Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
Review and Introduction
Have you ever watched a movie based on a book that you’ve previously read and been disappointed at some of the details that were left out of the movie? The book is almost always better than the movie because in a book, both the author and the reader participate in the creative process. The author presents a written story and asks the reader to engage her imagination in order to produce the details of the characters, the visuals, smells, and sounds. You imagine that a character looks or talks a certain way. The reader then watches the movie version of the story and instead of participating, she becomes a spectator of someone else’s interpretation. The movie director makes creative decisions that are different than those of the reader, leaving out or changing details in order to tell a good visual story.
Preaching is a bit like that. I make decisions to leave out details or focus on parts of the story that may disappoint some of you. I hope you will forgive me for this. Just know that I am not leaving out details because they are unimportant. I am highlighting some parts rather than others because I have to make a decision about what parts will keep us moving forward in this grand narrative we call the Bible.
We are on the third Sunday of our Pentateuch series, which will take us through summer until the end of August. The Pentateuch, which is made up of the first five books of the Bible, tells the story of how God chose a family to become his chosen nation through which the world will be blessed. The father of this family is Abraham, whom we learned about last week.
Abraham was told by God to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household and go to the land God would show him. God promised to make Abraham into a great nation and would bless him; God would make his name great, and he would be a blessing. God would bless those who bless Abraham, and whoever curses him, God will curse. All peoples on earth would be blessed through him.
We learned last week that these promises of blessing have been fulfilled and passed along to us through Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, we are people blessed by God, which means to receive and pass along the benefits of God’s favour.
Today, we will learn a bit about what it means to be a bearer of God’s blessing by looking at the life of Isaac. We will see that those who bear God’s blessing do not always get it right. Isaac and his family didn’t get it right. We won’t always get it right either. But the mistakes we make do not disqualify God’s promise to bless those who ultimately put their trust in him.
We begin with an introduction to Isaac’s wife and how the two of them were introduced. This is a beautiful story that tells of God’s provision and a young woman of admirable character who, like Abraham, listens to the call of God.
Genesis 24:10-27 – Rebekah at the Well
Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.
Chapter 24 is the longest chapter in Genesis and tells the story of how Abraham found a wife for Isaac. This story transitions the promise of blessing from Abraham to Isaac through the securing of a wife from within Abraham’s family. Rebekah could be viewed as the female Abraham. She is called to leave her family and homeland, and she also responds with complete trust in God’s call.
The task of finding a wife for Isaac and its success is the result of God’s provision and guidance. In verse 12, we read the servant’s prayer, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.” Then in verse 27, the servant gives credit to God, saying, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”
The true central character and initiator of every story is God, whether or not explicitly stated, but the human dimension is real, filled with imperfect individuals whose decisions are authentic choices. Today, we will witness how the Lord achieves his purposes through loyal sinners. These are not perfect people. They sometimes go about God’s business in ways that are morally questionable. Yet, God’s favour is on them. Not because they deserve his favour but because God is doing something and has chosen these people to participate with him.
Rebekah, at the well, shows her good character by going above and beyond what is asked of her. She is then invited to be married to someone she has never met before. She goes with the blessing of her mother and her brother, Laban, (we will be re-introduced to Laban next week) that closely resembles the promises that God made to Abraham: “And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, ‘Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the cities of their enemies.’” (Gen. 24:60) Rebekah is one of the more honourable characters in these stories. Yet later, we will read that Rebekah’s character is far from perfect.
In the last two messages, I included a connection to the New Testament at the end of the messages. Today, I want to connect these stories to the New Testament as we go through them. The connection in this story is an interesting one. Remember, the New Testament was compiled with the Old Testament in mind. The early Christians saw Jesus and established the church from a Jewish perspective. My goal in showing you these connections is for you to see the New Testament with an eye for how it connects to the Old Testament. I also think it’s important that we ask why certain stories were kept. For example, this story in John 4. This story is about another woman at a well.
Jesus was travelling and came to a town near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well. Like the story about Rebekah, a woman came to get water while Jesus was there. Like the servant, Jesus asked the woman for some water. Jesus was in a conversation with the woman when the disciples came to the well.
Imagine these disciples, familiar with the stories of women at wells in the Old Testament. You see, it wasn’t only Isaac whose wife was found at a well. Jacob’s wife Rachel was discovered at a well. After fleeing Egypt after killing a man, Moses met his future wife Zipporah at a well. As the disciples came to this well in Samaria, I wonder, what they must have thought, finding Jesus talking to a woman there.
It may have suggested to the disciples that this encounter might lead to a more intimate relationship with the woman. What was Jesus’ plan for her? A Jewish Rabbi simply doesn’t engage with random women, let alone a Samaritan woman. Indeed, Jesus was inviting her to an intimate relationship, not a marriage relationship in the same way as the Old Testament stories, but something much more significant: a relationship with God himself. This invitation to the Samaritan woman is also extended to us. Jesus invites all of us to a spiritual marriage with him, one that will culminate in the “marriage supper of the Lamb” as recorded in Revelation 19.
Genesis 25:19-34 – Isaac’s Persistent Prayer
This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. (v. 19-21)
With Isaac now the bearer of God’s blessing following Abraham’s death, the one thing missing was children of his own. 25:5 says that Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. He inherited a very wealthy estate. But, like his father, his wife was barren, which means he had no heir to bear God’s blessing. Unlike his father, however, instead of taking matters into his own hands by having a child with another woman, he prayed for Rebekah to bear him a son.
Verse 26 says that Isaac was 60 years old when his twin sons were born, and verse 20 says that he and Rebekah were 40 years old when they were married. For 20 years, Isaac waited for his wife to become pregnant, praying that God would keep his promise and bless them with children.
Have you ever waited for something for 20 years? Perhaps the health of a sick loved one, your own health, or a relationship that has gone sour. Many of us are praying for the spiritual health of our children, grandchildren, neighbours, siblings, parents, and co-workers. Some of you have been waiting longer than Isaac did for a loved one to accept God’s blessing in their life.
Luke 8:1-8 tells us about persistent prayer: Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
This parable tells us that God is different from the judge in the story. The judge gave in to the persistent widow because she kept bothering him. God hears our prayers and responds with his wisdom, not because he is tired of hearing our requests but because he wants to show his favour to those who trust him. Prayer is how we not only demonstrate our trust but also learn to trust God with our concerns.
Persistence is particularly important these days. We have grown used to instant answers and immediate gratification. If God does not answer our prayers right away, there must be something wrong with our prayers, or maybe something is wrong with God. We often think of God as someone who meets our needs and desires, and if he doesn’t or doesn’t do so immediately, then what good is he? What’s the point of having faith in a God who allows me or others to suffer? Sometimes, God does not give us what we want or even need. We do not know why.
But if we don’t ask, we will not receive. And sometimes, we, like Isaac, have to ask persistently. Isaac’s prayers were fuelled by his parents’ experience with bareness and God fulfilling his promises. He knew he was the bearer of the blessing of God, passed down to him by his father. He knew that God intended to pass this blessing down to his children. This gave him the strength to persist.
This is perhaps the key to understanding how to pray confidently and patiently. Isaac was praying according to God’s promise. He had confidence that God would pull through one way or another. Think about what you have been praying for. Does it line up with God’s promises? If so, you can be confident that God will answer according to his wisdom and timing. Just keep praying and waiting. This leads to the next story, in which someone does not wait on God.
Genesis 27:22-34 – Jacob’s Deceit
“Are you really my son Esau?” he asked. “I am,” he replied… Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.” So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed. May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.” After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.” His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.” Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”
In yet another puzzling story, we read about how God’s blessing is passed from Isaac to Jacob through deception. Here we have Rebekah, who is supposed to be this woman of honourable character, telling her son to deceive Isaac into getting the blessing meant for Esau.
In the mind of Rebekah, this blessing belongs to Isaac anyway. In 25:22-23, we read that God told her about this plan to bless Isaac. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to 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.”
So, Isaac, being the second twin of the two that was born, is supposed to be the master of Esau according to this message to Rebekah from God. Is this story of deception a case of the ends justifying the means? Does this give us permission to do whatever it takes to accomplish God’s purposes?
This isn’t the first time this family has tried to do this. With Abraham, as we learned last week, it was his attempt to produce an heir rather than wait on God to make it happen. In that case, God intervened and did it the way he said would happen.
This sort of manipulation shows a lack of confidence in God’s ability to not only keep his promises but to do so in a way that is good for everyone involved. As he made clear to Abraham and Sarah with the birth of Isaac, God will fulfill his promises and achieve his ends no matter how unlikely it looks from a human perspective. In addition, though Jacob rightly receives the blessing, the deceptive way in which he was chosen and blessed by his father leads to undesirable consequences.
The most immediate consequence is that Rebekah convinced Isaac to send Jacob away, which turned out to be a difficult period in Jacob’s life. Jacob and Esau will eventually reconcile with one another. But, the Edomites, who are Esau’s descendants, became long term adversaries of Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites.
In John 11:45-53, we read another story of how people were trying to accomplish God’s purposes in the wrong way.
Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
The Jewish leaders rightly believed that God sent his Messiah to save Israel. But, they saw this as political salvation and the restoration of Israel in all its glory. Having a temple and status as a nation-state in Rome was a way for them to cling to God’s promises made originally to Abraham. If they let Jesus carry on, they feared losing these symbols of God’s blessing.
The high priest then unknowingly prophesied that Jesus would have to die in order to save the entire nation. They thought they were saving the temple and the status of Israel. They killed the Messiah, which was an evil thing, but God used this evil for good.
These examples do not give us permission to use any means necessary to accomplish God’s purposes. They are examples to show us that our missteps and lack of trust in God are no hindrance to him. They are recorded to show God’s power and grace.
We will all mess up. We will take action when we should have waited. We will wait when we should have acted. But living with regret or shame, doubting God’s ability to turn things around, is no way to live as God’s people.
Perhaps today God is asking you to take action. You’ve learned a bit about him and who Jesus is. You’ve felt the prompt to start making some different decisions in your life. I hope you have heard today that no matter how you’ve messed up, God can bless you and bless others through you.
Pentateuch Series Bibliography
Alexander, T. Desmond. From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. Fourth Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022.
Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Averbeck, Richard E. The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022.
Brueggemann, Walter. Preaching from the Old Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.
Glanville, Mark. Freed to Be God’s Family: The Book of Exodus. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2021.
Longman III, Tremper. Genesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Lynch, Matthew J. Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III. A Biblical History of Israel. Second Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
Smith, James E. The Torah. 2nd ed. Old Testament Survey Series. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1993.
Walton, John H and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.