Isaac had great hopes for the future, because YHWH had answered his prayer for Rebekah to become pregnant, and twin boys were on the way. But hope soon turned to despair on finding out from YHWH that the boys would not get along together, and one of them would end up winning out over the other (Genesis 25:23). Imagine knowing that before your kids are even born.
So in only the second generation of YHWH’s amazing promises to Abraham and his offspring, there are already troubling issues in the family – a foretaste of which is given in verses 24 to 34, in Rebekah’s twin boys turning out to be such opposites. Esau was a rugged outdoors chap and his Dad’s obvious favourite, but Jacob the younger and quieter of the two was a domestic homebody so he was Rebekah’s favourite (27-28).
Despite Esau’s rugged strength, it was Jacob, as YHWH had predicted, who turned out to be the stronger, managing to weasel his older brother’s birthright out of him in exchange for some lentil stew. Imagine having two kids and one is always outsmarting the other for his own ends. No hope of a close, happy family, then.
But for all their troubles and despair in the family one thing remained rock solid: it was the promise God made to Abraham, that everything would work out as God promised “because,” Genesis 26:5, “Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
Abraham made some poor decisions of his own, but never did he disobey anything YHWH told or instructed him to do, including the sacrifice of his son. It showed God that there was no limit in Abraham’s mind when it came to obeying.
And that one thing carried on with Isaac too. Like his Dad, he made some bad mistakes, and even the same ones as his father, like saying Rebekah was his sister not his wife (26:7), but when it came to direct orders from YHWH – like “living in the land where I tell you to live” (2-3) – Isaac always obeyed.
So when asking the question, “How do we cope – like Isaac – when life is both hope and despair?” – YHWH gave us the answer in the lives of both Abraham and Isaac: just keep on obeying what we know God tells us and instructs us to do, because “God will work everything out”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 