We come now to just one verse for this study which is about the promised son that was born to Abraham and Sarah, who is Isaac. There is much to be said about the faith of Isaac that we see within the pages of Scripture but we will focus on the contents of our verse that we will study on here. We will start off by looking at the faith of Isaac in some areas of his life then that will lead us to the faith he had to give the blessings of God to his children in the way he did. This of course will take us to look at some content into the original story in Genesis so that we will understand the context in what we see in our verse for this study. Before we get to far let’s read this verse that we see here in Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
I know there doesn’t seem to be much here in content but with just the first 3 words we could compile so much information in the Scripture when it comes to Isaacs’s faith. This is what we will look at first before getting into the words we see here in Hebrews 11. Let’s look at our first point.
1.Isaac’s faith.
As we have already seen Hebrews 11:20a says By faith Isaac, and I want to just stop there to look at what Isaac had faith in. Isaac’s story really starts before he was even born. He was the promised son that would be born to the aged Abraham and Sarah. The promise of an heir was given to Abraham and yet it was not until he was 100 years old that he received the fulfillment of that promise. The promise is recorded in Genesis 17:19 that says God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
Isaac’s birth is recorded in Genesis 21 and then we see the near sacrifice of Isaac that God command of Abraham recorded in Genesis 22. I know we focus much on Abraham’s faith in that act but how about the faith of Isaac not just seen in the act but after the act. I think if my dad tried to kill me, that would be a hard thing to deal with. There would be distrust, I would be looking over my shoulder all of the time wondering if something like that would happen again. I think because of Isaac being there and witnessing his own father’s faith to do whatever God commanded, that this too built Isaac’s faith to do the same even when things didn’t seem right in his own eyes.
Isaac displayed his faith again as he marries Rebekah seeing that there was not even any courtship or betrothal. Isaac trusted his parents and knew that this was a part of the plan of God. Even though we see Isaac mentioned so much, the contents of his life does not start until about midway into Genesis 25. This is what we see in Genesis 25:19-21 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 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. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
What do we notice here in this passage of Scripture? We see just like his own parents, they too were unable to have children. Now Isaac and Rebekah are not as old as Abraham and Sarah but it is no doubt they are getting to the point of not being able to conceive naturally. They married when Isaac was 40 and was without a child for 20 years before they saw the heir of the promise born. The story goes that Rebekah conceives with twins and gives birth when Isaac is 60 years old. We do not see a storyline like we did with Abraham of Isaac’s faith up to this point but what we see by implication is that this prayer was something Isaac prayed for throughout his life. Isaac knew the story of his own conception and birth, he knew that he was the heir that would continue the lineage of the promise and yet we do not see his faith waver.
Sometime later Isaac would receive the same promise as his father did, Look with me at Genesis 26:3b-4 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.
This promise comes to Isaac most likely not long after Abraham’s death. If you look at the lay out in the Scripture it is hard to tell sometimes when some things happen because not everything is chronological. Any way we look at it we know that Isaac knew that his offspring would be what continues this promise given originally to his father. Of course for most people of that time this would most likely be the firstborn son that would inherit this promise. But as we will see that was not in the plan of God and Isaac would have to trust God’s plan over his desire. That moves us now to our next point and the contents of our verse in Hebrews 11.
2.Isaac’s faith in God’s redemption plan.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
Now I want to bring up the fact that most people believe that Esau was not given a blessing but seems to be more of a curse from Isaac in the story that we will looked at in Genesis 27. But I think we will see clearly that this was a blessing but not the blessing that he expected to have as the older son. This story is familiar to most people that have read the Bible. We know that Isaac was getting older and was around 130 or so at this time. His eyesight was deteriorating, his health seemed to be in decline and before he died he wanted to bless his son Esau. This blessing would give to Esau the right to the inheritance, it would place him as the leader of the family and with that the continuation of the blessing given to Abraham from God.
As the story goes, Isaac tells Esau to go hunt and kill an animal to prepare a meal for him. At that time Isaac would then bless Esau. This is where we will go back in the story to understand that this blessing was not Esau’s to have. First we see that Rebekah, Esau and Jacob’s mother, was told that Jacob who is the younger would be given this blessing. Look with me at Genesis 25:22-23 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, “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.”
So the blessing would go to the younger son who is Jacob. Not only that, we also see that Esau did not even care about any of this until it came to wanting to be blessed with the material prosperity and power of the leader of the family. We see his uncaring attitude in the story recorded in Genesis 25:29-34 that says Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
So we see that Esau seemed to only care about the things of the world and did not care about the things pertaining to the blessing that came along with being the heir of the promises that God had given to his grandfather, Abraham. So this brings us back to the story of the blessing given by Isaac in Genesis 27. At the time that Isaac spoke these things to Esau, Rebekah was listening in. So she calls Jacob and plans to deceive Isaac by sending Jacob in to Isaac as if he is Esau. She cooked the food, she got Esau’s clothes for Jacob to wear and made his appearance seem to match Esau. Even though they were twins, Jacob was a soft skin person and Esau was hairy so Rebekah made Jacob seem more hairy by putting goat hair on his hands and neck.
The plan was set and Jacob goes in to his father to pose as Esau. Isaac was reluctant at first because Jacob’s voice did not seem to match Esau’s but eventually Isaac was deceived and gave the blessing to Jacob that we see in Genesis 27:28-29 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
I want to make clear that God did not need Rebekah to plan this deception in order to bless Jacob. It was already in the plan of God for Jacob to be the ruler over the house but this is what happened. God would have got this done another way so it is never alright to be deceptive to get what we want. This time though we see that Rebekah’s wants were actually a part of the plan of God but she should have not done this. In fact this brings division into the home and separates Esau and Jacob for many years.
To get back to our text we noticed the obvious promises of blessing to Jacob and his offspring, They would be blessed with material blessing and would be the ruler of the family. Not only would he rule his family but also others would serve him as well.
This brings us to look at what happens when Esau comes back from his hunt and preparation of the food for his father. Esau comes in to his father and Isaac is confused because he believed that he had already blessed Esau. They figure out that in fact Jacob had deceived Isaac to get the blessing. Esau is furious and angered at what has happened. He then asks his father in Genesis 27:36b “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
This question is not pointed towards the fact that Isaac could only give one blessing or that he would curse Jacob but was asking of the blessing in association of the dominance and inheritance of the blessing reserved for the one that would be heir of the family. Isaac answers Esau in Genesis 27:37 “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”
In other words what was done could not be revoked because Isaac understood that this must have been the plan of God. Even though this was done by deception, Isaac would not go against what he knew as the plan of God to suit his desire or Esau’s desire for this blessing. Isaac does in fact give a blessing to Esau that is really set in opposition to Jacob’s blessing. We see this in Genesis 27:39-40 that says “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. 40 By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
Notice none of this is set as a curse but rather that he would not be as blessed as Jacob. In fact later on when Jacob and Esau meet up after many years of separation Jacob tries to give gifts to Esau and Esau says this in Genesis 33:9 I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.
Esau was not blessed by God as the heir to the promise made to Abraham and Isaac but he still had what he needed. He was not cursed by Isaac even though he was not a true follower of God. He was rebellious and hated the fact that he did not receive what he thought was owed to him. In this story what we see is that Isaac did not waver in God’s plan but had faith in God’s plan even though it was not what he wanted. He may have faced difficulties, fought with his own desires and went through trials but his faith never wavered from the plan of God.
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