OVERVIEW:
The death of Abraham; the birth of Jacob and Esau; Esau sells his birthright; Isaac sojourns in Gerar; Isaac blesses Jacob with the Abrahamic Covenant.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
After the death of Abraham, Isaac finds himself in the same predicament his father was in some 50 years previous. He is the recipient of God’s promise of seed, but his wife of 20 years remains barren. The fulfillment of God’s covenant promise demanded that Isaac and Rebekah have sons. Rather than follow the sin of his father, however, Isaac learns to “intreat the Lord” (25:21) for the very thing his father had looked to the world and the flesh to provide. (Praise the Lord, the Scripture says that the iniquities of the fathers, Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18, are “VISITED” upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. When a VISITOR comes to our door, we don’t have to let them in!) Do note, however, that when the iniquity of his father “visits” in chapter 26 and verse 7, Isaac responds just as his father, Abraham, had done! He lies about his wife being his sister. This is a good place to begin to learn, the biblical principle, that we must always be on guard against the sins to which our father was susceptible! (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18)
As a result of Isaac’s faithful prayers, God grants Isaac and Rebekah conception. Rebekah sensed a struggle within her womb, and enquired of the Lord as to the meaning. The Lord explained in 25:23, “Two nations are in thy womb (Israel and Edom), and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”
As seen previously in the story of Ishmael and Isaac, God continuously finds ways in the Old Testament to point us to the fact that He rejects the first birth (“that which is born of the flesh” – John 3:6a) and accepts the second birth (“that which is born of the Spirit” – John 3:6b). This time, God points us to that fact in the picture He paints through His record of the lives of Jacob and Esau.
Note also, that there is another incredible picture that God paints through the bizarre story in Genesis 27 of the firstborn blessing coming to Jacob, the younger, instead of Esau, the older. Christ, our older brother (Hebrews 2:11), the One to whom belonged the firstborn blessing (Colossians 1:15; Romans 8:29), was cursed (2nd Corinthians 5:20) and rejected of His Father (Matthew 27:46), that the firstborn blessing might come upon us! Needless to say, God is quite an Artist! He paints pictures of New Testament principles, concepts and truths through the Old Testament record of actual historic events!
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
The SEED THROUGH WHOM THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD WOULD BE BLESSED – Genesis 26:4 (Galatians 3:16)
In ESAU – Genesis 25:23 (Malachi 1:2-3; Galatians 3:13)