Abram’s story has shown us a huge amount about what faith means. What can we learn from Isaac’s story?
Two things. On one level, humanly he’s a bit of a wimp, someone passive who `things get done to`. At age 40 his dad gets him a wife (Genesis 24). Then, he doesn’t contribute anything new towards what Abram has pioneered, towards the process of getting the promised inheritance. All he does is reopen the wells his father dug (26:18); repeat his father’s dumb mistakes (26:7); and finally when in old age he does do something on his own initiative, it’s another big mistake, plus his wife and son team up to lie to him and stop it happening (ch27).
Practically what do we learn from all this? Perhaps that the `second generation`, like Isaac, is a hard place to be. The book of Joshua starts off with dreaming big, global, pioneering dreams (1:4); and that’s the keynote of a book of victories. Judges in contrast starts off with all the advances the second generation failed to make (1:27ff,2:10); and that’s the keynote of a book of decline and horrible disintegration. The pioneering phase has its problems too, but the gains are clear there; it’s easier to be in a Joshua phase, when you’re moving forward into the land where God’s promises come wonderfully true. And yet sometimes living in the `second generation` is unavoidable; some of us are called to live there, where there are no obvious signs of God’s kingdom moving forward, where like Isaac we have less of an obvious niche in history. I believe the solution is always to seek to live as close to the pioneering frontier as possible; wherever we are, seeking that place God has for us personally on his kingdom’s frontier; knowing that for each of us there is some unique sector (eg, people no other believer knows and loves) across which we can desire, pray, carry God’s presence, and giving ourselves to that… Training ourselves in faith, looking for the frontiers in our lives where God can bring about the improbable, taking risks…
But these Genesis stories are deep, they work on all sorts of levels. In Genesis 22 we saw how Isaac foreshadowed that other Son who went all the way through to death, for our sake; and more could be said about that. But Watchman Nee of Shanghai points out something else: God chooses to be called, not just the God of Abraham, but also the God of Isaac. Why? Because Isaac does nothing, contributes nothing to getting his inheritance – and at root that’s how salvation works! So if Abraham’s history taught us about faith, this one teaches us about grace. If I’m saved it’s because I’m an Isaac; I did nothing whatsoever to gain this salvation; it is totally `the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast`! Bottom line, I’m an Isaac – nothing at all to earn, called by God’s love simply to receive!
(And doesn’t this take us back to the story of Isaac’s birth, and Hagar (Gen 21)?- the point of which (Galatians 4 says) is that seeking God’s blessings by the things we do, law-keeping for example, can only lead to slavery (see Gal 4:25; because we’ll never know if we’ve done enough); whereas what Isaac `stands for` is the laughter (cf Gen 21:3), the utter freedom, of knowing for sure that God has truly done it all?)
Oh yes: if I can really grasp what it means that I myself really am a right Isaac, and – but – God delights to be the `God of Isaac`……. how incredibly liberating that will be! Thank you Lord!
