I imagine Isaac wondered why his friends’ parents were so young and his own mother and father seemed so very old.
Abraham would have told the story of how God had promised them a son who would be the father of many nations. Many years passed by and nothing seemed to happen.
Abraham tried offering Eliezer, his trusted servant, to be his adopted son. Then Sarah suggested Hagar as a substitute for his wife. Ishmael was born to Abraham when he was 86 years of age. Finally, at age 100 for Abraham and 90 for Sarah, the miracle son was born.
I imagine Isaac sensed that God had a special role for him to play. It is always wonderful when the light comes on in our hearts and we experience the moving of the Spirit.
In 1949, I was a young evangelist. Toward the end of that year, I became interested in a young lady whose family attended the evangelistic meetings. As time went by I became worried about the relationship and was not sure what to do about it.
Unexpectedly, I received a call to teach at Helderberg College the next year, despite not having a teaching degree. At the same time a young lady at Helderberg broke off her engagement. Ruth and I were led to form a relationship resulting in our marriage at the end of that school year in December 1950.
I have always felt the moving of the Holy Spirit in that strange course of events.
Turning again to Isaac, we recollect his dramatic experience. His father woke him quietly early one morning and invited him to travel to a mountain to offer a special sacrifice. He willingly agreed, but when they reached Mount Moriah, he was startled to find that his father planned to make him the sacrifice.
This later proved to be a type of the great event when God came to this world in the form of His Son to offer his life for all. Isaac, however, did not end up being the sacrifice, for at the moment of execution the hand of Abraham was held back and he saw a ram caught in the thicket.
What was it that enabled Isaac to yield to his father when he could easily have overpowered him or escaped? Was it not his faith and trust in his father?
I think it was my faith in my Heavenly Father that enabled me to take out a loan of 45,000 rand on our house to enable me to launch the discontinued Signs of the Times Christian magazine in South Africa on a self-supporting basis.
Abraham and Sarah were concerned that Isaac find a life companion of similar faith, and so they sent their trusted servant to their family in Mesopotamia on a special mission. With divine leading, he was able to return with a beautiful young bride for Isaac, Rebekah.
Isaac and Rebekah were blest with twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac favored the rugged hunting son, Esau, and Rebekah showed partiality for the gentler farming son, Jacob. Parental favoritism never ends well.
Isaac wished to bless his older son, Esau. Even though Jacob was destined to receive the blessing, the duplicity of Rebekah opened up a floodgate of animosity between Jacob and Esau. Isaac was startled to discover that he had blest his young son, Jacob, instead of his beloved Esau.
When Isaac died at the age of 180, there was a final scene of reconciliation. Both Esau and Jacob were together at their father’s burial. God’s grace can always find a way of bringing warring parties together.
Eric Webster and his wife, Ruth, celebrate 71 years of marriage this Sunday, December 5.