In 1840 Nathanael Hawthorne wrote a story titled “The Bosom Serpent.” The story is about a man, once happy in marriage, which had been separated from his wife because of jealous suspicions. He would sometimes hold his hand to his bosom and lowly chant, “It gnaws! It gnaws!” Over time the people in the town where he lived came to know him as the “man with a snake in his breast.” To make things worse, he had the habit of stopping other men in the street as he was out walking and asks them “how their serpent was.” This caused no end of alarm and concern among the town folk. He was eventually confined to an asylum.
Such is the danger and cunning of jealousy. Like a spider it lurks within the darkest recesses of our hearts. As a snake it coils to strike, hissing its venomous charges and striking without warning.
As we will learn today from Isaac, jealousy in others can be devastating. We will also learn that the way we handle jealousy in others aimed at us is important also. Along with jealously comes deceitfulness. Both go hand in hand.
Last week we finished with Esau trading his birthright to his twin brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. The Bible states in ding so he despised his birthright.
Shortly after this there was another famine in the land much like the one Abraham faced. Isaac knew what his father did when he faced the famine. He had heard about the fertile fields of Egypt around the Nile River. But we must remember what Egypt represented. Egypt represented the world. So as Isaac begins his trek to Egypt God intervenes.
Genesis 26:2 “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you.”
May I tell you something that I have learned? When we start to walk in the wrong direction God will tell us clearly “Don’t go there.” Each of us has the Holy Spirit in us to guide us. He is the voice of God that we hear in our thoughts as we meander through the world. We have a moral compass within us and found in the word of God. God says in Joshua “Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.”
The biggest problem we have is the lure of Egypt is often stronger than our desire to follow God’s word. Success in Egypt is often only temporary. Remember Abraham was driven back into the famine stricken land. But it was in that land that he found true success when God produced the promised child.
God repeated his promise to Abraham to Isaac. He promised Isaac all the land, descendants as numerous as the stars, and the promise that his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations. Of course this last reference was Jesus.
So Isaac settled in the area of Gerar, north of Egypt. Although it was within the lands promised to Abraham and Isaac, it was controlled by the Philistines and their king Abimelech.
Upon his arrival before the king he passed his wife, Rebekah, as his sister. Like dear old dad he feared for his life. One day he got caught caressing her in a way that a man would only caress his wife. Abimelech is furious. He had been deceived and the possibility of a curse had been placed upon his head. So in his fury he did just what you would expect.
Genesis 26:11 “Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: ‘Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!’” He gave him land to plant his crops and fields to feed his livestock, all of this near where Abraham had dug wells as he had traveled through.
Not the kind of reaction one might expect from a king who had been duped. But exactly the reaction someone under the world system would give when it is ordained by God. In Numbers Balak tried everything he could to get Balaam to curse the nation of Israel but Balaam could not. All he could do was bless them. There was such a burden placed on Abimelech that he had no choice but to bless Isaac. Learn this lesson. When we are faithful to following God we will be blessed by the world in surprising fashion.
For example, I have a pastor friend that came out of the business world into the ministry. He held a financial position within the company where he worked. One day his boss asked him to make an untrue disclosure to a customer in order to maintain this customers business. My friend refused.
His boss insisted that he do so. My friend replied, “If I do this then you will never be able to trust me. You will never know whether I am lying to you or not.” His boss was infuriated at my friend’s defiance and threatened to fire him. But he did not budge. They ended up losing the customer. However, my friend kept his job.
A few weeks later he was called into his boss’s office. A higher position had become available and he was offered the promotion. The reason was explained by his boss. “You are the only one here that I can truly trust.” God’s success.
So Abimelech not only allows Isaac to stay but offers him his protection. Isaac planted a crop and the first year received 100 times back what he planted. He became rich but it did not stop there. He became wealthy. The Hebrew word was the same for rich and wealthy. Rich was the process, wealth was the end result.
Many of us are in the process of becoming wealthy, not necessarily monetarily but rather spiritually. It is a steady growth compiled by many hours spent with God and in his word. But we have an enemy that wants to stifle our growth just as Isaac had.
The Philistines became jealous of Isaac’s wealth and began to fill up the wells with dirt that Abraham had dug. To avoid conflict Abimelech ordered Isaac to move away from them. He did not realize the day would come when his descendants would lose this same land to Isaac’s descendants.
Before he left the region, he had his servants reopen the wells that had been covered so the Philistines would have access to them. He moved to the valley and had his servants dig a new well. When they found water the herdsman of Gerar claimed the water for themselves. So he moved on and had another one dug. This also was claimed by the herdsman of Gerar. So he moved on and had a third one dug. This one was not disputed. This became their homeland. And again God met with Isaac and promised him a great nation filled with blessings.
While Isaac was getting established Abimelech came to him waving a white flag. He desired a peace agreement between himself and Isaac because he realized that God was on Isaac’s side. He feared repercussions from expelling Isaac from his land.
This brings a “what would you do?” kind of moment. You are facing someone who had become jealous of you. Maybe it was your possessions or God’s blessings on your life. They were your friend once or they may be a relative. Their jealousy constantly pushed you away. Your relationship suffered and you determined to move on.
But even after you did so it seemed they continued to harass you by saying mean spirited things to others about you. Until finally all strings were unattached.
Then they want to reconnect. The pain is still there. Isaac could refuse the offer and leave Ambimelech with fear of his retaliation one day. But instead he followed this example.
Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.”
Of course this passage was a prophetic word concerning Jesus but it is applicable to Isaac at this moment in his life. He was unjustly mistreated but never retaliated. He simply moved on until he found a place of peace. And when peace was sought by Abimelech Isaac offered it to him. That is the way to handle those who have mistreated us in the past.
Plus we can also learn from this story that others “filling in our wells” may well be doing God’s work into leading us into a better place.
Many years have now passed. Isaac is fast losing his eye sight and was afraid that his death was imminent. So he calls out to his eldest son, Esau, to accomplish a chore.
Genesis 27:4. “Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.” He sounds a bit like Esau. Remember Esau was quick to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew because he was starving to death? Now, Isaac is in a hurry to bless his eldest child before he dies of old age. Reality is Isaac would live for at least another 15 years. We are not privy to know if he is aware of Esau’s deal with Jacob. But I would think he was informed about God’s word spoken to Rebekah. Let’s review that prophecy.
Genesis 25:23 “And the Lord told her, ‘The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.’”
God had ordained for Esau’s descendants to serve Jacob’s descendants. It was because God had already planned for Jacob to become Israel and produce the twelve tribes. But that went against the custom of the time. So perhaps Isaac was balking against God’s will. He probably did not realize that his father had done the same thing with him.
Genesis 17:18-19 “So Abraham said to God, ‘May Ishmael live under your special blessing!’
But God replied, ‘No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.’”
God had ordained Isaac to be the seed for his chosen people.
Abraham desired Ishmael as was customary. God had ordained Jacob to be the seed for his chosen people. Isaac wanted Esau as was customary.
I wonder how many times have I missed God’s plan because it went against my traditions or what is customary. It is said that the church runs 50 years behind society. Is it because we are filled with traditions and customs? Like Paul did in Rome, we live in a society that is foreign to us believers. But we cannot change that society. We can only change individual lives.
Regardless of what Isaac’s plans were, Rebekah’s plan was to ensure that Jacob received the blessing as promised by God to her. She concocted an elaborate scheme to trick Esau. She prepared some delicious goat meat to be served to Isaac. She dressed Jacob in Esau’s clothes. She covered his hands and the back of his neck with goatskins so he would feel hairy. She dressed him in Esau’s clothes. She sent him into Isaac’s tent.
Isaac expected deceit because the voice did not match the hands. He heard Jacob’s voice but felt the hands of Esau and the smell of Esau’s clothes. So he bestowed upon Jacob the blessings that belonged to Esau. When Esau arrived Isaac realized what had happened. Here was Esau’s reaction.
Genesis 27:36 “Esau exclaimed, ‘No wonder his name is Jacob, for now he has cheated me twice. First he took my rights as the firstborn, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?’”
Notice how Esau is blaming Jacob for the loss of his birthright? Esau willingly gave away his birthright and therefore his blessing. The only deception going on here is him deceiving himself. Remember Adam blaming Eve for their failure in the garden? Some tendencies of Adam lived on in Esau and lives on in us.
He had no blessing to give to Esau but rather a curse that his descendants would serve Jacob’s descendants. All because Esau despised his birthright.
Last week we talked about despising our birthright as a child of God. Just as Esau lost his blessing we must guard against losing ours.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
Esau begins to plan on killing Jacob as soon as Isaac dies and is buried. Undoubtedly Isaac has convinced everyone he is dying soon. So Rebecca convinces Isaac to send Jacob to her bother Alban’s homeland to find a wife. Esau had already displeased his parents by marrying two Hittite women. When Esau heard that his brother had left he married one of Ishmael’s daughters to even more displease his father.
Jacob would be gone for some 15 years. He would reunite with his brother to bury their father. Isaac lived to be 180 years old.
Through the life story of Isaac we learned that God Answers our prayers before we finish praying them when we pray according to his wishes. We learned effective prayers come from praying for others and having others pray for us. We learned God will lead us if we learn to listen. We learned the best way to deal with jealousy is to move on. We learned to be obedient to God’s will even if it’s not our will.
