Observations on Genesis: Isaac, 2
As I read and reread from Genesis 25-28:10, I was struck by how Isaac appears. Even in chapter 25, his appearance is first that of a son burying his father and then that of a husband praying for his wife. But if you pay attention to verses 20-21 and the end of verse 26, Isaac seems to have prayed for 20 years before his wife conceived. How many times might he have given up during those years? Yet he did not, and became an example of persevering in prayer.
We also meet Esau and Jacob, and learn of their parents' preferences. While we are informed why Isaac likes Esau--food he prepared for his father appears to have tipped that balance--we are not told why Rebekah preferred Jacob. Maybe he reminded her of Isaac, the more quiet, stay at home type. That's just my reading.
In Genesis 26, God's command and promise to Isaac receives comparatively less note than Isaac's relationships with Abimelech. Not unlike his father, Isaac first convinces his wife to lie about their relationship. However, the outcome is different. Isaac is admonished for what he did, but allowed to remain in the country.
God blesses Isaac as He promised to. Why does God? Because of Abraham and his character. I wonder how that made Isaac feel. Was he challenged to keep up the family reputation? Again, I can only speculate.
Like his father, Isaac deceives Abimelech regarding his relationship with his wife. Like his father, Isaac is found out. Unlike his father, Isaac is permitted to remain in the territory rather than being unceremoniously evicted.
When conflict ensues between Abimelech's herdsmen and Isaac's, Isaac opts to move on until reaching an area where he can settle. Isaac has two significant meetings in Beersheba, first with God, then with Abimelech and two other men--his advisor and the commander of his army.
Covenants are made. Chapter 26 ends with mentions of Esau's first marriages, which do not please either parent.
Chapter 27 includes one of the most commented on events in the life of this family. Isaac considers himself old enough to be on his deathbed--which proves not to be the case--and sends Esau to catch and prepare Isaac's favorite meal after which Isaac will give Esau the blessing commonly given the older son. I don't think Isaac has any idea that Esau had already bartered away the birthright.
Then we have Rebekah and Jacob conspiring--seemingly successfully--to fool Isaac into giving the blessing to Jacob. And after he does, Esau returns, prepares the meal, etc. If anyone can think of any emotion, someone in this epic will experience it.
I was especially struck by this interaction and the eventual consequences: But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing." His mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me."
Once Jacob was sent away, he would again see his father and his brother, but not, I think, his mother. The curse was on her.
At the beginning of what we call Genesis 29, Isaac sends Jacob to the house of Bethuel his grandfather and commands him to take as his wife one of the daughter's of Laban his uncle, and again blesses Jacob.

Observations on Genesis: Isaac

Genesis 21:

v.v. 1-7 Isaac's birth: The passage begins with this: "The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised." Think about that! Twenty-five years had passed, and God visited as he said he would and did as he said he would. Time isn't the same to him as it is to us. We so easily become anxious when he seems to have forgotten.

Hebrews 11:11-12: "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."

v.v. 8-21 Hagar and Ishmael banished

Isaac is weaned. Ishmael laughs at some point during the feasting celebrating this. It can't have been a joyful laugh, as again Sarah wants this pair gone. This time in response to God's command and promise, Abraham agrees. He gives them bread and water, and they leave. After some time in the wilderness, with both the bread and the water gone, Hagar puts Ishmael under a bush, which indicates to me that he was already very weak, and then she withdraws. She expects him to die soon. But again God intervenes.

This time He doesn't send her back, but makes provision so that they can continue. More than that, we are told, "And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt." (21:20-21). God was with Ishmael as he had promised Abraham he would be (21:13) and he did make a great nation of him as God also promised.

v.v. 22-34 Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech

"At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, 'God is with you in all you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.' And Abraham said, 'I will swear.'" It may be that Abimelech had in mind the situation we read about in the previous chapter where Abraham had not been completely honest with him. Whatever motivated this the chapter ends v. 34 "And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines."

Genesis 22

v.v. 1-19 Sacrifice of Isaac

Hebrews 11:17-18: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."

v.v.20-24 Extended family

This genealogy is not tacked on but significant in that it mentions the lineage of Isaac's future wife, Rebekah.

Genesis 23

v.v.1-20 Sarah's death and burial

Sarah lived long enough to rear her son, but not to see him married. Abraham negotiates the purchase of property which would become the family burial area for not only his wife and himself, but also for several of his descendants.

Genesis 24

Isaac and Rebekah

Certain things stuck me about this chapter: the fact that Abraham's servant who had at one time been his heir was so agreeable to undertake this task; the fact that Rebekah's family wanted to know if she was willing to go rather than speaking on her behalf; and the fact that Rebekah didn't want to wait but wanted to go as soon as possible. What unusual people! And what interesting developments would follow.

This 67 verse chapter is full of action which takes place over a wide area. Abraham commits his most trusted servant to

observations on Genesis, 4

Genesis chapter 16-20 are full of momentous events. In chapter 16, we see the triangle of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, with Abram's surrogate marriage to Hagar resulting in the birth of Ishmael. We see Sarai's anger, Hagar's flight, and God's promise regarding Ishmael. Hagar returns to Sarai as commanded and in due time gives birth. The consequences of the decisions made in this chapter continue.
In chapter 17, God establishes the covenant of circumcision, a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. Every male in Abraham's household is to be circumcised. There was to be no exception. I would suppose at 99 years of age, Abraham was the oldest to undergo this procedure. In the midst of the chapter, God renames both Abram and Sarai. Hereafter they are known as Abraham and Sarah. And again they are promised a son of their own.
Chapters 18 and 19 begin with a visit of three strangers. The good news is that Abraham and Sarah will have a son of their own; again they express disbelief. Wouldn't any of us? They'd heard this before, and more than once.
The bad news is that Sodom is probably soon going to be destroyed. Abraham barters with God. (What nerve! But don't we often do the same?) Finally they reach an agreement that if ten righteous souls are found in the city, the city will be spared. The strangers depart and Abraham returns to his tent.
No doubt Abraham was thinking of his nephew Lot. He may have thought that the ten righteous persons would be made up of Lot's household. Abraham must have been distraught when he realized the city and surrounding area had been destroyed. Were Lot and his family included in that?
At the end of chapter 19, there is another sad story with far-reaching implications.
Lot and his daughters are all that remain of his family. His daughters manage to become pregnant by their drunken father and the sons they bear become two groups which would have complicated relationships with Abraham's descendants: the Moabites and the Ammonites.
Then in chapter 20 we see Abraham and Sarah again deceive a foreign king, this time Abimelech, king of Gerar. Once again God intervenes and protects the foreign king and his people from the consequences of Abraham's and Sarah's unbelief. How embarrassing this must have been for this couple whom God had chosen!