Genesis 22-36
Isaac and Israel
Manuscript
I remember when I was a new Christian and I read Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament for the first time. It was pretty interesting to read about these people from so long ago - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and then later on: Moses, David, Solomon and so on. And as I read, I could see that they were great heroes of the faith. And in the New Testament they are often mentioned as great heroes of the faith. But as I read I wasn’t just interested, but I was confused. Why? Because here were these great heroes, the epitome of God’s people, doing terrible things. I was used to heroes being perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but pretty good. But as I read Genesis I read about heroes such as Abraham, who lied about his wife – saying she was his sister so he wouldn’t get killed over her. He was more interested in preserving his own life than protecting his wife. I read about Isaac, who showed favouritism and preferred one son over the other. I read about Jacob, who lied and deceived - who deceived his brother out of his birthright, who tricked his father, and then married two women, and had children by them and two extra women, and who treated one of his wives like dirt. This same Jacob had his name changed to Israel, which became the name of the Israelite nation who were descended from him. And Jacob’s favourite wife, Rachel, was an idolator. What a bunch of people! Not very perfect! Sure, they had their good points, but they also seemed to be quite sinful to me. Quite human, you could say. And this struck me and confused me, because I thought heroes were supposed to be better than that.
And maybe that has struck you too as you have been reading through Genesis. But you know what it also tells us? It tells us that God works with ordinary human beings. Real people, not idolised people that you find in fairy tales and action movies, but real people like us. People who makes mistakes and sin.
We’ve already seen God’s reaction to sin. How in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lost paradise, lost immortality, because they disobeyed God. We’ve seen their descendents in the early chapters of Genesis, who spiralled out of control into sin, and as a result they incurred the judgement of God, and all except Noah and his family were destroyed in the flood. So we know the holiness of God. We know He is righteous. We know His standards are high, but now with these heroes of the faith, these patriarchs – fathers of the Jewish nation, we see God working through fallen, fallible, sinful people, and in that we see God’s grace. Remember last time we looked at the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12, and how that looks forward to Christ, the only way we as sinners can be reconciled to God. And it is through looking forward to Christ, in belieiving God’s promise about His descendents, that it says about Abraham in Genesis 15.6, And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And so we see in the patriarchs that follow - Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, that though they were sinners, they believed God, and as Hebrew 11:9 says, they became heirs with Abraham of the same promise.
So let’s have a look at these people. And as we do so, we are going to note a couple of things. Firstly – they were sinners like us. But they trusted God, and therefore will share in the promises made to Abraham. And as with Abraham, we will look at some of the New Testament fulfilment of some of the events we cover today. And as in previous sermons, we won’t talk about everything in these chapters, but just cover some of the highlights.
So last time we finished with Abraham and the birth of his son Isaac in chapter 21. Remember Isaac was the son of promise. God had promised numerous descendents through Abraham. But not just from Abraham, but from Abraham and his wife Sarah. And Isaac becomes the son of promise, through whom the promises given to Abraham of descendents, of nations, and of the ultimate descendent – Jesus Christ - it is through Isaac that this promise is to be fulfilled.
And then we see in chapter 22, that God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac - to sacrifice the very one that the promise was to come through. And Abraham was willing to do that. No doubt it was difficlt for him, no doubt the most difficult thing in his life, to offer up his only son. But Abraham believed. He believed God. And as you know, just before Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, God stops him from going through with the sacrifice. But the point is, Abraham was willing to put God first even when it came to the most precious thing that Abraham had. That’s what real faith is. When we are willing to give all in obedience to God.
This week it has come to the attention of the international community that in Afghanistan, the Afghan government has imprisoned a man for the sole reason that he is a Christian. That he has converted from Islam to Christianity. And he is now in prison in a Kabul jail, where the guards and other prisoners beat him and spit on him and abuse him sexually. Today he is due to face court. His life is under threat. He wrote a letter that managed to get out which you can view at www.barnabasfund.org/Said-Musas-handwritten-letter.html if you wish. In it he says: I also agree with the sacrifice [of] my life in public, I will tell the faith in Lord Jesus Christ son of God and other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith. Abraham was willing to sacrifice what was most precious to him – his son. Just as our Afghan brother is willing to stand up for Jesus even though it costs him his dignity, his comfort, his liberty and might even cost him his life. We must be willing to do that too.
God honoured Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice, and stopped him from going through with it. But Abraham’s faith had been tested. It wasn’t just a faith of words or a nice fuzzy feeling. Now God knew that Abraham’s faith was real faith.
Then in chatper 24, Abraham sends his servant to his family back in Mesopotamia, to get a wife for Isaac. And the servant finds Rebekah who comes back with the servant and becomes Isaac’s wife. But like Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah had trouble having kids. So they prayed, and the Lord opened Rebekah’s womb and she became pregnant with twins - Esau and Jacob. And in Genesis 25:23 we find a very interesting and important prophecy:
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
For from these two twins, two nations would come. We find out that Esau – the oldest - from him came Edom. And from Jacob, who was later renamed Israel, came the nation of Israel. And throughout their history, Edom and Israel fought each other. And even in the times of the New Testament, Herod the Great who ruled Judea when Jesus was born, he was an Idumaean – which is another word for an Edomite, a descendent of Esau.
Esau was the first born, which at that time, meant he would be the one by their custom to be the heir of the father. That is, Esau was the one supposed to inherit the blessing and possessions and promise of the father. Esau became a hunter as he grew up, whereas Jacob was quiet man, staying with the tents, and in Genesis 25:28 we read Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. The rivalry between the two twin brothers seems to have been intense, and from Genesis 25:29 we read that once after Esau came back from hunting famished, while Jacob had been cooking some stew, Esau asked for some of the stew. Did Jacob give it to him? No, he sold it to him, for his birthright. And we see here character flaws in both Esau and Jacob. Jacob wasn’t being very generous, and used the situation of Esau’s hunger and exhaustion to connive Esau out of his birthright. But perhaps more tragic is Esau, who was willing to trade his birthright, the blessing of his father, God’s promise to Abraham, for a bowl of stew. He was willing to trade the long lasting, eternal things for something temporary – a bowl of stew.
Brothers and sisters, what about us? Are we willing to trade the eternal for the temporary? Do we place more value on the here and now, than on our eternal relationship with God? Think of our Afghan brother in prison. He could deny Jesus and be released from prison, but he would forgoe eternal life if he did so. Our Afghan brother is choosing eternal life no matter the consequences.
But back to our story. Chapter 26 opens with God blessing Isaac.
Gen 262 And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
As we can see this is just like the blessing that God gave to Abraham. In fact, God is re-affirming his blessing to Abraham now to Isaac, his descendent.
Now we go over to chatper 27, and here we have a tale of deceit and intrigue. Isaac realises he is getting old and is concerned that he will die soon (although he actually doesn’t end up dying until much later). So he decides to bless Esau, his eldest and most favourite son. Rebekah, whose favourite was Jacob, overheard this and then convinced Jabob to dress like Esau, and to impersonate Esau in front of his father and to therefore get Esau’s blessing for himself. Isaac couldn’t see well, so he fell for this ruse, and blessed Jacob instead of Esau. When Esau found out he was livid and decided to kill Jacob. Rebekah heard about this and told Jacob to flee, to go to her brother’s land in Harran. And so Jacob fled, alone, to a land he’d never been to before.
And on the way, Jacob rested for the night and went to sleep. And as he dreamed he saw an amazing vision.
Gen 2812 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
This was an amazing vision. Why so amazing? Well, think about the problem mankind had had ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden. We had become estranged from God. We lost our place in the Garden, in paradise. We lost immortality. We were lost in sin. Remember in Genesis 11, people tried to build the Tower of Babel with its top in the heavens. That is, people were trying to build their own way to God, trying to do it themselves. Build their own way up to God. And now in Jacob’s dream, we see the need of mankind, which is access to God, access to heaven, is promised. There is this ladder between earth and heaven, but the ladder is not built by man. It is built by God. And we see that we people, we cannot restore our relationship to God by ourselves. Only God can do that. The Tower of Babel was a human effort which failed, because it was borne of sin. But this time, this ladder, was God reaching down to man.
And Jesus referred to this 2000 years later. Early on in His ministry, while He was first gathering His disciples, He told one of them:
John 151 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
That is, the fulfilment of Jacob’s dream, of this ladder to Heaven, was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross.
And straight after the vision that Jacob has, God gives Jacob the promise, the promise he had given to Abraham and Isaac, he now also gives to Jacob.
Gen 2813 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
We can see how similar that promise is to the one given to Jacob’s father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. In other words, it is Jacob and not Esau who is the one who inherits this promise. After this Jacob continues his journey and arrives in the land of his mother’s family. He falls in love with Rachel and works for Rachel’s father Laban for 7 years to marry her. And then on the wedding night, Laban, Rachel’s father deceives Jacob and substitutes Jacob’s older daughter Leah for Rachel. So Jacob marries Leah instead of Rachel. He is somewhat upset about this, so Laban offers Rachel for another 7 years of labour.
So Jacob ends up with 2 wives, one whom he loves – Rachel, and one whom he doesn’t love at all – Leah. The irony is that Jacob the deceiver, who had tricked his brother out of his birthright, is now on the receiveing end, and is tricked into marrying a woman he doesn’t want. You can imagine what an unhappy situation poor Leah was in. And God took compassion on Leah. Gen 2931 When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. In that time, the main desire of every woman was to have children, as many as she could. To be childless was the worst thing imaginable. But we find that God always looks out for the disadvanted, for those who seem to get the rough end of the stick in life. And we see it here, because it is Leah, regarded by everyone else as ugly, and unloved by her husband. It is through Leah that most of Jacob’s son’s are born. And in particular, one of her sons is Judah. And it is from Judah that David and most of the Jewish kings were descended. And it is from Judah that Jesus Christ was descended. Jesus, the promised descendent through whom all nations would be blessed.
And so Jacob remains in the region of Harran for 20 years, and eventually Jacob returns back to the promised land. Well, guess who is waiting for him back there? Esau, the brother he tricked! And Jacob is understandably a bit nervous about meeting Esau again. Will Esau accept him or try to kill him? And while on the way to meet Esau, Jacob sent his family and retinue across the Jabbok stream ahead of him under cover of darkness. And as he was left alone in the night something very mysterious happens. A man wrestled with him. They wrestled until daybreak, and just before the man left he said:
Gen 3228 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
This is the first mention of the name “Israel” in the Bible. And an important name it is. It becomes the name of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, through whom the Messiah – Jesus, the saviour, would be born, and bless all nations. So why is Jacob given the new name of Israel? What does “Israel” mean? Israel יִשְׂרָאֵל is made up of two words: שָׂרָה sarah – to persist, perservere, exert with, strive against; and אֵל El – which means “God.” In other words, “Israel” is one who strives with God. And this seems true of Jacob’s life, but also was true of the nation of Israel descended from him. Throughout the nation’s history, it strove with God as we see when we read the Old Testament.
Now Jacob meeets Esau in chapter 33, and Esau welcomes him. And eventually, Jacob and his family arrive in Bethel, the very place where Jacob had the vision of the ladder going up to Heaven all those years before. And we read that when he got there:
Gen 35 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. 12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”
We see a few things here. God again confirms that Jacob’s name is changed to Israel. He also confirms the covenant He made with Abraham and Isaac. It is through Jacob and not Esau that the nation of Israel will come. It is also through Jacob that this special offspring shall be born, which we learnt last week was Jesus. And we now have something new - the mention that kings will come from Jacob. And we now know that the King of Kings, Jesus Christ was born from Jacob’s line.
We will leave it there for the life of Jacob. Jacob doesn’t die until the end of Genesis, but from chapter 37 the story focuses around Jacob’s son, Joseph, and we’ll talk about Joseph in a fortnight’s time.
So what have we learnt today? Well, overall, we learnt about the beginning of the Israelite nation. Abraham was the father of the Israelite nation, yet only through one of his sons – Isaac. Isaac was also a father of the Israelite nation, yet also – only through one of his sons – Jacob. But all of Jacob’s sons became ancestors of the Israelite nation. All of Jacob’s descendents were Israelites, hence the Israelites were named after Jacob, who was renamed Israel. So we learn some history.
But we also learn some theology. We see that God used imperfect people - the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who like us were sinners. But God had already put into the place His plan of redemption. He had called Abraham and promised that through Him all nations would be blessed. And as we learnt last week, that was to be through Abraham’s descendent Jesus Christ. And that because of Jesus Christ, God can accept all those who put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed God, and it was counted to them as righteousness. This faith wasn’t just a nice feeling, but it was a faith that believed God to the uttermost and put God first, as we saw with Abraham’s willingness to offer his son Isaac, the most precious thing to him. He was willing to do that. True faith. And we see that today in people like our Afghan brother, who would rather endue the squalor of an Afghan prison, and of possible death, than renounce the name of Jesus. He would rather eternal life than the things of this world. In Hebrews 11, the role call of the people of faith, it says:
Heb 11 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
And as we saw last week, Hebrews 11 also says:
Hebrews 1113 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
People, where is your homeland? Do you have faith in Jesus? Today we have seen eight people profess their faith in Jesus Christ by being baptised, that they have faith in what He did for them on the cross, that through Him their sins are forgiven, and they have an eternal heavenly homeland they are looking forward to, where there is no sin, no tears, no decay, but only joy in the presence of God! Friends, do you have that hope too?
