Genesis 25.19-21-The Great Faith of Isaac in His Prayer for a Child
Sunday May 7, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 25:19-21-The Great Faith of Isaac In His Prayer for a Child
Lesson # 140
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 25:19.
This morning we will study Genesis 25:19-20, which records the family history of Isaac and as a part of this history Genesis 25:21 records Rebekah’s problem with getting pregnant.
In this passage we see that Isaac, in response to this problem, prays to the Lord to resolve Rebekah’s problem of infertility.
The Lord fulfills Isaac’s prayer request twenty years later since Genesis 25:21 records Isaac as being forty when he married Rebekah and Genesis 25:26 records Isaac as being sixty when Rebekah had twins.
The fact that Isaac prayed for twenty years for his wife to get pregnant emphasizes that like his father Abraham, Isaac was a man of great faith and a powerful intercessor.
This great faith that Isaac displayed in his intercessory prayer for his wife Rebekah will be the focus of our study this morning.
This passage also emphasizes the power of intercessory prayer.
Genesis 25:19 begins a new section in Genesis, which ends in Genesis 35:29 and constitutes the eighth book in Genesis presenting to us the family history of Isaac and in particular Jacob whose name was later changed by the Lord to “Israel.”
The emphasis in this section is upon Jacob since he would carry on the line of Christ.
Up to this point in our study of Genesis, we have seen that the human nature of Jesus Christ would come from the line of Seth (Luke 3:38) and Shem (Gen. 9:24-27; Luke 3:36), Abraham (Gen. 12:3) and Isaac (Gen. 17:19).
At the forefront of Jacob’s story is his struggle with his twin brother, Esau, which was a fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy to Rebekah in Genesis 25:22-23.
The names that the Lord gives to the twins pokes fun at them both since the name “Esau” means, “hairy,” implying an animalistic nature and the name “Jacob” means, “heel,” implying grasping.
Jacob has his name changed by the Lord to “Israel” after his return to the land of Canaan from Paddan Aram and his struggle with the preincarnate Christ.
The name “Israel” means “the one who struggles with God and humans and who prevails.”
Genesis 25:19-20, “Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.”
“These are the records of the generations of Isaac” refers to the family history of Isaac, which follows in Genesis 25:19-35:29 as indicated by the noun toledhoth (toh-led-aw) (tw{dl@w{T), “the records of the generations” which is always used as an introduction to what follows.
In Genesis 25:19, the noun toledhoth introduces the eighth section of the book of Genesis, which is completed in Genesis 35:29 and centers upon Jacob who like his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham are ancestors of the human nature of Jesus Christ.
The statement “Abraham became the father of Isaac” emphasizes Isaac’s role as the successor of Abraham in fulfillment of the promise made by the Lord to Abraham recorded in Genesis 21:12.
Unlike Sarah, Rebekah’s age is omitted since she is not beyond the age of childbearing.
“Paddan Aram” (/D^P^m! sR*a&) is another name for “Aram Naharaim,” which means, “Aram of the Two Rivers.”
Therefore, the word is synonymous with the name “Mesopotamia,” which appears in Genesis 24:10 since the word “Mesopotamia” is composed of the pronoun noun Aram (sra&), “Aram” and the plural form of the noun nahar (rhn*), “two rivers.”
These two rivers were in the western part of Mesopotamia and the two rivers were the Balikh and the Khabur, tributaries of the Euphrates River.
The city of Haran was on the Balikh River about a seven hundred mile journey north-northeast of Beersheba and nearby was the city of Nahor, which was founded by Abraham’s brother, Nahor.
The name “Paddan” means “field, plain” therefore, the expression “Paddan Aram” means, “plain of Aram.”
The name “Aram” (sr*a() (Hebrew: ‘aram pronounced arawm) means, “exalted” and is frequently translated “Syrian” or “Syria” and is used to speak specifically of the Aramean people who were a leading branch of Semitic people living in Mesopotamia and northern Syria (2 Sam. 8:5-6; 1 Kgs. 20:20-21).
Isaac and Jacob both took Aramean wives (Gen. 25:20; 28:5) and in fact, Jacob is called the “wandering Aramean” in Deuteronomy 26:5.
Therefore, “Paddan Aram” refers to the city of Nahor where Abraham’s brother founded a city and named it after himself and was the place that Abraham’s servant found Rebekah, Isaac’s wife.
Genesis 25:21, “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.”
“Prayed” is the qal imperfect form of the verb `athar (rt^u*) (aw-thar), which means, “to intercede in prayer.”
“Lord” is the proper noun Yahweh (hw *hy+), which is the personal covenant name of God emphasizing the “immanency” of God where the Lord intervened in the life of Isaac and Rebekah provided them children in order to fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham and Isaac.
The proper noun Yahweh, “Lord” is used here to emphasize that by answering Isaac’s prayer He would be fulfilling His promises to Abraham of numerous progeny and that Isaac would be in the line of the Promised Seed, Jesus Christ.
Prayer is an expression of the believer’s worship toward God, as well as an expression of his confidence and total dependence upon the character and integrity of his heavenly Father to meet both the spiritual and temporal needs of himself and others.
The confession of sin to the Father is essential for our prayers to be heard since the Father will not hear our prayers if we are harboring any known sin in our stream of consciousness.
Psalm 66:18, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
All prayer in the church age must be addressed to the Father (John 14:13-14; 16:23-27; Rom. 8:15; Eph. 3:14; 5:20; Col. 1:3, 12; 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 1:6).
Luke 11:2, “And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.’”
In Genesis 25:21, the term “Lord” refers to God the Father since all prayer must be addressed to the Father (John 14:13-14; 16:23-27; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:18; 3:14; 5:20; Col. 1:3, 12; 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 1:6).
The believer is to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because it is through the merits of His impeccable Person and Finished Work on the Cross and Advocacy with the Father as well as the believer’s union with Christ that gives the believer the privilege to boldly approach the throne of God in prayer.
John 16:23, “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”
Praying in our Lord’s name means that we are to pray to the Father consciously aware of our exalted position where we are seated at the Father’s right hand because of our eternal union and identification with Christ.
Ephesians 2:6, “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Prayer must be made in the power of the Spirit or by means of the power of the Filling of the Spirit (Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Jude 20).
Jude 20, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying by means of the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Prayer is asking for what God wants and must be according to His will in order to be effective and productive for God.
1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
Isaac’s prayer was successful because it was according to the will of God.
Answered prayer demands faith on the part of the believer (Mt. 17:20; Jam. 5:15).
Hebrews 11:6, “And 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 seek Him.”
Biblical faith is trusting in the promises of God and confident obedience to God’s Word regardless of the circumstances or consequences.
Isaac’s prayer for Rebekah was successful because he offered it in faith.
During these twenty years, Isaac and Rebekah’s faith was tested since a faith that is incapable of enduring trials and tribulations is no faith at all.
Jeremiah 20:12, “Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart.”
This was also a test of Abraham’s faith because he lived another thirty-five years after Isaac was married.
The Lord tested Isaac and Rebekah’s faith in order to produce endurance in them.
James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The Lord rewarded Isaac’s faith, which teaches us that the Lord rewards the believer after his faith has been tested.
James 1:12, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Therefore, the fulfillment of Isaac’s prayer request of twenty years teaches us that we must wait patiently upon God.
Hebrews 6:13, “For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.”
Hebrews 6:14, “saying, ‘I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.’”
Hebrews 6:15, “And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.”
The fulfillment of Isaac’s twenty year intercessory prayer request for his wife Rebekah teaches us that perseverance is essential in order to receive the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Perseverance is the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances.
Matthew 7:7, “Ask repeatedly, and it will be given to you; seek repeatedly, and you will find; knock repeatedly, and it will be opened to you.”
Isaac and Rebekah had to continue to bear up under the difficult circumstance of being childless in order to finally receive the promise of a child.
Romans 5:3, “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.”
Unlike Abraham and Sarah, the Scriptures do not record Isaac and Rebekah trying to help the Lord out in solving their problem of being childless by using a surrogate, which Abraham and Sarah did as recorded in Genesis 16.
Evidently, Abraham and Sarah taught Isaac to wait on the Lord since, of all the patriarchs Isaac was the only one who was monogamous and did not take a concubine.
The faith of Isaac in praying for Rebekah and the Lord’s answer to his prayer demonstrates the spiritual principle that you appropriate the omnipotence of God by operating in faith.
Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.’”
The fact that Rebekah was barren gave the Lord an opportunity to demonstrate His power to fulfill His promise to Abraham in giving him numerous progeny over seemingly insurmountable odds (See Genesis 15:5; 22:17).
Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”
Isaac and Rebekah had to learn the lessons of faith and to understand that theirs is not a “natural” but a “supernatural” seed (see Genesis 11:30; 17:15-16; 18:1-15; 21:1-7).
The fact that Isaac’s intercessory prayer for his wife Rebekah solved her problem of infertility teaches that prayer solves problems (Kgs. 17:1; cf. 18:36-46; Acts 12:1-17; Phlp. 4:6).
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our deacons pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s Supper is a time to express our love to the One who we are engaged to be married and who is our future Bridegroom and to thank Him for loving us self-sacrificially at the Cross while we were yet His enemies.
The Communion service is a time where we can be intimate with our Lord by meditating upon His love for us that is beyond comprehension.
The Lord’s Supper is a commandment given by the Lord Jesus Christ to every church age believer to bring into remembrance His Unique Person and Finished Work on the Cross, both of which serve as the basis for fellowship with God and each other as members of the Body of Christ.
In the communion service, the bread portrays the sinless humanity of Christ, which was sacrificed for us and the wine portrays His spiritual death as our Substitute, both of which serve as the basis for fellowship with God and each other.
1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.”
1 Corinthians 11:24, “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way {He took} the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink {it} in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.”
