28. Beginner Bible Course: The story of Isaac

EPISODE 28  The simple Bible overview of…THE STORY OF ISAAC

Starting in Genesis Chapter 21...

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...we meet the second patriarch, the second part of the trunk of the tree through which the Stomper will come Isaac. But before we get to chapter 21, there's an odd little incident in chapter 20 in gear R where Abraham is staying Abraham tells the locals that Sarah is his sister, a prominent, local official Abimelech invites, or take Sarah to become his wife. But before he can consummate the marriage, God appears to him in a dream and says a bimetallic you're a dead man. That's someone else's wife, BIM Molech objects. That seems a bit unfair. Abraham told me it was his sister.

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I'm completely innocent. God agrees. You are innocent. That's why I protected you from touching her, returned her to her husband. And we'll forget, this whole thing happened a bit. Malecki goes to Abraham and he's righteously. Indignant. How could you lie to me? Like this Abraham claims it's just a partial lie. She really is his sister. Well, half sister Abraham den explains what drove him to do this. He was afraid for his life. Hearkening back to our Story at the garden of Eden. It sounds like Abraham was willing to have the chamber pot contents hit his wife to protect himself. Chapter 20 is a really odd incident. Most people reading it come to one of two conclusions.

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Either the writer of Genesis was repeating a single incident, or this perhaps happened twice. We understand why they would think it was the redundancy, the same account. It's very similar storyline fear jeopardizing Sarah, a man taking her, his wife. God protecting the man from consummating, the relationship, the man getting an Abraham's face and the man sending Abraham away, giving him gifts of all things for the great trouble he brought on the man's household. But if the writer was repeating the same incident, he certainly changed a lot of the details. Here's what's different. The place is different. The person is different.

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God's response is different. This doesn't sound like the same incident repeated twice. It sounds like a different incident. And if it's a different incident, it reminds us Abraham had ruts. If he was in trouble and feared for his life, he'd throw others under the bus. Namely his wife, that possibility in and of itself is instructive. That will become even more instructive when we get to Isaac in a few moments. But there's another question with chapter 20. Why is it placed here throughout the story of Abraham the writer unfolds it in what appears to be chronological order? If this is a separate instance and it certainly sounds like it is why is it placed here?

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Is it possible? God appears to Abraham and says this time, next year you'll have a son. And within a months, bit Maleck tries to marry Sarah on the surface. That seems to be a bit of a stretch after all. She's almost a hundred, but while I'm not at all sure about this, I smell something sinister behind the scenes. I want you to just think about a possibility, even if it is a long shot, Satan in his bellboys while not everywhere, certainly can eavesdrop on conversations. They could have eavesdropped on the conversation between the three men and Abraham and Sarah about painting the nursery because they were going to have the son who would bring the Stomper within one year, God said he would open Sarah's woman.

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She would have this boy, the bell boys could have reported this to their boss. Lucifer. Remember he's brilliant. And in complete opposition to God in his plan to bring the Stomper, the one who will crush his head could Lucifer thought if God opened Sarah's womb. If I can fill it with someone else's baby, God, can't bring the Stomper through Abraham and Sarah, do you follow my thinking here? It certainly will not be the last time Lucifer tries to hijack God's plan for the Stomper. If that's the case, thankfully, his plan failed. When we get to chapter 22, Abraham and Sarah have a boy and they named him, laughter Isaac has God had commanded.

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We know from our reading, there's some double meaning there. Sarah and Abraham laughed with scorn that they'd ever get him. And now they're laughing with glee that he's in their lap on day eight, Abraham and Sarah circumcised, little Isaac according to God's command. I picture the family portrait, Abraham and Sarah looking more like grandparents than parents. 14 year old, Ishmael and little laughter, baby Isaac. But not everyone is laughing. Hagar is not likely laughing. Much of Abraham's delight is poured towards Sarah and his new little boy. Ishmael's certainly not laughing. He's got to share his daddy.

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Now with the little runt in the bassinet chapter 22 says on the day Isaac was weaned, which an old Testament times was normally three or four years old. They had a party. Ishmael was flouncing. We use that term in our family when you're misbehaving, because you've got a chip on your shoulder because you didn't get your way. Sarah sees this and is concerned. She tells Abraham to get that slave woman, wife and her second class son out of her sight, boot them out. Abraham Abraham was heartbroken. This was his first born son. He'd bonded and loved him deeply for probably 17 years.

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Now. He'll agree to send Ishmael away. As far as we know, scripture tells us these two brothers Ishmael and little Isaac will only come together. One more time. It will be to bury Abraham at least four decades later. The emotion of this separation and the legacy that followed brings down to the millennia to our day-to-day. The text that follows in Genesis traces. The line of Ishmael. It is present day Arabic people. The genealogy of Isaac traces down today. It is the genealogy of the present day. Jewish people God premised Canaan and its surrounding area to Abraham son.

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Ishmael was the first born Isaac was the promised one, both shared Abraham. His father both were deeply loved by him. Both were blessed by God with many descendants. So it shouldn't surprise us that today in the news, both people groups claim the land. We returned to chapter 22 and fast forward. A number of years Isaac is more grown up. We're not exactly sure how grown up. He's able to have an intelligent conversation with his father and carry an arm load of wood up a mountain. I'm guessing about the age of my seventh grade students. Maybe a little more. God says this to Abraham. I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.

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And I want you to give him, to me, offer him as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah. The text tells us taking a few servants and Isaac he begins to send the mountain. Isaac's apparently done things like this before only the gift to God. The offering was an animal. He asked his dad, we've got the wood and the fire, but where's the lamb to offer his dad responds. God will provide a lamb. My son, when they get to the top of the mountain, Isaac discovers. He is the lamb. He's bound by Abraham and laid on the wood. The text only allows us to imagine what's going through Abraham's heart and mind, but he tells us what he does with the knife.

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In his hand, he begins to bring it down, to cut his son's throat. At the last moment, one of God's heavenly bellboys says, Abraham stop for God now knows you hold him in awe, because you have not withheld your son, your only son from him, the new Testament book of Hebrews confirms that Abraham would have gone through with the act. I then point my students back a few verses to what Abraham tells the servants when he leaves them. I and the boy will go and worship and we will return to you. Hebrews gives the editorial. Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead Paul and the letter of Romans comments God had given him Isaac from the deadness of Sarah's womb.

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He was a miracle boy. There was no reason God couldn't do miracle part to and besides God had promised the Stomper through Isaac and God couldn't do that. If Isaac was dead, the story continues. Abraham looks up from the alter there in the thicket. Arama is cut by the horns. He substitutes that Ram for his son, Isaac and calls the place God will provide. I asked my students if they have a Bible footnote that tells them more Mount Moriah is a good study. Bible will tell you I encourage them. If you don't have one, ask for one for Christmas later in scripture, David makes the Mount Moriah area, his capital, his son Solomon builds the temple there.

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Mount Moriah is the temple Mount in Jerusalem. Remember how I said God lays down clues about the stopper in places and incidents that remind us about who he is and what he would do. Think about this. A man takes his only son and is willing to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. The temple Mount God provides a substitute Lam to die in his place. Hmm. You might want a dog ear. Genesis 22 as well. God then repeats to Abraham the promise he gave him earlier. I will make you a great nation. I'll give you many kids. You'll have a special land.

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And through you, all nations will be blessed after such a weighty chapter. Chapter 23 seems a little light. The whole chapter is committed to discussing how Sarah dies and Abraham tries to buy a cemetery plot from the Canaanites, finding a spot. He asked the owner to sell it to them. The owner offers to give it to them. Abraham insists. He buys it and he does. Then he buries his wife. I asked my students, why would God include that incident in scripture? Some students think it was to honor his wife in their marriage. That's possible, but I tell them, I think there's deeper. Meaning here, God had promised Abraham a special land.

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Abraham's really getting up there in the years. And now he's a widower. He doesn't own a square foot of the land. God has promised that is until chapter 23 Sarah's graveyard. And that explains why Abraham refuse to accept it as a gift. It's not that Abraham, wouldn't take charity it's that God had promised to give him the entire land. And he wasn't going to accept even a little piece of it. From Ephron, the Hittite, the cellar of the graveyard. He would use the resources God had given him and buy it from him. Chapters 24 and 25 of Genesis. Then turn toward Isaac's adult life.

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Family life started slowly for Isaac the patriarch, the one through whom the Stomper would now come. In fact, he's a 40 year old bachelor, which was shocking in that. It was not unusual for people to marry in their late teens. In ancient times, Abraham sends his servant back home to Mesopotamia to find the right girl, a girl in the line of sham, maybe even one of his distant relatives, making the long journey up to the fertile to Mesopotamia. The servant asked God for guidance. He said, I'm not smart enough to pick her out. So I'm going to ask you to choose her. When I get into Mesopotamia and my camels need watering, I'm going to ask you to send the right dam's allowed to have her come out and offer me water and also to water my camels.

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And in Genesis chapter 24, God agrees. That's exactly what happened. I mean exactly what happened. The woman's name was Rebecca Isaac second cousin. The longest short of it is a few days later she's on her way back to Canaan arriving. She sees him off in the distance. The text says he was out meditating in the field, giving us a little indication of what kind of man maybe he was. It's a beautiful start to their love story. The servant hearted woman of character who accepts a blind marriage proposal from a man, hundreds of miles away covers herself with the veil and comes to him.

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The text says he loved her. He married her and that she comforted him after the death of his mother. They may now continue the line of the Stomper, but there's a monkey wrench thrown in. Again. She likes Sarah is barren. They spend 20 years trying. Isaac the meditator pours his heart out to God and God answers. Boy, does he ever answer? You could say he answered twice for, in her womb, our twins. And we'll continue this Story in our next wordpicture.