Separation and Reunion - Isaac #10

Genesis 28:1–5 (KJV (WS))

1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Genesis 35:27–29 (KJV (WS))

27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Introduction

Isaac summons Jacob.

Jacob must have expected his father to scold him for his deceit.

Isaac doesn’t scold Jacob.

He had been caught in his own net and now realized that God’s plan was better than his.

Isaac speaks kindly in these verses.

He even gives Jacob a blessing.

Kind of interesting that he told Esau there was no more blessing to give him.

Isaac had realized the only remaining blessing belonged to Jacob.

This is the blessing of Abraham.

As you read it in verses 3-4, it reveals that Isaac has learned his lesson.

By giving this blessing to Jacob, he unmistakably recognizes Jacob as his heir.

How incredible is it, to think about the fact that Jacob receives the blessing over Esau.

He was the son that would have been rejected.

Instead, he finds acceptance and blessing from his father.

The giving of this blessing was also a warning to any who would seek Jacob’s harm.

Of course this is the time where Esau sought to kill his brother.

Isaac is warning his son that if he harms Jacob, he will be acting against God.

Not that Esau had ever shown any concern for the things of God.

Isaac sends Jacob away.

In the previous chapter, Rebekah had communicated with her husband the concern in her heart that Jacob would end up like his brother.

Jacob heeds his wife’s concern.

He charges Jacob not to take a wife from among the Canaanites.

Instead, he should travel to his uncle Laban’s house and find a wife there.

It is possible that Isaac had communicated with his brother in law.

It’s how he knew that Bethuel had passed away.

It’s how he knew that Laban had two daughters.

This too is a rebuke on Esau.

If you read the previous chapter, you’ll see Rebekah say that her daughters in law had made her weary of life.

Jacob is not to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Jacob obeys his father heads out on the long journey to Padan-Aram.

Isaac probably assumes that he will never see his son again.

Something that we don’t talk about usually, but Jacob is 77 years old when all of this transpires.

We already talked last week about Isaac’s age, but if he’s 60 years older than Jacob that would make him 137 years old

We are not going to study what happens there during this study.

Just as summary, Jacob marries Leah and Rachel the two daughters of his uncle.

He subsequently has 12 sons and 1 daughter.

He is very successful and eventually has to leave Laban because of his success.

God changes his name to Israel.

He makes his way back home after 30+ years.

Isaac receives Jacob again.

After a surprisingly amicable reunion with Esau, Jacob comes back to his father’s house in Hebron.

Jacob is now 108 years old.

His father is 168.

Jacob had left with nothing but a blessing; he returns a very wealthy man with 13 children.

Jacob enters the house of his father as the heir of a great inheritance.

Imagine the excitement at Jacob’s return and at the news that he and Esau had reconciled.

For 3 generations the patriarchs had been told that God was going to make a great nation out of their family.

And yet Abraham had only produced 1 legitimate child.

Isaac had only produced one spiritual heir.

But now Jacob comes along with his 12 sons.

None of them are rejected.

Each of them will be included in the promised lineage.

We know that they will eventually be known as the 12 tribes of Jacob (Israel).

Isaac got to spend 12 years with his 13 grandchildren.

Something he probably never thought he would be able to do.

Isaac was still alive when Joseph was sold into slavery.

By this time Rachel had died, but Isaac was able to share his son’s grief when he learned of Joseph’s apparent passing.

Around the time that Joseph was being promoted to second-in-command of Egypt, Isaac died.

He was 180 years old.

He lived longer than his father and his son.

In his death, Jacob and Esau came together again to bury their father.

This kind of marks the close of an era.

In less than 10 years, Jacob will join Joseph in Egypt.

It will be 400+ years before the children of Israel will be brought back to Canaan by Moses.

As we close out the life of the second patriarch and we make an estimation of his life, I don’t think we can come to a different conclusion than the Bible does.

In multiple verses of Hebrews 11, God refers to Isaac as man of faith.

He was a man, just like us.

He made mistakes just like us.

But he was also a man of faith.

Though he dealt with consequences for his sins; he also got to see the blessings of God for his faithfulness.

Application

When we consider the end of life estimation of Isaac, it would probably be helpful for us to consider the estimation of our lives.

We certainly have parts of our life that we would rather not have recorded in the Bible for all of humanity to critique us.

Could our lives be characterized as faithful?

Not perfect but faithful.

Maybe you’ve had a moment of famine and you started out for Egypt.

Maybe you’ve made decisions that were fleshly and self-willed.

We are all flawed, but do we allow our flaws to characterize us?

Do we respond to our failures by turning back to God for grace.

Isaac wasn’t perfect, but the Bible esteems him to be faithful

You don’t have to perfect to be considered faithful.

Conclusion