that he will have a child from his loins and that his decendants will be innumerable. And he has one conversation with his wife and he listens to her over the voice of the Lord.

This is a very irreverent moment for Abram as he puts the voice of his wife over the voice of God. When God speaks his word has to come to past. The problem with us is that God is sovereign. He does not move according to our timetable. He moves according to his preordained will. God must get the glory for anything and everything he does. Sarai wanted to “help God out” by getting the promised seed through another womb. This is peverted wisdom, similar to what the serpant said to eve in the garden. The Lord did say that the seed would come from Abram’s loins but it is implied that his wife (Sarai) would carry that seed.

The Bible says in Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” It was not necessarily wrong for Sarai to suggest this because men during this time had multiple partners but God revealed his will to Abram and Abram should have stood firm on what the Lord said to him and resisted what his wife wanted him to do but instead of honoring the Lord he honored his wife’s request which created one of the biggest problems to this day.

Abram laid with Hagar and she became pregnant and when she became pregnant she began to look down on Sarai because Sarai could not conceive. Sarai then said something that was profoundly true in Genesis 16:5 “And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.”

The instructions were given to the man (Abram). Abram made the choice to listen to her and now it is his fault. He then passed the responsibility of this issue back to his wife and said this is your maid, do what you will with her. So of course, Sarai embarrassed her and and treated her horribly. So Hagar fled, and the Bible says the angel of the Lord found her in the wilderness by a spring of water and told her to go back to Sarai and submit humbly to her. The angel of the Lord then pronounced blessing over her saying she shall call her son’s name Ishmael (God Hears) because God paid attention to her paid and suffering. When Ishmael was born Abram was 86 years old.

Now Abram has a son, but this is not the promised son. In Chapter 17 God appears to Abram when he was 99 years old. So after the birth of the son that was not promised to Abram, based on scripture, God did not speak to Abram for 13 years. This time when God speaks, he comes to establish his covenant with him and changes his name from Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. In Chapter 18, Abraham experienced a theophany where the Lord himself visited him with what can only be assumed as two angels. He rushed to his tent and told Sarah to make cakes and chose the tender and choice calf and set it before them and they ate.

Notice Abraham uses choice ingredients and asks his wife not a servant to make the cakes. Abraham offers his best. Then they told him that by this time next year he would have a son.

Sarah was listening and heard them and having being past the age of child bearing she laughed to herself. Genesis 18:12 “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

Now The Lord then looked at Abraham, asked him why did Sarah laugh within herself. Even went as far as telling Abraham her thoughts. Then he asks him a question in Genesis 18:14 “Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Then Sarah lies by denying that she laughed because she was afraid. And then lord said to her No, but you did laugh.

This event preceded the events of Sodom as the Lord was on his way to Sodom and stopped by Abraham to have a meal.

Now Chapter 21 we finally see the promise seed born and the Bible says that God remembered Sarah and visited her. And she conceived and bore a son which Abraham named Issac which means He (God) is laughing Now. This child was the one through which the covenant was to be fulfilled that God promised Abraham.

As time went on Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Issac. This caused Sarah to demand Hagar and the child be driven out. This stressed Abraham out. God then speaks to him to confirm the words of his wife were true and to remind him that the promise is through Issac. God also told Abraham that he would make a great nation out of Ishmael because he was Abraham’s son.

After Abraham drove Hagar and Ishmael out we come to Chapter 22 where now the Lord came to test Abraham. This test would require him to offer the promised son, the son he waited for until he was between 99 and 100 years old, as a sacrifice to the Lord.

God told him in Genesis 22:2 “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

And Abrahams immediate response is seen in Genesis 22:3 “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.”

He immediately got up And did what the lord told him. There was no delay. Three days of travel to where God told him to go and then he told his servants that only him and Issac will go up to worship. He says something interesting. He said we will come back to you. Genesis 22:5 “And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.”

Abraham believed that God will provide the sacrifice at some point in the journey. The wood was laid on the shoulders of Issac which is a type or foreshadowing of Christ. Christ would bear the cross bar of the cross on his shoulders and carry it up to calvery

Genesis 22:7 “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Issac now is beginning to understand what is about to happen. He sees all the preparation for the sacrifice but no actual sacrifice. Abraham reaffirms his faith in God by saying God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice.

Genesis 22:9 “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.”

This is where we see the birth of the Fear of Issac. At this point Abraham is well over 100 years old. Issac is young and strong and could have easily overtaken Abraham. But Issac having seen the reverence Abraham had for God and his own faith and trust in his Father and the God of his Father, let Abraham tie him up and was willing to be the sacrifice because he knew this action pleased God.

Abraham lifts the knife to take Issacs life but an angel stops him and and Genesis 22:12 “And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” lets us know, the test was about the Fear of the Lord. God wanted to see how much abraham feared God. And when Abraham was willing to offer up the thing that he loved the most God knew that Abraham Feared him.

But also, God knew how much Issac Feared God as well because when he could have responded and ran away and fought his father off, Issac acknowledged the will of God over his will. Jesus puts it Like this in the Garden when he was feeling the pressure of the cruxifixction Luke 22:42 “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” The fear of the Lord to exercise his will above all others. Are you will to give up what you love the most for the Lord? How much do you fear and reverence him?

As time goes on Issac is now grown up and a wife is chosen for him. Eliezer Found Rebekah. Rebekah had a brother named Laban. Rebekah was then brought back to Issac and They were married.

The Bible states that Issac had a similar issue that his father had with his mother Sarah. Rebekah was unable to concieve but the Bible says Issac prayed to the Lord Genesis 25:21 “And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” After his prayer, God answered. She bore two sons whom the lord told her where the founders of two nations. The older should serve the younger. The oldest and first born was Esau (hairy) and the second was Jacob (one who grabs by the heel,supplanted)

As with the story of Esau and Jacob, Jacob tricks Esau out of his birthright with the help of his mother because he was his mother’s favorite and Esau was Issacs favorite. Note: Issac was the promised seed but there is more mentioned about Ishmael than Issac. It is very possible that Abraham put more emphasis on his mistakes than he did on the promise. Issac may have felt abraham favored his brother more than he did. He then went on to show favortisim to his eldest son deepening the divide between the brothers.

Like his Father, Jacob meets Rachel and falls in love. (Rachel is his cousin as she is Labans daughter, his uncle. He went to work for his uncLe and his uncle asked him what he wanted as wages. He chose Rachel to marry and worked for 7 years for her. Then Laben deceived Jacob, on the day of the wedding, Jacob thought he was consummating the marriage with Rachel but instead Laban brought the older sister leah and when Jacob arose and saw Leah he was furious.

Jacob loved rachel more than Leah and the Bible says when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he caused Leah to bare children and Rachel to be barren. Rachel does the same thing Sarah did. She gave her maid servant to Jacob to have a baby and the servant had many children. And Leah noticed that she stopped bearing children so she gave her servant to Jacob and had surrogate children through her.

Raches eventually has Joseph and Jacob goes to Laban and asks to return to his own country with his entire family. Laban begs him to stay because he realizes that he is blessed because of Jacob.

Conclusion

We now come to chapter 31. Jacob overhears Labans sons taking about him saying that he has taken all of their fathers possessions because Jacob is increasing now in blessing. Jacob devises a plan to leave in secret having told labans daughters his wives, how treacherous their father has been to him. It’s interesting to see how the deceiver himself is now experiencing his own actions.

3 days after he sneaks away Laban persues Jacob for 7 days and found him and over took him. Then the lord spoke to Laban in a dream and told him Genesis 31:24 “And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.”

When Jacob is caught by Laban, Laban accused Jacob of stealing his household Gods. Jacob not knowing that Rachel took then gave Laban the authority to search the camp. He became angry as laben kept accusing him of stealing and said that whoever had it should be put to death. He was not aware that his favorite wife was sitting on the household Gods and that is the only reason why Laban did not find then after searching for them in everyone’s tent.

Jacobs continues to tell Laban off about the 20 years he was in his house and how he deceived him and Jacob does something extraordinary.

We come to Genesis 31:42 “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.”

Jacob remembered the reverence that his father Issac had for the Lord and recogized that it was the Fear of His father, the Fear of Issac that rebuked Laban from doing harm to him. He recogized that the same God that Abraham and his father Issac feared was the same God that was with him.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:26 “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: And his children shall have a place of refuge.”

The fear and reverence Issac had for the Lord protected Jacob. As fathers and Parents in general, do we fear God? Can our children recognize the deep intimate fear we have for the Lord and learn to call on God? What kind of legacy are we leaving? Do they know to call on the name of the Lord in the time of trouble. Jacob was marred with deception but because of the Fear of his grandfather Abraham and The fear of Issac his Father, Jacob learned that God was with him at all times.