Hebrews 11:20
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
This may be my limited knowledge talking, but I can’t remember much about Isaac.
Here’s what I know: the family servant found his wife, he made the same mistakes his dad made by calling his wife “sister” and he favored Esau because was a sportsman and could cook up great bbq. The way that Jacob tricked him out of the blessing tells me was odd.
In light of this, God puts him in the Hall of Faith. How can that be? Here are some thoughts. We live in a time when God has given His full revelation. Each of the prophets came and shared a little more about God. Jesus was the culmination. Then the New Testament writers came and explained how were are to understand the new deal that Jesus brought. We have it all.
This wasn’t the case with Isaac. Only Abraham, was following The Lord. The rest of the people were worshipping idols and had partial knowledge. This doesn’t mean they were going to hell, but that’s a different topic. The patriarchs had a very limited knowledge. God called them away from their families, so we don’t even know if they were aware. So, they were all alone in their faith. That is the amazing part. They still kept the faith when it was just them. I’m sure they had doubts whether this new way was legitamite. They raised their kids in this faith. God promised that they would become a multitude and that they would have much land. It sounds very self serving. It would be easy to doubt.
But Isaac stayed faithful and passed on the blessing. He believed it. It wasn’t wishful. His faith was rock solid about this happening. So, God commends him for being strong in faith.
Lord, help us to stay true to You, even though we feel isolated. Help us to walk through our course faithfully, even though the world says we’re wrong.