Title: God's Promise and Isaac's Prayer
Contents
God's Promise and Isaac's Prayer
Genesis 25:19-26 2006-9-3 Sunday
God promised to establish a covenant through Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah. The covenant was first made with Abraham, saying, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing… All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” However, that covenant was maintained through Abraham's son Isaac (Genesis 17:7,19-21).
But even though Isaac married Rebekah, the wife could not conceive. I haven't had children for 20 years. Why? (This is a very important question.) Was it because Isaac had the wrong marriage? Could it be that Rebekah was not a woman pleasing to God? It's not like that. Rebekah was the woman God had chosen to be Isaac's wife (24:42-48). Was it because Rebekah was not healthy enough to conceive? It's not like that. Rebekah was a woman who was healthy enough to go uphill with a jar full of water on her shoulder (24:15). So, why was Isaac's wife not pregnant? Why didn't God open the door to her womb? Because there was something more important than Isaac's wife getting pregnant. It was for Isaac and Rebekah to become men of prayer before God.
God was waiting for them to become people of prayer. They waited for a child to be born of them, but God waited for them to become people of prayer. God's interests and their interests were different.
Why did God want them to be people of prayer? This was so that we could receive and enjoy the blessings that God has promised as well as our descendants through prayer. If God had given them offspring before they became people of prayer, they would not have prayed for the more blessings God had promised. They would have been content to just have offspring. He would have been satisfied with the least of God's promised blessings. Therefore, God was trying to make Isaac into people of prayer so that he could receive all the blessings that God had promised as the descendants of the covenant, and that he could enjoy all the blessings that God was going to give.
The Bible tells us that Isaac was a man of obedience from an early age. It also tells us that he was a man of meditation. However, he was not yet a person of prayer. That is why God forbade them to conceive in order to make them people of prayer. God waited until Isaac prayed to God for his barren wife.
It must not have been easy for Isaac to plead for his wife. Perhaps it was easier to let go of faith in God than to pray to Him. It would have been easier to doubt God's promises than to trust them. You could have doubted whether God really made a covenant with him or whether God would really make a great nation through him. He must have doubted whether Rebekah was indeed the woman God had chosen. You may have wondered if you should take another woman as your wife.
There must have been many conflicts in Isaac's heart. It's because I haven't been able to conceive for a year or two, not even for 20 years. What a difficult and painful time for those waiting for their children. How frustrated and upset must you be? In reality, sighs and groanings would have come naturally. Nevertheless, he trusted God. He relied on God's promises. So I could pray and I could have hope while praying. And as a result, God heard his request, and he was able to have children.
From this we can clearly see the relationship between God's promises and our supplications. God's promises do not make our prayers unnecessary. Rather, God's promises enable us to pray. We can pray boldly because God has promised, and we can pray with confidence because God has promised.
Ezekiel 36:37 “Nevertheless, thus saith the Sovereign LORD, the house of Israel must ask me to do this for them… ”
2 Samuel 7:27-29 “… O God, I made known to your servant, saying, "I will build a house for you." Your servant has a heart to ask for it through this prayer. You have granted your servant this good thing. Now, I beg you, bless your servant's house and present it to you. May the house of your servant be blessed forever by your grace, says the Lord GOD.”
Therefore, I hope that you and I can also ask God for our wishes with faith in God's promises. Jesus said. “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Jesus did not come simply to save our souls. He came to give us an abundance.