“Genesis 26:23-25”

Sunday, January 19, 2020

“Then he went up from there to Beersheba. The Lord appeared to him the same night and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.’ So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Then he went up from there to Beersheba.” (verse 23) “Isaac finally abandons the region of Gerar and returns to Beer-sheba, where he had gone to live with his father following the episode in which he had nearly been sacrificed. The place already had sacred associations for him in that Abraham had planted a terebinth there and had invoked ‘the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.’ Now, echoing the pattern of the Abraham stories, Isaac, after exposure to trial and danger, receives assurances of divine protection and reaffirmation of the promises. He builds an altar, thereby establishing Beer-sheba as a cult site with which his name become closely associated. Many years later Jacob stops there on his way to Egypt and offers sacrifices ‘to the God of his father Isaac.’” (Nahum Sarna)

“The Lord appeared to him the same night…” (verse 24) We are not told the duration of Isaac’s previous stay on the outskirts of Gerar, but when he pulled up stakes and settled in at Beersheba, that very night the Lord encouraged the harried pilgrim. “Do not fear, I am with you.” Maybe Isaac was fearful of a future famine like the one that had driven him southward, or of returning to an uncertain reception by the inhabitants of beer-sheba and the possibility of unwarranted hostilities. For some reason Isaac had a sense of dread and the Lord “appeared to him” and comforted and reassured him. Perhaps God visited him in a vision as he did the Apostle Paul several centuries later.

In a welcomed divine visitation when Paul was hampered by fear in the city of Corinth, we read the following: “And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.’ And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” (Acts 18:9-11) Fear can be an overpowering and immobilizing emotion, and even this typically unflinching stalwart of our faith was silenced for a while, and needed the Lord’s provocation to continue preaching the Gospel of truth.

Time and again we are encouraged by Scripture to “fear not”. The most obvious reason for these recurrent reminders is that all human beings are susceptible to anxiety, and God’s people are not excluded nor does He insulate us against fear-inducing trials and situations. As long as we remain obedient and faithful through all of life’s ebbs and flows and summits and chasms, all will be well and end well, and He will carry us through our most abysmal moments. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:27-28)

No matter where Isaac chose or was forced to travel, the Lord assured him, “I am with you.” If you have the Lord God as your Father you have much more and better than anything than this world can offer, and you have the assurance that you will never be alone. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32) “The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8) “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.” (Psalm 46:1-2)

“I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.” (verse 24) “Here, for the first time, we encounter the notion that the righteousness of ancestors creates a fund of spiritual credit that may sustain their descendants.” (Nahum Sarna) This is the first time in Scripture that God uses the term “My servant,” and He does so in reference to Abraham. To be called a servant of the Lord by the Lord is the highest of all callings and is the greatest of all honors. Later in the Bible, God would refer to such distinguished and righteous individuals as Moses (Numbers 12:7), Caleb (Numbers 14:24), king David (2 Samuel 3:18), Job (Job 2:3), Isaiah (Isaiah 20:3) and Zerubbabel as “My servant”. These were great men of faith who realized that they would be less than nothing without the blessing, presence, guidance, power and salvation that only the Almighty can supply. Every person to ever live is someone's servant, even if they fail to realize it or admit it. Most people choose to serve themselves and their own misdirected desires and dispositions, which invariably leads to disappointment, frustration and a sense of meaninglessness and emptiness. Wisdom dictates that the only trustworthy Master is the All-powerful Perfect One who loved us enough to create us, sustain us, direct us and save us for all eternity.

There is another, who is the ultimate, example and paragon of faithful servitude in the Bible that the Father has named “My Servant”. It was prophetically depicted in Isaiah 53:11 that Jesus would be the “Suffering Servant,” and that “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.” (See also Isaiah 42:1; Zechariah 3:8 and Matthew 12:18) Jesus, our Creator and Master, condescended to earth from heaven's perfection in a menial, human birth, to humble Himself to the point of death on a wooden cross, and to serve His creation and not to be served by them.

Through faith in Jesus alone resides the hope and blessing and privilege for God to call you and me “My servant”. In Isaiah 65:15, God looked several hundred years into the future and declared, “My servants shall be called by another name.” It is through that beautiful name of Christ Jesus worn exclusively by His humble servants that new life and hope and salvation reside. “If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” (1 Peter 4:16) “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:25-26) To enthrone the Lord upon our heart and to cede our will to His is to faithfully follow in the steps of His servant Abraham.

Isaac “built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord...” (verse 25) “At Beersheba, where his father Abraham had planted a grove before, and very probably had built an altar also...and called upon the name of the Lord; and gave him thanks for all his mercies to him; for the care he had taken of him, and provision he had made for him and his during the time of famine; and for the protection and preservation of him in Gerar; and for his deliverance of him out of the hands of envious, malicious, and unreasonable men; as well as prayed unto him for present and future mercies, for providential care of him and his; and for communications of special grace, and for meetness for eternal glory; all which every good man daily prays to God for.” (Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible) “And pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.” With a heart filled with belief and trust in the Lord's promises, Isaac abandoned his fear and sunk his tent stakes in the soil of Beer-sheba.

Please read Genesis 26:26-31 for tomorrow.

- Louie Taylor

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