Title: Isaac the Meek / Genesis 26:23-33
Content Title: Isaac the meek / Genesis 26: 23-33
1. Isaac's Life
Verse 25 says, "Isaac built an altar there, and called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well there as well."
1) Building an altar and calling on the name of the Lord refers to Isaac's religious life. The place where the altar was built was Beersheba, where Isaac settled because of God's revelation and permission. As Isaac stopped his Egyptian journey and left Gerar, his religious life deepened in Beersheba. Therefore, the believer's residence and business must be instructed by God to receive blessings.
2) To pitch a tent refers to family life. Isaac's family life was pure and beautiful. Among the characters of the Old Testament, there were several people who were not clean because of the woman problem. Isaac kept the road of monogamy and his family life was pure.
3) Digging a well refers to a professional life. A well is a great possession indispensable to a shepherd. It is difficult to dig wells in Judea, where water is scarce, so it is not easy to dig five wells in a lifetime. He was also a non-resistance and peace lover who had yielded his own well to others three times.
2. Isaac with Disadvantages
1) I made a mistake due to a food problem. When faced with a famine, he tried to leave the land that God had appointed and go to Egypt according to his will. God stopped Isaac from going to Egypt and made him live in Gerar, where he made the mistake of lying that his wife was his sister. Life in Gerar was prosperous, but on the contrary, it was hated by the locals, and he ended up going to Vuelsheba.
God sometimes gives hardships to put the person he loves in the most suitable place.
2) It caused discord between Esau and Jacob and showed favoritism. I couldn't tell the offenders of true faith, so I asked for a delicacy in return for the blessing.
3. Ears of many advantages
1) He was a man of obedience. He obeyed his father's will, even to become a sacrifice on the altar of Moriah. Marriage did not go as freely as Ishmael did, but he followed his father's will. Isaac was a man of obedience and a child of filial piety.
2) He was a man of faith. He was the man who inherited his father's faith, built altars wherever he went, and established a faithful life of faith, and passed on that faith to his son Jacob. In addition, in verse 28, the people who were chasing after Isaac and tormenting him said, "I have clearly seen that the Lord is with you."
3) He was a gentle person. It was because he was a meek man that, despite suffering excessive losses from the Philistines, he never fought against and lived a peaceful life. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land” (Matthew 5:5), the meek Isaac possessed a large land.
4) He was a hard worker. During his lifetime, Isaac dug five wells and was blessed by faithfully maintaining the pastoral life inherited from his ancestors. Isaac was a man who lived an extraordinary life even in an ordinary life.