Isaac - Not perfect, but faithful
Notes
Transcript
Review
Review
Last week we talked about the making of Isaac - the promised one. Really, we talked more about how he was raised and that caused him to be named amongst the heroes of the faith. We spoke about the crucial crossroads in his life and how Abraham handled them.
Obviously, Isaac saw a very profound faith in his father when God asked Abraham to sacrifice him to the Lord. Abraham had absolute faith that God could raise Isaac from the dead and Isaac must have really trusted his father to have been able to come through something like that.
Next we talked about the selction of a wife for Isaac. This couldn’t be just any girl, she had to be a girl of promise, a girl of virtue, the kind of young woman that King Lemuel describes in Proverbs 31. And Abraham went to great lengths to get him just such a wife and God was faithful to help Abraham’s servat identify the young lady and bring her back for Isaac.
We closed by concluding that Abraham set Isaac up for success. A great wife, wealth beyond imagination but most importantly, he gave him an enviable faith walk. We looked at how Isaac behaved himself when confronted with a very similar situation as the one his father failed - the famine. Isaac stayed put while Abraham ran to Egypt.
History Repeats Itself
History Repeats Itself
We start where we left off. A famine has come into the land, and Isaac is faced with a similar dilema to the one his father faced. Let’s look in on it once again.
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
God Speaks
God Speaks
First of all we see the faithfulness of God. Isaac is a newlywed, he’s just taken Rebekah as his wife, his mother has just died and he is facing a famine. God doesn’t just leave him to figure things out for himself though, because God is good. He has a plan for Isaac and He is not holding out on him. The Word tells us that God appears to Isaac and speaks to him! He gives him very specific instructions. God clearly warns Isaac not to go to Egypt like his father had, instead He tells him to stay in the land of the Philistines, in Gerar. At the same time, God reaffirms to Isaac the oath that He had originally given to Abraham. He specifies that Isaac’s descendants will be given these lands and that in his seed was blessing for all of the nations in the earth. He ends by reminding him that his father obeyed His voice and His commandments. So Isaac obeyed. Saints I hope you understand that God speaks direction into your life. He doesn’t always appear to you in a vision, and you can’t always hear an audible voice, but God provides guidance in that still small voice deep in your spirit. Remeber when Elijah faced down the prophets of Ba’al? He had just performed a mighty feat of faith and defeated the enemy but became scared of the threats of Jezebel. He fled to the wilderness where he hid under a broom tree and prayed for death.
He was fed by some kind of super cake by an angel because it streathened him for fourty days and forty nights as he journied ot Mount Horeb, and that’s where we pick up his story.
And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
God could have spoken to him in any way He wanted, but He chose that still small voice. I believe that many times God chooses that still small voice in order to be sure we are listening. You see, in order to listen to somebody who’s whispering, you must cease everything else and focus solely on what that person is saying. God is often like that with us, He requires us to cease everything else in order to listen to Him.
Isaac listened to God. He dwelt amongst the Philistines and dwelt in Gerar.
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
OK, great moment of faith happening! We are not moving to Egypt, so what’s the first order of business? Throw my wife under the bus! As unbelievable as it sounds, it seems that Abraham forgot to teach Isaac how to treat his wife because Isaac immediately plays Abraham’s trump card.
So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.” Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ” And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
It’s obvious Isaac was repeating what he had seen his father do in the past. Learned behavior. You think your kids aren’t watching your life? Think again, even if they seem uninterested, they are learning all of your tendancies and patterns both good and bad. So be very careful how you live your life if you’re a parent.
Isaac Hits the Jackpot!
Isaac Hits the Jackpot!
What happens next can only be described as mind boggling. You see, by obeying God and simply doing as he is commanded, Isaac unlocks a miracuous blessing.
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
That is a most impressive return on investment. Think about it in terms of money. If someone were earning interest at a rate of 100%, we’d say they were amazingly successful wouldn’t we? That means they are earning $1 for every dollar they are investing. That is not a hundredfold, that is two fold. Let me blow your mind a little bit more. If someone is earning 1000% return on investment, that means for every dollar they invest, they are earning 10 dollars in return, but guess what? That’s 10 fold. Do you see where this is going? If you wanted to see what a hundred fold looks like you’d have to be making an investment that has a return of 10,000%! If you found such an investment you’d invest every cent you had wouldn’t you? I know I would, at 10,000% We’d be set. And here’s the thing, that’s what God promises us when we invest in Him. He doesn’t mess around, and He doesn’t give us a measly 100%. God is in this for the big numbers. When you put your faith in God, you get a 10,000% on your investment saints!
So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
But how many of you know, faith doesn’t grow on easy street. No, it doesn’t faith grows in the the trenches. Faith gows in the midst of your trials. Saints, blessings come from God but they are often followed by serious challenges. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”.
Here is Isaac is just trying to obey God and do what he was told, but Philistines believe the promise land is theirs and they get just a little bit envious of the blessing upon Isaac. Well not just a little bit, they simply are not having it. They take issue with Isaac and company, let’s pick it up there.
Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them. Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
I want you to notice something here. A very stark contrast right there in verse 16. Isaac is being obedient to God and acting on faith, but this one statement from Abimilech tells you all you need to know about the difference between how blessed people live versus cursed. “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we” here’s what it boils down to saints. Faith moves mountains, fear makes them. I mean, look at Isaac, not once do we ever get any indication that he plans on attacking the Philistines, but they are on their guard, they are absolutely certain that Isaac is there to destroy them. They acknowledge the blessing of God upon him, but call him out for his “Believer’s Priviledge” and make life unbearable.
Isaac doesn’t give up though, he merely moves on. He sees these obstacles as annoyances and so he moves himself to a different location - but notice he never moves out of the pormise land, he never leaves the territory that God has given him and he never disobeys God! We need to know that we are not called to fight every single battle. There are times that it is simply easier to just pack up and move away from the problem. Now I’m not talking about physically moving your home, I’m talking about just not engaging with the enemy in certain areas. Don’t debate faith - live it! If you live your faith, you don’t have to convince others of it, like the Philistines, just let them see the blessings of faith. Let them see your peacful self in the midst of the storms, let them see the provision of God. And while you may not always be rolling around in material wealth, the love of God is extravagent and He pours it upon you liberally.
So, from our passage of scripture, we discover that finally Isaac and his servants find an agreeable situation, some where far enough away from the fearful lot of Philistines, but still within the will of God. Saints, that’s where you and I need to live. There isn’t enough room in our mind for both worry and faith. You must decide which one will live there. Move away from the worriers, from the fearmongers from the negativity and trust wholelly in God. Feed your faith and your fear will starve. It is imperative for us as believers.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
And boy did He reward Isaac! He appears to Him and reiterates what we’ve just been discussing. Let’s read together:
Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
I love this! The Lord simply states, “Do not fear, for I am with you!” Saints, this is all we have to know of God, if He is nearby, then there is nothing t fear.
The Psalmist best stated it.
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes.
Isaac made a choice to trust God even when the road ahead was uncertain. Let’s read what happens as a result of that faith and obedience.
Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ” So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
What an amazing thing! The tables have turned dramatically, God has blessed Isaac so abundantly that even his enemies have to admit that he is blessed of God. They seek to make peace with him, not because they fear him so much, but because it is very obvious to them that not only does Isaac walk with God, but moe importantly, God walks with Isaac.
Putting it All Together
Putting it All Together
I want you to notice something. When God appears to Isaac, notice how He introduces Himself.
Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”
At that time in His life, God was proud to be called the God of Abraham, He wanted it to be made known that He was a mighty God that poured out abundantly on those who trust him. But at this time, Isaac was still untested. Saints, I know that we will go through tests in life, but if we refuse to run back to Egypt, if we remain faithful to God in the midst of the trials in Philistine then He will bless us abundantly, but the greatest blessing will come later on. We’ll talk a little more about Isaac next time when we look at the story of Jacob, but I just want to fast forward for now and look at what I think is the biggesst blessing of all, and how I want to be remembered some day.
Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
Saints there would be no better legacy that I could live in this World than that some day, God would introduce Himself by saying, “Do you remember that guy Henry, yeah? Well I am HIS God, the one who saw him through trials and adversity, and the one who, because of his faith in me, saw him through it all.” How about you?
Let’s pray
