Isaac's Journey

Intro: Who or what are you trusting in for your protection in this world and hope for the future? Today as we look at this account of Isaac we are going to see what should be the object of our trust.

I. You can’t live off of your father’s faith.

Genesis 26:1–6 CSB

There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.” So Isaac settled in Gerar.

Isaac no doubt had witnessed the faith of Abraham. He had no doubt witnessed the faithfulness of God to Abraham. But this was still a secondhand encounter.

Other than the time that God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, there is no account of God interacting with Issac until now.

God appeared to Isaac and promised Isaac all the things that he had promised his father. Why? Why would God do this? Because even though Isaac had witnessed God’s faithfulness to his father. That is not the same thing as having experienced God’s faithfulness firsthand.

So what does God do?

He keeps him in the Famine.

II.God will sometimes keep us in the famine.

When we think of a firsthand experience with God, living life in a period of famine is counter to what we expect. In fact, as a parent we are often scared that our kids will walk away from God due to God allowing hardships and trials.

But here we see that God purposefully instructs Isaac not the leave the land.

God knows that sometimes the best way we can experience his faithfulness is in and through hardship.

Just a few weeks ago, I was at my Alma mater, Pensacola Christian College. In the sports center they have some pretty amazing things. They have a water park complete with a surf simulator, Ice skating, inline skating, bowling. miniature golf and a few other odds of things. But one of the most impressive thing they have is their indoor rock climbing course. Its a room about the size of our sanctuary with floor to cieling rock climbing on every wall.

Each station has an auto belay system that you hook your harness into. So when you get to the top you just fall backwards and this system catches you before you hit the ground.

I watched this this time and time again. I would see kids and college students scale the walls about 40’ up and then simply fall backward and this system would catch and slow them down.

Never once did it make me nervous. I had complete confidence in the system that these kids were safe.

So then it was my turn. I scaled the wall and got to the top. I then turned and looked down at one of the operators and before I jumped I gave the strap a quick yank to check to make sure it would tension. Except when I did I felt none. I felt no tension. So I yelled down to the operator, I am supposed to just jump off right. He just nonchalantly nodded his head.

But heres the thing jumping off a cliff is counterintuitive. I am not going to lie. It made me a little nervous. But I did it anyway. The tension clicked in about halfway down and then slowly lowered me to the ground.

But here is what I want you to see. It was easy for me to trust the equipment for other people. I mean it never occured to me that any of these kids were in any danger.

However, when it came time for me to trust the equipment for myself that was a different experience all together.

When we read the bible we have no trouble trusting God for Abraham, Moses, and Joseph. There is no doubt in our minds that God will protect and provide.

In fact, most of the time we don’t even really consider them to be in any danger because we know God is with them.

But its an entirely different experience for us to trust in God for ourselves just like it was for me trusting the equipment.

Sometimes God keeps us in the famine so that we will have our own experience and be forced to grow in our own faith.

But know this if God is currently keeping you in the famine. He is with you all the way.

III. Faithlessness is often the fruit of lacking experience.

Once again, we see Like Father and Like Son. Isaac took a plan from his father’s playbook to save his own skin.

Genesis 26:7–11 CSB

When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.” When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.” Then Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

I can just imagine Abimelech’s Face. Here is looking out his window and he see’s Isaac and Rebekah in some form of romantic embrace while thinking they are brother and sister.

I mean I know what my face would be like.

Then all of the sudden it clicks. Wait a minute, shes not his sister.

As I get older, I notice more and more that I am like my father for good and bad. I am also keenly aware that my son’s will one day be like me.

Often our failures will become our son’s failures, if not for the grace of God.

But even in the face faithlessness whether in a famine or not God is still with us and still provides.

IV. God’s provision isn’t what we always want but it is what we always need.

Genesis 26:12–14 CSB

Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy. He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him.

At first everything was amazing. During a famine, Isaac reaped 100x whatever he sowed. During a famine he becomes crazy rich.

But then we see this phrase...

“the Philistines were envious of him.”

Genesis 26:15–21 CSB

Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt. And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.” So Isaac left there, camped in the Gerar Valley, and lived there. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them. Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek because they argued with him. Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah.

So now Isaac has all of the cattle and sheep to feed and water and every time he finds a new place he is force to leave but yet during a famine he continually finds water. God provides.

So then why didn’t Isaac stay and fight? He had many servants just like his father Abraham when he went to rescue lot. He didn’t fight because he was a sojourner in the land and had no legal rights to anything. It wasn’t his land. The Philistines treated Isaac this way because they could. In their eyes he did not belong in the land.

The Scriptures tells us that we can experience similar treatment because we do not belong to this world.

1 Peter 2:11–12 CSB

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Isaac was mistreated because he lived in a land without any rights. Yet God protected him and blessed him.

I think sometimes as American Christians we unintentionally believe that it is our constitutional rights that protect us and provides for us instead of God.

Maybe that is why so many Christians seem despondent and anxious with each election cycle.

Listen church if you are putting your hope in Donald Trump to save you or our nation. Your trust is misplaced. He may get elected but then what........in four years we start this whole process of fear again. The real problem is not our leaders. The real problem is that we are living in a nation that has forsaken God. But our hope has never been in earthly kingdoms for they will not last.

Hebrews 13:14 CSB

For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

Our Hope of protection is not found in the preservation of our rights. Our hope and protection is not found in the preservation of the United States It is found in Jesus Christ alone.

God is our protector.

God is our provider.

God is our only Hope.

One day we will have an eternal city, but that day is not today.

So then why would God keep Isaac in a land where he had no rights and no water. Because What God was providing was not material but something of greater value.

God was providing to Isaac an experience with himself. So that Isaac would trust in him.

Maybe your here today and your in the midst of a long famine. Understand this for the Christian a famine is an act of provision. It doesn’t feel like it.

It’s painful and uncomfortable but if you allow God to have his way he will give you something of greater value confidence in himself.

Your faith is often only as strong as your experiences with God.