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Isaac   


Text:  laughter. 

(1.) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos 7:9, 16). 

(2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the 
three patriarchs (Gen. 21: 1-3). He was circumcised when eight days 
old (4-7); and when he was probably two years old a great feast was 
held in connection with his being weaned. The next memorable event in 
his life is that connected with the command of God given to Abraham to 
offer him up as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah 
(Gen.22). (See ABRAHAM.) 

When he was forty years of age Rebekah was chosen for his wife (Gen. 
24). After the death and burial of his father he took up his residence 
at Beer-lahai-roi (25:7-11), where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were 
born (21-26), the former of whom seems to have been his favourite son 
(27,28). 

In consequence of a famine (Gen. 26:1) Isaac went to Gerar, where he 
practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah, imitating the 
conduct of his father in Egypt (12:12-20) and in Gerar (20:2). The 
Philistine king rebuked him for his prevarication. 

After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines, he 
returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of covenant 
blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant of peace with 
him. The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons 
(Gen. 27:1). He died at Mamre, "being old and full of days" 
(35:27-29), one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in the 
cave of Machpelah. In the New Testament reference is made to his 
having been "offered up" by his father (Heb. 11:17; James 2:21), and 
to his blessing his sons (Heb. 11:20). 

As the child of promise, he is contrasted with Ishmael (Rom. 9:7, 10; 
Gal. 4:28; Heb. 11:18). Isaac is "at once a counterpart of his father 
in simple devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive 
weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung from 
his relations to his mother and wife. 

After the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and 
grew up in the shade of Sarah's tent, moulded into feminine softness 
by habitual submission to her strong, loving will." His life was so 
quiet and uneventful that it was spent "within the circle of a few 
miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather than 
disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother's death was the 
poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that peace with his 
neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted possession as a well of 
living water dug by his own men; so grandly obedient that he put his 
life at his father's disposal; so firm in his reliance on God that his 
greatest concern through life was to honour the divine promise given 
to his race." Geikie's Hours, etc.