Genesis - Chapters 24-26

Sarah came up with the idea for Abraham to have a child with her servant, Hagar. Sarah regretted it after Ishmael was born. God promised Sarah would also have a child, and Isaac was born. Sarah made Abraham send Ishmael and Hagar away. Abraham was tested to sacrifice Isaac but God provided a ram instead. Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, and he found Rebecca. Isaac married Rebecca, and they had twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for stew. Isaac dealt with Abimelech and moved around due to famine. The Lord blessed Isaac and his descendants. I'm Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at thead.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we're covering chapters 24-26 of Genesis with the life of Abraham's son Isaac. If you remember, Sarah was barren and so she came up with the idea that Abraham could be with her Egyptian servant Hagar so he could have a child. They did what Sarah suggested and it came to fruition and Sarah regretted it. Abraham's first born son was Ishmael, who was circumcised with Abraham in chapter 17. In God's perfect timing, God promised that Sarah would also have a child. Abraham laughed because he was 100 years old, chapter 17, verse 17. And then when Sarah, who was eavesdropping, heard the three visitors tell Abraham that she would have a child about this time next year, Sarah laughed and thought, after I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure? Chapter 18, verse 12. The Lord asked Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord? Chapter 18, verse 14. God's word came true and in chapter 21, Isaac was born and his name meant he laughs because Sarah said, God has brought me this laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Everyone did, except for Ishmael and Hagar. This angered Sarah and she made Abraham send them away. Yet God watched over and provided for them. Abraham was tested by God to sacrifice Isaac, his child of the promise. He obeyed and the Lord provided a ram instead. At the end of chapter 22, we have a glimpse of what is to come. Abraham gets word about his family whom he had left and verse 23 says, Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Now most of the time in the Bible, ladies, when women are mentioned, it means something because usually the woman is insignificant to the storyline, but always know that it does not mean that women are insignificant to the Lord. In chapter 23, we find that Sarah died and Abraham bought some land with a cave to bury Sarah and then verse 1 of chapter 24 reads, Abraham was now old and well advanced in years and the Lord had blessed him in every way. I laughed at this verse because back when Isaac was born, he was considered too old to have kids and now he's even older. Dr. Abraham Curovella mentioned that this word usage is often used as a person's last word or deeds of a hero, page 280 of his commentary. So Abraham sent his chief servant of the household who was in charge of all that he had to go and find Isaac a wife from his family. I bet he had Rebekah in mind. Abraham had the servant swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth to get a wife not from the Canaanites, but from his family and his own relatives. He swore. The servant asked if she would not come should he take Isaac back to where Abraham came from and he said no because the Lord had promised to Abraham to your offspring, I will give this land. He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. Chapter 24 verse 7, if she refused to come, he was released from his obligation. The servant left with 10 camels and lots of good things for the whole family. When he arrived it was evening and the camels knelt by the well outside of town. The servant prayed, Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, give me success today and show kindness to my master Abraham. Verse 12, he prayed that the Lord would bring a woman to draw water and the one who offers to water the camels would be the one. Verse 15 reads, before he had finished praying, Rebecca came out with her jar on her shoulder. The servant ran to meet her and asked for water from her jar. She gave it and then she said, I will draw water for your camels too until they have finished drinking. Verse 19, she ran to get more water. The servant then asked where she was from and he learned that she was from Abraham's family and that he could stay with them the night. Verses 26 and 27 say, then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord saying, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned my master of his loving kindness and his truth. As for me, the Lord has led me on a journey to the house of my master's relatives. The girl ran to her mother's household and her brother Laban ran to meet the man because he had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's arm. Verse 30, then Laban saw him and said, Come you who are blessed by the Lord. Verse 31, the servant would not eat until he told them his mission. In verse 40, the servant shared that Abraham said, The Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you and make your journey a success so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father's family. The servant then told how God had answered his own prayers even before he was done praying. Then the servant ended by saying, Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me and if not tell me so I may know which way to turn. The family men said, This is from the Lord and they said, Rebecca could go with him and the servant bowed down to the ground before the Lord. He gave gifts to Rebecca and to the family. They ate and drank and spent the night and the next morning the servant was ready to leave with Rebecca. Her brother and mother wanted her to stay for 10 days, but the servant wanted to get back to his master. They called for Rebecca to decide and she said yes. Verse 60 reads, And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies. Rebecca and her maids mounted their camels and they left. In verse 62 we see that Isaac came out one evening to meditate and saw them approaching. Rebecca saw him and asked who he was and the servant said, He is my master, so she covered her face. Verses 66 and 67 the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and he married Rebecca. So she became his wife and he loved her and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. In chapter 25 we see that even though Abraham was old, he took another wife, Keturah and he was able to have six more kids. Verse 5 tells us that Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac but while he was alive he gave gifts to his other sons. Now with the death of Adam, the Bible records in chapter 5 verse 5 of Genesis, Altogether Adam lived 930 years and then he died. With Noah in chapter 9 verse 29, Altogether Noah lived 950 years and then he died. It's different with Abraham. In chapter 25 verses 7 and 8, Altogether Abraham lived 170 years, then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years, and he was gathered to his people. This may be because with Abraham came the promised covenant of both descendants and So this is the beginning of the nation of Israel and their people. We will find this phrase used again as we read the Old Testament. Abraham's first two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him with his wife Sarah in the land that Abraham had purchased. In verses 12-18 we see the line of Abraham's son, Ishmael, whom Sarah's maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham. From him came twelve sons, which became twelve tribal rulers. There was hostility between the brothers, which fulfills God's declaration in chapter 16 verse 12. The rest of chapter 25 we find that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. Verse 21, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. Then in verse 26 we find that after the twins were born that Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. So it seems that they prayed for 20 years before she was able to conceive. They waited for God's timing, unlike Sarah and Abraham. The twins had jostled inside of Rebekah and she inquired of the Lord and the Lord told her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. The first to come out was Red, and he was hairy, so they named him Esau, which means red. The second came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob, which means he grasped the heel, or figuratively, he deceives. The boys grew up and Esau was a hunter and Jacob was a homebody, and we see in verse 28 an issue in family life. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Well, Jacob made some stew, and Esau came home from the open country and was famished. Jacob would not give him any unless he sold him his birthright. Esau said, Since I am about to die, what good is a birthright? So he swore to it, and Jacob gave him some stew. Chapter 25 ends, Esau ate, drank, got up, left, and despised his birthright. With chapter 26, Isaac dealt with Abimelech, whom Abraham had dealings with in chapter 20. Isaac and Rebekah went there due to a famine in the land, just like his dad. Verses 2 and 3 read, The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. Future tense. The Lord promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, like with his dad. And the Lord promised to give him all these lands, like with his dad. And through his offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, like his dad. The men asked about Rebekah, since she was beautiful, and Isaac said she was his sister, like his dad. They found out that she was really his wife, like his dad, and God protected Rebekah, like he did with Sarah. The Lord blessed Isaac there so much that the men asked him to leave the area. He moved away from there, opened the wells that his father had dug, named them the same as his father did. He finally found an area that was not disputed, and he dug a well and named it Rehoboth. From there he went to Beersheba, and verses 24 and 25 say, That night the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. This is present tense. Then Isaac built an altar and called on the name of the Lord, like his dad did. In verse 28 we see that Abimelech came to Isaac and said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you. So we said, There ought to be a sworn agreement between us that we do no harm. Past tense. They left him in peace, and on that day the servant came and said, We found water! The last two verses of chapter 26 tell us about Esau, who at the age of 40 married two Hittite women. The last verse says they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Throughout this story we find God's perfect timing in both human actions and God's guidance. According to Kuruvilla, there is a clear expectation throughout this pericope that while one may go, only Yahweh can make that going successful. That's found on page 284 of his commentary. A pericope is a section of scripture that can be used for a sermon or a lesson. He also pointed out that Rebekah is a heroine in this story and that she is like a female Abraham, page 286 of his commentary. Like Abraham, she left her country, her people, her father's household, and she went to a land that God had planned for her, chapter 12 verse 1. She did not hesitate, just like Abraham. She prayed to the Lord, like Abraham. She walked by faith, like Abraham. How about you? What is God calling you to do? Or where is he calling you to go? If you don't know his will, pray like the servant to guide you. He will show you in his perfect timing. We may have to wait 20 years like Isaac and Rebekah, but God is faithful in keeping his promises. So if you have heard his voice today, please don't harden your heart, instead let's be women of faith who pray and obey. Until next time, and thanks so much for listening.